'Live Chat' - Does it improve sales?

[plymgary]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking into getting a live chat service added to my site. Does anyone have any experience of using this function? And, more importantly did you see an increase in sales?

Many thanks,

Gary

[Shaun_Pearce]

I recently booked a holiday and had a question thus reverting to the company website. I noticed there was a service for live chat to speak to a customer service fella.

I found it absolutely useless because the person trying to help me took about 45 seconds between each message to respond and I could tell his english was rubbish so leaving me 10x more frustrated than what I was before I logged on!

I suppose the lesson here is be quick to respond and ensure you are providing a clear bespoke service when dealing with clients.

All the best

[los_design]

Hi Gary

IMHO it depends on your market place.

I for one, always click away from sites that prompt me with

"hello...can I help you sir"

But if you leave it under the users control it would probably perform better.

In my experience, to answer your question...NO. Having a clear contact telephone number and/or quick contact form works best.

JMTC

[Stationery-Direct]

It worked well for us, although, as mentioned above ensure you don't have it popping up (let the client click it if they choose) and also offer a telephone number as an alternative means of contact.

[KidsBeeHappy]

If live help were staffed by properly trained, uk based people, who are the sales team of the business (ie the live help being done by the people that know the products inside out) would it work in this instance.

Me personally, i'd rather speak with someone over the phone. But is that just me....?

[plymgary]

Wow, loads of replies already. :)

I'm a one man band so life revolves around work at the moment. My Inglish es gud and I know everything about my products.

I really should get some staff!

[MarkN]

We had this for a while. Can't say it generated any extra sales. In fact, it made the staff jump when someone used it!:D

We used http://www.providesupport.com/

[sirearl]

I think it may depend entirely on what product you are selling .

Its very successful on a car leasing site,but may not be so good if your selling painted mugs.

Earl

[stugster]

Sir Earl, has one got any car leasing websites that may be used as an example to back up your statement? :p

[sirearl]

Sir Earl, has one got any car leasing websites that may be used as an example to back up your statement? :p

One is not allowed to mention ones car leasing site as one of the directors is a very very naughty girl.:eek:

But one can mention ones site which is wholly owned by moi.:|:)

http://www.volkspart.co.uk/

Earl

[davek17]

We're looking into this now as losing sales due to the phone being too busy is an issue at times. I think you have to be honest about the reasons you are going to use a chat service though.

If its to help alleviate or be able to deal with more enquiries then understand that it could impact your service. If it's to generate more sales then I think I would err on the side of having a lovely big ad that makes it clear its there but don't pop it up. Also make sure you have a good person on the other end! A foreign person answering every 3 minutes with dumb, unhelpful comments ruins the whole thing.

Personally I think a better idea is to have a call back service. Clicjk here, eneter number and you call them back. This defintely helped us keep leads that would have otherwise not got answered and we could control when we phoned back a little better.

[stugster]

Don't look in to it, just do it. LiveZilla is free, it's easy to integrate, and you can be set up in seconds. LITERALLY.

If it's crap, and it doesn't bring you sales, pull the plug on it. Simples! :)

[Place of design]

live chat - use the telephone 0800 number - speaks volumes

[sirearl]

We're looking into this now as losing sales due to the phone being too busy is an issue at times. I think you have to be honest about the reasons you are going to use a chat service though.



Live chat would not make sense if that's your problem ,as a phone chat is many times faster than live chat.

Having a live one on the phone is the best way to make a sale.

get more staff.

Earl

[PrettyPaws]

Personaly I believe it may help a service industry rather than a retailer. A photographer for example to check the availability of wedding dates?

I use it all the time rather then the phone. It's less personal, I know I wont try to be "sold" anything and if I am I just close the window. Some people just don't like using the phone. The more ways for people to contact you the better in my opinion and if it's free why not?

[That Guy]

Dont think it will do any harm having it there, was always told the more contact details the better.

Have used www.livezilla.com before and its a great bit of FREE software :)

[infovinity]

I am using it on my site and has got significant good results. I am sure it's worth trying if you are having satisfactory traffic but not as good number of bookings or sale. Try providing some live support by yourself if you have time, it's almost free and very easy to configure.

[AndyP]

Yes, we have them on our sites and I have to say that they work extremely well. Although I don't know for sure I believe that they increase sales. They certainly increase our customer service visibility. I agree with other statements tho.....the lines really do need to be covered by people who know the products and services but I guess thats a given really....

And, golden rule is to never ever approach a visitor, let them come to you... it is tempting and I am guessing that everyone has tried it when the software was new but its a sure way to frighten people right off your site in a moment....people like to think that their browsing is anonymous and they freak out when they suddenly realise that not only do you know that they are there but you can also make a window pop up on their screen to talk to them....they think that you can access their files etc and, possibly more importantly, they are asking themselves "who knows about those dodgy sites that I sometimes visit?!?!?!?"

