Live Chat: Giving Your Customers One More Way
to Get Support (and Buy!)
So you have a web-based business and you sell online. Congratulations! There are countless web-based entrepreneurs who are just as ambitious and dedicated as you – and you have to find a way to set yourself apart. No matter how many sales and marketing training seminars you take, and no matter how competent your sales techniques, you’re not going to sell as much as you could if your website doesn’t offer a comprehensive communications platform with multiple options. Enter: live chat.
Live chat harnesses the real-time nature of a call and the familiarity of texting.
Learn from Texting
There is a reason – actually a few reasons – providers of mobile phone plans are learning that text messaging dominates minutes-based talking plans. Texting gives people the instant, back-and-forth communication of a phone call, but without actually having to talk to a person (which doesn’t necessarily imply that the “caller” is mean or antisocial – they may just not be in a position to talk). Live chat offers your customers the same benefits.
Benefits of Live Chat
As discussed in “How Live Chat Can Make Your Website More Vibrant,” texting does more than offer real-time convenience. It gathers a written record of user details. It also can build trust between customer and seller by engaging and responding immediately to complaints and concerns. Perhaps most importantly, it is a familiar, easy technology that can build genuine relationships between the buyer and the seller. Job-seekers, you may consider using the technology for a part-time business while you seek work.
Use Live Chat for All it’s Worth
Strong sales techniques and a good product got the buyer to your website. But no amount of sales and marketing training can help you engage in the delicate work of customer service. Live chat – at little or no cost – helps you become a pro. Not only is live chat cost effective, but it allows you to upsell without the pressure of phone sales, and it gives you instant feedback, which is normally reserved for surveys or customer polls.
Live chat is meant to complement – not replace – your other customer service outlets.
It is important to note that live chat is not a replacement for a strong telephone or email presence. It is a supplementary tool that is meant to bolster your website’s customer service presence, not act as a stand-alone force. Live chat can take pressure off of your other customer service outlets and give call-shy buyers another option if they don’t have time to wait for an email response.
Andrew Lisa is a freelance business writer. He discusses online entrepreneurship and web-based selling.
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Nice Girls DO Get the Sale: Relationship Building That Gets Results, Sourcebooks
HIRED! How to Use Sales Techniques to Sell Yourself On Interviews, Career Press
