Top 5 Live Chat Benefits and Strategies to Drive Your Sales in 2022

Partners 17 May 2022

You must have already heard this but the human attention span is eight seconds, less than that of the goldfish, which is nine seconds.

This means you only have eight seconds to engage your buyers, driving them from awareness to action.

That’s where tools like live chat come in!

Live chat is an advanced, valuable, and cost-effective customer support tool that allows them to connect with companies, enhancing communication in real-time.

With live chat software, you can amplify customer experience, resolving their issues or queries. That’s how it can help you get quality leads, accelerating customer movement from top of the sales funnel to bottom.

Here are a few key statistics affirming the power 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.

Now, let’s talk in more detail about the benefits that come with a live chat and how you can use them to win customers, skyrocketing your sales in 2022 and beyond.

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.

With live chat, you can interact with, understand, and gauge prospects’ needs and concerns, enjoying all the benefits of live chat customer service. This information can help create personalized solutions, transforming live chat into a growth engine.

Here’s how you can enhance buyer experience and achieve successful conversions 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.

Greet the users: The right greeting can set the tone for the entire conversation. Here are a few valid options 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 in live chat. 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.

Observe 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 shopping 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 by far the most important benefit of live chat.

Response wait time in live chat is much less than other methods. Besides that, customer success 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 handling them to the live chat support team.

The following screenshot from HubSpot is a good example.

Check out how HubSpot’s AI-integrated chatbot initiates the chat. Adding such integration to your live chat support tool for the initial stage 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 their routine processes, they 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.
Unobtrusive widget on the website and simple user interface for ease of use. For instance, notice the following sales 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

Key Highlights: Personalized chat invitations, real-time typing view

Botanalytics

Key Highlights: In-depth AI-powered chatbot and voice analytics

ClickDesk

Key Highlights: Voice and video chat options

Chaport

Key Highlights: 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.

Live chat boosts operational productivity

Implementing advanced live chat software with the integration of CRM, analytics software, and internal process management software can be a 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 the information to send personalized campaigns, nurturing customers’ 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.

Most importantly, these advanced features can reduce the burden on sales reps and boost their productivity.

But handling the stack of software may become challenging.

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 such cases, digital adoption platforms can work wonders.

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.

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: Offer multilingual support as it increases the customer satisfaction rate. The study by the International Customer Management Institute (ICMI) states that 58.4% of customers agree that multilingual support increases their loyalty to a brand.

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. Following the shared strategies to build a loyal community of customers will boost your bottom line in 2022 and beyond.

Lucy Manole

Lucy Manole is a creative content writer and strategist at Marketing Digest. She specializes in writing about digital marketing, technology, entrepreneurship, and education. When she is not writing or editing, she spends time reading books, cooking, and traveling.