9 Proven Steps for Establishing a Live Chat Strategy for Your Business

Customer Experience (CX) is rapidly evolving as a result of increased commercial competition. Businesses require all possible competitive advantages in order to succeed. However, establishing a competitive edge only on the basis of their products and services has become impossible.

41% of consumers prefer to communicate with support teams via live chat, and it has the highest consumer satisfaction rate at 92%.

Utilizing digital communication channels such as live chat enables firms to communicate with customers instantaneously and resolve their issues. By implementing a live chat strategy, you may increase customer service communication, enhancing the customer experience and fostering strong customer connections.

Why is a live chat strategy necessary?

At times, customer service can be difficult. Typically, clients confront numerous obstacles during their purchasing process. One of the first issues clients encounter is the length of time it takes to resolve their concerns. Numerous consumers lose their temper as a result of being transferred between departments. Occasionally, a customer may receive a defective product and the complaint is denied.

Customers prefer the live chat feature because it enables real-time communication with the support agent via the chat window. Customer service representatives can assist consumers who have queries about items or how to use the website.

Unlike reactive help methods such as email or phone, proactive live chat assistance enables you to monitor the user’s activities on the website. You can contact them and provide proactive chat triggers based on their trip, all of which contribute to a smooth customer experience.

Implementing live chat as part of a comprehensive customer communication strategy can benefit firms in a variety of ways.

Revenue generation and lead generation

Lead generation is critical for all organisations, but especially small ones. According to the Forrester analysis, “consumer use of live chat has increased significantly in the last few years.” These increasing numbers show that an increasing number of customers are contacting companies via live chat.

• Convert website visits to leads: Live chat is an amazing approach to increasing lead generation and ROI (ROI). The more responsive and superior your customer service is, the more repeat customers and sales you will produce. The online chat feature shortens website visitors’ wait times and improves the customer experience.
• Proactive chat sessions with target leads assist in addressing their sales-related inquiries in real time and encourage clients to make speedy purchase decisions. By utilising live chat for sales, sales representatives may assist consumers along their journey and encourage them to make a final purchase.

Support and involvement with customers

According to the Econsultancy survey, “customers appreciate the convenience of using live chat without devoting a significant amount of time and attention to the activity.” Your business’s performance is determined by the quality of your product and customer service. One of the most effective ways to create an exceptional client experience is to automate service 24 hours a day via live chat for customer care.

• High operational efficiency: When compared to reactive channels such as phone or email, live chat software enables agents to handle many discussions concurrently.
• Reduce customer support costs: Online chat technologies not only help you save money, but they also help you earn more. It includes configurable routing options, video chat, and co-browsing, which enables real-time collaboration with the consumer.
• Increase customer engagement: If visitors can readily contact you with questions and concerns about the product or service they’re using, they’ll develop a greater trust in your organisation and regard you as a source of satisfying customer assistance and important knowledge.

How do I include live chat in my website’s design?

If you’re wondering how to add live chat to your website, the procedure is quite straightforward and requires no technical experience. Live chat begins immediately once you add the small snippet of code onto your web pages.

The following are the measures to be taken:

• Copy the code and paste it into your website’s pages. (Incorporate the code on sites where clients are likely to have questions, such as the contact page, price page, sales page, and home page.)
• You can manually add a live chat code to your website by pasting the snippet code before the closing tag.
• Additionally, you can send the code to the network administrator.

Once you’ve pasted the code, verify whether or not the integration was successful. After successfully integrating the live chat widget into your website or mobile applications, your visitors will be able to see it in the lower corner of your website and initiate conversations.

9 Steps to a Successful Live Chat Strategy

There are a few critical areas that must be carefully prepared in order to successfully implement the live chat strategy. Effectively identifying the primary objectives and plan will aid in the implementation of the live chat service.

The following is a checklist of critical steps to consider while developing a live chat strategy for your organisation.

1. Assess your business’s requirements
2. Define key performance indicators (KPIs) to track return on investment
3. Choose the appropriate live chat platform.
4. Educate your live chat representatives
5. Establish internal procedures
6. Complement live chat with artificial intelligence bots
7. Concentrate on the customer experience.
8. Maintain constant contact with reporting
9. Create an incentive scheme to recognise your team’s efforts.