That said, its a great way to deal with and frighten off visitors from China etc who sit on the site for hours clearly using it as a research tool to copy products.

[Cornish Steve]

And, golden rule is to never ever approach a visitor, let them come to you... it is tempting and I am guessing that everyone has tried it when the software was new but its a sure way to frighten people right off your site in a moment....people like to think that their browsing is anonymous and they freak out when they suddenly realise that not only do you know that they are there but you can also make a window pop up on their screen to talk to them.
In the US, the big phone company Sprint learned this the hard way. They tracked which screens someone visited, and then popped up with a message like "You've just spent 3 minutes browsing new phones after looking at our calling rates. Can I help you decide?" It put people off big time, because we like to think the Internet is anonymous and no one is watching us.

[amanda54321]

a live chat service is good to sale. if you sell to local,the Telephone and Fax is enough.
If you sell international, a live chat service is important.

this is my opinion.
we are a Chinese bathroom manufactory.

[AndyP]

In the US, the big phone company Sprint learned this the hard way. They tracked which screens someone visited, and then popped up with a message like "You've just spent 3 minutes browsing new phones after looking at our calling rates. Can I help you decide?" It put people off big time, because we like to think the Internet is anonymous and no one is watching us.

LOL, good to know that I am one ahead of Sprint.....

[agtc]

We have the live chat facility on our websites. We have found that we do get genuine customers on asking genuine questions, but then we have had the "Numpty's" who have used it as a tool to send abusive messages. Also when I logged in this morning, someone had left a message at 3am, asking if we were there. As there was obviously no answer at that time the comments got more abusive. It states on the live chat that there wasnt anyone there.

Even though we are a website design company, we have had people thinking that it is a sex chat line. !!!!!!!:eek:

[JCP]

we have produced sites with this feature and have found from feedback that there is a mix of genuine requests with some strange ones coming through in the wee small hours as well. Best approach is to trial it for a month and if you feel it adds anything then keep it going.

[plymgary]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I've got a live chat on my site now. Seems to attract my friends more than potential customers though! :D

Edit: I should add that I went with Livezilla. It's really good and easy to customise.

[fashion]

wow, for me, i hate the ones that prompts when i visit the site, say "hi, can i help you?"
i would rather chooes one with telephone numbers.

[My Little Customs]

I can only echo the "let them come to you" sentiments!

I have found remembering to log into the darned thing the hardest part, however, most people tend to use it to send me questions when I am offline - I think that because it is at the top of my pages it is easier to instantly click "leave a message" rather than click away from the page to get my contact details

[davek17]

Hi Everyone

I have Click and chat on my site. We tested it for free for 2 weeks and they were pretty good about extending the test and helping us configure it right to get use form it.

I would re-iterate what is said above. It gives us a really nice daily and weekly report that is just plain easy to read and gives insights that Google analytics doesn't.

It also gives us live company info so we can see who comes and even add that customer to our mailing lists.

In terms of the chat itself. We have had 1 chat request in 1 month and it has not lead to anything yet. Every time we send a chat request to the visitor it has not resulted in anything. We have tried changing the picture, waiting for 4 or 5 page views or minutes before chatting and we have also changed the message a number of times. Often the visitor immediately goes after the request is sent out.

We are a service based company so I do worry that we are making ourselves look a little bit too "Shop" like so we have taken the image off but still use it where we think someone might need help, but still to no avail yet.

Click and chat run month by month, charge $30 per month so its worth a go.

Any advice from anyone successfully using chat would be most welcomed.

Dave

[Mister B]

Interesting topic.

From a personal persepective, I find that shopping online is a personal thing, and having a sales person approach me via live chat is a lttle intrusive. Whenever it happens to me, I am one of those that "walks" away.

I think that where live chat does work, is when used in a silent capacity...i.e. Have the button highly visible but wait for the customer to come to you.

Mister B

[davek17]

Yes I think we're coming to that conclusion aswell.

We're going to re-introduce the button graphic but it will be in the guise of "Free Expert Advice" (We sell quite technical products) rather than a picture of a sales person etc. Then we're going to target the product pages with the button rather than have it on the generic left column.

I'll post up how this goes.

DaveK

[anecoo_com]

i think it is useful:
1: it is faster to solve some urgent small question.
2.When you met some big trouble,it can help you find the suitable person quickly.
Of course,if you are in same country and using same languages,then phone is better.

Anyway,for businessmen or cooperation in the different country,"live help" is a economic methods,right?

[unitedco]

All of theses replies look postive so what we are planning to do is do a test of live chat on our new website mainly for our business team to keep in touch with our business clients also for sales information.

As we are about to offer a new service soon it will be better to have our clients questions answered via our website.

we are looking at livezilla which will be customised as well so a new look :).

