Five Ways Live Chat Can Increase Sales (or ROI) for Your Company
Discovering how to efficiently locate, convert, up-sell and retain top customers are key success metrics for any growing company. The best customers make four times as many purchases. The top 1% of customers spend five times more per order than the bottom 90%. Most leaders of online retailers know this, but rapidly changing consumer behavior and technological innovation make perfect execution difficult. How can we find, convert and retain these top customers is a question that needs to be asked repeatedly by sales and marketing leaders of online retailers because the answer is complex, multi-faceted and frequently changes because of the environment?
Millennials Prefer to Buy via Chat!
One key way to convert website visitors and retain top customers is through targeted engagement. This means a pain-free purchase experience, one-on-one support, and individualized attention, all of which can be achieved through live chat sales and customer care. According to a survey by Oracle, 42% of e-commerce participants think increased automation in sales, marketing, and customer service will have the biggest positive impact on the customer experience. Automation is already quite common and is projected to grow rapidly. Just under half of the respondents reported using sales automation technology for their business functions, and 40% of respondents reported that they plan to implement some form of automated technology like those with machine learning by 2020.
Below are five reasons live chat can increase sales or provide increased ROI for your company:
#1 Convenience
Consumers are shifting their time and attention towards messaging apps from social media. eMarketer predicts that by 2019, 65% of the global population will use messaging apps. Today’s online shopper wants a fast response time to their customer service query, and a frictionless way to initiate support. Forrester reports that 55% of adults will abandon online purchases if they can’t find a quick answer to a question, with 77% responding that good online customer service is the most important thing a company can do. Connecting with website visitors through live chat caters to their preferred style of communication while taking less time than phone support, and ensuring faster response times than email. A Zendesk Benchmark report indicates that 92% of chat conversations receive a positive satisfaction rating. Online retailers that listen to their customers’ requests for the convenience of purchasing with human assisted online chat will undoubtedly benefit.
#2 Reduced Cost of Customer Care
Sales and customer service automation strategies often drive cost reduction. Business Intelligence reports the potential annual savings in U.S. salaries from more automated chat solutions as follows. Insurance Sales could save 60%, Financial Services could save 46%, and Sales and Customer Service could save 36% and 29%, respectively. What’s key to remember is that these numbers are projected savings. Many online sales and customer service interactions still require a human agent and will in the near future. Through comprehensive data analysis, businesses can supply customer service and sales agents with crucial information from satisfaction levels to customer behavior and purchase history. RapportBoost.AI recommends a combination of AI and live agent support to provide the best experience to customers and the most operational efficiency.
#3 Attracting a Younger Demographic
It’s not surprising that the first generation that grew up using instant messaging apps prefers to shop and receive sales support online. Despite having less overall purchasing power than older adults, millennials spend the most money online, averaging $2,000 in individual spending annually. Adding a live chat sales component to your lead generation, website conversion and sales support strategies are great ways to attract and retain millennial consumers with relatively high lifetime values. According to J.D. Power and Associates Social Media Benchmark Study, millennials are more likely to use online media for interactions than the telephone. Given the market share millennials represent for online retail, developing a modern online engagement strategy will allow your company to access and nurture the largest share of the online sales market.
#4 Increased Conversion Rates
When used correctly, live chat can increase sales by driving conversion rates. A Business Intelligence survey shows that 60% of consumers have decided not to make a purchase due to a poor front line customer service. The key to growing your company’s sales through live chat is to align your use of technology with your business goals and use it to support your live chat sales efforts, not replace them with sales chatbots. The best results come from scenarios where a combination of a live chat sales agent is used in combination with artificial intelligence, and the communication uses friendly and positive emotional communication styles and caters to the individual consumer by reviewing their habits and purchase history.
#5 Increased Engagement
Offering live chat can increase website conversion by increasing visitor engagement with the brand, its off, rings and your customer facing teams. In a brick and mortar store, customers who are greeted spend more than those who aren’t. In the virtual world of e-commerce, live chat sales agents can assume this role by being efficient and friendly brand ambassadors politely greeting new visitors or offering help if a visitor leaves their shopping cart idle for too long.
RapportBoost.AI suggests a combination of live chat sales agents and artificial intelligence to provide the best live chat experience for your customer. By reducing costs and boosting customer satisfaction, sales, and conversion rates, a smart chat strategy will grow your online sales and deliver a better ROI.
Learn more about how live chat training solutions from the team at RapportBoost.
By Tony Medrano & Meredith Lackey
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