In the competitive business arena of today, you have to stand out if you want to thrive. While the improvement of your product or service is the most straightforward thing to do, the not-so-obvious one entails the refinement of your customer service. With 80% of customers claiming that the company experience matters as much as their offer, it is only logical to take advantage of this opportunity.

One of the ways to enhance the support experience is to integrate live chat into your business’s website. This must-have tool is a real game-changer that is proven to bring almost immediate results.

Take an in-depth look at all the benefits that come with having live chat as a part of your customer service practice. We are positive that they will instantly motivate you to take the steps required for the integration.

Increased number of sales

The B2B marketing study by AMA found that live chat increases conversion rate by 20%. As your customer support agents continue answering every question being asked, they instill confidence in clients by removing buying doubts. Hence, customers have no choice but to make the purchase.

The smoothly flowing chain of events leads to the exponentially increased ROI indicators, which is a win-win for both of the parties.

Lowered expenses and expanded time resources

It doesn’t come as a surprise that phone calls are slowly being replaced by emails. The reason behind the substitution is simple – the former is not time nor money efficient.

Live chats, in contrast, are both of those things. They fall into the category of personalized communication that doesn’t require you to bear the per-hour and toll charges. You end up with an instrument that helps support agents multitask (which can’t be done via a phone call) and be more time-efficient too.

Efficient discovery of pain points

Pain points, the digital terms for the good old ‘problems’, are the main obstacles to purchase. Without having answers to their burning questions, it is very unlikely for users to take the risk and go beyond clicking that ‘add to cart’ button.

With live chat, the discovery of pain points and their timely resolution is as efficient as it can get. Rather than having access to one individual on the other side of the phone, users can benefit from receiving answers from the company’s many teams and admins who have access to the entire history chat.

Improved customer satisfaction

Perhaps the biggest achievement you can have with incorporating a live chat is the skyrocketing customer satisfaction. Once you figure out the pain points your customer has, it is much easier to address them in a timely fashion.

Instead of waking buyers through the lengthy process of troubleshooting, customer support agents can simply send them the links to the relevant web pages. This saves time for each of the sides and frees up time for simultaneously helping, say, three other users.

Round-the-clock customer support

It’s very much possible to provide your users with 24/7 support – especially when you have a carefully scheduled live chat in place. By offering round-the-clock availability, you have higher chances of attracting customers from a variety of time zones who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to ask you questions.

Employing a back-up in the form of a knowledge base – a curated stock of information about a product/service – should also be your priority. Better be safe (when the software suddenly crashes) than sorry.

Competitive advantage

Contrary to popular belief, major corporations still don’t use any form of a live chat system. So, scan your competitors for functionalities their customer support team has. And, as soon as you find that live chat is missing (or, it’s of low quality), be ready to jump on the opportunity.

You will have a huge advantage over your competitors who can’t accommodate customers preferring online versus on-the-phone communication. A company that is always available on their website wins every time without fail.

Boosted productivity of the customer support team

Apart from boosting sales and customer satisfaction, live chat can also have a positive impact on the productivity of your customer support team.

It’s hard to multitask when chatting on the phone or writing an email – it limits the interactions to merely one person at a time. Alternatively, a live chat allows your support system to handle multiple chats at once while also staying informed about the customer’s concerns and reservations.

Providing live support your customers need

The advancements in technology made it easy to meet the immediate needs of every client. Now, your job is to make the best use of them. The rest – customer loyalty and an improved brand image – will follow.

Mikkel Andreassen is passionate about customer experience in every color of the beautiful customer engagement spectrum. He loves building great connections with his customers, which often lead to meaningful friendships that last a lifetime and inspire his work. Driven by the genuine belief that CX is the pivotal force that drives a successful business, he is currently at the helm of Dixa’s customer experience strategy. Twitter handle: @MikkelVes

Live chat stock photo by Tero Vesalainen/Shutterstock