Remember this because it’s important:
20% of your leads will try to reach you after your doors are closed.
That means if you don’t have a system to capture those prospects before they reach out to your competitors, you’re losing a FIFTH of your potential business.
Now, if you had the chance to increase your income by 20% would you take it?
Of course, you would. Everyone would.
And that’s why you need to invest in live chat for your website.
Live chat gives your potential customers the opportunity to speak to a real human through a digital chat window, and connect with your business after hours.
And they’ll convert into customers at a rate of 40%.
But before you get started, there are some things you should know. Here are the 7 Things to Avoid When Growing Your Business with Live Chat.
7. Don’t Be a Robot
When using live chat, remember that your designated customer service representative is a human being, not a robot. Don’t ask your service reps to follow rigid scripts. Give them the power to have an organic conversation as they help the customer. When your prospective customers feel a human connection, they trust the information they’re getting more and, ultimately, your business.
6. Don’t Be Slow to Respond
There is nothing more infuriating to prospective customers—or worse, paying ones—than having to wait for an answer. With live chat, your employees should respond to a question within 20 seconds of it being asked with the answer. If they don’t have the answer, then they should communicate that fact to the customer and tell them they’re working on a solution. Being prompt in your replies will help you win lifelong loyalty from your customers.
5. Don’t Use Industry Jargon or Acronyms
Your customers are not industry experts, and they don’t have as much experience as you. So, when you’re talking to them with live chat, make sure your employees don’t assume anything, Speak to them in plain English (A.K.A. layman's terms), and get to the point.
4. Don’t Focus on the Sale
If a potential customer approaches you on live chat it’s because they’re looking for an answer, not a sale. Do NOT use live chat to sell—ever. You are there to answer questions, period. You can suggest your products or services as solutions to a specific pain point raised by the customer if the customer asks for a solution, but other than that, you should never do anything remotely salesy in a live chat.
3. Don’t Ever Lose Your Cool
If you have a prospect that’s frustrated or hostile in live chat, your employees need to remain calm and do everything they can to address the situation in a polite, helpful manner.
Why?
Because a customer that has a bad service experience via live chat can be devastating for years to come. Do not add fuel to their fire—take the high road in the face of any insulting or disparaging comments.
2. Don’t Avoid Transferring to Another Representative
When speaking with a customer through live chat, your designated customer service rep will come up against questions they just don’t know. In those circumstances, the natural reaction may be to put the customer on hold and try to find the answer.
Don’t do this.
Why? Because if your live chat representative spent 10 minutes researching a problem and still failed to come up with a solution, your prospect wouldn’t be happy you wasted their time.
Empower your live chat service reps to transfer prospects if necessary. The only thing that matters is that your potential customer is getting the information they need quickly.
1. Don’t Hide the Feature
You’re paying for employees to run your live chat feature, so make sure customers know it’s there—don’t hide it.
If used to its potential, live chat holds one of the highest satisfaction levels of any modern digital marketing tool. Why? Because when it works, it solves problems quickly.
That’s what your customers want. And that’s why they’ll use it.
Final Thoughts
When considering live chat, think about your own personal habits.
Do you find yourself texting more than you call?
Would you rather find your own answers online or call a business and ask them a question?
Your habits are probably reflective of your customer habits too, which is why you’ve got to make live chat available on your website and easy to use.
If you’re interested in live chat and how you can use it to grow your business
give us a call at (866) 344-8852 or visit us at Scorpion.co
