Online buyers expect instant answers

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With the great boost that the e-commerce industry is experiencing, a lot of e-commerce businesses find it more and more challenging to attract the right type of audience and, more importantly, to keep them engaged on their website. Since the number of online shoppers keeps increasing, it is crucial to make sure that their shopping experience is impeccable, so that they don’t go to the competition.

This is why customer service is changing completely, as retailers realize that they need to enhance their communication in order to attract and retain customers. They need to check and see how their shopping experience is going and provide a helping hand at the point of sale, just like they would do in their brick-and-mortar store. Live chat is exactly what can help them do that.

Live customer support in an e-commerce website can make a huge difference in the way retailers interact with their customers and prospects. If you are in the e-commerce business, take a look at the most essential reasons why it is important that you implement live chat into your website.

Improve Shopping Experiences

People shop online because of the great convenience that ecommerce stores provide. However, if they happen to have some questions about certain products, shipping fees or return policies and there is no one to provide them with quick and real-time answers, their shopping experience might not be so convenient.

Also read: Enhance your e-commerce conversions with these 10 tools

Not everyone wants to wait for your answer via email or dial your call center and wait for someone to take their call. They expect instant answers and, if you cannot provide them, they will simply leave your e-commerce store.

This is why you need to have live customer support on your website so that you can make sure that every single person interested in your store is satisfied. Live chat will enable you to answer questions in real-time, make useful suggestions when needed, and speed up the customer journey, which will help you attract more people to your ecommerce store and keep them engaged.

Build Strong Customer Relationships

Having an ecommerce store means that you cannot meet with your customers and prospects face-to-face and help them out on their journey. In a brick-and-mortar store, they can easily ask you for another size or color of a particular item and you can provide it without a single glitch in communication.

When it comes to shopping online, this kind of a situation is made possible with live chat. You can foster long-term relationships with your customers by engaging in live chat conversations, where you can show that you care about their happiness. When they talk to a real person and feel like their voice is truly heard, they will have a much more positive experience and a much stronger connection with you and your business.

Cut Down on Expenses

Live chat is excellent for any kind of website, no matter the type or size of a business because it is cost-effective. Your customers and prospects can communicate with you completely free of charge, so they don’t need to engage in costly calls to your call center. Not only will that improve their satisfaction with your brand, but it will also save you quite a lot of money down the line since you will have fewer calls to handle.

Even if you have a toll-free phone number for your customers, you will still satisfy them more with live chat, since they can get instant answers whenever they need them. Also, since live chat enables your operators to handle multiple conversations at a time, you won’t need new hires to help you deal with all the customer interactions.

Increase Efficiency and Productivity

You don’t have to be an expert to know that high levels of efficiency and productivity are vital for success. Live customer support will help you increase both, precisely because of the ability to handle multiple chats at the same time and the fact that there will be fewer calls to your call center. Your live chat operators will have more time to focus on meeting people’s needs, which will make them more efficient and productive.

Reduce Cart Abandonment Rate and Boost Sales

When you offer live customer support on your website, your customers will be less likely to leave their shopping carts without making a purchase, because they can easily ask for your help if they need an instant solution to a particular problem.

Moreover, since live chat enables you to monitor your website visitors in real-time, that is, see exactly what they are doing on your site and which pages they are at, you can jump in and provide useful suggestions just when someone may need your help.

This will help you significantly reduce your cart abandonment rate and increase your conversions, ultimately generating more sales and revenue. Your satisfied customers will definitely come back again to do business with you, and they will be more likely to spend more money in your store, precisely because of your high-quality service.

Improve Your Overall Customer Service

Live chat software provides you with a number of in-depth reports, such as chat ratings and operator performance reports, to name just a few. These reports can give you a clear insight into the quality of your customer service so that you can train your operators better and make sure that every single person they interact with leaves your ecommerce store completely satisfied.

Also read: Sweet 17 ways to boost conversion on your e-commerce site

You can also monitor live chat sessions in real-time, as well as enable post-chat surveys, which can provide you with useful feedback. You can see whether or not your website visitors are actually pleased with your service, so you can implement proper adjustments to improve it.

Conclusion

These are the most beneficial ways live chat can help your ecommerce business, and they should be more than enough to make you want to implement it as soon as possible. Live chat is truly invaluable to any business, but those in ecommerce can, perhaps, reap maximum benefits out of it.

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