Is a Live Chat Widget on My Website Worth it?
Customer service is a tricky road to traverse, although it shouldn’t be. The concept is simple enough: someone reaches out for service and a rep from your business response in a timely fashion.
But life is busy, there are numerous customer inquiries to answer, and we are only human- some customers slip through the cracks when emails go unanswered or a phone call sends them through an automated obstacle course.
That’s why a live chat widget is a nifty tool to help build customer trust, grant instant gratification, and boost your chances of convert leads for your website.
What is a live chat widget?
Have you ever hopped onto a landing page, when seconds later a little chat box window pops up? It may feature a picture of a warm human face, asking you to instant message with any questions you may have.
This is a live widget chat- and it works miracles for user engagement. Instead of picking up the phone and searching for a contact, visitors can type out a question and send it instantly, with no strings attached.
A customer representative is on the receiving end and should respond back right away.
The benefits of a live chat widget
When used correctly, a live chat widget can be quite beneficial...emphasis on the “used correctly” bit.
The faster you respond, the more leads you get
This is not a myth. Studies show that the faster reps responded to inquiries, the better. If a rep waits 5 minutes before responding, that already decreases the odds of making contact by 10x.
If they wait 10 minutes, the odds decrease by 400x. Wow.
If you’re not around, bots can help
Running a small business means you may not be around all the time to chat, and that’s normal. Utilizing bots can fill in and help keep customers engaged.
You don’t have to set up an automated response that asks customers to try back later. Instead, customize your responses so the bot will consider the customer’s question and pull up search results that may answer their question.
This is great if you have an FAQ on your website and the customer missed it and asked for the answer on the live chat instead. The bot can quickly dig up the info in the FAQ for the customer.
You don’t need to use forms anymore!
This is relative, but live chat trumps online forms any day. Think about it, have you ever been excited to try an online service, only to be stopped by a lengthy form to fill out? It’s impersonal and time-consuming at best.
Remember, in the online world, people want instant gratification. Use the live chat to simply ask, “What can I help you with?” to get the conversation started and work towards that sale instead of using a form.
