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BEST PRACTICES IN CHAT AND MESSAGING

The goal is to prevent customer problems. Proactive support means also identifying ways in which the customers' experience can be improved without them having to explicitly request it.

Introduction productivity, and make an impact Since research shows that on sales conversions. average documented online Live chat has increased in popularity shopping cart abandonment rate is as a preferred customer digital What is Live Chat? about 70%, this has been an engagement channel, growing and important feature for many growing in the last years. IT leaders Live chat is a companies who introduce a live should follow these best practices channel that allows businesses and chat customer service channel to in order to better fulfil customer customers to communicate in real their business. expectations of convenient, fast and time from their computers, tablets, meaningful engagements. or . Many live chat systems also include reports and analytics, such Most of us have been using online With live chat for business, online as website traffic monitoring. since the late visitors can message customer Information such as which pages 90s, but the technology and its service and customer service can visitors are browsing, what country abilities have advanced dramatically also reach out proactively to visitors. or city they are accessing the site in the last few years. Companies that use live chat can set from, and how visitors found it, can automated chat invitation rules, help to better know customers, and More companies discover that which allows the system to can be useful for marketing and the key to providing effective, real- automatically target and send strategies. time customer support is online to specific visitors. messaging platforms. Businesses that initially questioned For example, it is possible to whether online chat and messaging introduce a proactive rule that were useful channels are now allows the system to automatically focused on getting the most value send a message to customers who from them. have spent more than 3 minutes on a specific page, or to customers Done well, online chat and who have more than $200 of messaging are the customer merchandise in their shopping support tool that never stops giving. carts, in order to help reduce the It can funnel more customer rate of shopping cart abandonment. interactions into chat, reduce operating costs, increase customer satisfaction, boost agent www.vivocha.com BEST PRACTICES IN CHAT AND MESSAGING

What is live messaging? On one hand, live messaging can 2. Convenience be easier for businesses; companies Like live chat, live messaging is a When it comes to convenience, may not need to have such a large customer service channel that both live chat and live messaging full-time chat team if requests don’t allows consumers to chat with an go a long way. have to be replied to straight away. operator online. However, the key For a customer who is doing many On the other hand, customers difference between these two chat things at once, and who can afford expect companies to conform to programs is that conversations held to resolve an issue step by step meet their schedules, not the other over live messaging are not always rather than quickly solving it all at way around. Companies that have done in real-time. once, live messaging can be more the resources to do so should invest Live messaging interaction are convenient. in immediate customer service care, carried out in a structure like However, for other customers, it is so as not to risk the appearance of or WhatsApp: the more convenient to get something lazy or outdated customer service. customer sends the message, and a out of the way quickly, so that they representative responds, perhaps can move on with their day; in this 5. Lead Conversion right away or maybe later. case live chat is the better option. 44% of online consumers say that having questions answered by a live This setup intentionally mimics a 3.Urgency person during an online purchase is conversation that a customer might For customers who don’t have a one of the most important features have with their family or friends: sense of urgency with their issue, a website can offer. If you want to there is no guarantee of exactly messaging can be a good choice. make sales and engage with when they might receive a This low-pressure chat system is potential customers when they response; all they know is that it based on a respond-when-you- need it, you need to be there in the should come eventually. want-to mentality. here and now, with live support. However, often there is no choice When it comes to better lead but to get things done quickly. In conversion, live chat wins every What to consider when this situation, customers may also time. choosing attempt to contact a company When choosing a chat program, it is through multiple channels just to 6. Mobile vs Desktop useful to take some considerations get the quickest response, clogging Depending on what device your into account, in order to use it at its up queues with the same repeated customers are accessing your site best: issue over different channels. from, you may find that live chat While messaging provides the same and live messaging each have some leisurely style of conversation that benefits. Live chat has an advantage 1. Customer Expectations: one might have in an informal on desktop: the speed of live chat The chat service needs to be able to context, expectations are very service tends to be better for meet and surpass customers’ different when asked to pay for a desktop users, as opposed to the expectations. service, and it is needed to get in leisureliness of live messaging. Research shows that by 2020, touch with a company. customer service is projected to Where urgency exists, live chat The live messaging model works overtake price and product quality beats live messaging by far every well for customers who are as the leading brand differentiator. time. contacting companies on the go from mobile devices, or who will be Studies have shown that speed 4. Staff Availability away from the computer for short trumps everything but quality is With live messaging, customers periods at a time and may not be customers’ number one priority. don’t have to worry about switching able to answer an agent right away. Since live chat immediately to correspondence; their connects customers with agents, it’s inquiries will be addressed directly safe to assume that it is the best in the chat box once business hours product, by these parameters. resume. BEST PRACTICES IN CHAT AND MESSAGING

Best Practices for chat & messaging 1. Bring proactivity The model of proactive support can reduce the costs related to the , increase customer loyalty by actually increasing revenues.

