How can I optimise live chat to increase conversions? A question often asked by business owners who realise live chat is something their customers will benefit from, but don't really understand how it works. Or, just as often, by businesses that have implemented a version of live chat, but aren't seeing any clear results.
Let's take a look at some of the key rules you MUST adhere to, if you're going to realise the significant benefits available by having live chat on your website.
It stands to reason that having managed live chat on your website is good for business. After all, it’s far easier to quickly type into a text box to speak to a real-life person, than it is to pick up the phone or fill out a form and wait, right?
But there’s much, much more to making live chat work for your business than just having someone handle chats online, especially if they’re only available during office working hours.
To make live chat REALLY effective – and to maximise the number of quality leads it delivers – you need to be able to know WHEN to engage with your customers and just as importantly, HOW.
Once you’ve cracked that, it’s crucial to measure the effectiveness of your marketing spend and make sure the benefits of live chat are bringing you the very best return on your investment.
Here are 5 golden rules for optimising live chat results:
1. Ensure you’re online 24/7
Believe it or not, more than half of your potential customers browse your website when your office is closed. Think about it – most people will be at work themselves, and many won’t have the time or freedom to be able to pick up the phone or browse your website.
If the only time your potential customers are able to browse your website is after work, having someone online to personally engage with them there and then, is crucial to maximising your leads. And what a fabulous experience for the visitor!
2. Outsource to a fully-managed provider
Unless you have staff working around the clock, the only way to ensure you have an online presence 24/7 is to find a fully-managed live chat company, who can demonstrate they’re expert at generating leads when you’re not there. Many businesses are tempted by an automated chat bot at this point, thinking it will be better than nothing at all, but the presence of a real-life person who knows your business inside out and can engage warmly with your potential customers whatever the hour will be countless times more effective and set you apart from your competitors.
3. Find out when visitors are abandoning your website
Google Analytics is a must if you’re serious about optimising your online live chat for business. It will tell you page-by-page what routes your visitors are taking through your website, what pages they’re reading and importantly when they leave, often without asking for more information via an online form.
Why are they leaving? Could it be they have a question to ask and can’t find the answer?
Knowing the average page dwell time is also crucial, as that tells you when to initiate a chat invitation or greeting, at a point just BEFORE they’re likely to leave.
This insight gives you a much better chance of engaging with them, helping them with any queries they might have, and therefore building trust. That engagement, in many cases, will mean the difference between winning their business and losing them to a competitor.
4. Measure the success of your marketing campaigns
Google Analytics is also fantastic for measuring the performance of your pay-per-click, social media or advertising campaigns and live chat is an essential tool for maximising the return on your marketing spend. After all, what’s the point in paying for visitors to find your website if there’s no-one there to capture their details and convert them into paying customers?
Using GA effectively will tell you what campaigns are working for you and how many visitors from them are converting into real business. It’ll tell you how many chats came from each ad campaign, although without an integration of live chat with GA, it won’t tell you the outcome.
We’re the only live chat provider to feed GA with the outcome of a chat almost as soon as it ends. Yomdel Live Tracking tells you whether a chat resulted in a lead and even what type of customer it was. All this can be linked back to where the user started their journey into your website and directly links back to each marketing campaign.
5. Analyse your data
All chat software comes with usage statistics, some more than others. The amount of data can be overwhelming, but don’t be frightened to dive in and see what you can find.
Not only will the data tell you how many chats you’ve had, but if you tag each chat correctly and can find your way around MS Excel, then you’ll be able to quickly uncover a wealth of information that will help you maximise the potential of live chat. If you’re using a good fully-managed chat provider such as Yomdel, they should provide an online dashboard, which gives you real-time reporting on your live chat activity, with the highest emphasis on lead generation and lead conversion. After all this is what you implement live chat for, and the only way to maximise your return.
Many companies make the mistake of failing to keep track of where their leads are coming from, and this is madness if you’re serious about business growth. It’s important to know the source of each and every lead that lands in your lap in order to calculate how much money you’re spending to generate them.
At Yomdel, we're obsessive about lead generation and conversion. Our sole focus with every client is on the return that they get from their investment. It's why we have an uncompromising approach to quality and customer experience. Have a chat with us if you think your live chat isn't working hard enough for you, or you think it could be better.
We're always happy to chat!
Simon Townsend is Operation Director at Yomdel, and personally responsible for the 24/7 service that Yomdel provides to clients and customers, but most importantly - for every live chat lead that is sent to a client within 15 minutes of the chat.
