Why Every Small Business (Including Yours) Needs Live Chat
Like it or not, we live in an on-demand world. From internet speeds to shipping, everything is getting faster. As a small business owner, it can be hard to keep up!
Live chat is one tool that can give a tremendous lift to your small business. While it sounds like a complex tool that takes up a lot of your bandwidth, live chat is actually a huge time-saver that helps you close more deals, faster.
Live chat means you can instantly connect with customers, providing prompt customer service. Since the average customer expects an answer within 13 minutes, live chat helps small businesses improve the customer experience.
Is Live Chat right for me?
If you’re thinking, “Live chat sounds like way too much work,” we get it. Like any new tool for your business, live chat might feel intimidating at first, but it’s essential.
Don’t believe us? Live chat helps small businesses in 3 big ways.
Reason #1: Higher conversions
When a customer is interested enough in your biz to chat with you, they’re ready to buy right now. Giving them an answer when they’re in the mood to buy—and not six hours later—gives a huge boost to your bottom line. In fact, customers who use live chat are 3 times more likely to buy.
Reason #2: Increase buyer confidence
As a small business owner, you’ve got a lot to prove. Fortunately, live chat makes you appear more trustworthy and authoritative. 44% of consumers say that live chat is one of the most important features on a website, so don’t give your customers the short end of the stick!
Reason #3: Improve customer experience
Customers love live chat because it provides instant, interactive support. This is especially important if you have a complex eCommerce site or a coaching portal where customers might need help. Some live chat tools even offer video chat or co-browsing so you can fix issues in real-time. Neat, right?
How to find a live chat tool
Fortunately, it’s easy to integrate these tools with your website, and it usually requires zero coding knowledge. There are tons of live chat tools out there, and plenty of them are free, too!
Here are a few of our faves to kick off your search:
Drift: This is an awesome free chat tool if you use WordPress. Download the Drift app on your phone or use the desktop portal to answer customer questions from anywhere.
Jivochat: We like the translation options in this tool. If you work with users from around the world, this free app will translate messages automatically.
Tidio: If you anticipate a higher volume of customer chats, use Tidio’s chatbot features. You can create templates based on a customer’s needs and the chatbot does the rest, answering more messages without the stress.
These are just a few options; remember to pick what works for you. You might not need (or want) features like co-browsing or video chat, and that’s okay. You can always start with the basic option and add features as you need them.
If you’re a solopreneur without a dedicated team, our suggestion is to start small—install the live chat on one or two pages, nail down your process, and grow from there.
The bottom line
Remember to conduct a little research to find the live chat tool that gives you the biggest bang for your buck. Done right, live chat can do wonders for your small business—from improving your conversion rates to providing an interactive experience for your customers.