Social media, SEO, marketing and writingTo Chat or Not to Chat: That Is The Question
Tuesday, September 7th, 2010I was recently on LinkedIn when the subject of Live Chat came up in a Q&A post. Someone asked for live chat vendor recommendations and LinkedIn users chimed in. One responder questioned the viability of live chat, saying, “the phone is the best way to chat.” I concurred, but went on to say that for many reasons, a good percentage of online visitors shy away from calling a company on the phone — so live chat is extremely viable for many companies — especially firms engaging in e-commerce.
In my 10+ years working in online marketing at Ford and Bank of America, I can tell you there are generally four types of online consumer interactions:
1) those who will call
2) those who submit forms
3) those who prefer to do business face-to-face
4) those who respond to live chat (or click to call)
If you have an e-commerce website and you are trying to increase conversions, you need to do everything you can to provide consumers with the ‘transactive preference of their choice’ while doing all that you can to ethically steer users down the transactive path that works best for your business. For example, when I worked for Countrywide/BofA, we saw that phone leads converted into sales at much higher ratios than forms, chat or within the branch, so we promoted the telephone call-to-action multiple times on any given landing page. We also used multivariate testing to rotate our page designs to generate the highest conversions.
Even after all that, a percentage of website visitors still opted to submit form and/or engage in a live chat. When our site visitors chatted with us, our goal was to be helpful, but steer them into a live phone conversation whenever possible.
By providing multiple ways to engage with us, we found we were able to maximize our overall visit-to-lead ratio while keeping customer satisfaction at peak levels. A win-win for everyone.
It is my belief that live chat helps transform an ordinary website into one that is more actionable for the user. An actionable website is one that makes it easier for visitors to respond, communicate, and transact.
I like to think of live chat tools as beacons of assistance in a sea of online uncertainty. Have you ever traveled to a foreign country where you don’t speak the language? Aren’t you filled with relief when, at the airport, an airline representative recognizes you are confused, waves you over with a smile, then clarifies an important piece of information about your departure time and gate? It kinda reminds us of those old Motel 6 television commercials that closed with Tom Bodett’s soothing voice saying, ‘We’ll leave the light on for you.”
Having live chat on your web properties is like leaving the light on for your customers. And it’s good for your business/brand to boot.
Live Chat Resources:
