What methods do you typically employ to promote your business and engage a more ideal audience? Is it social media, email marketing campaigns, or advertisements? It must be one of the options mentioned.
While the tools can be advantageous for lead generation with their extensive reach, detailed audience insights, and consistent website traffic, businesses can also encounter mistakes when trying to capture the attention of potential customers and gather their contact details before they leave.
If you happen to obtain the appropriate tool that fulfills all of the brand’s requirements, there’s a good chance you will be successful. Is it possible that a live chat for generating leads could be that tool?
In fact, live chat is an exciting tool for lead generation. When users visit your website, they can ask questions and contact you through online chat to receive answers. This initiates the process where your sales team can gather users’ contact information and inform them about the product or service in real-time.
Do lead gen and live chat make a good team?
Lead generation is an essential aspect of the sales process for numerous companies. It involves capturing the attention of potential customers to ultimately boost future sales. Essentially, lead generation recruits potential customers and transforms them into active participants within the sales funnel.
Live chat is the leading method for customer communication and generating interest. Prepare yourself as we are about to present a series of numbers.
Based on statistics, it is reported that a direct purchase was influenced by a live chat interaction for 38% of consumers. Additionally, 51% of clients state that the presence of a live chat on a company’s website increases their likelihood of making a purchase.
Even if they do not seek support, 29% of customers are still willing to make purchases from a website. Additionally, the icing on the cake is that brands offering live chat services experience positive benefits in terms of sales, revenue, and customer loyalty, with a whopping 79% seeing such advantages.
When you have a clear understanding of how to utilize live chat for generating leads, you have the potential to distinguish yourself from others and enhance customer satisfaction with your offerings.
Using live chat for lead generation: most effective tips & tricks
1. Set up proactive chat messages
If you have an active live chat system, it is time to optimize its usage. The initial step involves demonstrating your availability and willingness to assist customers.
Proactive chat messages, which are available in many modern software, offer an advantageous feature. These automated greetings can be sent to potential customers as soon as they visit your website pages, effectively inviting them to engage in communication.
In order to ensure the success of this plan, you should modify your initial chat messages. Instead of sending a message such as Hey! I am here to assist you!, send this alternative message: Hi there! It appears that you may require assistance in figuring out the product. Would you like to start with a brief introduction and a virtual cup of tea or coffee? The latter option is considerably more amiable and gains positive reception.
In order to create a sense of urgency, direct your support heroes to convey the special discount or offer to customers by emphasizing a time constraint with a little asterisk: the XX deadline.
2. Capture leads with pre-chat and offline forms
The concept of offering 24/7 customer support has its advantages and disadvantages. It is advantageous because it allows for constant assistance and accountability. However, there are drawbacks such as reduced team productivity and unavailability during holidays or other specific periods.
You don’t have to lose valuable leads if you think step by step. To stay friendly and welcome hot leads even when your team is off, use live chat for lead generation intelligently. For example, you can activate an offline form and create a greeting when your support team is unavailable. This is how ChatBot displays their offline form templates in the absence of the team.
3. Consider post-chat forms
Many live chat tools offer a post-chat form as an alternative option, which allows you to gain insights into the user’s experience. This form can be customized according to your preferences or used as a predefined template.
Your response to customer reviews will differ depending on your business profile and purpose. Therefore, you may require different types of customer reviews. To make the most of your software capabilities, consider incorporating various elements such as open-ended or short questions, thank-you messages, dropdowns, or chat ratings. Experiment with different forms to better suit your needs.
4. Embed knowledge base into the chat widget to help leads proactively
Can anything be more detrimental than losing a potential customer due to insufficient information? Or perhaps we should say due to the unavailability of information. According to one of the surveys conducted by Forrester, 53% of customers will promptly abandon a brand if they cannot find swift solutions to their inquiries.
By integrating a knowledge base into the live chat widget, you can enhance its potential and improve the experience for your prospects. This resource enables them to access information without the need for immediate communication, preventing any frustration or impatience. Instead, they can explore a hub of resources, read relevant articles, gain a better understanding of your business, and determine their preferred course of action. Consequently, this leads to acquiring more knowledgeable and qualified leads.
5. Store and analyze customer data
In order to benefit from a live chat for lead generation, having complete customer data is essential. It is nearly impossible to effectively influence users’ behavior without it. Therefore, it is crucial for a support team (including a chatbot) to have knowledge of the individuals they are communicating with.
If your live chat software permits, collect customer data through it such as:
- Company size;
- Position;
- Current customer location;
- Main pain points and goals;
- Time zone;
- Language.
By analyzing all of the customer data, you can gain better insights into your audience. This process involves storing and processing the data, and then fine-tuning marketing campaigns based on the insights obtained. Ultimately, this can lead to higher conversions.