Consider the items presented below to gain a sense of the critical steps to consider.

1. Assess your business’s requirements

It is critical to identify your fundamental business requirements before executing a live chat strategy. Evaluating the live chat software’s objectives and use cases enables a successful deployment. Before you begin searching for the appropriate solution, your support team should be able to address several of the following questions.

• What are the expectations of your customers? Do they wish to receive support via the website or would they rather receive support via different channels?
• What are the aims of live chat implementation? Is it for lead generation, customer support, or a combination of the two?
• How are you going to track the KPIs?
• What kind of training do your staff need to provide effective support?

Having a firm grasp on the aforementioned will assist you in determining your customers’ preferences and the features you require in your live chat platform. According to a New York Times report, clients are hesitant to seek assistance first. With small company live chat, you can have the upper hand and provide proactive assistance as needed.

2. Define key performance indicators (KPIs) to track return on investment

Outlining key performance indicators (KPIs) is critical because it enables organisations to determine whether they are meeting consumer expectations and quantifying client happiness. Additionally, the analytics assist in assessing agent performance in terms of how they handle consumer discussions. Additionally, live chat KPIs assist firms in calculating the cost and return on investment connected with online chat support.

The following are the critical metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) to monitor while reviewing your live chat installation in order to determine its profitability in achieving the objectives.

• The first response time (FRT) metric indicates how long it takes your live chat agent to make the initial response to a case. It’s beneficial to evaluate how adaptable the organisation is when it comes to consumer communication. Due to the fact that a high rate of first response time indicates that customers may leave if they do not receive a message, you must keep your FRT as low as possible.
• Customer satisfaction ratings (CSAT): Customer satisfaction is critical to the success of any firm. A CSAT score enables the creation of a customised questionnaire, allowing us to delve deep into various strengths and weaknesses and further determine the best way to keep customers happy.
• FCR (First Contact Resolution): FCR enables the measurement of customer satisfaction and contact centre efficiency. The higher the FCR, the more satisfied customers. A frightening 41% of consumers who contact an average call centre are unable to resolve their inquiry or problem on the first contact. Reduced FCR indicates that your staff are inefficient and squandering time on ineffective processes.
• Cost per successful conversation: As a business, you must determine the return on investment (ROI) of the resources and time engaged in live chat.
• Conversion of visitors to sales: Live chat is the ideal instrument for increasing sales conversion. It’s a straightforward yet effective method for increasing real-time website conversions. According to studies, live chat contributes around 30% to the conversion rate. Customers enjoy live chat because it assists them in making purchasing decisions.

3. Choosing the appropriate live chat platform

Customers want speedier responses to their inquiries, and any delay may result in your business being lost to competitors.

As a result, including the greatest live chat solution facilitates communication with your consumers. Not only can a live chat application bring another layer to the customer experience, it also enhances sales by converting visitors to purchasers. Choosing the correct live chat platform, on the other hand, is highly dependent on your business requirements.

Here are some critical elements to consider while developing a live chat strategy.

Is it equipped with an omnichannel platform?

Customers can contact you via a variety of channels. They can contact you via web chat, social media, phone, or email, all of which should be integrated with your live chat platform to provide a consistent client experience. Omnichannel service alleviates your customers’ pain points and eliminates customer support discrepancies.

“Organizations that practise effective omnichannel customer interaction can retain 89% of customers, compared to 33% of companies that do not practise effective omnichannel customer engagement.

Is your business capable of real-time interaction?

Advanced technology and innovative marketing methods have created new avenues for connecting with customers and providing a superior customer service experience.

What if a visitor to your website is perusing the service or pricing page?

By providing real-time engagement via video chat or live chat, you may direct the customer’s inquiries in the proper direction and assist him in walking through the services and providing accurate information. Real-time involvement benefits your business in a variety of ways.

• Customer inquiries are resolved immediately.
• Savings in time for both the agent and the customer
• Customer-friendly and simple to use
• It increases the likelihood of a sale being converted
• Customer involvement and pleasure at their full potential

Do they integrate easily with other business applications that you use?

Develop a live chat strategy that connects seamlessly with your CRM and other business services. Smooth integration is simple and provides rapid access to necessary information directly within a live chat. Reve Chat, for example, has an API that enables seamless integration with a wide variety of services.

