Customer support chat options can enhance business growth and improve customer opinions in a number of ways. Due to the obvious benefits of chat services, plenty of business owners want to implement chat tools on their websites. The process of doing so, however, can seem daunting.
If you want to learn about how to set up chat tools, the difference between live chat and chatbots, and adopting website chat best practices, read on. We will cover the ins and outs of website chat tools.
Live Chat VS Chatbot
When operating a business, there are benefits to using live chat features as well as chatbots.
Live chat makes it easy for customers and website visitors to connect with a support representative and receive the help they need in real-time. The human element behind live chat features is preferable for 70% of consumers. Receiving human support increases the likelihood of customers returning to the website for future purchases.
On the other hand, chatbots are useful when it comes to enhancing the customer’s shopping experience. They provide answers to simple questions. Additionally, bots offer guidance when it comes to navigating the website and using the business’s applications. While they don’t provide the in-depth experience live chat does, the benefit of chatbots is that they are available 24/7.
How to Set Up a Chat Flow
Humans are intuitive, so creating live chat flows will often be easier than setting up flows for chatbots. When training live chat representatives, a series of scripts and resources will usually serve them in maintaining a stable conversation flow.
When using chatbots, designing a chat flow differs somewhat. To set up an effective flow for chatbots, it’s important to give the bot a specific purpose to serve. From there, give the bot a persona and design a conversational diagram for the bot to follow. This may include:
- Greeting the customer
- Asking a question
- Providing information
- Checking a status
- Making suggestions
- Ending the chat
When you’ve designed conversation flows, remember to test them for errors before going live with the bots.
Benefits of Website Chat Tools
Website chat tools are beneficial when it comes to providing adequate customer support. Chatbots free human employees to focus on tasks that require a human approach. Further, chat tools in general make it easier for customers to get the answers they need in a timely manner. In addition to being a convenient customer service medium, chat tools also provide the following benefits:
- Chat improves customer engagement. Chat tools can take the stress out of seeking customer support, so customers are usually more willing to engage with this service.
- Chat improves business efficiency. Chat makes it easy to connect with customers, but the bot features also help free up employee time.
- Chat attracts new customers. Plenty of people are more comfortable communicating through chat options, so new customers may be more willing to visit chat-friendly sites.
- Chat helps to grow businesses. Chats can provide answers that inspire customers to make purchases, as they feel that they’re being supported throughout their journey down the conversion funnel.
- Chat increases conversions. Chats nurture leads and customers so that customer interactions are more likely to result in purchases and service satisfaction.
Best Practices for Chat Flows
The chat option on your website should primarily assist customers. However, chat features can also collect information that your team can use to improve customer service. Whether your website uses live chat or chatbots, analyzing logs can provide valuable insights into customer service performance. Be sure to monitor resolution times and collect customer feedback to plan for improvements.
For Live Chat
If your website offers live chat support, there are a few practices to adopt across your entire team. For one, it’s beneficial to strategize your chat offerings. Instead of offering live chat on every page of your website, offer the service where it will provide the best support.
Train live chat representatives the same way you would train any other customer service staff. Instruct them to chat like human beings, and provide them with all of the information they need to help customers as quickly and effectively as possible.
Finally, continuously monitoring chat logs and support staff practices can simplify the process of making improvements to chat protocols in effective ways.
For Chatbots
When operating chatbots, a few practices can improve the efficacy of the service provided.
By nature, chatbots are not going to be able to solve every inquiry. If your website also offers live chat, make it easy for customers to request a live representative if the chatbot doesn’t address a complex need.
Provide chatbots with the information they need to provide answers and see to it that the chatbot is able to understand questions and queries phrased in different ways.
Use the right chat format, design a tone of voice for your chatbots that balances human and robot behaviors, and create chat prompts that bots are qualified to engage in. For example, prompts like, “my order hasn’t arrived yet,” and “I want to change my subscription,” are prompts a chatbot can easily address.
Hubspot Chat Tool
For business owners who are new to website chat tools, the thought of setting up chatbots or live chat services seems complicated. Fortunately, several businesses that are well-established in providing chat support have compiled guides and resources that cover the entire chat tool process.
Hubspot, for one, has a step-by-step guide available in the Knowledge Base section of its website. This guide covers live chats and is accompanied by images that supplement the written instructions as well. A chatbot guide is also available in the Knowledge Base.
When operated correctly, chat tools can provide an immense benefit for both businesses and customers. Utilizing chatbots or live chat flows can be an excellent way to improve efficiency, provide helpful information, and grow your business.
If you’d like to learn more about marketing techniques your business can adopt in order to promote growth, reach out to Highway 9 Consulting.
