When you open your online shop, your primary focus will probably be getting your customers to pile their virtual carts with products. Your marketing efforts will yield some results.
In fact, you will find some success by channeling a lot of resources toward marketing. But what happens when your visitors can’t find what they’re looking for? They’ll probably look around for a bit and then exit and try another store. You foresaw this in the beginning.
Consequently, your online store has an excellent and intuitive layout. In other words, buyers usually find their way around easily. However, there are times when the customers simply can’t navigate your store. And if they can, they still have several questions regarding the different products you have. Oh, how nice it would be if there was someone they could ask.
But alas, this is an online store. It’s not like they’d walk up to an employee and point out something on the shelves.
In such an instance, a physical store seems to have the edge. Worry not, though. Technology seems to always come through. It addresses this problem by enabling you to chat live with your customer so that you can help them. Live chat is more than giving pointers to your customers.
You can use this feature to grow your business and surpass your competition. This article is an exhaustive guide showing how to use live chat effectively.
Read on to find out how to use this simple feature to bring success and grow your Shopify store. It always helps when the customer can easily chat with you regardless of where they are in the store. Therefore, you have to put the live chat option on all pages.
The Debutify theme lets you place this feature in a prominent position on all pages, but still out of the way so that the buyer can shop easily. Download the premium Shopify theme Debutify for free now!
Why Should You Use Live Chat For Ecommerce?
Because it’s a small feature tucked away in the corner, many online store owners don’t pay adequate attention to the live chat option. However, customer service is front and center when it comes to pleasing your potential and existing buyers. And happy customers will always return to do business with you.
This is just a small bit showing that if you use live chat for Shopify, your online store can bring plenty of profits. Let’s shine a light on more of the benefits of using live chat for your online store.
Customers Prefer Live Chat
Compared to your other outreach channels, customers prefer to live chat. Usually, your online store’s visitors reach out through phone, email, or social media channels. If you’re advanced enough, you might even have an app for them to use. However, all these have one thing in common.
The customer has to wait for a long time to hear back from you. Even when you reply in a half-hour, your customer might have moved on. Live chat solves this problem. When the customer reaches out, you reply there and then.
This gives the buyer the human interaction they’re looking for. Because of this, customers are more comfortable. And when they’re comfortable talking, they can point you to problems you didn’t know that your store had. This alone is reason enough to use live chat for eCommerce.
Live Chat Increases Conversions
Earlier on, we talked about how potential customers can leave your site when they don’t find what they want. They can shoot you an email requesting assistance.
However, chances are you’re not going to reply to that message there and then. And by the time you get around to it, they’ll have logged off your site and gone on to a competitor. This isn’t something you want. Not only do you lose out on a potential sale, but you also suffer SEO-wise.
Search engines don’t recommend sites where visitors leave without finding what they want. How can you prevent this from happening? Use live chat for Shopify stores. When potential buyers talk to you in real-time, they can continue on with your website. You’ve solved their problem; they don’t need to go anywhere else.
Therefore, the live chat is really good at increasing your online store’s conversion rate. It also helps when your site is already optimized to take advantage of this.
Debutify’s free Shopify theme places 28 premium add-ons at your fingertips. Use these to further increase your conversion rate. Download the top converting theme for free now.
Live Chat Is Cost-Effective
Up top, we’ve seen that if you use live chat for Shopify, you’ll increase conversions. But surely, anything that significantly increases a store’s conversions will cost a lot of resources to put into place, right? Wrong. When it comes to implementing live chat, it’s as cost-effective as you’re going to get.
Many businesses use phone call centers to speak to their buyers. Get this, live chat is 4 times less expensive to set up and run compared to phone support. Add this to the fact that customers prefer to live chat. Furthermore, you can recommend additional products to customers during a live chat.
This increases your average order value. From where we’re standing, live chat seems like the smart option. You’ll save tons and, at the same, benefit greatly.
Get One Up On Your Competitors
With all the benefits we’ve gone through, it would seem evident that all stores use live chat for eCommerce. You’ll be surprised at how many don’t. Only 1 in 10 companies use live chat on their websites.
Thinking what I'm thinking? Add the live chat feature to your website and beat out 90 percent of your competition. This is an ideal point to show you how to use live chat effectively to milk all its benefits.