There are a few additional factors to consider while selecting the right live chat platform, including the following: Do they provide mobile apps? Is the live chat platform API-enabled? Furthermore, should you choose an on-premises or cloud-based platform?

4. Assist training as a component of the live chat approach

A well-executed live chat strategy improves the customer experience and converts more customers. However, your efforts may be in vain if you lack well-trained support personnel. Your consumer relies on your sales and support representatives to be knowledgeable about the product or service and to give information in a timely but pleasant manner.

What should businesses emphasise while training their support staff?

Take a look at some recommendations that will assist you in maximising the benefits of live chat.

Training in soft skills:

• Instill in your support agents a sense of patience and empathy. Agents should be employed, for instance. “You are entirely correct”, “I concur” to instil a sense of trust in the consumer and reassure them that their situation will be remedied.
• Being courteous and gentle with your consumers will result in excellent outcomes. Using nice phrases such as “Let me check for you,” or “I’m delighted that I was able to assist you” always adds a wow factor.

Training in product knowledge:

• Customer support personnel should be able to effectively handle enquiries and requests for product, service, and support expertise.
• When products and services are upgraded, make certain to notify and inform your support personnel. Updating knowledge bases and informing agents of the changes.

5. Appropriately define internal processes

Numerous factors must be addressed while developing a live chat strategy in order to provide outstanding customer service. You are free to define –

• How will your team respond to questions that they are unable to answer?
• What is the location of your internal knowledge management system?
• How will your team handle situations where a consumer is enraged?
• At what periods should agents be updated on product knowledge or undergo internal training?
• How are your agents supposed to prepare weekly or monthly reports for the team lead or management?

Properly outlining the aforementioned categories will aid in the delivery of a positive client experience.

6. Complement live chat with artificial intelligence bots

Businesses of all sizes can benefit from chatbot installation. With the help of chatbots and automation, live chat technologies enable you to have live, dynamic interactions even when an agent is not physically there at the other end of the messenger. It facilitates simple transactions, lead creation, sales, and spam filtering, among other functions.

Gartner estimates that “customers will handle 85 percent of their engagement with an enterprise without engaging with a human.”

The primary advantages of chatbots in conjunction with the live chat tool

• Bots are advantageous because they enable clients to receive quick responses 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
• Chatbots are capable of conducting many conversations concurrently.
• Collect data from chatbots easily and retrain them
• Customers receive rapid feedback.

7. Concentrate on the customer experience.

Customer experience management is critical to customer relationship management success (CRM). A satisfied and great customer experience with your business may result in the customer being a loyal or repeat customer. Delivering a higher-quality service and decreasing response times contributes to increased client satisfaction.

There are numerous ways to ascertain what your customers want or to share their experience with your product or service. You can collect feedback using chat surveys. This will assist you in identifying loopholes to close and areas to improve that the customer is seeking. Taking the time to plan and implement an efficient live chat strategy ensures ultimate client pleasure.

8. Create an incentive scheme to recognise your team’s efforts.

Numerous businesses have well-defined incentive plans for their sales and customer service teams. The organisation establishes a target, which the sales/support person must accomplish or exceed in order to demonstrate his unique competencies. The best performer is rewarded with money or a title.

The following are a few examples:

• Recognize the employee who obtained the most votes in a customer satisfaction survey.
• Establish a monthly “Great Customer Service Achievement email Award” for the entire organisation to recognise an employee who has demonstrated exceptional performance.
• Establish an internal customer satisfaction award and urge employees to recommend peers whose work serves as a model for customers.

9. Calls on a regular basis with reports

Implementing a live chat strategy enables reporting on customer service calls originated by agents. You must regularly review customer dialogues and communication in order to:

• Metrics comprehension: live chat aides in the understanding of the client’s journey.
• Follow-up actions: Using previous conversation records, follow-up actions can be taken with clients who expressed interest in the product or purchased it.

Conclusion – A road map for the future of intelligent conversation strategy

While developing a live chat strategy can assist in accomplishing corporate objectives, you need to also consider other critical variables such as omnichannel, team management, and internal training to achieve the best outcomes. With the addition of AI bots, live chat may become the most effective channel for providing sales and support assistance, as well as automating regular activities. Thus, you get the best of both worlds: increased performance at a lesser cost.