The way customers interact with businesses has evolved over time, with technology playing a key role in this change. An inquiry or complaint about a product that used to take over an hour on a customer care hotline can now be directed to the business within a few seconds. This can be done with the use of live chat support that more and more businesses have been incorporating into their customer care services.
Live chat is an online communication application that makes it easier for customers and businesses to interact. When a customer visits a company’s website, especially an e-commerce store, they are likely to be met with a conversation box that pops up as soon as they enter the website. This app can be used to ask the company about certain products, delivery, or returns.
It is unlikely that a customer care representative responds to each and every message. Instead, live chat technology is powered by artificial intelligence so that machines can give customers the answers they are looking for within seconds.
There are many advantages of live chat support. The use of technology has allowed businesses to spend less on customer care services, especially human personnel. However, one of the key benefits of investing in live chat support, especially in 2022, is the role it will play in increasing sales.
When customers and potential customers are satisfied with the way a business interacts with them and how quickly a business provides solutions to their problems, the customer is like to return and the potential customer is likely to make a purchase. Customer satisfaction will drop when the business fails to respond to customer inquiries.
Super Office carried out a study on 1,000 companies to see how they handle customer support. The findings of the study were published in their Customer Service Benchmark report.
Super Office found that 62 percent of the companies do not respond to customer emails and those that do, take an average of 12 hours to respond. In a world where messages are replied to within seconds, a 12-hour wait for a response from a business is a significantly long period.
In a separate study, Super Office found that 88 percent of customers expect a response within 60 minutes.
Super Office also shared statistics from other sources that show how technologies like live chat increase sales. Super Office states that a 79 percent of businesses found that implementing live chat increased customer loyalty, sales, and revenue. This was reported by Kayako.
Going low saw a 3.84 percent increase in conversion rates and a 6 percent increase in revenue with the use of live chat support and Forrester saw a 10 percent increase in the average order value from customers who engaged in a chat before making a purchase.
These statistics give one an idea of the impact live support can have on a company’s sales and revenue.
While statistics are useful when painting an accurate image of the impact of live chat on a business, especially in terms of sales and revenue, many struggles to see the actual benefits and applications of live chat support.
This is why businesses have been relatively slow to adopt the technology.
To answer the question “does live chat increase sales?” it is important to look at what live chat applications can bring to the table.
Not all visitors to an e-commerce website will place an order. Some may simply browse through products, not find what they are looking for, and leave. A few may intend to return to the platform and purchase an item but may find an alternative.
Despite this, a business would want to convert as many visitors into customers as possible and a good customer care system can be essential to high conversion rates.
If a customer can communicate with the business using a method they are comfortable with and receive a response within a few seconds, they will show more interest in purchasing from the business. While these conversions can be one-time customers, if they are satisfied with the shopping experience, the customers are likely to return.
It is thus clear that live chat can increase sales and revenue and businesses should invest in the technology. Doing so is especially important in 2022, with more people shopping online rather than in physical stores due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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