2. Simple pre-chat form Pre-chat forms let you gather important information about the customer proactively. The forms can help prepare agents for the conversation ahead.

3. Speed up your response time Agents have to be fast while addressing queries. Use the following techniques: Proactive Chat Data - Train your agents to face all kinds consider outsourcing it. Otherwise The primary research project of questions. you can assess where your strongest coupled with the benchmarking - Pre-write replies for FAQs. markets lie and extend your live chat analysis reveal some compelling - Limit number of chats per agent. coverage accordingly. facts about proactive chat: - Transfer chats when useful. • The median percentage of - Display messages to agents while 8. Identify problems with your site website visitors that accept they are being typed. Take care of your website pages and proactive chat invitations is 6%. interactions. While certain pages 4. Boost profits with up-sells trigger more conversations than • Proactive chat increases chat It’s usually easier to get an existing others, you have to pay attention to volume by between ~40 and lead to spend more, than it is to get what questions they ask consistently. ~100 percent. a new lead to convert. 9. Include live chat in your cart • Chatters that engage via proactive 5. Develop relationships by down- abandonment chats will convert at 6.3 times the selling Provide an easy medium for asking rate of visitors who do not chat. Suggest a more affordable questions by including a link in your alternative that meets the needs of abandonment emails that • 52% of those surveyed were undecided customers; the honesty immediately takes the customer receptive to receiving proactive and integrity you show to the back to your site, launching a chat chat invitations. customer gains their loyalty and window. pays in the long run. • 60% of those who have engaged 11. A/B test everything in a live chat interaction before, 6. Ask customers to engage with Utilise A/B tests to guide changes were receptive. you on social media that will help you increase the Ask happy customers to follow you number of customers that use the • 72% of those whose average on social media and/or to share live chat function. online transaction is greater than their positive experiences online. 150 euros, were receptive.

7. Extend your live chat hours If you’re not able to provide 24/7 live chat coverage in-house, BEST PRACTICES IN CHAT AND MESSAGING

Use the right tool Why Vivocha is perfect for are meant to generate leads such as a pillar page. To be able to communicate and managing customer support You also have the opportunity to engage with your target market, With Vivocha, you can install chat cultivate trust out of a text chat you need a tool that is able to cover capabilities on your website, mobile since, if the situation calls for it, you all your online customer apps and integrate Facebook can just as easily switch into audio engagement activities. Messenger, Whatsapp, Apple or video chat. Advanced tools such as Vivocha Business Chat and additional messaging platforms. have been specially developed to Conclusion cover all the engagement needs and preferences of your customers. This allows your customer service In our fast-paced, digital age, the team to manage every request in biggest challenge to serving Vivocha can incorporate text chats one platform; no need to switch customers in several on any or every page of your from one chat tool to another. channels is responding quickly, but website, so if a website visitor has Vivocha doesn’t just allow you to without losing the personal touch. any questions, you can deliver easily manage text chats, it extends Customers demand immediate answers quickly and even guide your chat capabilities and increases service, and response times of them towards the right service or your engagement, making your chat “within 24 hours” are no longer product they are looking for. This activities more than just about acceptable. also allows you to seize more providing customer support but opportunities to increase sales as also increasing leads and sales. It has been established that chat visitors are guided towards and messaging are the highest becoming customers. Take, for example, one of Vivocha’s rated contact methods for customer Advanced Vivocha capabilities such capabilities which allows you to satisfaction compared to all other as proactive engagement allows prompt a chat popup on your communication channels. automatic pop-ups in certain parts specific website pages or when of your page that offers visitors to customers reach a certain point connect with one of your It goes without saying that today’s within a webpage. Instead of representatives. This basically allows customer service tools are not one- waiting for the customer to click the you to start the conversation first size-fits-all. Different communication “chat with us” button on your and further encourages visitors to channels—social, phone, email, chat– page, you initiate the engage with one of your agents. offer different benefits to the interaction instead. You can easily company and to the customer. install this functionality in pages that