6. Registration form
Before a conversation begins, unidentified visitors are presented with a registration form which allows for easy follow-up with leads that may become highly qualified for your product. This form provides their contact information, enabling you to directly refer them to your sales team, among other possibilities.
The first time someone wants to chat with our support team, they are presented with an active registration form. The form is designed to be quick and easy to complete, so it does not cause any inconvenience for potential leads who want to chat with us.
7. Customer contact area
Companies that have the best understanding of their customers are the ones that will achieve the most success. Building a connection is achieved through understanding, and this connection allows for the development of compassion. Ultimately, it is this compassion that attracts and retains loyal customers who have a deep affection for your company.
To reach that point rapidly, a useful method is to establish informative lead profiles. This allows for easy access to crucial information about your leads and guarantees that your conversations with them are beneficial and pertinent.
8. Widget router
Your website visitors have diverse preferences and expectations. They may either browse your store or engage with your content. Additionally, their device of choice could be a desktop or a smartphone.
In order to increase your chances of generating leads, it is important to vary the approach you use to chat with different site visitors. This will ensure that you engage with each person according to their preferences and provide personalized support.
Our widget routers help build up your relationship with leads faster than a static experience ever could by offering a website experience that is just as unique as the people you serve.
9. Chatbot funnels
A chatbot funnel is a chatbot conversation that is predetermined based on the responses of a website visitor.
The chatbot funnel, which is the sequence of paths you may follow to acquire information, allows you to obtain commonly requested details and tailors its questioning based on your responses before you engage with an actual agent.
Is the sound effective? Yes, it is. If you are adhering to best practices, a chatbot funnel guarantees reaching your customers at any time and location on your website, which leads to establishing trust with site visitors through continuous engagement.
10. Proactive chat
This function allows you to take the initiative to contact website visitors who may have queries. The benefit of proactive chat lies in the fact that you cannot always depend on site visitors who have questions about your product to reach out to you. They might be occupied, apathetic, or simply overlook the opportunity. Proactive chat eliminates missed chances caused by uncertainty.
By anticipating common problems and questions that your site visitors often face and addressing them openly, utilizing this tool is particularly beneficial for lead generation as it demonstrates that you are supportive of their needs, making their experience less daunting and more advantageous.
11. Long-term conversations
It is unlikely that most of your leads will develop a strong connection with your business following the initial conversation. The process of selling requires an investment of time and establishing a certain level of rapport.
Long-term conversations serve the purpose of facilitating efficient problem-solving as website visitors can easily revisit previous conversations with all the necessary information available to the operator. This feature allows for the development of quicker and deeper relationships, and customers are spared the frustration of having to repeatedly explain their issues, which is a common drawback in many other chat options where the conversation ends once the chat is closed.
12. Audio call
When it comes to initial contact with visitors to your site, chat is an ideal option. It is fast, simple, and, most importantly, accessible to your visitors with minimal effort. Additionally, it proves to be a more cost-effective alternative to phone services.
Once you have made contact and ascertain that the person you are communicating with is an interested customer, it may be appropriate to escalate to a phone call, particularly when dealing with complex matters.
Audio calls enhance the personal aspect of your interaction with the visitor and have a particular advantage in attracting warm leads. Warm leads refer to site visitors who are already interested in your offerings and only require a slight nudge to convert into leads, which audio calls effectively provide.
13. On-page guidance
When explaining things through chat, it can be difficult due to the presence of multiple steps involved in the required action by the visitor. This is where on-page guidance becomes advantageous. This feature allows you to provide a step-by-step approach to the customer, leading them directly to the appropriate page on your website. By doing so, it effectively resolves their issue in a prompt manner while preventing any unnecessary annoyance.
Furthermore, the combination of Userlike’s Javascript API enhances the effectiveness of on-page guidance. For instance, if you notice that a customer has a specific item in their cart, you can assume their potential interest in another complementary product.
14. Live translation
When you and your prospects do not speak the same language, miscommunication and misinterpretation are some of the difficulties that can be expected due to language barriers.
When considering lead generation, the gap becomes an even bigger issue. Your potential leads become confused, frustrated with the purchasing process, or, in a worst-case scenario, lose trust in your business’s ability to fulfill its promises.
15. Operator skills
When customers are immediately connected with a support representative who is highly skilled in answering their questions, they tend to be the most satisfied. Consider your own experiences as a buyer, and reflect on the satisfaction derived from speaking with a clearly proficient individual in their respective product or service area. This person possesses extensive knowledge and can address any inquiry you may have, while also providing tailored advice that aligns precisely with your specific circumstances.
By thinking in a systematic manner, the information provided to your visitor can promptly add value and effectively avoid any frustrating communication gaps.
