You’ve likely been there before; you visit a website and have questions about a product or service. You call the business to get information and are greeted with “please listen carefully as our menu options have recently changed”, and you know you’re in for a painful experience.
Don’t get me wrong, phone calls still play an important role in attracting customers. Some customers just want to call you, others prefer email or contact you on social media. However, over the last few years live chat has slowly become the channel of choice when communicating with businesses. 75% of people prefer live chat over any other channel. That’s because most people don’t want to be put on hold endlessly for simple queries. They want fast, convenient service.
It’s easy enough to drop a chat widget on a website, but it’s a much larger effort to consistently deliver high-quality experiences. Chat can demand more time and attention than other channels, so it’s important to understand the balance between the effort and the value in order to reap the benefits.
How to convert more leads with chat
Under the website chat umbrella (or Webchat as we like to call it), there are two ways to engage with website visitors.
- Live chat – Traditionally, live chat offers human-to-human interaction between an employee, such as a sales or service rep, with the website visitor over chat.
- Chatbot – A chatbot helps to manage real-time interactions with website visitors without the need for a live agent. Chatbots can interpret the needs of a visitor and point them in the direction of the solution as well as answer FAQs and even provide basic support (e.g. office hours, order status, website navigation, etc.).
Let’s dive into some ways in which Webchat can help your clients generate leads on autopilot – while still delivering personalized experiences.
1. Connect with leads on high-intent website pages
If a website gets a ton of traffic, it’s best to make Webchat available only on high-intent pages. These are pages that indicate visitors may have the intention of committing to a purchase. Examples of these pages include pricing pages, services pages, product pages, demo pages, etc. This will control incoming queries and help to manage them efficiently without overwhelming the staff.
2. Use a chatbot to qualify leads at scale
Identifying qualified leads can be challenging when a website is attracting thousands to millions of visitors a month. Chatbots are a powerful tool to help qualify leads because they’re conversational, always available, and can be modified based on the different stages of the buyer journey.
3. Fast track the sales cycle
Webchat has the highest consumer satisfaction rate of any channel at 92% because it offers instant responses for inquiries. It enables businesses to provide website visitors with 1:1 personalized service as soon as they enter, which vastly improves the likelihood of conversion. Make sure the business has a system in place to manage these conversations and close deals at scale.
4. 24/7 customer support
A chatbot can provide visitors with support any time, even after closing hours, by utilizing automation tools when offline. Make sure your clients use the chat platform to provide great experiences to their customers and delight them.
5. Personalize experiences and help visitors make a decision
Use a chatbot to provide visitors with personalized experiences to boost conversions. The chatbot should be programmable and be able to provide visitors with product and content recommendations based on recent activity, search history, product preferences, demographics, and more. Setting up a chatbot to deliver recommendations will help to boost conversions, cross-selling and up-selling, and overall revenue.
6. Keep leads engaged even after leaving your client’s website
Consumers engage with businesses on multiple channels because they’re always on the go. It’s not enough for businesses to have their messaging game on point only on their website. Businesses should be able to keep the conversation going with leads no matter what channel they switch to, especially text messaging. Ensure the business is equipped to manage multi-channel interactions from one place. This will vastly improve the customer experience and drive leads to conversion faster.
Webchat is an indispensable source for generating leads
Webchat is often a consumer’s first interaction with a business. Due to its popularity with consumers, it plays an important role in delivering quality customer experiences that drives conversion. But, it’s just one part of the complete customer experience.
Customers want and expect speed and convenience in every interaction. That’s why similar communication channels, such as text and social media messaging, are becoming more popular.
In order to deliver quality experiences on all these channels, businesses need one central place where they can monitor and manage customer and prospect messages seamlessly. In addition, they also need to have the ability to glean actionable insights from these interactions (and reviews and surveys) to help improve customer experiences. Make sure that your client’s business is equipped with an all-in-one platform that can set them up on the path to continuous growth.
