An ultimate guide to live chat Software

We all have been progressing towards a digitized environment, and the onset of pandemic gave it a much-needed boost. When a consumer visits the website, they want all the queries answered without any delay. E-commerce has evolved in a way that a company isn’t just about selling products or services; in order to build a brand, you need to connect with your visitors, and quickly.  And live chat software is the ideal tool for boosting customer support.

In fact, 86% of consumers prefer talking to humans than a chatbot. Therefore, if you want to leave a lasting impression on every visitor on your website, you need to have a live chat option that connects them with a real sales rep. 

The popularity of live chat has grown rapidly as more and more companies went digital when the pandemic hit. Research shows that live chat will continue to grow by 87% in the next 12-18 months. 

You can increase the conversion rate only when a sales agent can interact with every visitor that reaches out to your company via live chat. No customer wants to get on a call and wait for a long time when there’s an option for live chat. So, before your prospect’s patience runs out and you have to say,

Implement a live chat software that puts an end to all your customer-related issues.  

So, before we explore the benefits and importance of live chat, let us first understand what is live chat software. 

What is live chat software? 

Live chat is a platform that connects a business with its website visitors in real-time. You can initiate conversations, solve queries and also convert more leads with this versatile tool.

It’s an era of millennials, and the thing they dread most is “calling.” Believe it or not, 75% of Millennials prefer texting over calling. Now we prefer communication that is less time-consuming, effective, and seamless. Therefore, whenever you’re working with a wide audience, you need to consider their preferences.

Here are the reasons why live chat is growing in popularity among customers –  

With live chat, you can build strong connections with every visitor by interacting with them in a personalized way. So, live chat helps you engage better and contributes to improving conversion rate, driving more sales, boosting customer retention, and closing more deals. 

How does live chat software work? 

The functionality of live chat software is quite simple. Once you implement live chat software, a chat box will appear on your website, usually on the bottom left side. So, this allows the visitor to reach out and chat with the available rep and get their questions resolved.

Live chat software usually has automated responses for frequently asked questions. In fact, some intuitive tools can also gather data based on the customer details and their question. So, when your customer wants to know their order status, the bot will fetch the data and answer them directly.

For more detailed queries, the bot will transfer the conversation to an available agent. And when the conversation is transferred to someone else, the chat history remains intact so that the visitor or customer doesn’t have to repeat themselves. 

These features enable lead capturing and gathers crucial data that you can use to drive more sales. Moreover, it also improves engagement when the agent reaches out to a visitor and assists them in real-time. As the saying goes, 

“It takes months to find a customer, seconds to lose one.” – Vince Lombardi 

You must strive to perform better and level up your conversational practices with live chat tool. So, read on below to find out how you can choose the right live chat software for your business. 

How to choose the right live chat software? 

Choosing the right Live chat software for your business is important because it can make or break your customer care system. So, we have listed down the main points that every company must consider when looking to invest in live chat software. 

1. Ease of use 

The main factor while choosing any tool is finding out whether it requires extensive training or it can be learned without any support. You need to assess whether the tool you’re considering will be easily accessible by your agent or not. After all, it’s them who have to use the software and interact with clients. 

So, find out how you can implement the software and if it can be integrated with your CRM or not. When the usability of the tool is not difficult, you will not only experience improved productivity but also an increase in conversion.

2. Chatbots 

A growing company highly relies on automation. With a large number of customers, you can’t look after the menial tasks. Therefore, you need chatbot functionality in a live chat tool so that it can automatically resolve frequently asked questions. 

3. Customization 

Every business has an aim to expand at some point; you need to check if the current tool can be customized according to your company’s employee strength and can be scalable in future. So, this gives you the advantage of modifying the software as per your company’s needs. 

You can give it a fresh look and make it user-friendly so both your agent and visitors have smooth communication. 

4. Value for money 

Investing in a live chat is a major decision; you’re building your entire customer support system around a tool. Therefore, the software should drive value for the money you are paying. Moreover, it’s always suggested to check the pricing plan of live chat software and whether there are any additional charges or not if you plan to add more agents. 

5. Secured 

This entire process revolves around visitors all around the globe, and it’s your responsibility to ensure that their information and data remain secured.  

Who can use live chat software? 

Sales teams 

We are experiencing a shift in technology, and every team is getting affected. Even sales teams can now utilize live chat software and do more business. Calling and texting are still prevalent, but it has taken a back seat because of tools such as live chat. 

Whether it’s making sales decisions or the initial conversation with your prospect, live chat helps your prospects connect with you in real-time. And while you’re having a conversation, you can easily pitch your sales proposition to convert them into customers.

Marketing teams 

Marketing is a vital part of any sales process; your team constantly engages with your potential customers and provides solutions. So, using live chat tool for marketing can be the next big change you’re hoping for. Marketing teams can use live chat software when they’re sharing about resources or upselling a product. Your customers or prospects can directly connect with the right marketing person and get more details on your offer. 

Support teams 

Support teams are the backbone of any business; they’re the ones that essentially connect with existing clients and provide assistance. So, when you connect the clients with a support team, they can get their queries solved in no time. No customer likes to wait for a long time on calls for their problems; live chat software cuts down the waiting time and provides quick solutions that help retain more customers and build a lasting relationship.

