Your website is one of the biggest assets your business has, and business owners are constantly looking for was to improve the number of leads and sales their website generates. Most rely on lead capture forms and call-to-actions that includes their company phone number, but what about utilizing live chat to help improve conversions?
You have probably visited websites that featured automated (and annoying) live chat features — and for this reason many business owners don’t think about using the feature on their own site. There is a way to make it work without disrupting your website visitors experience. Here are five reasons live chat can help improve your conversions.
1. Increased conversion rates
As a business owner you want to increase your conversion rates, right? You spend money on marketing, search engine optimization, and promotion — so you need more conversions to produce a return. There is a way to make live chat available without making it an inconvenience for your visitors.
Making it easy to spot for those that would like to use it is the best option, rather than making it pop up right in their face. Some of the better live chat software will also allow you to set specific actions. For example, popping up when a user abandons the chopping cart – this gives your chat operator a chance to see if there is something they can help the visitor with. It could be a situation where the visitor had a simple question and couldn’t find the answer so they decided to abandon the purchase. A quick live chat could quickly answer the question and save the sale.
2. Live chat is not threatening
Many of your website visitors won’t fill out contact forms because they assume that they are going to get hammered with sales calls and emails. Also, consumers are becoming more aware of where they submit their personal information online. Then you have the group of people that are shy and don’t like to talk on the phone. So, what do you do when you have a consumer that is genuinely interested in your products or services on your website but they don’t want to submit their information or pick up the phone? You engage with them via live chat!
In some situations live chat is a win/win situation for both sides. The consumer is able to ask questions and get the information they seek and feel comfortable during the process. The business gets to engage with a customer that would have left the website if it wasn’t for the live chat feature. Many times a live chat session will build the trust level required to get the consumer to convert.
3. Live chat allows you to acquire more details about a visitor
Contact forms and lead generation forms need to have minimal fields to be effective. You aren’t getting a lot of in-depth data about your visitors by just collecting a name and an email address. Live chat allows you to ask questions that give you specific information about what they are seeking and how your business can help them.
Not only can you get more information about your visitors, but you can also see how your sales team is communicating with your visitors. Many live chat programs will not only sync up with your Google Analytics, but they will also save the chat logs so you can review the performance of your chat operators. You can see what is leading to conversions and what your operators are saying on the chat logs of those interactions that didn’t convert. The more data you can analyze, the better you can understand your visitors.
4. Your website visitors get immediate answers via live chat
Several of your website visitors are going to be in a rush and extremely impatient, wanting answers to their questions immediately. If they can’t find what they are looking for right away they are going to leave and probably visit your competitors website. While having a user friendly website along with simple navigation is a great start, live chat can sometimes help keep those impatient visitors on your website instead of leaving.
Many people would rather keep visiting website after website seeking an answer rather than filling out a contact form or picking up the phone. Live chat allows them to quickly get answers. Even if you do get a contact request through your website or a phone call, chances are the visitor has already left the website before you are able to get them an answer to your question. If you are able to answer their question while they are still on the website it will greatly increases your conversion rates.
5. Live chat allows you to pre-qualify leads
If you are driving traffic to your website in hope that it converts into leads how can you be sure that the leads you do receive are pre-qualified? Well, aside from having a very clearly defined offer, there is no guarantee that every lead that submits his or her information is going to be qualified.
Live chat allows you to pre-qualify potential leads before they even enter your marketing funnel. When a lead enters your system your business spends time marketing to that leads, calling them, following up, etc. If that can be eliminated from the beginning it will lead to a much higher conversion rate, less wasted marketing spend, and an overall higher ROI.
Now, results are always going to be different for everyone, but we suggest at least trying live chat to see what kind of improvement you can achieve in lead generation as well as sales. There are several live chat options that offer free trial versions — contact us if you would like to learn more and receive a complimentary online marketing consultation and website audit. We love helping businesses increase ROI and revenue.
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