Top 5 Live Chat Benefits and Strategies to Drive Your Sales in 2023

Olivia Milton 10 Oct 2023

You must have already heard this but the human attention span is 8 seconds, less than that of the goldfish, which is 9 seconds. This means you only have 8 seconds to engage the buyers visiting your website, driving them from awareness to action.

That’s where tools like live chat come in!

In this post, we will explore the benefits of live chat for customers (and businesses!) and share a few tactics to get the most out of it. But first, let’s talk about the definition and how you can use live chat with customers throughout their journey.

Live chat definition and use cases

A live chat is a real-time, text-based communication tool that enables instant interactions between users on a website or platform and the business (sales or support professionals or a dedicated AI agent).

In other words, this is a powerful and cost-effective customer service tool that allows you to connect with your buyers in real time. With live chat software, you can amplify customer experience resolving any issues or queries in no time but also qualify your inbound leads, accelerating customer movement from the top of your sales funnel to the bottom.

Here are a few key statistics proving the impact of live chat at different stages of the customer journey, according to Invesp.

Awareness and Interest: Live chat is preferred by 73% of buyers while 44% of them find the ability to have their questions answered by a live person extremely important.
Consideration: Forty-two percent of customers would use it to share their contact information with the business while 77% of them won’t even make a purchase if your website doesn’t have a live chat.
Action: Adding live chat to your site can lead to a 20% increase in conversion, while visitors using it would be 2.8x more likely to convert than the ones who don’t.

With customers finding live chats the most reliable way to connect to a brand, leveraging this channel can make and keep your customers happy, while increasing your revenue. This is one of the key benefits of using live chat for any business.

That said, let’s focus on the specific benefits of live chat and how you can use them to win customers, skyrocketing your business in 2023 and beyond.

Top 5 live chat benefits for business owners

If you own a business, you should always be on the lookout for ways to keep your customers engaged and happy. This is the foundation of a profitable business. A live chat allows you to be there for the people who visit your website or use your web product to answer their questions and address their concerns.

Other than that, what are the benefits of live chat? Let’s consider a few examples.

Live chat offers superior buyer experience

Buyer experience plays a vital role in creating brand reputation. The more satisfied the prospective customers are, the more they will buy and recommend your brand to others. According to a Zendesk report, a great customer experience maximizes customer retention, jacking up sales.

Using live chat, you can interact with, understand, and gauge prospects’ needs and concerns. This information can help create personalized solutions, transforming live chat into a growth engine. This is one of the most obvious but also important benefits of live chat support.

Not ready to settle for “good enough” in your customer support? Here’s how you can enhance buyer experience using live chats.

Use real identity. Brands using stock photos and fake names may look suspicious and untrustworthy to users. Always use real names and pictures to improve the credibility of live chat sessions.

Properly greet the users. The right greeting can set the tone for the entire conversation. Here are a few live chat responses examples to consider.

A) Welcome! I am {your name}. How can I help you?

B) Hi {customer’s name}! Welcome to {your company’s name}. Let me know if you have any queries while you’re looking around.

C) Hi {customer’s name}, Thanks for contacting our team. I am {your name}, how may I help you today?

Identify the customers. Check your CRM system to find out the customers’ details. Identify whether they are a lead, an existing customer, or a new one. Make the conversation fit their status in the sales funnel. For instance, if a returning customer contacts you, here’s a suggestion.

Welcome back, {customer name}. Glad to see you again! It’s {your name}. What can I do for you today?

If it’s a new prospect, consider this option.

Hello, thank you for choosing {your business name}. Can I help you with something?

Send targeted messages. Avoid using one-size-fits-all messages as you communicate with the users. Give a touch of personalization to boost engagement. A study shows that 70% of a customer’s journey depends on how a brand treats them.

The greater the engagement, the higher the chance of conversion. The following screenshot from GetFeedback is a great example of how to approach users.

Note how well the customer support representative has answered the query.

Offer promotional discounts. Not every prospect will convert, but that doesn’t mean you should stop making efforts. Don’t overwhelm your leads by forcing them to buy something. Instead, use a subtle approach.

For instance, people love discounts. So sometimes sharing discount coupon codes can lead to sales. Brainstorm and find new ways to convince prospects to shop.

