How Live Chat Can Enhance Online Shopping Experience

In the 21^st century, convenience is what people seek, and many of them tend to turn to online shopping websites instead of brick and mortar stores, as it saves their time, fuel and a lot of effort. When customers turn to online shopping websites, they usually weigh their options and single out a good deal. Making sure that you give customers a good experience is important when it comes to standing out and emerging as a distinctive and more efficient business than your competitor companies. Introducing Live Chat Service on your online shopping website has several advantages and is now becoming a necessity if you want to increase your sales and enhance the experience of customers who are shopping online.  

24/7 Real Time Communication

Real time contact with customers is bound to make them feel valued. Responding to them via Live Chat within seconds is a factor which helps improve their shopping experience. Customers shopping online expect companies to offer them round the clock customer support. Integrating live chat support accounts for better and more thorough customer care. This will lead to an increase in the level of customer satisfaction and happy customers, who are loyal to your company and keep coming back for more purchases. 

 

Instantly Responding to Customer Queries and Concerns

What customers want when they turn to a CSR with a query is an immediate response and a solution to their problem. Not being able to immediately provide it to them is problematic. It would lead to the customer feeling undervalued and not heard. This is one of the main reasons why customers turn to a competitor. Live chat enables companies to instantly respond to customer queries and concerns. When your customer is instantly catered to and the problem is resolved or the question immediately answered, it will contribute to a higher number of sales and directly improve customer experience for shoppers. 

Getting Feedback via Live Chat

Encouraging customers to provide feedback would keep them involved and reinforce the idea that your business cares about what they think. As stated in a report by McKinsey, 70% of buying experiences are based on how customers feel they are being treated. Remind yourself that your customers are with you because of your vision. The presence of Live Chat on your website is a perfect way to collect organized feedback. Customers feel valued when their opinion is not only asked, but is acted upon, and it gives the business a clear idea as to what is liked by the customers and what exactly they need to change in order to start landing more customers and retaining them. It directly adds to the pleasant customer experience that every company strives to offer clients.  

Customer Service Training Games – Improve your Team’s performance

These days businesses are striving hard to improve their customer service standard because this is what through which they can enjoy all the business related benefits.

The customer-centric approach in the contemporary online market has forced vendors to take special measures to improve their customer service standards because this is what on which lies the whole success of a business.

Either to get a competitive advantage or to earn customer loyalty, a good customer service helps entrepreneurs accomplishing their business goals in a more realistic and practical way. Therefore, for the businesses of all types and sizes, it is important to work on the improvement of their service standards.

The customer service department of a business can only progress if its members are well-trained, knowledgeable and experienced. Strict regular training or classes though work to bring out positive outcome from your team members but to get the most of your CSRs you must engage them in customer service training games.

It has been indicated from a survey conducted by Liveadmins ® that customer service department is likely to learn more from the training games rather than from lectures and  regular training classes. Different productive activities prove helpful in keeping all the members active, engaged and interested in learning more.

Given below is the detail of some of the key customer service training games.

Avoiding ‘Saying No’

Saying ‘No’ while communicating with your customers is embargo as this triggers negative perceptions and emotions in the purchasers but at the same time it is irrepressible to avoid this word. Therefore, to overcome the situation you can arrange activities in the form of games by dividing the customer service team into groups of two.

Ask each group to come up with the best alternative word for ‘No’ while dealing with the customers whether face-to-face, on phone or through live chat. Jot down the alternatives and then reward the group that comes up with the best replacements.

Handling Outrageous Complaints

This is the issue faced by every customer service team; especially by the ones, who deal on the larger scale. Sometimes the questions or complaints made by the complaints are totally absurd or ridiculous leaving the CSRs irritated but here is where they need to cope up the situation.

To better handle such issues you can conduct complaints resolving games, where you yourself need to prepare the list of absurd customers’ issues which your CSRs encountered in the past or are likely to face in the future. Deliver the list to each member and ask them to come up with the best possible solutions and share them among all, once the game is over.

