Why Providing a Live Chat for your Consumers is Crucial for your Business
Focusing on customers’ needs is a crucial part of all businesses because it retains customers and extracts more value from them. By providing top-notch customer service, businesses recoup customer acquisition costs and cultivate a loyal following that retains customers, serves as case studies and provides testimonials and reviews (HubSpot, 2021). With this in mind, being able to provide consumers with a consistent way to contact your company is extremely important. Whether that be for them to reach out, regarding any questions or concerns, or to just indulge in a better understanding of your business. Through providing a platform that encourages customers to interact, businesses are able to make their consumers feel valued and appreciated, no matter the time of the day.
With this being said, in today’s article, we will be discussing the importance of providing a live chat for your consumers as well as be identifying 4 ways in which a live chat can benefit your business.
Why Live Chat is so important
The importance of a live chat cannot be understated as witnessed by the results of a study completed by Zendesk, which revealed that 92% of customers feel satisfied when they use the live chat feature, compared to other communication options such as voice being 88%, email being 85%, web form 85%, and social media platforms such as Facebook 84% and Twitter being 77% (Forbes, 2016).
Ways in which it can benefit your business
1. Increases customer satisfaction
Customer satisfaction can increase drastically by implementing a live chat in your business. In a study recently done, it was discovered that 82% of customers were satisfied with their live chat experience, compared to just 61% being satisfied with email and 44% feeling content with a phone call, to solve their questions or concerns (Superoffice,2021). With this being said, it is clear that customers do prefer a live chat over any other forms of communication, regarding the discussion of a product or service. When comparing it to an email which can take up to 12 hours for a response, or a phone call which can sometimes take hours for consumers to be connected with an employee, a live chat can quickly and effectively give consumers the answers they are looking for. Along with this, a live chat can help increase customer satisfaction rates by creating a quick survey, which asks for customers feedback and experience after speaking to an employee via chat. Through this, you will be able to see the progress your company is making in regard to assisting its consumers, as well as given the ability to receive direct feedback from your consumers on ways to improve and create the best possible experience for all.
2. Creates a competitive advantage and increases customer loyalty
Having a competitive advantage over your competitors as well as increasing customer loyalty is extremely crucial for the long-term success of a business, for it impacts many important aspects. With this being said, implementing a live chat can create a competitive advantage because many businesses are yet to incorporate one within their business plan. Nearly 50% of consumers say that having a live person answer their questions while in the middle of their purchase decision is one of the most important features a brand can offer (Forbes, 2016). So, through offering this to your consumers, they will most likely choose your company’s product or service over your competitors, which don’t offer this important live chat feature. Along with this, it is said that loyal customers spend 67% more on products and services than new customers. Even though most loyal customers only make up 20% of a company’s audience, they provide up to 80% of your revenue (Emarsys, 2020). So, through providing a live chat for your consumers, you are not only obtaining a competitive advantage, but you are also increasing your customer loyalty, daily.
3. Makes consumers feel valued and appreciated
Making your consumers feel valued and appreciated is by far one of the most important aspects of a business. Your consumers should be the main priority consistently, in every regard. With this being said, a live chat can make your consumers feel valued and appreciated by providing a 24-hour chat, for them to reach out to no matter the time of the day, considering your consumers from all around the world, all at different time zones. By doing this, your consumers will feel a sense of importance in your company, by making them personally see how much you value their opinions as well as concerns. Along with this, through using a live chat, a prominent way to ensure your consumers feel appreciated and valued is through sending out a follow-up email after the chat has ended, which includes a transcript of the full chat session (Superoffice, 2021). Through doing this, your consumers will sense how much your business cares for them and their needs.
4. Helps quickly answer and solve customers’ concerns
Making your consumers wait a long period of time can negatively affect your business drastically. It may now not come as a surprise but, 79% of customers say they prefer live chat purely because of the immediacy it offers, compared to other channels (Superoffice, 2021). With this being said, it is evident that immediacy is crucial to keeping your consumers long-term. We live in a society that expects instant gratification and results. This can be seen in a study done by the Forrester’s Raising the Bar which reported that 1 in 5 customers are willing to stop using a product or service for slow response times via online chat (Superoffice,2021). So, by providing a live chat for consumers to use, at all hours of the day, their questions and concerns will be answered quickly, within minutes, without feeling frustrated and impatient and will therefore encourage them to continue using your company’s product or service.
The final message
To conclude, being able to provide consumers with a consistent way to contact your company is extremely important. Whether that be for them to reach out, regarding any questions or concerns, or to just indulge in a better understanding of your business. Through observing the importance of a live chat feature, as well as analyzing the 4 ways in which a live chat can help your business, it is clear that implementing a live chat is extremely beneficial in the long-term growth of your business which is why Kiuloper offers the ability to implement this unique feature to your website.
