The competition in ecommerce is actually getting out of hands. Every day, thousands of new ecommerce websites are entering the industry so attracting prospective customers to your website is a real hassle.

Because of the abundance of available channels; a visitor entering and then moving to other websites is a typical problem in this industry. In most of the cases, ecommerce portals & their prospects are confused which creates a communication gap as there is no one to handle issues and drive the sale home.

This implies that ecommerce retailers should go the extra mile and concentrate on customer centricity as it actually goes a long way when it comes to closing a deal. As a retailer; we know that consumers feel good with additional support, and it is an excellent room of exploitation.

Responding to a consumer’s query in real-time makes him/her feel that their input is being valued with care and attention. This is the reason; live chat might be your game changer in improving conversions and sales.

The reasons to include live chat as your customer service tactics are many. Compared to conventional support channels like phone calls and emails, live chat is cheap, quick and convenient. Above all, customers don’t only expect it however they completely love it.

The SalesForce study discovers that nearly 64% of customers expect the organization to respond and communicate with them in real-time, while 80% of business shoppers expect the same.

There is no debate in saying that live chat can actually improve customer satisfaction, as well as customer retention, is given if it is executed rightly. We have prepared a set of guidelines on how a service agent can professionally handle the significant key points to dazzlingly to increase more conversions and guarantee optimum customer support.

Informal and Upbeat Communication

As an experiment, we initially attempted both formal and informal communication format and as a result of what we experienced; the organization unanimously agreed on picking the latter one.

And the reasons are pretty clear; informal tones will sound more “personable” like there is an actual person behind the chat window. We, humans, want to be treated that way and are emotional beings. A very formal and dressy tone makes a customer think as if he/she is communicating with bots. Informal tone humanizes your brand voice and enables you to sound more friendly and understanding.

Utilize a friendly tone in your dialogues and don’t hesitate in utilizing gifs and emojis as they help to make a real-life conversation environment and portray emotions that you can’t show through the screen. A charismatic live chat rep can transform a question into a sale just as simply as an in-person sales rep can.

Another well-known practice is to utilize pictures and real names. Seeing a person’s real name and actual face attached to it is the fastest way to developing bonds with your customers, and make the conversation feel more like an actual conversation.

ModCloth is one of the well-known retailers popular for its outstanding customer care and tone of voice. Their agents utilize real pictures and names and are called “ModCloth advocates”.

How to Say, ”I Don’t Know”?

Let’s be fair; no matter how well equipped and well trained you are, chances are that you might have a query that gets you off guard and you need to have much knowledge on the subject of matter.

Clearly; you can’t just say that “I don’t know” however there are many ways to play it out nice. Following are some well-composed lines that sound complete but they work every time;

• “I apologize, Taha from the tech support department will enable you to help as this question does not come under my department. Would you mind if I connect you with her?”
• “That’s a pretty good question; allow me a couple of minutes and I will search out for you.”

Make the First Move

A particular sign of live chat’s progression is the increasing trend of representative speaking first. This ecommerce trend is turning into immensely well-known and now every other ecommerce site has a live chat that initiates communication.

Rep speaking first is now simply dominating the mainstream to the next level by automatically initiating the conversation. Start by asking a quick and broad question such as, “Hi, what brings you to our website today?” This is two way beneficial; firstly, it notifies the customer that live chat is there and secondly; it makes live chat easy to discover and locate.

Moreover, some people are unsocial and shy in nature. They are unsure about taking the initiative. Rep first approach can boost engagement as the visitors get quickly caught on.

Let’s take an example of a well-known B2B and see if they think of it in a similar way. Soon as you visit the home page of SnapEngage, you’ll automatically get the following message.

 Educate Chat Agents about Products

One of the main reasons why live chat is so convincing to customers is quick to support and real-time responsiveness. If you fail to offer customers fast help then your live chat is a complete failure.

To satisfy the basic purpose of the live chat, the agent should have a sound knowledge about the services or products. Customers are often confused about how to pick a product or which solution will be the perfect match for their needs. They will only drop a message and demand a fast solution.

To engage customers in a productive conversation, you should train your agents and accommodate them with sound knowledge of the product. Training agents are among the most suitable practices for engaging prospective customers and building the sales funnel.

Nikon utilizes its live chat to troubleshoot typical issues and their highly trained agents provide real-time help and suggestions on how to fix particular problems with its cameras.

End on a High Note

Like most things in life; the way things end can leave a persistent impression. You have to make sure that your live chat ends in a positive end as it can overshadow the rest of the experience.

It is a great practice to ask for any further help needed and hold on for the customer to initiate the end of the conversation. You attempting to conclude the chat will leave a bad taste in the customer’s mouth and they will feel as if you are trying to ignore them.

End the customer with a clear goodbye and encourage them to chat again. The following is an example.

“Thank you for chatting with us today. If any other queries arise, feel free to contact us at any time. Thanks so much for calling. Have a nice day. Goodbye.”

You can likewise ask your customers to rate their chat experience as this will enable you to analyze if your customers are pleased and agents take charge of responding.

Reports and Analytics

With email support, you will have a record of the messages sent between you and your customers or others that inquire, and that gives less accountability and the way to review staff performance.

With phone support, though, reviewing staff performance can be tough unless you record all calls and get time to listen to at least one of the conversations.

With quality live chat providers, you can have the ability to view all sorts of custom reports and chat histories of all your agents.

Access to this sort of information allows you to see how many visitors your site(s) get, how many chat requests are ignored or accepted, and an array of other visitor metrics that can enable you better implement marketing tactics to attract more traffic.

Live chat analytics offer you valuable insight into your agents too. Couple chat histories with visitor data, wait for time reports, agent performance reports, and so on, and you are ready to monitor agent performance and training and adjust staffing as required.

Conclusion

A quick final tip is to make your live chat mobile responsive so many customers have moved to mobile phones – smart devices. To make sure a smooth customer experience ask your development team to design the live chat feature that is workable and responsive on all viewport. providing live chat support is an extremely simple decision to make. It saves effort and time and ramps up efficiency, all while retaining the personal touch of phone support and making it simpler to sell through perfect suggestions.

The above-mentioned live chat principles are not only parroted suggestion however have been tested and verified by veterans in the field. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to share it with us. We’d love to hear from you. Simply drop us a line on support@builderfly.com.