Listing Alphabets

This is also one of the most effective brain-storming activities where you are supposed to ask your team members to name two or more customer service practices. This way, the whole team of CSRs will get more knowledge and ideas which they themselves can use while rendering their services.

Besides, there are lots of more practices which you can use to improve the overall performance of your CSRs. Healthy activities keep your team enthusiastic, motivated and productive. 

Challenges of Providing Omni-Channel Support

You have heard and read much in the favor of a multi-channel support but where there it brings advantages for an online business, it also carries some challenges. Those, who successfully provide an Omni-channel support while going through all the challenges, get a competitive advantage in the tough market situation.

Here are the following common challenges of providing Omni-channel support and ways you can overcome them.

Raises the Expenses

Relying on a multi-channel support is necessary because operating a business in the World Wide Web, you are likely to address international customers from across the globe. To maintain every support channel, you need separate equipment, different teams and also need to spend on the training of every staff. So, budget could be one of your biggest concerns while going for a multi-channel support.

Tips: An entrepreneur has to be smart enough to save on money. For instance, the selection of smart tools like LiveAdmins live chat software and skilled and dedicated person will save on a lot of time and money.

Difficulty in Handling Multichannel

Handling multichannel support is a mind-racking task, as you have to pay equal attention to all of the mediums at the same time. One channel has to be given the prime importance as it serves as a primary support channel for customers to get in touch with you.

Tips: The best way of making the most of every channel is to allocate specialized team to each one and providing them training on their respective domains. You can also select an online support tool like live chat that is multi functional and is sufficient to handle a bulk of customers from across the globe. The chat application when integrated on an eCommerce website comes in easy access of every visitor. Most of the time when a visitor lands on a website, the live chat operators approach him proactively and start a chat to provide them on-the-spot, real-time and personalized assistance.

Moreover, the support channel allows every kind of customer from across the globe to reach to your business because your 24/7 availability through it removes all kinds of barriers including – time-zone difference and varying languages. Here it would be no wrong to say that the chat application serves to be a multipurpose tool, using which customers can reach out to your from anywhere and anytime. 

5 Signs your E-Business Needs to Outsource Live Chat Service

Having a live chat support has become a norm for every online entrepreneur. Startups, who take the edge of this online chat service, can get through the competition more easily.

If you compare present live chat usage rate with that of five years ago, you will notice a huge and tremendous shift towards the automated chat support. But despite the trend getting fast popularity in the markets all around globe, there are a few entrepreneurs who still are not taking the edge of this magical support service.

With the fast technological developments there have been invented a number tools, software and techniques using which e-business owners have introduced new methods of sales and marketing. Now, most of the online business vendors have started taking the edge of outsourcing as it saves time and energy and to some extent also the money. When it comes to providing stellar customer experience online, outsourcing live chat service becomes a norm. Here are the following signs, which could serve as indicators for you to outsource online chat support for your business.

Reference: Why Outsourcing Your Live Chat Support is a Good Idea?

When the Bounce Rate Starts Increasing

The reasons for users to visit an ecommerce website is usually to make an online purchase rather than merely getting information about a particular product or service. To make a purchase, they need to get instant support so that they could get all their confusions and concerned removed before finalizing the purchase. In such cases, they would hardly go for composing an email, especially if they have come to make an immediate purchase and telephonic support would also be not as convenient because due to customers load the helpline remain busy. Therefore, in such a situation customers are left with no choice but to leave that particular website in frustration. To curb the issue, you being entrepreneur are supposed to outsource a live chat service from a renowned company so that establishing a seamless connectivity could become easier.

When Email or Telephonic Support Proves Insufficient

Operating a business on international level, you are likely to come across an influx of customers who if not given response on time, would switch to your competitors. Moreover, telephonic support does not prove sufficient to handle a bulk of customers. Therefore, hiring live chat is a smart choice as it allows your chat operators to provide assistance to multiple customers simultaneously and that too in minimum possible time. 