How To Use Live Chat Effectively To Grow Your Online Brand
Anyone can add a live chat feature to their Shopify store. But that doesn’t guarantee success for your online brand. What you need to do is hone in on the best live chat practices that’ll send your online brand over the top.
Read on to see the different ways you can use live chat for Shopify. These include:
Place The Live Chat Feature Where Customers Can Easily Find It
Picture this. You enter a retail store and head to the electronic appliance section. The display is filled with different types and sizes of stoves. Because of these seemingly endless options, you fail to make a choice.
You look around and, down the aisle, you see a store assistant. This employee will give you different stove specs and features. They also point out the stove with the most value for your budget. See how easy it was for you to find the store assistant? You didn’t even have to go round to the front, searching for the manager.
Do the same in your Shopify store. Make it easy for the customers to find the live chat option. Over the years, websites have usually placed the feature on the bottom right corner of the screen. Consequently, customers are used to finding it there.
Place the live chat feature in the bottom right of each website page in your online store. You never know what kind of problem your customers might place.
Therefore, having the option on each page will make it easy for them to reach out to you. If they have to navigate back to find it, they might just click off and find another online store.
Make The Live Chat Option Available On All Devices
You’ve installed the feature on your store’s desktop website. Well and good. But remember, most of your customers are likely using their phones or tablets to access your online store. Close to 8 in 10 online shoppers order via mobile.
Therefore, you have to add a live chat option to your mobile site. With limited screen space, you might find it hard to include this feature without crowding the page. A cluttered interface drives away customers. The solution?
The Debutify Shopify theme has a well-thought-out layout that allows you to place the live chat option in a convenient spot. Download Debutify Theme for free and connect with your customers.
Always Respond To Customers
Let’s use our example from before. So, you’ve cut down your options to 3 stoves. But you’re still not sure if that first stove will work for you. Should you go for the one with the gas cooktop? Or, better yet, the one with an induction top and electric oven. You approach the store assistant for advice.
However, they brush you off and don’t give you any pointers. That frustration you feel is the same thing your online customers experience when you don’t respond to your live chat. And with online shopping, customers hold all the power. They have countless from which to choose.
If they don’t like your service, they will just choose another online store. You’ve missed out on that sale.
To make matters worse, they will leave a bad review on your site or another forum. So, you’re going to miss out on plenty more. The solution is simple. Reply to your customers. After all, that’s the reason you installed the feature onto your site. Suppose you can’t handle the volume of queries.
In that case, you can install a chatbot that’ll answer common questions with automated responses.
Be Empathetic And Positive In Your Response
Sometimes customers are frustrated when browsing your online store. Their frustration and anger might spill over into the conversation with you. Your natural instinct will be to go on the defensive.
As a customer service agent, you should remain calm and respond confidently. Be empathetic.
In other words, put yourself in the customer’s shoes. How would you feel if you were experiencing a similar problem? Tell the customer that you understand and provide a solution. However, sometimes you might not have a solution.
In such a situation, you might be tempted to tell the customer that you don’t. Don’t use negative language when responding to something you don’t know. Therefore, cut out the use of “not” in its various forms. Be positive in your replies.
For example, don’t say, “I don’t know.” Instead, reply, “Let me find that out for you right now.” This kind of positive, empathetic communication shows the customer that you care about them and are really willing to help to find a solution.
When you’re done, ensure that the customer is satisfied. Ask them if you've solved their problem. Before you sign off, find out if they have any other issues you can help them with.
Keep A Transcript Of All Chats For Future Reference
Another way to ensure success when you use live chat for eCommerce is to keep a transcript of the chats. You can forward this transcript to the customer so that they have a record of the interaction.
If they have a similar problem in the future, they can refer to the chat log. This frees up your live chat agents so that they can attend to other customers. The transcript is also valuable in another way. You look through to identify problems in your customer care approach. It doesn’t stop there.
You can spot general issues with your online store. Fix these to ensure that customers have a better shopping experience when they revisit your site.
Conclusion
In this guide, we’ve shown you how to use live chat effectively. The option has various benefits that can keep your online brand soaring above your competitors.
The main benefit is live chat dramatically increases your store’s conversions. But it can’t achieve this on its own. You need a fully optimized website to take advantage of the traffic you’re getting. Debutify offers several features and an optimized layout to increase conversion.
Trisha Ballesteros