Does Live Chat Increase Conversions? (The Answers You Need)

In the realm of digital customer service, live chat is an essential channel to have at your disposal.

It provides both the convenience of digital communication and the humanized experience that consumers crave.

That's why it rules as the favorite platform for customer support. 

Research indicates that 74% of US adults prefer live chat over any other customer engagement channel.

But live chat isn't just beneficial for your customers - it's also a vital tool for businesses looking to increase conversions.

Case in point, 79% of companies say that implementing live chat has had a positive impact on sales, revenue, and brand loyalty.

But if this is true, then the question remains: how exactly does live chat increase conversions?

Furthermore, what can businesses and their contact center agents do to ensure that they get the most out of their efforts to increase conversions with live chat?

If you're searching for the answers to these questions, look no further. In this article, we'll cover:

• How implementing live chat boosts conversions
• Top tactics for increasing conversions with live chat
• The next steps you need to take to revamp your live chat game.

How does live chat increase conversions?

Live chat is undoubtedly a valuable asset for any business or contact center. 

With it, you can experience a growth in revenue and enhance the customer experience. But how is this achieved?

In this section, we’ll answer that very question. Let’s explore the ways in which live chat contributes to increased conversion rates.

Customer engagement

One of the ways that live chat improves conversion rates is through increased customer engagement.

This is because it provides an easy way for customers to connect with your company.

Consequently, you'll likely witness a rise in the daily number of customer conversations once you implement web chat support.

Our customer Healthspan, for example, has seen a 500% increase in customer interactions since launching Talkative’s enhanced live chat solution.

Live chat also encourages customers to engage more with your website. In fact, 63% of consumers are more likely to repeatedly visit a site that offers live chat.

More engagement means more opportunities to convert customers and generate leads.

Customer satisfaction

The addition of live chat assistance is a sure way to improve customer satisfaction and retention.

As a channel, web chat currently has the highest customer satisfaction rate of 73%. This is in comparison to a 61% satisfaction rate for email and a worrying 44% for phone support.

Remember, the happier your customers are with your service, the more likely they are to convert.

Not only that, satisfied customers will often become repeat customers and brand advocates.

After all, 51% of customers are more likely to remain loyal to a brand that provides live chat support.

So, by improving the customer experience with live chat, you'll see the benefit of increased conversions created by increased customer delight.

Conversion value

Not only does web chatting improve overall conversion rates, it's also been demonstrated to increase the value of individual sales.

Research has shown there to be a 10% increase in the average order value when customers engage in live chat before making a purchase.

This is because live chat helps agents to build rapport and trust with the customer as they guide them through their digital journey.

As a result, agents have more opportunity to upsell. They can acquire a sense of the customer's specific needs and interests through conversation.

This information enables them to offer further recommendations and relevant product deals, leading to greater sales figures overall.

Speed

One of the reasons customers love live chat is because it's 100x faster than most other digital communication channels.

Currently, the average wait time to connect with a chat agent is just 35 seconds and the average response time stands at 2 minutes, 40 seconds.

With live chat, customers can get fast answers to their queries without having to actually speak to someone in person or over the phone

This speedy, back-and-forth messaging process significantly shortens the sales process so that conversions happen more quickly.

And what do faster conversions mean? More time for further conversions.

Convenience

The digital era has seen the emergence of a new kind of consumer.

These customers appreciate businesses that provide them with a range of convenient contact channels that they can access effortlessly.

Case in point, live chat grants ultimate convenience as customers can easily access it through your website.

That's why around 73% of consumers consider live chat the most convenient way to contact a business.

What’s more, the convenience of live chat encourages more customers to get in touch, thus creating more opportunities for your agents to convert website visitors into sales.

On top of that, the ease of use that live chat provides creates a seamless customer experience, which 86% of customers are willing to pay more for. 

It means an enhanced live chat app is a sure-fire way to please, and convert, more customers. 

Increasing conversions with live chat: Top tactics for success

Of course, with all the above said, simply deploying live chat isn't enough to harness its conversion-boosting capabilities.

It's also imperative that you utilize the channel effectively for maximum results.

To help you achieve this, we've put together the following top tactics for using web chat to increase your conversions.