When Conversion Rate Starts Reducing

Conversion rate starts reducing when customers leave shopping cart in the middle of their online purchase and the major cause of it is the lack of instant support. Thus, with chat support, it becomes easier for chat operators to proactively approach potential clients on their e-stores and inquire about the issues they face while making an online purchase. When provided on-the-spot, real-time and personalized support, customers easily get through the checkout stage resulting in increased conversions for your business.

When you Plan to extend your Service Hours

Extending service hours is necessary, if you are really keen about beating the tough market competition. The moment you are off, your competitors might be making millions; therefore, staying around your customers all the time is necessary. Therefore, for entrepreneurs hiring online chat service is the right decision because being present 24/7 they can get more customers for your business.

When Reaching Global Market Becomes Your Goal

Seeing a faster growth and expanding its reach from local to international market, is perhaps the ultimate wish of every merchant. For this, it is necessary that you could provide easy connectivity not only for the local but also for the overseas customers. Your outsourced online chat support again comes to the rescue because by turning your service 24/7, you can invite international clients to purchase from your e-store. The removal of time zone difference and the language barrier allows international clients to purchase from your e-store.

On the short note, for every online business, to better beat the competition and reserve a slot among the toppers, it is necessary to outsource online support service right from the early days of its launch. 

5 Ways to Make Your E-Commerce Website More Engaging

For online business vendors the primary challenge is to make their website more engaging and attractive. The competition around is tough and it is getting steeper with the arrival of new competitors in the market; in such a situation, an entrepreneur has to use smart skills to make their websites more appealing and user friendly.

Reference: Guidelines for Engaging Mobile Customers

Responsive Web Design

This is not a new concept in the world of IT but it has been a few years that vendors have realized its importance and this awareness certainly owes to the ever-increasing technological developments and excessive usage of hand-handled devices by the customers. Who your customers are? These days, online shoppers prefer to visit a website through their smartphones or tablets; therefore, creating a responsive web design becomes even necessary. With this design, entrepreneurs can allow their mobile shoppers to enjoy the same website visiting experience, as the other users do.

Strong Content

There is no denying the fact that content is the king of any website because from the quality and authenticity of the content, a user realizes the worth of a website. Thus, you need to provide, informative, up-to-dated, comprehensive, relevant and original content. Do not forget to offer a sharing option so that customers could share it on their social media pages.

A Call-to-Action Button

What if a customer reaches your website, selects a product and wants to place an immediate order? You need to provide a point of immediate connectivity and that must be located on the most visible location on your website. This is the reason that most of the online business vendors provide a call-to-action button using which customers can place their orders.

Live Support Chat

It has been proved from various authentic researches and studies that online shoppers like to visit ecommerce website with live chat support. Clicking on this chat button, customers can get immediate response by the real support personnel. They can ask questions related to purchasing methods, delivery charges and shipping options. Thus, a live chat button helps engaging customers with CSRs.

Attractive Images

Images add a livelier and appealing effect on your website; therefore, post your products’ images which are new and clear. Sometimes customers might get attracted towards your website just by watching a product image. 

Steps to Building Your Online Brand on Stronger Grounds

With so many technical developments, building your personal online brand is no more difficult, provided you have proper grasp over the best usage of latest technology and tools. Know all the essentials of building a stronger brand and make your own identity by being more innovative and active.  

Building an online brand is as tricky as establishing a brick and mortar store as both require you to put in efforts in giving it a recognition, finding customers and closing a deal with them. However, there are some aspects and technicalities, which both kinds of businesses need to fill up in different ways. For brick and mortar stores, the only advantage is their physical presence where customers can visit in person; whereas an online business can get a quick recognition in the online business world, by being more active on social media, by personal blogging and through online comments and reviews.

Reference: Online Brand Recognition Entails Useful Business Tactics

Here is what you need to do for building your online brand on stronger grounds.

