Sales live chat functions in the same way as any other live chat seen on websites. A brand visitor utilizes a chat widget to commence a real-time interaction with the brand.
Instead of engaging with customer support, the sales live chat allows a salesperson to handle incoming chat requests.
The main focus of live chat interaction is to answer the person’s questions regarding a product, its availability, etc. This is the reason why the interaction is geared towards addressing these specific inquiries.
The aim of sales live chat is to provide the same level of assistance and support as a store clerk would, similar to the experience of shopping in a physical store.
Live Chat for Sales: Best Practices
To effectively utilize live chat for sales, follow these step-by-step instructions.
Every best practice mentioned here is based on our experience using live chat to increase website sales conversions, creating a live chat for Slack, and advising customers on having more meaningful live chat conversations.
Without wasting any more time, let’s proceed straight away.
#1. Have Your Salespeople Answer Sales Chats
We are aware that this advice may appear evident, but please be patient with me.
A common mistake made by companies is giving sales chats to customer service agents.
A lot of these companies are already using live chat for customer support. They have agents who are prepared to address customer inquiries, so it makes sense to also have these same agents engage in conversations with potential customers.
What is the issue at hand? Customer support teams lack expertise in sales. Their primary responsibility is to address inquiries rather than generate sales. Consequently, they lack the necessary knowledge and inclination to effectively engage in sales-related conversations.
If you currently only have one salesperson on your team, make sure they are the one answering live chats for sales. This small change will immediately enhance the efficiency of your chat conversations.
#2. Set Online and Offline Hours
Isn’t it another piece of advice that is quite obvious?
Yes, that’s right. However, it is quite common to start a live chat and then have to wait indefinitely for someone to respond on the other side.
Have you ever given up on a website because nobody responded to your request? How many times has this happened?
It is perfectly fine if there is no one available to respond to the chat. It is understandable that your company doesn’t operate round the clock and lacks the necessary staff to manage the chat at all times.
It is not acceptable to not provide information about it to a visitor, as this will leave them dissatisfied and often give a negative impression about the business.
In order to prevent unwanted situations, establish designated online and offline hours for the sales chat. When not available, provide a message to customers explaining the situation and offer them the opportunity to leave a message.
#3. Engage Visitors Proactively
Upon encountering a problem, certain visitors resort to using the chat option right away.
However, there are many others who will attempt to resolve their issue independently initially. They will thoroughly search your website for additional information and solutions, for instance. It is important to keep in mind that these individuals may still require assistance. Nevertheless, they opt not to contact your sales team right away for some undisclosed reason.
While ensuring the same meaning, rephrase the text below by thinking step by step. Do not add or remove information, but feel free to encourage them to initiate a conversation. “Nudging them to start a conversation is encouraged, but do not add or remove information while maintaining the identical meaning.”
You accomplish this task using proactive chat messages, which is what we refer to it as.
Proactive chat messages indicate to a visitor that your sales team is prepared to provide assistance if needed. These messages are usually activated automatically by the live chat system you utilize when it detects certain visitor behaviors such as browsing specific pages, repeatedly returning to a product or service page, spending a specific amount of time on a page, and similar actions.
#4. Personalize the Sales Chat Widget
Historically, a significant aspect of achieving sales success has always centered around the capacity of the salesperson to establish a personal bond with the customer. This personal bond would consequently generate trust, which ultimately translated into closing a sale.
However, it seems highly unlikely to achieve such a customer experience through live chat, doesn’t it?
Have you ever questioned, upon encountering a live chat widget, whether there is genuinely a human being on the other side? Or is it possible that you are simply conversing with a chatbot?
Fortunately, there are strategies to overcome this issue, and establishing personal connections is not limited to in-person sales interactions alone.
To begin, it is advisable to personalize the sales widget and provide clarity about the identity of the individual with whom the chat is taking place.
Instead of using headings such as ” [Company] Sales Team,” present each sales agent’s name, position within the company, and include their photograph.
