Live chat is incredibly powerful for sales and customer service. For entrepreneurs, there’s a tendency to try it out before there’s enough traffic or client engagement, not get any inquires, and think live chat isn’t worthwhile. If you can staff it with a product expert, it’s worth running a two week trial and assessing the results.
Here are a few tips when using live chat:
- Consider using it on more critical pages like pricing and FAQ instead of all pages
- Running it inside the web app for support is a great way to engage with customers and trial users in the context of their product usage
- Connect the live chat with your marketing automation system and CRM so that the chat transcripts are in your prospect and contact records
A live chat platform to look at is Olark and an outsourced company that will do live chat for you and answer simple questions is WebGreeter. Live chat is a great communication medium that adds value for prospects and customers alike.
What else? What other tips do you have about live chat?
David Cummings on Startups 