Insights: Adding a Live Chat facility to your website

by David Dwyer on 12/10/2011

What could real-time Live Chat do for your website conversion rate?

Have you set up your website but are frustrated that hardly anyone ever contacts you on it? This is a common problem that website owners face. It’s really important to make it easy and quick for your customers to get in touch.

Often when browsing the Internet customers are usually researching before committing to making a purchase. For this reason they may be reluctant to pick up the phone and call you. It’s imperative that you improve your conversion rate and avoid losing any potential sales. One way we have found that really encourages customers to get in touch is by installing a Live Chat system on your site. Much as your conversion rate would plummet if you ignored someone who walks into your shop, you wouldn’t want to miss out on a potential sale from someone visiting your website.

Our graphic designer created this simple avatar image to encourage customers to start a text chat conversation with you. This operates in a similar way to MSN messenger or Skype.

At your end, all you have to do is stay signed in to the Live Chat software to show that you are available to talk. Customers on your website are much more likely to use this to get in touch to ask questions about your products or services than any other method.

If you mark yourself as unavailable then an alternative image will show on your site to let your customers know you are busy but they can leave you a message.

Having a Live Chat facility like this can be very effective, especially for e-Commerce sites where you are actually selling your products or services online. This interaction with your customers can clinch a sale that might otherwise have been abandoned.

There are various off-the-shelf Live Chat systems we can install on your website. Some are free (e.g http://www.volusion.com/live-chat/software.asp) but these tend to have limited functionality, are often heavily-branded with logos and are not able to be customised to fit in with the style of your site.

We recommended one of the paid versions as they look a lot more professional when integrated fully to your site.

If you are interested in adding a Live Chat system to your website give us a call any time. We’d be happy to discuss the various options with you.

Customer Experience, Customer Relationship Management, Customer Service, CX, e-commerce, Inspire Web Development, Live Chat, Online Stores, User eXperience, UX Design, Website Support

2 COMMENTS

by Zoey Richardson on 21 November 2013 02:37 AM

I accidentally came across inside, and after looking through their site www.inside.tm/magento-chat, it morphs a business website into a virtual storefront so business personnel can see and help their site visitors in real-time using chat.

Replied by David Dwyer on 24 November 2013 10:17 PM

Thanks Zoey I've had a look and it does look good. I wrote this article over 2 years ago and it's been incredibly beneficial to our business. A lot of the software has moved on but the principles remain.

by Gemma on 8 April 2015 08:38 AM
Great article, as we have moved into a multichannel era, website visitors are expecting an instant response to their queries; a live chat facility allows visitors to have their questions answered in real time. Here at Click4Assistance (http://www.click4assistance.co.uk) we have seen the increase in UK businesses realising that live chat software is a necessity. With regards to your reply David, to Zoey I agree with you, even though live chat facilities are constantly changing to keep up with demands, the foundation of this technology has been laid.

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