By simply making this simple tweak, the person’s trust in you will increase and the conversation will feel more personal.
#5. Pre-qualify Prospects with Pre-chat Forms
Any salesperson will agree that one of the most difficult parts of selling is promptly determining if leads are worth investing time and effort. It is important to recognize that not every individual who contacts or interacts with your company is a suitable prospect.
Sales live chat is similar in this regard: not all individuals starting the conversation will have the issue that your products or services address, and not all of them will have an urgent need to find a solution. Furthermore, it is worth noting that not all of these individuals may have the financial means to afford your prices.
If you find out whether the person is a good fit quickly, you can serve them better, even if you suggest them to go somewhere else.
Fortunately, live chat also offers a way to pre-qualify prospects.
What is the method to achieve this? It involves incorporating a brief pre-chat form that includes a few basic qualifying questions.
These questions should align with what salespeople ask clients when engaging with them through other channels. However, it is important to consider that presenting more than three questions might discourage many prospects from filling out a pre-chat form.
#6. Reduce the Live Chat Noise on High Traffic Pages
Salespeople often encounter a lot of unwanted distractions and interruptions, unfortunately, when dealing with high traffic pages. These distractions include inquiries from leads of low quality as well as random conversations initiated by visitors.
Your agents become frustrated and productivity is lost due to the noise.
One method of addressing the problem is by pre-qualifying prospects, as mentioned in the advice given before.
#7. Use Canned Responses to Scale Sales Live Chat
We haven’t discussed the scalability of live chat yet, which is another advantage.
A single salesperson is capable of managing one phone call at a time and can handle email inquiries consecutively.
With the help of various add-ons, a single live chat agent is able to manage multiple conversations simultaneously, thereby enabling salespeople to handle multiple sales chats concurrently.
Consider canned responses, for instance.
Canned responses are pre-set answers to frequently asked questions. An agent can activate a response with a shortcut keystroke (or, in the case of Slack live chat, by using Slack’s slash command) and provide a reply to a customer without the need to manually type out the answer.
In contrast, a customer does not need to wait for a response as the answer instantly shows up in their chat window.
While your agent is free to focus on other chat conversations, they can read the answer.
#8. Integrate Sales Live Chat with Your Internal Communications Tool
Communication is essential in every business as employees and teams continually collaborate and engage in conversation throughout the day.
Most of the conversations take place in one location, which is typically your internal communication tools like Slack or MS Teams.
However, it is common for live chat to be separate from those discussions.
While conversing with their colleagues on Slack or MS Teams, your agents communicate with customers through different channels.
What occurs when they require the involvement of another person in a chat conversation or seek input from a colleague to handle a new lead inquiry?
In order to perform the necessary tasks, they are required to alternate between applications, transfer text snippets from conversations, and carry out similar actions.
If you do not think step by step, the consequence will be a loss of momentum in a sales engagement, productivity being wasted, and most probably encountering difficulties in closing the sale.
Fortunately, the solution is relatively straightforward. You can merge sales chat with Slack or MS Teams and respond to those chat conversations directly within those applications.
#9. Give Agents Access to All Necessary Sales Collateral
This might be the most universally applicable advice in this guide. It is essential for sales teams to have all the necessary materials available, regardless of which communication channel they use to interact with customers.
If a prospect asks about a specific feature of a product, the most efficient way to assist them is by providing a relevant knowledge base article.
If they are interested in learning more about your Terms and Conditions, provide them with a link to the legal page.
Can customers find solutions to specific problems by reading your blog posts or other content?
For such relevant responses to occur, your sales teams must have direct and quick access to all the collateral.
- URLs for all the feature pages,
- Access to search and retrieve knowledge base articles quickly,
- Demo access for walkthroughs,
- List of sales-critical blog content, and so on.
Benefits of Live Chat for Sales
In this discussion, we will analyze the four primary factors that make live chat highly effective in generating revenue and enhancing customer loyalty, along with strategies that your business can employ to make the most of them.
