Investing in live chat support services is a sure bet. Statistics show that 63% are more likely to return to a website that provides live chat support services and that 73% of customers prefer live chat over any other customer care channel.
The question now is how you intend to maximize your live chat investment.
Live chat support services should not be limited to assisting and answering questions. It can be a tremendous revenue-oriented tool if implemented right. To help you make the most of your live chat investment, I’ve compiled a list of eight strategies you can use to maximize your live chat ROI (return on investment).
Let’s get started.
1. Increase the Volume of Chat
The more conversations you have, the more sales leads you will be able to generate. You can increase your chat volume by making your chat window, chat button, and chat bubble more visible and engaging. But keep in mind that it should be noticeable but not overpowering. Whatever changes you make, make sure the chat area blends in with your site’s overall look and feel.
Another effective way to engage visitors and generate more chats is to use proactive chat. It enables you to reach out to customers proactively rather than waiting for them to initiate the conversation, which some never do. Bold ecommerce chat support should be used on high bounce rate pages to retain visitors who are leaving.
2. Increase Conversion Rate
It’s pointless to have a large ecommerce chat support volume but few conversions. Engaging customers and keeping them isn’t enough. You must convert them into buyers and possibly loyal advocates. Reduce cart abandonment rate by approaching the customer with a solution before they leave your store.
Providing personalized service is another way to increase conversion rates and sales. Customers should be given advice or suggestions tailored to their specific needs. People dislike superficial advice; if you give it, customers may perceive you as insincere and untrustworthy.
3. Boost the Average Order Value
The story does not end with converting visitors into buyers. You can increase revenue by encouraging converted customers to purchase more. This is where upselling and cross-selling skills come into play.
Your outsource live chat support agents should be well-trained in how to make sales suggestions without coming across as pushy or desperate. Customers can be upsold while considering their purchasing options and cross-sold after they have chosen their desired products.
Whatever tactic you use, be helpful, and don’t assume that you’re just trying to get more money out of them.
4. Choose the Right Customers
Without a doubt, live chat support services are an excellent tool for increasing sales and revenue. However, if not correctly implemented, it can be costly.
When your live chat support resources are limited, you cannot attend to every visitor who visits your site, and having your chat button appear on all pages is not a good idea. You should choose to target and serve the most valuable and potential customers. They may also be the ones which require your assistance the most when problems arise during critical purchasing phases.
Segmenting your visitors and approaching them personally will ensure you gain more and spend less.
5. Connect Live Chat Support Services to Your CRM
Integration of live chat and CRM (customer relationship management) will help you better manage your business.
When providing support via ecommerce live chat support, if chat agents have quick access to the customer database in your CRM software, they can solve issues faster and interact with customers more personally. Meanwhile, the information gathered from live chat support services can be added to the customer database and used to improve your CRM.
This integration ensures you get the most out of these two customer service tools and receive better support in the long run.
6. Keep an Eye on Analytics and Reports
Monitoring enables you to determine what works and what does not. Those who keep a close eye on their live chat performance will be able to adapt quickly to changes and continually improve.
Along with configuring your live chat system, you should decide which metrics you will use to assess its effectiveness. It could be the sales conversion rate, the average sales amount per conversion, the level of customer satisfaction, and so on. These metrics should differ depending on the industry and stage of your business.
7. Learn Proper Chat Etiquette
Higher customer satisfaction equals higher ROI. Take care in how your chat agents interact with your customers. Chatting on the internet may differ from face-to-face communication. Nonetheless, it necessitates its etiquette.
Make sure that your chat operators are comfortable communicating via text. To avoid misunderstandings, they should be able to express themselves clearly. They should also know how to use the appropriate tone with the proper customers and use appropriate language.
8. Boost Chat Agent Productivity
You can’t have an excellent live chat ROI if your agents are slacking off or performing poorly at work. You should set some KPIs (key performance indicators) to measure their productivity and provide them with proper training. It could be their number of concurrent chats, response time, chat session duration, invitation acceptance rate, etc.
Don’t be afraid to reduce the number of inefficient operators. Otherwise, they will be a drain on your investment and degrade your live chat performance.
Is your live chat software not generating the expected revenue? Vserve’s live chat outsourcing is available to help you maximize your live chat ROI.
Considered Factors
To begin, when calculating the ROI for your live chat for sales, you must consider the following factors: the number of monthly web visitors, your incremental sales, predicted live chat volume, costs associated with the technology and resources that you have been using, average sale value, and sales’ gross margin.
Whether you want proactive or active visitor engagement, you can adjust the volume of your live chat support services. Furthermore, you can determine the importance of live chat for sales based on the industry your company is in and its standards for live chat implementation. The number of resources you’ve been using and their costs can be calculated using simultaneous sessions and the average handle time.
Of course, you should be aware that conversion rates can vary greatly depending on the industry – they can range from 4% to 40%. This fact is critical when it comes to determining the number of incremental sales as well as revenue.
Get Professional Help!
You retain control over the team you hire when outsourcing eCommerce live chat support services. However, you are not required to deal with the issues associated with hiring and training employees.
Furthermore, by outsourcing your need to a reputable eCommerce chat support company like Vserve, you can ensure that your customers will receive the assistance they need anytime. Our team can help turn your prospects into satisfied repeat buyers by encouraging customer loyalty with friendly and 24/7 coverage!
