Customer interaction is a vital part of shopping in all channels, but the advent of digital communication platforms such as social media has completely revolutionized the way in which shoppers want to engage with brands online.
Whereas once consumers were happy to go into a store and chat to an assistant, or phone up a call center to log an inquiry, now ecommerce retailers are expected to deliver instantaneous service, without necessarily requiring the customer to actually speak at any point.
For younger shoppers in particular – the so-called Millennials, aged 18-30 – digital interaction is much more popular than face-to-face customer service. This is the generation who, when they enter store, would rather look up product information via their mobile phone rather than ask an assistant.
In the ecommerce world, live chat is an effective way of combining younger shoppers’ love of technology with their desire to find out more about products, in a way that effectively drives sales conversions.
New research from customer engagement reviews firm Software Advice, shows that a healthy appetite exists for this service; Millennials are 20% more likely to use live chat than older shoppers, with convenience and limited hold time their top reasons for preferring chat room-style correspondence. In their eyes, it offers all the convenience of telephone helplines, without going to the effort of dialing a number.
One of the major benefits of live chat is that it provides similar levels of interaction as social media, crucially, away from the public domain. With the latest software, e-tailers can design the chat platform to be consistent with their other marketing channels, without the fear that negative conversations can be intercepted and promoted by other digital media users.
Equally, separating the conversation from the white noise of social media enables ecommerce businesses to have dedicated, focused conversations with customers. This is far more likely to generate sales leads than trying to compete in the distracting world of Twitter, Facebook and other networks
That’s not to say social media doesn’t have a role in customer engagement, though, nor is live chat faultless. There are factors to consider when assessing whether it’s the right solution for your company, as live chat will only work if it’s implemented effectively.
For starters, it is a time consuming service. If convenience is the number one reason shoppers prefer live chat, then they’ll be disappointed to find it’s not available when they have a query. Keeping your communication channels open 24/7 comes at a cost also, one that can escalate far beyond the purchase of software for retailers that lack the in-house resources to staff a live chat function.
In fact, even if in-house personnel are available, responding to an on-going stream of queries can interrupt their other tasks at hand – and slow down day-to-day developments within the business.
Ultimately, whether or not to install live chat involves weighing up its pros and cons relative to your individual firm. Yes, it will open an appealing new channel of communication to attract younger shoppers, but how many sales will it actually generate? Perhaps this is something that can only be solved with a trial, to see if real-time chat services can become a profit-building platform.