1. Customers Buy from Companies That Offer Live Chat
Almost 40% of consumers indicate a higher likelihood of purchasing from companies that provide live chat. The inclusion of live chat alone results in a 38% increase in consumers’ inclination to engage in business with you. Isn’t that significant?
Customers desire to purchase from individuals who appreciate their time and care. They prefer collaborating with enterprises that strive to provide customers with a seamless experience. Incorporating live chat support is a clear indication of a company’s dedication to its customers.
One way to communicate your commitment is by using a small chat box. Live chat shows consumers that your business is accessible and prioritizes their needs. This customer-centric focus conveys a message to potential customers that can increase their confidence in choosing to do business with you, resulting in more conversions and higher sales.
2. Real-time Support Boosts Loyalty and Creates Upsell Opportunities
When discussing trends in consumer behavior, we are essentially examining a field of sociology. Since consumers encompass all individuals, significant changes in technology and culture directly impact our consumer habits and preferences. This phenomenon is particularly exemplified in the mindset of seeking immediate satisfaction.
Because of technology, we have the ability to obtain nearly anything whenever we want it, which includes entire TV show seasons, delivered groceries, and a 2-day shipping option for millions of products, among other things.
Customers no longer have the patience to wait for days to receive an email response after filling out a support form. They want customer support to be prompt, useful, and quick.
The use of live chat is important because it enables customers to receive immediate support, increasing their satisfaction and loyalty. Live chat support is efficient and effective in building loyalty and retaining customers. Retaining customers has a significant impact on revenue, as a small improvement in retention can lead to significantly higher profits.
Loyal customers are extremely valuable as they stay with you over a long period of time. Additionally, their trust in your business and recommendations makes it easier to upsell to them.
3. Proactive Live Chat Can Turn Browsing into a Sale
At times, when discussing customer support, we often focus solely on the support provided immediately after a purchase. However, it is important to remember that customer support and experience encompass a much larger timeframe, starting well before the sale and extending well after.
The time before the sale may be crucial for providing effective customer support. This is because, according to Forrester, up to 55% of shoppers may decide not to proceed with a purchase if they are unable to find prompt responses to their product inquiries.
Proactive live chat has become popular as it capitalizes on the fact that engaging with your company increases the likelihood of customers making a purchase. This approach gives customers a gentle prompt to interact with your business, simplifying the process for your team to assist them towards completing a sale.
We firmly believe that Kayako is the top live chat tool. It seamlessly integrates with your ecommerce platform and equips support agents with the necessary knowledge and context for successful proactive chat sessions. It provides representatives with valuable insights into customers’ browsing history and potential obstacles or hesitations they might be facing.
Having context gives your team an advantage when it comes to initiating a conversation and converting it into a successful sale.
4. Real-time Feedback Means a Better Product and Customer Experience
The feeling of reciprocity is the main driver of customer loyalty and retention. Customers desire to perceive their loyalty being reciprocated, and they require assurance that your team is equally dedicated to their success as they are to your own.
Businesses that are truly focused on their customers prioritize customer feedback above all else. There is no alternative that compares to receiving insight into your customers’ desires and difficulties directly and in their own words.
Including a customer feedback loop in your sales and support processes is highly recommended because it provides your team with invaluable insights, enabling them to enhance product quality and deliver a smoother customer experience.
Accessing that feedback in real-time allows you to enhance your offering consistently, guarantee customer satisfaction and assistance, and showcase your dedication to customers, ultimately increasing their loyalty.
The perfect channel for gathering this feedback is created by live chat support.
Getting customers to provide feedback is one of the main challenges when establishing a customer feedback loop. By proactively contacting customers through live chat, it is possible to initiate an interaction. Unlike email or phone support, live chat sessions offer a thorough and precise documentation of the conversation for your team.
Your team will have an informed view of the customer’s problem thanks to the integrated live chat, allowing for an easier identification and implementation of a more comprehensive solution for all customers.
