When business is booming, little thought goes to generating leads, and instead keeping customers satisfied and giving great service becomes challenge number one.
Happy customers are usually loyal customers. If their overall buying experience is positive, repeat purchases and greater profitability become far more likely.
There are many ways an online business can enhance customer service, and live chat services are among the most effective.
Whether you’re selling houses, holidays or handbags, website chat services can greatly enhance the overall customer experience — in six unique ways.
1. Around-the-clock help
One way to gain a competitive edge over brick-and-mortar competitors is to offer around-the-clock customer service. Whether it’s midnight or the break of dawn, live chat for customer services gives consumers the freedom to shop at a time that suits them.
Let’s be honest; customer service issues can happen at any time of the day. Rather than make your customers wait several hours for the help they need, you can ensure assistance is available at all hours. So, when things go wrong (and they inevitably do, from time to time), you have a great opportunity to turn a negative situation into a memorable customer experience. That’s something that keeps people coming back for more.
2. Easy to use
Finding help from a customer service team isn’t usually a particularly rewarding experience. The process itself is enough to turn consumers away from a brand or business. But if you can make the customer service process quick, simple and convenient, you can keep more of your customers happy — even in the face of serious complaints.
The latest live chat services are simple and very easy to navigate. Customers, in many cases, just need to click a button to start a live conversation. And they can do this without leaving the web page they’re looking at.
There’s no need to pick up a phone or open a separate email page. With just the click of a widget, the customer is connected to someone who can help.
3. Chat and shop at the same time
The average internet shopper is now used to multitasking on a range of devices. Anything that slows down or complicates this experience can quickly become a source of frustration. Live chat for customer services solves this problem with the minimum of fuss.
Imagine a potential customer has found the perfect dress on a website. They’re ready and willing to make a purchase, but they just need to check whether or not the garment is machine washable.
The customer can click the link for website chat services, and a chat box will open separately from the web page they’re navigating. This means the customer can continue searching for purchases while engaging in their chat with a customer service operator. And the chat box remains open between messages, meaning the shopping never has to pause for longer than it takes to type a message.
4. Increases customer engagement
Online shopping can sometimes be a one-way process — something that puts a lot of e-commerce businesses at a disadvantage over their offline competitors. But when you offer website chat services to customers, you’re making the experience more interactive and immersive.
Your customers can simply click a link to strike up a conversation about a product or service you sell. This scenario adds a social element to online shopping that is as rewarding as it is fun.
5. Develops relationships with customers
Online shopping can be an impersonal experience if it lacks human interaction. A customer can complete a purchase with just a couple of clicks and some payment details. This robotic type of transaction deprives you of the opportunity to strike up relationships with your most loyal customers.
Live chat for customer services is a great way of forging lasting relationships between your business and the people who support it. You can create the online equivalent of a local high street store where all the staff know the names of the regular shoppers. Over time, your most loyal customers will get to know your customer service team — making each purchase far more meaningful than the average online transaction.
Live chat services connect businesses to online customers in real time. If you think this type of service can improve the customer experience you’re providing, contact us anytime to find out more, or just book a quick chat:
