“To speak to a live representative, please click here.” What a great idea, I thought. After two frustrating hours reviewing website product information and scribbling down unanswered questions, I was ready to talk to a real, live human; and get some answers.
So I clicked on the friendly-looking icon, one with a model-pretty customer service representative wearing a modern hands-free headset, and waited. A window opened, and a message came up saying “All our representatives are busy with other customers. We’ll be with you in just a moment.” After staring at the screen for a few minutes, I got up and made a cup of coffee. When I came back, the message read, “Thanks for your patience, we’ll be with you in a minute.” 25 minutes later, I closed the window and went elsewhere. Not a great experience.
Undaunted, I continued my research, this time on a Sunday afternoon. I arrived at a likely-looking site, where again I was greeted with an attractive chat icon. This time, I clicked and was immediately greeted by “John” (no doubt his nom de chat). Over the course of an eight-minute exchange, during which he offered a phone number should I wish to continue by voice, John provided me with just the information I needed. I copied the chat record into my research file and thanked him for his help. No sale . . . but I was impressed enough to consider coming back again, if his offer made the cut.
What are the messages here? In the first experience, I was initially excited at the prospect of connecting with a live rep. My excitement faded after a half-hour wait for a rep that never appeared. Finally, I left the site, never to return. In the second case, I was frankly surprised to find someone ready to chat during pro football primetime. But, they were available and I was ready. I got the information I required, left no trail (they never got my name, but might be able to follow me through the log files) and didn’t feel pressured into buying anything. For me, the second experience was a success. For the vendor, I’m not so sure.
How Do I Know If Live Chat is Right for My Website?
What I’ve just described is a user experience. I’ve analyzed the process with user-centric values. However, I often find myself working the other side of the process with my clients when I’m called in to improve online/offline conversion results. A number of them use, have used, or are considering the use of live chat as part of their lead generation and follow-up process. What should I tell them? Here’s a starter list of 5 questions that I would ask my clients:
1. Which business goals will be served by live chat? If you need to “warm” the early-stage buying-cycle experience, live chat may provide a good way to connect with prospects at the “shopping around” stage. The examples above, plus case histories from several vendor sites point to good results. If, on the other hand, you are expecting live chat to be a last-stage conversion tool (e.g. the place where a sale is closed or an enrollment is made) be sure to ask your vendor for some clients to contact who have achieved success at this point in the sales process. And make certain that the reference clients you talk with sell in your arena. If you don’t drive people to a shopping cart on the site, but engage in a much more complex sales cycle; make sure the references support success in a similar setting.
2. Do you know where and when your sales occur? – If you’ve found, like many of my B2B clients, that sales don’t close unless the conversation shifts to the phone, then you need to consider how you are going to move a hot prospect from chat to the phone. Sometimes it’s easy. The conversation gets complex, and the prospect’s fingers get tired. The prospect may welcome a change in modes to speed up the process. For those prospects, who don’t want to connect by phone, politely discover what’s going on. Are you wasting time on a “tire-kicker?” Do you have a market research person or a rival online trying to gather competitive intelligence? Is it really worth the time, or should you politely conclude the conversation? In my practice, I have found that providing training for staff on how to analyze chat, and move hot prospects to the real selling environment is worth the investment.
3. Will you chat with anyone, or will it be “by invitation only?” – A number of vendors, such as SiteMax and LivePerson (Timpani SB LiveEngage), offer real-time monitoring, allowing someone on your internal sales team to see users moving around the site, and dwelling on specific pages. Based on experience, you can proactively initiate a chat invitation at that point where you feel a live intervention can move the visitor toward selection and purchase (retail site) or to make that critical phone connection (B2B complex sale). You can even suggest buy-prompting promos or guide visitors to specific pages if you believe an active intervention will help to seal the deal. Although monitoring has certain capacity requirements (see below), it lets you control chat availability and staff time-on-task.
4. Do you have the capacity to support live chat? Data from vendors (see the GXS case on the Eloqua.com site) points up the need to have real people having real, not scripted conversations with visitors. And, if you put a “live chat” icon on your site, visitors expect to be able to speak to someone now! This can mean committing the time of people who are already time-challenged to yet another activity. If you want the benefits of chat, but are concerned about capacity, here are some potential solutions:
a. Post specific “chat available” times internally (for staff) and externally (for visitors). Both will appreciate this from a time management standpoint.
b. Consider outsourcing chat. There are a number of vendors like WebSupportLive who can help you manage both in-house and outsourced live chat. Some variables that come into play when you consider going outside are the criticality of 24/7 availability and the level of expertise and product/service familiarity expected by site visitors/chat users.
5. Does live chat meet your ROI criteria? Today, live chat capability is in reach of most small and medium-sized companies, not just industry giants. A quick search found solutions starting as low as $99.95 (plus some PHP versions offered for free), single operator licenses for as low as $40/month and fully-outsourced solutions beginning at under $400 a month. The real investment is the staff time required to engage in and manage the chat function effectively. Ad hoc, freewheeling chat can be a major time drain, taking resources away from much more productive work. In order to make the right decisions, you have to consider your goals, your buying environment, and your willingness to rigorously measure ROI from chat. Determine your conversion baseline, your improvement targets and the way you will measure the real cost and impact of live chat before you write the check.
The idea of humanizing the buying experience on the web is compelling. Live chat presents an opportunity for even the most timid visitor to engage in a conversation with a real person in your organization, get to know you better and possibly take the risk of deepening the relationship. The problem is, you don’t get a payoff from the relationship unless it converts into a sale. If you are willing to ask yourself the five questions above, and answer them honestly, you can make an informed decision regarding this exciting and evolving technology.
Worth a Look?
The idea of humanizing the buying experience on the web is compelling. Live chat presents an opportunity for even the most timid visitor to engage in a conversation with a real person in your organization, get to know you better and possibly take the risk of deepening the relationship. The problem is, you don’t get a payoff from the relationship unless it converts into a sale. If you are willing to ask yourself the five questions above, and answer them honestly, you can make an informed decision regarding this exciting and evolving technology.
Mal Watlington is President of City Square Consulting, Inc., a specialty consulting firm focused on the achievement of superior financial performance through market focus, competitive responsiveness and workforce potential realization.