Be proactive

Proactive customer service is the practice of seeking to resolve customer issues before they even occur.

In relation to live chat, this involves reaching out to customers first to greet them and offer assistance or guidance.

Thus, the interaction is initiated by the agent rather than by the customer.

This is a great tactic for driving conversions as website visitors are far more likely to respond to a sales chat than they are to send the first message and start a conversation themselves.

It's also worth noting that 48% of consumers favor businesses that provide proactive live chat support.

As well as increasing conversions, proactive web chats can also:

• Reduce cart abandonment
• Increase order value through upsells and recommendations
• Add value to the customer experience
• Improve customer satisfaction and engagement

One of the best practices for proactive web chat assistance is to implement chat nudges.

Nudges appear automatically as pop-ups on your website page. They’re triggered to appear once a site visitor has spent a certain amount of time on particular pages. 

They give your customers a friendly reminder that you offer chat support and encourage them to start a conversation.

You can also make use of customer journey mapping to empower your agents to start proactive chats. 

With this feature, agents will be able to see what pages a customer has visited and how long they've spent on them.

They can utilize this information to start a proactive chat in circumstances where it's most likely to be productive.

For example, if a customer has been on a particular product page for an extended period of time, you might ask if they need any further information about the product or purchasing process.

With proactive service, you can take your live chat conversion strategy to the next level all while providing memorable experiences that make your customers smile.

Provide personalized experiences

One of the great things about live chat is that it allows agents to tailor interactions to the individual.

This is significant because 75% of consumers prefer to buy from businesses that offer digital personalized experiences.

91% of customers are more likely to shop with brands that provide personalized offers and recommendations relevant to their interests too.

But if you want to provide personalized service, you need to know and understand your customer.  

It's important that you consider the entire relationship between the customer and your brand.

Make use of any data at your disposal such as past purchases and any feedback they’ve provided. 

With Talkative, for instance, you can actually send your Supervisor Dashboard back in time allowing you to access the full historical context of all your previous interactions.

This information will help your live chat agents provide experiences that are shaped by the customer’s individual interests, needs and preferences.

Always respond ASAP

Remember earlier when we said that the speed of live chat is one of the ways it increases conversions?

Well, this will only hold true if you endeavor to reply to your customers as fast as possible.

This is crucial because 78% of consumers buy from the vendor that responds to them first.

What’s more, data from Forrester indicates that 55% of online customers are likely to abandon a purchase if they do not receive a fast reply to their query.

You can improve your live chat response time by:

• Empowering your agents with better training so they can handle interactions more efficiently
• Deploying an AI-powered chatbot to provide instant responses and answers to basic queries
• Saving your agents’ time with automated canned responses

Without fast responses, any attempt to increase conversions with live chat will be futile.

Slow replies will result in lost sales opportunities, plus the risk of developing a reputation for poor customer service.

Invest in quality live chat software

If you want the best results from live chat, you need a strong foundation to build upon.

That foundation being an exceptional and forward-thinking live chat solution - one that’s been proven to power better conversations and drive conversions.

And that's where Talkative comes in.

With Talkative's live chat you can enjoy the following innovative capabilities:

• Dynamic and personalized canned responses
• Real-time translation into over a 100 languages
• Customer journey mapping
• AI-powered virtual assistant chatbot
• Seamless escalation to cobrowse, web call or video chat
• Integration with messaging apps including Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, and SMS.
• Full customization of chat widget for brand consistency
• Average wait time displays

With our complete digital engagement platform, you can truly get the most out of your live chat interactions.

You'll be able to increase conversions while optimizing the digital customer experience.

The takeaway

It's evident that live chat is a must-have for any business looking to increase sales while catering to the demands of the modern consumer.

By using the tactics covered in this article to inform your strategy, you can harness the power of live chat and use it to elevate conversion rates.

You'll also witness a rise in customer engagement, satisfaction rates and lead generation.

But first, you need to get started with the right live chat software.

Software that can give your team the tools they need to that’s deliver superior customer service and consultative digital experiences.

And that's where Talkative comes in.

Our platform provides a complete suite of engagement channels that'll empower your customer advisors to connect instantly and effortlessly, with your digital customers.

Want to learn how? Book your Talkative demo today and discover how you can increase both sales and customer satisfaction.