Live chat is a must-have communication tool for any business that wants to be an evolving customer-centric brand. By harnessing the potency of live chat; companies can provide quick and quality customer service, increase revenue and sales, and deliver smoother and exemplary customer experiences. Kevin Stirtz said “Every contact we have with a customer influences whether or not they’ll come back. We have to be great every time or we’ll lose them.”
Here are a few statistics that prove the significance of Live Chat:
- Kirk Parsons, a senior director at J.D Power observes that ‘the efficiency and immediacy of the experience’ attribute to live chat’s high customer satisfaction levels.
Source: Super Office
- J.D Power further studied that 46% of customers prefer live chat when compared to email (29%) and social media (16%); making live chat the leading digital contact channel for online consumers.
Source: Super office
- According to Comm100, 82% of customers were extremely satisfied with their overall live chat experience when compared to a worried 44% phone customers and 61% of email users.
Source: Super office
- Harris Research states that 53% of customers would prefer to use live online chat before calling the customer support of the brand.
- According to Moxie Software, 72% of customers are satisfied or extremely satisfied with their online shopping experience but the satisfaction level skyrockets to 92% when live chat is used on a mobile device.
- Econsultancy researched that 79% of consumers use live chat because they get their queries answered quickly, 51% prefer to use live chat because they can muti-task, 46% use it because they agree that it is an efficient mode of communication.
In 2015 The Aberdeen Group conducted a study wherein they compared businesses that have live chat with those that don’t, revealing the following benefits:
- 2.6x increased improvement in customer care costs, annually.
- 34% more improvement in customer satisfaction rate, annually.
- 9.3x increased improvement in agent productivity rate, annually.
- 2.4x more improvement in up-sell and cross-sell revenue.
- 20% increase in the yearly improvement of customer contact abandonment rate.
Impact of Live Chat on CX
Using live chat for the perfect customer experience is a great way to move forward as supported by Marketing Insider Group who claim that 80% of customers would pay more for a product or service to ensure a superior customer experience.
1. Live Chat has an increased ROI
Businesses are always on the lookout for cost-effective solutions when it comes to customer support. Live chat is definitely one of those profitable solutions. It is true that email and phone support are the mainstays of customer service but with live chat comes various advantages such as offering real-time service and the opportunity to address multiple customers queries all at once saving labour, money and time. In addition to that, it helps with boosting your company’s omnichannel presence.
2. Live Chat gives the brand an edge over its competitors
When your business provides live chat, it obviously gives you an advantage over your competitors who do not provide it or offer inferior chat quality services. It gives the brand the opportunity to earn the competitor’s business. Many companies have implemented live chat in recent times, but not so many that it has become a common channel of communication. Live chat is still relatively new and presents an untapped potential for various brands; both new and existing. By providing quality live chat services, you are getting ahead of the competition by reshaping the core of your brand’s identity.
3. Live Chat provides quick discovery of customer pain points
Source: Super Office
Pain points can sometimes be difficult to establish through emails or social media forums primarily because of the time it takes to respond to the complaint or issue. With live chat, not only is there a faster response time but also access to chat histories that can be searched and filtered quickly to recognize and learn customer pain points in real-time.
4. Live chat enables an increase in sales
Studies conducted by Comm100 have revealed that live chat has the capacity to drive 3x-5x more conversions and deliver an ROI of up to 6000%. The same study shows that consumers that use live chat are 3x more likely to make purchases when compared to those who do not. These statistics are clearly indicative of the fact that live chat is effective in generating leads and converting them into sales. In addition to instant access, live chat provides support and telesales teams to convert website visitors into paying customers.
5. Live Chat boosts customer loyalty and helps in building long-lasting relationships
Source: Comm100
Generally, customers feel more secure when they do business with brands that provide more customer support opinions in an easy, accessible and instantaneous manner. Live chat is the answer. It allows agents to provide quick answers and resolutions to customers; assuring them that the brand is there for them whenever they need help or assistance of any sort.
Oracle in its consumer research study found that 90% of consumers are confident about doing business with a brand that has a ‘live chat’ option. Once your brand has mastered the art of live chat and customer support; you will have all the data you need to generate leads and convert them into long-lasting customer relationships.