Impact of Live chat software on a business 

Live chat is largely affecting all businesses, and its impact has been substantial on every business. The usage of this tool differs for every company, irrespective of the size or employees. Since more and more companies are adopting live chat, from small businesses to large scale companies, all have observed a steady growth in their business.  

From the chart below, it’s apparent that B2B takes up the majority of market when implementing live chat, as they want to provide the best experience to their clients.

Live chat has impacted every aspect of the business; from customer support to sales, live chat covers every aspect of the business. Take a glance at the below graph to understand how live chat has helped companies evolve over time. 

Benefits of live chat – Why it is the best conversational sales tool 

Connect with visitors 

A company is all about its customers and the people that engage with it. Live chat software lets you connect with the visitors on your website. By having a personalized connection with your visitors, you can get insight into their preferences, provide relevant information about your company and help them make an informed decision. 

For example, when a visitor lands on your website, they’re more likely to trust your company if they’re provided quick communication mode that clear outs all their concerns right away. 

Get access to customer data 

Live chat tool makes it easy to get access to customer data. It fetches the customer information right as they enter their basic details. You can get customer data and communicate accordingly to get more out of the deal.

Get the context of every conversation 

With live chat software, you never have to worry about losing context when communicating with old prospects or clients. Suppose, if the lead has been assigned to a different rep, they wouldn’t need to ask for all the information again, which can simply make the communication process lengthy. 

So, to save time for both parties, live chat enables you to access old conversations with a client or prospect. This way, you can get a hold of the topic and communicate with context.

Increased conversion rate 

Every company wants to bring more customers, and live chat is an essential tool for converting top of the funnel audience to the sales process and convert them into customers. Moreover, you can keep your customers satisfied, which can get you more leads via referrals. Therefore, the live chat tool increases the overall conversion rate of the company.

Personalized communication 

Live chat is the best conversational tool because it provides personalized communication between a company and a prospect. Live chat software provides you with customer information and information about a prospect when they reach out to you. According to Gartner, brands that offer personalization will outperform the brands that don’t. Hence, to keep growing your business, it’s essential to adopt live chat software. 

Prevents cart abandonment 

Now, sell your product/service to every potential lead that comes up on your website. Engage with your leads throughout their buying journey, and guide them through the process to grow your customer base. With automated pop-up messages, you can connect with each lead when they’re making a decision for their business.

Improved customer satisfaction 

“A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all.” 

You can only retain your customers when your customer support strategy is impeccable. And according to various studies and the chart below, it’s apparent that high customer satisfaction is achievable with live chat software. 

When you don’t leave your customers waiting for long, it shows that you value their time and effort. Therefore, when the customers are satisfied with quick customer support, they’ll stay delighted and help you grow your business. 

Track performance 

Do you often wonder how much time your sales or support team actually spends on prospecting or which employee is capturing more leads? Well, live chat is the right tool for you! You can check which rep has interacted with which prospect and how it has impacted the sales pipeline. Keeping this into account, you can assign leads to the one performing better.

Provides competitive edge 

Using a live chat tool with your CRM certainly provides a competitive edge over the companies that don’t. You can communicate faster, increase productivity, and build lasting relationships while staying on top of all your tasks with live chat software. Therefore, to gain a competitive edge and stand out from your competitors, a live chat integration is a must. 

Best practices of using live chat software 

Smart placement of live chat window 

Place your window at a place where it captures your visitors’ attention. Generally, live chat boxes are placed at the bottom right side of the page, so when the user opens a page, the second thing they observe is the live chatbox. Moreover, you can experiment with colors as well; you can use the color of your brand to give it a personalized look. These minor changes can have a bigger impact on overall customer experience.

Increase your response rate 

We live in an era where people look for quick solutions, and with other means of communication, it takes a while for customers to reach the right person. However, with the live chat tool, you can speed up your response rate to satisfy customers and reduce abandonment rate.

Initiate conversation 

A visitor may have gotten stuck browsing through the pages, so with automation and a live chat window, you can create pop-up messages that draw the visitor’s attention so they can connect with you. Visitors often get overwhelmed when they’re out to buy a new product or service, and with live chat, you can help them streamline their needs and offer a product/service that is perfect for them.

Create lasting relationships 

Since live chat is a unique blend of automation and human touch, you have the chance to build strong connections with your visitors. The experience of talking to a human is much different than getting automated responses, and you can leverage this benefit to bring more customers and keep nurturing them. 

Ensure quality over quantity 

Since it’s a live chat and you’re communicating in real-time, you need to consider the number of chats you accept carefully. Customers expect swift replies, and failure to achieve will lead to disappointed customers, which you certainly don’t want.

Therefore, accept the chats that you can manage, and assign the rest to the other available reps to work in a collaborative way. 

Final thoughts 

Technology brings evolution and challenges at every stage, it’s up to us how we want to turn it into an opportunity. And live chat is a tool that, when integrated with a CRM, can do wonders for a business of any size. Real-time conversation with live chat continues to open up new opportunities for teams and helps them grow.