Build an Interesting Story around Your Brand

Building an interesting story around your brand is the preliminary step because customers are always keen to read these interesting stories regardless of the fact that how old a particular brand or business is. Make it unique, interesting and innovative, as the modern-day customers are more interested in exploring something new when it comes to making a purchase. Another important reason for building a unique story is to keep you in the customers’ memories forever, so that whenever they see or listen something about your business, there could come a perception in their mind. Here is where you need to be more creative to make a story that could motivate them to purchase from you.

Give Proper Exposure

How would you be able to make yourself known in the crowd of billions of other competitors? To beat the cut throat competition, you need to use every tool and technique through which it could become easier for you to stand-out in jam-packed market. Be innovative, instead of relying only on traditional advertising and marketing techniques, go for a combination of content marketing, blogging SEO, forums and posting videos.

Engage Customers

The first condition to engage customers is to provide them easy point of connectivity. Just reaching your website is not enough, instead customers need a real point of contact through which they could interact with real support personnel, with whom they could share their purchasing concerns. For this, you need to rely on the tools which could allow you to have seamless connectivity and interaction with your clients. Live chat software, is a good solution because it lets your customers to get connected to your CSRs in real-time. Moreover, a proactive live chat invitation can also be a good way of engaging customers.

Build a Stronger Rapport

Provide a solid reason to your clients to build a stronger rapport with you otherwise they might get a far better option than you. For instance, if you maintain a quality customer service standard on your e-store, customers would definitely like to visit your e-store in future. For this, you need to keep in mind the reasons for which customers prefer making online purchase. If ease of purchase is the major concern, then make it as easy for customers to purchase from your e-store as possible.

Create a Strong Social Presence

Make the most of viral capabilities of social media in giving a boost to your online business. Many of the social networking websites – Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have become much more advanced and powerful, so it is your creativity and intelligence, how you use them to advertise your brand. Create a stronger social media page, post add, give maximum exposure to your brand and stay in the customers’ loop all the time.

Once you have built up a long fan-following, you can make your brand known in the competitive market, in a relatively much shorter time-span.

5 Principles of Keeping Your Customers Happy

Keeping customers’ happy is the biggest concerns of most of the modern-day entrepreneurs. Being more aware, educated and skilled than before, the clients have become far less tolerant even for minor inconveniences they come across while making online purchases. However, this is not something impossible, just by following five basic principles, you can make your customers happy and satisfied.

Reference: Effective Guidelines for Handling Unhappy Customers

     Deliver more than their Expectations 

The common mistake for which entrepreneurs have to pay heavy price is ‘over promising’. Usually, when entrepreneur make big promises and fail to deliver what they vowed, customers start losing trust in them ultimately building their negative repute in the market. Therefore, the best rule to win the trust of your buyers is to promise less and deliver more than their expectations. They would definitely appreciate it and will spread a positive word-of-mouth on social media.

      Keep a Track of Your Customers’ Buying Behaviors

To meet your customers’ expectations, you need to keep a track of their buying behaviors. Get accurate information about what they like and dislike about a product or service. You need to know their buying preferences and price concerns. This way, you will be able to deliver exactly what they expect from you.

     Resolve Complaints on Immediate Basis

Unresolved or unanswered customers’ complaints can turn out to be a great hazard to a business existence because these may become a cause of building your negative perception in the market. Therefore, the businesses which immediately respond to their customers’ complaints are more likely to earn life-long customers. Hence, to stay ahead of competition, and keep your customers satisfied, be active on your social media page to quickly respond to your customers’ concerns and also provide live chat software on your ecommerce website as it enables vendors to have one-on-one conversation with the customers and respond to their queries and complaints on immediate basis.

     Establish Easy Connectivity

Online businesses are not as privileged to provide easy or face-to-face connectivity to their clients. Their always remains a conversation gap. Although, telephonic support helps building a quick contact but still during busy hours, lines remain busy, ultimately driving customers away. Therefore, take the edge of customer support tools like live chat support and establish a two-way easy connectivity between you and your customers.

      Provide Immediate Service

If put on long wait in the queues or on telephone lines, customers can leave making purchase with you. Therefore, bring speed in your online service for which there is a need to take the edge of latest tools.