Its implementation requires minimum investment

Profitability is the end goal of any business. Be it B2B or B2C – every business aspires to earn high revenue from minimum investment.

Emails and telephonic customer support services are the mainstays of helping customers. But it takes effort, time, resources, and capital to keep up with customers using these traditional methods.

When it comes to one-to-one live chats, businesses can save a lot of money by implementing powerful yet cost-effective tools. This is another point on our list of benefits of live chat customer service.

Response wait time in live chat is much less than other methods. Besides that, customer success reps can use the insights they derived to offer meaningful solutions. Many live chat tools come with an integrated CRM where sales reps can extract any customer-related data in a few clicks.

Want more?

Integration of AI-powered chatbots with agent support can further simplify the buyer journey. The chatbot can assist in figuring out the user’s queries before handing them to the live chat support team. The following screenshot from HubSpot is a good example of how businesses implement AI to multiply the benefits of live chat on their website.

Check out how HubSpot’s AI-integrated chatbot initiates the chat. Adding such integration to your live chat support tool for the initial stage of conversation can be a game-changer. This practice allows your team to attend to more customers, saving time, resources, and ultimately, money.

Besides, live chat platforms can help increase sales, personalizing user journeys. For instance, if an organization is looking for the best module integration for optimizing its routine processes, it may contact you for recommendations. Use your internal process management software to identify modules that match their expectations.

Sharing the modules and personalizing their journey will help B2B SaaS customers narrow down their choices, fueling the sales process.

Here are the key features to look for while choosing live chat software.

AI chatbot integration that answers basic queries before assigning the case to the customer success team. Getting the required information fast is one of the key live chat benefits for customers.
Unobtrusive widget on the website and simple user interface for ease of use. For instance, notice the following chat widget of Reply.io. The chatbox opens when you click on it and appears sophisticated.

CRM integration to access customers’ data, such as name, purchase history, and more. These insights can help your team have a thoughtful conversation with the customers.
Real-time “typing” indicator that boosts customer engagement. The following example from Pusher perfectly explains the engaging appeal of the typing indicator.

Integration of knowledge base software like Document360 to help customer success agents and customers access articles to get quick solutions.

Here’s a list of helpful tools to streamline chatbot integration in your organization.

- LiveAgent — Personalized chat invitations, real-time typing view
- Botanalytics — In-depth AI-powered chatbot and voice analytics
- ClickDesk — Voice and video chat options
- Chaport — Group chats and multichannel chats option

Buying customer support software with high-end features may be pricey up front, but it will pay off in the long term. So add this to the list of live chat software benefits.

Live chat boosts operational productivity

There are numerous benefits of having live chat on a website, as a standalone tool. However, implementing advanced live chat software with the integration of CRM, analytics software, and internal process management software can be a real game-changer.

Integrating CRM into live chat software allows you to collect, store, and access customer information as you chat. For instance, you can see their names, email ID, organization’s name, purchase history, queries, and more.

Using the information, you can build various customer profiles that act as a roadmap for better understanding their requirements. Your sales team can use this information as one of the live chat support benefits to send personalized campaigns, offering tailored customer journeys.

Additionally, analytics software integration can help you gain in-depth insights during live chats. Integrating tools such as Google Analytics with live chat software allows teams to identify and analyze customers’ activities. It enables tracking events, such as the number of chats, ratings submitted, missed chats, minimized chats, and more.

For instance, in the following screenshot of Zoho SalesIQ, notice how Zoho’s team uses Google Analytics integration to track users’ activities.

Such a level of automation can turn your business into a sales powerhouse, which is one of the main benefits of having live chat on your website. Most importantly, these advanced features can reduce the burden on sales reps and boost their productivity.

However, handling a complex software tool stack may become challenging in the long run. For instance, your team will need to check the CRM for the customers’ database, analytics software for identifying customers’ interests, and internal process management software for their daily operations.

Accessing the island of information may confuse them or result in errors and impact productivity.

The worst part is losing valuable customers, which no business can afford. In this case, digital adoption platforms can work wonders, allowing you to enjoy the benefits of live chat services risk free.

