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| Importance of Live Chat for Online Business |
If you have been browsing different websites, you may have noticed images with the word “live chat” posted conspicuously. In some websites, it says “Need help? Ask us live.” Do online entrepreneurs need this tool?
Live Chat Support
Live Chat support buttons are images that are posted on the website. When you click on these buttons or images, you will be taken to the live chat support provider’s Messenger Box which requires you to enter your name and your question.
Advantages of Live Chat Support
1. Communication. The Live Chat Support allows customers/prospective clients to directly contact the company and asks questions in real time.
2. Sale. For online entrepreneurs, being contacted by a prospective client allows them to communicate with them and answer their questions which are the initial steps towards concluding a sale. They may ask you about how to place an order or how to pay for an order. These questions are very important because if they are not answered quickly you will lose these clients. If they are still in doubt whether to place an order, talking to them might convince them!
3. Follow Ups. For existing clients, the live chat also allows your clients to follow up existing orders.
However, before your clients can chat with you, you need to log in to the system. When you login, the live chat image will show that you are online. When you log out the live chat image will show that you are offline. When you are offline, the messenger will ask the prospective clients to indicate their questions and leave their email which is sent to the email address registered with the live chat support provider.
When you chat with your clients online, you can see on your console where they are, the pages they have viewed and are viewing, and their local time.
Live Chat Analytics
Aside from being able to chat with your clients, live chat support service providers give you a bonus feature that is very important in improving your visibility online which is the traffic statistics. Once enabled, it will allow you to:
1. Monitor the total number of visitors on your site
2. See the pages they viewed and the time they spend reading your post.
3. Find out the key words they used that landed them in your website/blog,
4. Learn about the top landing pages on your website
5. See if there are new visitors or returning visitors
6. Find out if they are referred by Google or Yahoo!
Why are these features important? The keywords that they used when they landed on your website are very important pieces of information for you. You can use that data and write an article about it to get more visitors landing on your website. You could even include that keyword in your website or blog to get more hits!
Alternatives to Live Chat Support
If you are tight on the budget and you are still unsure if you can afford a live chat support for your website, you can simply post your email address conspicuously on your website.
Getting a Live Chat Support Service Provider for Your Website
In our case, we use ProvideSupport.com as our live chat support provider. We have been using it for almost 3 years now. The cost is very reasonable at $99 for a full year of service. It is roughly P300 every month.
Before I paid for a full year of subscription, I used their 30 day free trial and the experience was great. I fell in love with the great service and the tool was very easy to use for me. Unfortunately, you cannot avail of their service for a shorter period than 1 year.
For Filipino online entrepreneurs, having a live chat support on your website is very important not only to talk to client but also to understand the behavior of your visitors. It is a bit costly if you are starting but the data it gives you more than outweighs its costs.
What is Your Take?
Do you have a chat support system on your website/blog? Do you advise others to get it?
Share your tips and experiences in the comments below.
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