Did you know that chat is an increasingly popular customer contact channel for consumers today?
Whether you call it live chat, web chat or online chat, there are many reasons why providing a chat channel on your website is a business must.
Here are ten of them.
1. Customers expect to find a chat option
Online customers increasingly expect to find a real-time chat option when they want to reach you. So, if you don’t have one, it hurts the customer experience.
In fact, up to 57% of customers demand live chat availability alongside other service channels.
2. Web chat improves accessibility
For some online visitors, using a phone is too taxing. For others, the wait that accompanies email support is a major hurdle.
A web chat option, meanwhile, is a low barrier option. It demonstrates that you’re easy to reach, making you more trustworthy and accessible.
3. You can offer multilingual support
Web chat is also a great way to offer multilingual support in real-time. If, that is, you opt for a channel that offers real-time chat translation.
Useful, when you consider that 72% of consumers are more likely to buy when help is offered in their language.
4. It allows discretion
Sometimes customers get upset. They can brew a storm on social media, scream into the email void, and get aggravated by telephone IVR systems. Or, you can let them reach you through chat.
Web chat gives customers a discreet and responsive place to calm their temper and solve their problems. Before, that is, they lose their loyalty to your brand.
5. It’s an efficient channel
Web chat enables quick connections and rapid resolutions. Agents can serve multiple customers at once. Customers aren’t forced to wait on hold or wonder if you got their email. So, your agents can help more customers, and your customers don’t have their time wasted.
In fact, 46% agree that live chat is the most efficient way of communicating with a support team.
6. It’s a personalisation power-up
With CRM integration, you can pull customer account details as soon as they connect via web chat. So, you can offer informed, personalised service. Plus, any new data goes to your CRM, keeping it updated for a fresh personalised experience next time.
7. Chat drives customer satisfaction
Real-time chat has the highest customer satisfaction level compared to all other channels, placed between 82% and 92%.
8. Web chat generates valuable insight
With inbuilt analytics, a web chat solution also generates useful reports and insight. You gain visibility of everything from agent performance to customer satisfaction. Plus handy sentiment analysis reports.
So, you can view all the metrics that keep your service (and business) running smoothly.
9. It enables proactive outreach
Web chat isn’t reserved for reactive service, either. In fact, you can use it to proactively engage with your online visitors. With proactive chat invitations, you can offer help when visitors get stuck and increase your web conversions.
For example, you can reduce cart abandonment by supporting the checkout process. Or, you can provide a helping hand on pages with high bounce rates.
10. Web chat is low cost
You get all these benefits with web chat, and it doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg to do. Deploying a chat channel is low cost compared to other channels and business expenses. Plus, it offers a good economy of scale — the more customers you talk to through chat, the more cost-effective it is.
Get web chat today
These are just a few of the reasons that you need a web chat channel. So, what are you waiting for? Give it a try with a 30-day free trial of WhosOn.
Useful links
The ultimate compendium of live chat software statistics