Acquiring new customers is no simple task. It requires a large amount of time and resources dedicated to getting potential customers through the door – or on to your website. Advertising by Direct Mail or through the media is notoriously expensive, but even when your marketing has been limited to an online campaign, there is still the cost of web design, copywriting and hosting to consider.
In this blog we will focus on a couple of key questions every online business asks themselves, “How are you losing customers?”, and “Why are visitors not becoming customers?” and also how implementing Live Chat can help turn those visitors into actual paying customers.
Using Analytics and Live Chat
When visitors arrive at your website they are either looking to buy, or to educate themselves on your products. When a customer is casually shopping, they want to have an error free, enjoyable experience. If they encounter any type of issue, whether it is a page not loading correctly, or that they simply can not find the product they desire, the entire experience could take a quick turn for the worse and they could leave your page for good. Your analytics data – working in unison with your Live Chat platform – can help to track your visitors’ movements and solve any problems they are having in real time. The chat option will provide the customer an outlet to express whatever situation they are experiencing and the chat agent would be able to supply them an answer.
Example 1: The frustrated buyer
Imagine a visitor is interested in purchasing a product and, due to a browser incompatibility issue, after they click the order button nothing happens – or their browser ‘hangs.’ Worried that resending the order will trigger multiple payments, they simply choose to close their browser and buy the same product elsewhere. In effect you have just paid advertising money to sell to a competitor!
This is where Live Chat can help. If there was the option for Live Chat or, even better, one of your agents jumped in with a pro-active offer of support, we could have retained that customer by dealing with their order manually and reassuring them that they would not be billed twice. Also after the issue, you could pass the browser issue to your website development team to ensure the issue is resolved.
Example 2: The interested observer
A second example of how Live Chat and analytics can save money on customer acquisition is when you see that a customer has spent an above average amount of time on a product page. Whether they are looking for more information or undecided about making a purchase, you can practically guaranty that they have questions they would like to ask. By opening up a chat window, your agent can engage your visitor to increase the chances of making a sale by using a professional sales approach (identifying the customer’s needs, removing barriers, etc.) to help them alleviate any uncertainties they may have
People Buy From People
In both of the above examples, we have shown that people want to ask questions and people want to be reassured that their purchase is the right purchase. If your company is lacking in these two areas or if the customer has a difficult time reaching you, they will have no problem whatsoever to leave and go to a competitor. Whether you are solving technical problems or increasing buyer confidence, your live chat interaction with your visitors will have a positive impact on your ROI.
