The Top 6 Reasons Why Live Chat Is Winning the Customer Service Battle
Customer service is the backbone of any business, and it is critical to establishing a long-term customer base and helping businesses to thrive.
More than two-thirds of American shoppers, according to American Express, are willing to spend more with firms that deliver exceptional customer service.
How do you ensure that you have a successful customer service toolbox on hand? In this digital age, live chat is an important part of that since offering a platform for customers to speak with you in real time is a great way to connect and support them. In fact, live chat has a satisfaction rate of 73 percent, compared to 61 percent for email and 44 percent for phone.
But it’s not just your client happiness that will improve; customer retention will as well. In fact, over 63 percent of customers said they are more likely to return to a website that offers live chat.
So, why do clients prefer live chat? Let’s have a look:
Six reasons why live chat is crucial for customer service
Here are six reasons why live chat is winning the war for your clients’ hearts and minds, and why you should add it to your customer care channel right now:
1. Customers appreciate the convenience of live chat.
Live chat is useful for a variety of reasons:
Customers can easily connect with an agent via live chat. There’s no need to call a number and press button after button before speaking with a representative.
Customers can multitask when using live chat. This is likely the most significant advantage. For this reason, more than 51% of clients prefer live chat. Customers can do anything else while they wait, even if it’s only for a brief time.
The time spent waiting is little. Customer inquiries are immediately resolved, so you won’t be on hold for hours.
The discussion can be saved for later. When users’ previous interactions can be referred to for context, it’s easier to advise them through challenges.
Customer issues are immediately resolved. While emails can necessitate a lengthy back and forth, live chat can address issues in a single session.
Customers can get immediate answers to their purchase-related questions. This is a significant advantage, given that 44 percent of consumers believe that being able to speak with an agent when shopping online is one of the best things a website can provide. Customers appreciate your assistance in making purchasing decisions.
2. Live chat gives a higher return on investment.
Businesses are constantly looking for low-cost customer service solutions. One of them is undoubtedly live chat.
For many years, phone and email have been the cornerstones of customer service. However, keeping up with these configurations takes time and resources, and they come with a number of drawbacks, such as long wait times and back-and-forths.
Live chat solutions, on the other hand, are quite inexpensive to establish, and they come with a slew of additional features that make them a superior communication channel.
Real-time customer support and the ability to respond to several enquiries at once saves your firm time, labour, and money.
3. Live chat gives you a leg up on the competition.
How frequently do you see a website with a live chat option?
True, many businesses have incorporated live chat in recent years, but not enough (or with sufficient success) to make it widespread. Live chat is still very new.
This is a fantastic opportunity. Why not jump into the fray and give yourself an advantage over your competitors by adding live chat to your website?
Because of the numerous advantages that live chat provides, organisations will finally be unable to ignore it. Brands that do not offer live chat will be obsolete in the near future. You can get ahead of the game till then. Before your competition, put your offer in place. Make outstanding customer service and live chat a vital part of your brand’s branding. You’ll have the skills to generate leads and turn them into loyal customers once you’ve mastered your live chat and customer care offerings.
4. It saves time to use live chat.
“When it comes to humans, customers want the same swift response from electronic equipment and technology that they have learned to expect from electronic equipment and technology.” Shep Hyken is a writer who lives in New York City.
Increasing productivity in the same amount of time is one of the most effective methods to grow a successful business. Live chat can be of assistance.
The first step is to examine response times and time spent resolving problems. Then you’ll discover how live chat can help you considerably reduce these times. To put the speed of live chat into perspective, Zopim evaluated over 85K talks and discovered that an agent responds to a consumer enquiry in less than 23 seconds on average. The average time for resolution is less than 42 seconds.
It’s not just about saving time for yourself; it’s also about saving time for your customers.
There’s so much time that can be saved.
When you crunch the facts, you’ll see that live chat outperforms almost every other customer service channel, and by a significant margin. With just one live chat representative, you can close more than 60 client tickets each hour. On the other hand, no customer query has been responded to in under an hour via Twitter, Facebook, email, or phone.
When you factor in the time you’ll save in terms of money, it’s easy to understand why live chat is the finest way to handle customer care.
There are a variety of live chat tools available, but if you’re in charge of a team, Votiko’s live chat software is a good option for providing exceptional customer service.
5. Increased sales with live chat
“Sales is no longer about selling, but rather about establishing trust and educating.” Siva Devaki, Siva Devaki, Siva Devaki, Siva De
Live chat, in my personal experience, increases internet sales.
As many as 83 percent of customers require assistance when making an online purchase.That is why customers prefer to make purchases from websites that offer live chat. They are able to respond to questions fast. Providing live chat support during the checkout process boosts conversion rates.
When Post Affiliate Pro, for example, added live chat to their website, they saw a 23 percent increase in conversion rate.
It’s best to have at least one agent available at all times since, according to Forrester, 45 percent of US consumers would abandon an online purchase if they couldn’t get answers to their queries and concerns.
According to another study, 77% of shoppers believe they need to speak with a live person before making an online purchase.
You’re losing sales if you don’t have live chat. And do you have the financial means to do so?
Based on the data, it’s evident that live chat is critical for providing the greatest possible customer experience and driving sales for your company.
6. Long-term partnerships are formed through live chat.
Building long-term relationships with consumers is essential for the long-term viability of your business, since it promotes customer satisfaction and improves the customer experience.
Customers who are satisfied are less likely to switch to a competitor. Statistics show that 89 percent of customers have stopped doing business with a company due to poor customer service.In addition, 86% of customers are willing to pay a 25% premium for a better customer experience.
Live chat is an excellent technique to develop long-term client relationships. When clients believe you are there to listen, ties are formed more easily, and loyalty follows.
In fact, 73 percent of customers believe that nice customer service makes them fall in love with a brand, and 52 percent of customers have made multiple purchases following a positive initial customer service experience.
It all boils down to providing a positive first impression. You’re significantly more likely to get a customer for life if you provide outstanding customer service via live chat on their first visit. These repeat consumers are worth up to ten times what they paid the first time.
The customer service race is clearly being won by live chat.
Kevin Stirtz expressed his thoughts as follows:
“Every interaction we have with a customer has an impact on whether or not they return. We must be outstanding at all times or we will lose them.”
There is no better way to be exceptional every time and keep your clients coming back than to use live chat. Set up your live chat product to get ahead of the competition and watch your sales and revenue soar.
