The adoption of live chat accelerated during COVID. At the same time, live chat capabilities and customer expectations of live chat have evolved over the past 2 years.
Live chat, once purely sought after as a passive customer service channel and most often used by Customer Care teams as a secondary support channel after phone, has now become an integral part of the proactive marketing/sales channel mix. The rationale is simple…it is about meeting your customers where they are. And with the increased web sales penetration which is here to stay and only grow, most customers not only start their research on brands’ websites but close the sale there.
Customers’ expectations are clear: they want convenience, quick response times, a relationship and affinity with the brand & a great level of personalization, and unfortunately, phone support, requests for information via a form or email no longer meet their need for speed and immediate gratification.
Live chat providers who have evolved their capabilities to meet these customer expectations and deliver the right customer experience have been able to provide tremendous lead and sales growth to their clients. So, has YOUR current live chat provider evolved their capabilities? Are you getting the optimal live chat platform that delivers the optimal customer experience for your business?
If your current live chat platform does not offer the following 6 features, you need to switch right now:
1. A proactive Live Chat platform:
Long gone are the days when live chat was a passive inbound channel. The optimal live chat platform is now powered by AI and provides visibility to high-intent sales purchasers to sales agents, combined with the ability to proactively reach out to these website visitors. Live chat is now a powerful sales channel managed by your most expert sales team.
2. A fully optimized mobile experience:
Live chat platforms are mobile-first and offer optimal mobile usability and experience. These platforms deliver a screen-within-screen experience to allow customers to continue browsing while chatting. With 75-85% of your traffic and specifically your live chat traffic coming from mobile, this is now a priority.
3. An integrated and smooth transition between a chatbot and a human sales expert:
Chatbots can be useful and cost-efficient to answer specific logistical service and hours questions but a smart AI-based, real-time transition to a sales expert is required to maximize your lead/sales potential. Next-generation platforms master this transition beautifully and deliver on the optimal customer experience.
4. A timely capture of your customers’ information:
The best platforms have optimized the timing of your customer contact data capture to prevent chat abandonment and increase leads. That ‘right moment’ can be determined by AI-powered live chat platforms and data capture executed seamlessly. As we know, customers will always be willing to provide their contact information if they know they will receive value in return. If your live chat provider is still asking for your customers’ contact information upfront and before starting a chat, SWITCH immediately as it is hurting your business.
5. A personalized experience:
Personalization is the name of the game if you want to acquire, build a relationship, activate and retain your customers. Your live chat platform needs to deliver personalized calls to action, and a personalized experience based on where customers are on your website and/or in their buying journey.
Is your current live chat platform not offering one or many of these 5 features? It is time to switch to a next-generation platform which will deliver on the right customer experience and increase your leads and sales exponentially.
Optimy delivers on all 5 and more! and has proven to provide a superior ROI than the competition to its many clients across multiple industries and verticals.