Putting live chat to work on eCommerce websites
As online competition increases, eCommerce site owners fervently work to blur the lines between online and in-store shopping. If a customer can get the same level of experience on a website as they can at a brick-and-mortar location, the chances for repeat visits and purchases is heightened by leaps and bounds.
The methods to achieve a unified cross-channel experience – also known as omni-channel retailing – are vast and include everything from allowing consumers to buy online and return in-store to accepting kiosk payments. The laundry list of omni-channel components also includes offering live chat.
According to a Forrester report titled, “Making Proactive Chat Work,” 44 percent of survey respondents said that having questions answered by a live person in the midst of an online purchase is one of the most important website features. In addition to improving customer satisfaction, Forrester also reported that live chat can aid in reducing cart abandonment.
There are plenty of live chat tools on the market, but to deliver live chat in a way that achieves an omni-channel level of service, VideoDesk’s approach is quite unique. Instead of outsourcing a team of sales representatives, VideoDesk goes into effect when actual employees have downtime. So, when a sales associate is available, he or she can log into the service and start fielding customer questions. And they can do it with relative ease.
When downtime is limited, sales associates can maximize their time spent in live chat by accessing commonly used scripts, such as a standard greeting. But once customers get to the meat-and-potatoes portion of the conversation, the information that they’ll receive will be far from scripted.
When actual company employees are manning the lines – as opposed to someone working off of canned material – customers will be able to put more trust into the information that they're receiving. They’ll also feel more comfortable making a purchase and, in turn, repeat purchases.
As more technologies like VideoDesk’s emerge, omni-channel retailing will come within reach for retailers who once thought it was an overwhelming concept. And for those retailers who are looking for further information as to how to adopt an omni-channel way of selling, feel free to contact the team at NetSphere Strategies. We’d be happy to help.
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