Chris Smith

The popularity of live chat is rapidly increasing, and it’s estimated to continue to grow by up to almost 90% in the next year or so.

This is because nearly 50% of people prefer to chat with someone in real-time and online.

J.D. Power found that live chat has become the leading digital contact method for online customers, with 46% of customers preferring live chat in comparison to email, social media or phone calls.

While many businesses consider live chat a customer service tool, often they overlook the fact that live chat can actually help to increase sales in the first place.

The immediacy of live chat helps both consumer focused and B2B companies quickly answer queries and move a person from being a potential lead into a customer.

We look at how live chat can increase your sales.

How live chat increases sales

According to Forrester, 50% of adults will abandon a purchase if you can’t give them a quick answer to their question.

If they have to send an email or request someone to contact them, it could be a missed opportunity to convert a lead into a sale. Having live chat allows the customer to get the information they need immediately, allowing them to quickly make a purchase decision.

A potential customer may also be checking out the competition, so a quick response makes all the difference.

Additionally, in some cases those who can interact with a company before buying will also spend more.

Forrester noted that there was a 10% increase in the average order value, when reviewing the sales from customers who engaged in a chat before making a purchase, compared to those that did not use chat.

According to CrazyEgg, 38% of consumers are more likely to buy from a company if they offer live chat support.

Plus, chat is a great way to bring visitors back to your website, as eMarketer discovered that 63% of customers were more likely to return to a website that offers live chat.

Retaining customers through live chat

Acquiring a new customer can cost five times as much as retaining an existing one, therefore offering a service which your buyers keep coming back to is key to the growth of your business.

A recent study reported that 79% of businesses said that implementing live chat resulted in increased customer loyalty, sales and revenue.

By increasing satisfaction rates, you can increase revenue. Comm100 discovered that 82% of customers were satisfied with their live chat experience, compared to just 61% of email users and a worrying 44% of phone users.

However, you need to respond quickly to live chat requests to improve rates. 1 in 5 are willing to stop using a product or service for slow response times via online chat (according to Forrester’s Raising the Bar).

Therefore, it is imperative the organisations who use live chat are able to properly manage and respond to enquiries quickly.

Here at Yomdel, our fully managed live chat services help you to respond to your customers 24/7.

Providing you with your very own trained team, they manage live chat on your website alongside enquiries from other platforms such as social media and email.

When it comes to customer service, feedback from consumers is clear. When something goes wrong, they want to be able to speak to a real person.

When it comes to customer service, feedback from consumers is clear. When something goes wrong, they want to be able to speak to a real person.

Lettings and property management can be great additions to any estate agency.

Customer experience (CX) is increasingly becoming a key differentiator when it comes to consumers choosing an insurer. With challenger brands springing up across life insurance to public liability, delighting customers throughout every stage of the insurer journey has never been so vital to keeping customers engaged.

Whether you’re a building contractor, tradesperson, or any other type of home improvement business, introducing live chat to your website can help to improve sales, offer better customer service and take away some stress.

For most organisations, the best customers are those who don’t just use your product or service on a single occasion. It’s those who come back continually, helping to advocate for your brand, and build your bottom line.

Whether you're staffing up for your seasonal busy period, considering how you can build capacity in your customer service team, or are thinking more generally about the cost base and structure of your business in uncertain times, hiring outsourced live chat customer service agents should be a very serious consideration.

Due to its versatile uses, and its massive increase in engagement across demographics over the last few years, companies across all sectors are turning to live chat as a crucial aspect of improving their customer experience and sales process.

But to understand more deeply why these companies have chosen live chat, we need to understand how it works and what benefits it offers both the customer and the business.

Mystery shopping is an highly valuable tool used by thousands of the best B2C & B2B businesses across the UK. And all those businesses have one thing in common. They understand that by investing in understanding and delivering an exceptional customer experience, they will be closer to achieving their business goals.