Live chat significantly benefits your business compared to email, phone support, instant messenger services, and other communication platforms. A full-featured chat platform is a must-have tool for your business to drive revenues higher by helping customers and employees close sales opportunities.
In my blog post, Reduce business costs with Live Chat, I discussed how live chat improves operational efficiencies and enhances customer experience. This blog will look at how to use it to drive higher revenues.
Get customers the information they need in real-time
Live chat is a platform that allows support teams to “talk” directly with existing and potential customers. This connection is made from the company website or other messenger channels. Employees can promote sales by answering product questions, explaining features, confirming availability, and moving sales to closure using typed dialog.
For example, let’s say you run an online shoe store. A customer wants to know when a pair of shoes he wants to buy will be back in stock. Instead of losing that customer to another site, a live chat session can help get answers directly to that customer in real-time and let him know when the shoes will be available.
The chat session can be more effective than phone calls or email. With phone calls, customers may need to call repeatedly as new questions or issues arise. Sales staff may be unavailable immediately, causing the customer to leave a message delaying the potential sale. Chat can always be on and available to quickly route customers to the agent with the knowledge to solve the problem.
Phone calls are inconvenient and require added effort on the part of the customer. With live chat, the customer is already on the website shopping. With a simple click of a button on the page, the customer is quickly chatting with the right person to answer their question. Email, too, requires extra effort for the customer to send the message. Response time on email is slow and doesn’t allow the customer to know someone is working on their issue. Long delays in responses may drive customers to competitors or ruin sales momentum that would push the sale to closure.
Chat is the best option as the customer knows their question or concern is being addressed in real-time without calling, being placed on hold, or having their message or email lost.
Increase revenue through upsell opportunities
Live chat also creates opportunities for upselling. Through chat, skilled chat agents can identify the upsell opportunities. Seeing that a customer is interested in a product, they can quickly identify add-on items to recommend to the customer as well. If they are shopping for shoes, the agent can recommend socks to match. The agent can even mention that there is a promotion running. A properly trained chat sales agent can offer promotions to customers they engage.
A customer is questioning the cost of shipping for her order. The sales agent can offer an online promotion code for free or discounted shipping via chat if he senses that the sale may be lost due to objection. Helping a customer choose between two items, the agent offers a discount if the customer buys both items. She offers him a discount code for 20% off with the purchase of both items. Happy customers and revenue have grown significantly.
Employee-to-employee chat
As sales agents help customers, they may encounter problems that need assistance from other employees. Chat sessions between employees can quickly handle these issues and get the customer the necessary answers. Similarly, full-featured chat platforms will allow chat groups and chat transfers. With group chat, a sales agent can bring another employee into the chat to help resolve issues or get questions answered. The sales agent can transfer a chat to a new group if necessary.
A customer needed help ordering shoes. After getting help with the questions about the shoes, he realizes he also needs help with shipping. The agent helping him can transfer the chat to another agent to ensure the shipping questions are handled.
Track your sales inquiries
With chat communication, you’ll have a centralized digital record of customer inquiries, dates, times, products, and specific customers. This tracking can help identify common issues and help resolve product, website, or process issues. This tracking is also helpful in following up with customers. For example, your business may have had problems with credit card processing, which hindered customers’ purchasing. With the issue resolved, any customer who used the chat to get help can be contacted to let them know the issue is resolved.
Similarly, if a product is out of stock, leverage chat tracking to convert the customer sessions to follow-up notifications once the products are back in stock.
Live chat can be a powerful tool for the sales team and growing company revenue.
Connect with us to learn how StraViso and its full-featured chat platform can drive sales and revenue growth in your organization.
Contact us today at info@straviso.com for more information and to schedule a time for a demo of our chat platform, notification, and automation platforms.