A digital adoption platform (DAP) offers 360-degree visibility into software usage. It guides users in performing operations by simplifying user experience across any web, mobile, or desktop application. Thus, DAP can boost ROI on software investments by ensuring successful digital transformation. So, implement a digital adoption platform to maximize your team’s productivity, accelerating sales.

It provides a competitive edge

What’s the quickest and easiest way to stand out from your competitors?

Make your customers feel valued. It’s that simple!

Customer behavior speaks for itself: Three out of five people stop doing business with a company after only one bad experience. After a couple of bad experiences, the number increases to three out of four customers.

So, it clearly indicates that top-notch live chat support services are a must for gaining a competitive edge in the market.

Here are a few strategies to help your company thrive in the hyper-competitive market.

Hire skilled talent. Find the right sales professionals or customer support representatives that maintain quality of conversation while dealing with customers. They should also have expertise in operating the software. It will help boost the likelihood of a sale.
Provide appropriate training. Around 68% of customers believe the key ingredient to successful customer service is the politeness of the sales representative. So, ensure the tone of your professionals is polite irrespective of the situation. Train them well before they go live to ensure more sales.
Listen proactively. Never make the potential buyer feel pressured. Make sure your team understands the buyers’ intent before offering a solution. It will help win the customers.
Reduce waiting time. Surveys tell us that the average customer waiting time using live chat is around 88 seconds. So provide essential documents and equip your team with a knowledge base that can help them resolve complex queries fast on their own. Delay in resolving challenges may negatively impact your business.

Live chat builds customer loyalty

Loyal customers are the most valuable assets for any business. They continue purchasing your products even if the prices increase a bit. Besides, they also spread the word to their friends and family. Nurturing a good relationship with customers improves sales, with no increase in your team’s efforts. This is one of the key benefits of live chat for business.

Here’s how you can develop a valuable connection with the customers during live chats.

Analyze buyer behavior: Before planning any new sales strategy, track your buyer’s behavior at different stages. Analyze and understand at what stage of the sales funnel the prospects leave without buying. Understand their pain points and then implement a strategy to help them. This practice will help improve customer retention rates, boosting loyalty and sales.

Ask for feedback: Whenever a customer ends a live chat, send them a feedback link. It will help you determine whether they are satisfied with the entire live chat experience or not. Plus, you will get to see what exactly went right or wrong. This step can help you figure out your professional strengths and weaknesses and improve your strategy.

For instance, in the following screenshot, see how the leading brand SiteGround asks its customers to rate the live chat. The goal is to improve customer experience.

Offer multilingual support to increase customer satisfaction rate. A study by the International Customer Management Institute (ICMI) finds that 58.4% of customers agree that multilingual support increases their loyalty to a brand.

Wrapping up: Does live chat increase conversions?

The multiple benefits of live chat for customer service are undeniable. But those that we’ve listed above are mostly focused on support and retention. When it comes to sales, few people really believe that you can use a live chat for sales.

First and foremost, businesses can use live sales chat to proactively engage with their website visitors. Through the use of data analytics and customer behavior tracking, companies can identify when a visitor might need assistance and trigger a chat invitation at the right moment. This personalized sales chat approach can guide customers through the buying process and lead to higher conversion rates.

Additionally, live sales chat for a website can help your sales reps address objections and overcome obstacles in real time. If a customer has concerns about shipping costs, product specifications, or warranty details, a skilled sales chat agent can provide clarification and potentially offer discounts or incentives, thereby increasing the likelihood of a sale. This instant problem-solving capability can significantly reduce cart abandonment rates and increase conversion rates.

It’s also possible to use chat for sales reps to engage with your prospective customers outside of your business website. This is the case for various bots that act as social sales rep live chat assistant on platforms like Facebook.

All in all, a sales live chat can significantly boost your conversion rates by offering real-time assistance, proactive engagement, and personalized support, creating a seamless and customer-centric buyer experience.

Conclusion

Live chat customer support is a golden opportunity to bridge the communication gap between the buyers and the business. It allows customers to understand a company’s values while helping the company gain insight into customer behavior – supercharging your sales.

The listed benefits live chat has to offer (and the optimization strategies shared above) offer a great opportunity to build a loyal community of customers in 2023 and beyond.