[GTrotter666]

We implemented live chat on our websites a short while ago. UK people responding (only three of us in the office). We tend to find that most people phone instead although we get the odd live chat session. In terms of whether it is "worth it" it's hard to judge without doing some survey work. What we don't yet know is whether it enhances trust when people are browsing (just knowing that someone real is there) even though people may choose not to use it.

What I do know is that is another avenue for customers to contact you, so can't be bad and it cost peanuts to put in place.

Gary

[jasonnoguchi]

I have used a live chat service on my website at http://www.mastersoequity.com for years and I must say that it has been an essential tool for addressing the immediate concern of our visitors and is an excellent customer service tool. Better and prompt customer service = more sales for me at least.

[Peter Bowen]

I put a live chat thingy on www.getting-paid-system.com as a quick experiment. I used the one from Olark.com (http://www.olark.com/portal/) which took less than 5 minutes to set up.

I've had a couple of contacts through it. I'm not sure if it directly improves sales but the questions that were asked got me thinking about some things that should be added to the website.

The more you talk to your customers the better I think.

[Michelle_HLD]

I have a pet hate for Live Chat. I find it unpredictable and certainly not something I would be able to manage in house.

Most live chats I use on websites are usually turned off, badly answered questions and really quite impersonal with lots of cut and paste answers.

I would rather encourage my customers to call up using a freephone number to talk to a friendly voice at the end of a phone rather than chat to some remote assistant.

Just my opinion.

[AndyP]

Hmmm..seems to me Michelle that you are judging the software based on the bad use of it by whichever sites you use that have it. The s/w is good but can only be as good as the companies or individuals using it. And encouraging your customers to call you using a freephone number, whilst admirable, is only really reducing your margin surely?

[jasonnoguchi]

I have a pet hate for Live Chat. I find it unpredictable and certainly not something I would be able to manage in house.

Most live chats I use on websites are usually turned off, badly answered questions and really quite impersonal with lots of cut and paste answers.

I would rather encourage my customers to call up using a freephone number to talk to a friendly voice at the end of a phone rather than chat to some remote assistant.

Just my opinion.

My customers certainly prefer live chat to call up as my customers are from all over the world. free calls are only free if you are calling from your own country.

[Michelle_HLD]

It depends on the service you provide I guess. I can honestly say our close rate on the telephone is around 75% so I would much rather have the opportunity to speak to someone rather than talk to them on a live chat.

Then again a lot of what I sell is high end luxury item so perhaps it is different for service based industries?

[Whittie]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking into getting a live chat service added to my site. Does anyone have any experience of using this function? And, more importantly did you see an increase in sales?

Many thanks,

Gary

Firstly, I'm sorry if i'm just echoing what other users have said, as i've not read through the replies.

A lot of people hate the system, but others find it very useful. Depending on your business and who your business is aimed at.

The best thing I think you could do is install a free version, "Crafty Syntax" for example. I've just put it on a site i'm currently doing. If the system proves useful, and people are using it, then you could upgrade to a decent paid version. I guess it's all about trial & error.

[SteveGibson]

I saw a presentation by Andy Jenkins where he went through a bunch of split tests he ran for his tapestries site.

Live help increased the conversion rate of the whole site by over 20%.

Steve

[boho]

Personally not a fan, thats not to say I dont think it works, I'm sure if implimented correctly then it could be just fine, but in the main there seems to be 3 schools of sites using it:

1)those who think its okay to stick a pop up box and to start asking me annoying questions the second I come onto their site instead of just leaving me alone to surf - those sites get closed the minute it happens and I dont buy from them - Site Conversion 0 - Customer 1

2) Those who claim to have live help but who have no staff to maintain it so its almost permanently offline - this just irritates me, if you cant maintain it then dont have it, its of absolutely of no use to me to know you're offline - or for you to be online during the hours of 2 and 4pm when I'm not shopping for anything. If you can't do peak times and include evening hours when most people who have jobs actually surf then dont bother having live chat! - Site Coversion 0 - Customer 1

3) Sites who have live chat and outsource the running of it to a call centre abroad! Dont do it! I do expect that if I contact a UK company that I get to speak to someone that can read and understand english to a relatively good level, that they can help me, not fob me off, and not talk to me about irrelevant stuff like the goings on in Corrie or Eastenders in a fake attempt to convince me they are in the UK. Any customer facing element of your business Live Chat included should be able to operate in a way which reflects your company in a professional, helpful & knowledgeable way, and having someone struggling to comprehend the meaning of the question because its not being asked in their native first language is not helpful!
Site Conversion 0 - Customer 1

If you can be there, man it sufficiently with knowledgeable, personable people, 24-7 and not harass customers but leave them to choose if/when to click to chat then yes by all means implement it. If you can't then dont...

[Tommo]

If I visit a site in office hours, and on several occasions live chat is offline, that worries me.

What I have done is added a non-obtrusive text link, and when the system is offline it disappears, no "No one is here to talk to you.." thing going on.

I'd rather people call me anyway.