Earlier this year, we wrote an article predicting several different website and digital marketing trends in 2019. Fast forward 6 months, and it’s interesting to look back over our predictions, but one that certainly still stands out is why more websites are implementing live chat software.

According to a survey, within the next 12 months over 40% of larger businesses will look to implement some kind of artificial intelligence or live chat software.

With this in mind, our Cheshire web design agency decided to take a closer look at Live Chat software and have put together an introduction guide to why some business websites will benefit from implementing live chat. Here’s 5 reasons why Live Chat may save your business website.

Increase Sales & Conversions

Did you know the average response time to handle a website email enquiry is 12 hours and 10 minutes? Unfortunately, today we live in a fast-paced environment where users simply have a much shorter attention span. If your website doesn’t load quickly enough, users will move onto the next one and sadly the same can be said for slow responses to email enquires.

While browsing your website, potential customers are bound to have questions about your product and/or services. With live chat, you can answer them immediately, while your potential customer is still on your website to increase sales and conversions.

Sounds simple right? Well according to research, the American Marketing Association found B2B companies who implement live chat saw an average of 20% increase in conversions. Furthermore, a report by eMarketer also found that 60% of consumers would love to return to the website that offers a live chat option.

Reduce Support Costs

Okay, so while you might have to pay a one-off fee to install live chat, it’s a much quicker and cheaper communication method in the long run. How long does it take to respond to one email enquiry or phone call at a time? Unless you communicate using call centres, you can only respond to one enquiry at a time and a few of these can take up the best part of your day. Live Chat enables you to speak directly to customers, and in some cases speak to several customers at one time to resolve issues as quickly and efficiently as possible.

As a Cheshire web design agency tip, if you are busy or unable to speak to customers over live chat, you can always turn auto-response on where the user will firstly communicate with a robot before moving onto to speak to a human.

Grow Average Order Costs

Live Chat doesn’t just help you increase sales… it can also help you grow the value of the sale too! Let us go into more detail…

By using live chat to talk to your potential customers, you will strike up a relationship where you will understand their needs and what products/services they are after. Here, you can recommend similar products/services which may complement what they are interested in, or may just be a more expensive, but better all-round product to match their needs and increase your sales order.

Customer Satisfaction

We’ve already seen the statistics on the average time to respond to emails, but did you know 62% of companies ignore customer service emails?

Overall, research has found that Live Chat provided much more efficient customer satisfaction over phone, email or social media support service. Although this survey was conducted in 2014, it concluded that 73% reported that they were either “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the Live Chat experience they had.

Improve Website Experience

With live chat, you are improving your overall website experience to your customers because they no longer have to stop to pick up the phone or send an email when they have questions.

By creating a better experience, you will reduce the chances of a user abandoning your website or your shopping cart. Did you know the average shopping cart abandonment rate on mobile phones is 85%?

Cheshire Web Design Conclusion

Not all business websites will benefit from Live Chat. If your website doesn’t generate much traffic or is within an industry where your website is used as a portfolio to showcase products/services instead of selling them then I would not recommend.

However, if you sell product/services as a Cheshire web design agency, our professional opinion would certainly recommend implementing Live Chat. Contact untitled™ and we can discuss how we can implement Live Chat on your website to help you grow.

Looking for more news, reviews and advice on the art of growing your website? Why not sign-up to our quarterly Web Grower newsletter.