Live chat is becoming a quintessential part of small businesses globally. It is much like an immediate interactive mail-in design. The job of live chat is to sit at the bottom corner of your website waiting for customers who need help.
Live chat supports your customers who need help instantly. Live chat can also increase your sales drastically. When people can gain immediate access to an answer, they are far more likely to buy the product in question.
Many small businesses love it for closing sales and increasing revenue. Perhaps you have seen the possibilities of live chat, but you don’t have the staff count to warrant it. However, live chat doesn’t always need staff 24/7 to work.
Find out how live chat can help your business and whether you need it or not with this article from Reviews for Corporate Business Solutions.
Does your small business need live chat?
When it comes to live chats, you need to decide if your small business needs live chat. Here are some great examples of small businesses that can use live chat:
- Hospitality and medical- A business that takes bookings or reservations like hotels or restaurants
- Online retailers- A business that sells products online
- Consultants and service providers- A business that offers business services
If you run one of the aforementioned businesses, live chat is a great tool. However, if you get very little website traffic, life chat likely isn’t the best thing for your business. If you’re unsure, many businesses are offering free live chat trials. You have nothing to lose.
Set specific hours
If you run a smaller team, manage your customers’ expectations by setting specific hours for your live chat. Unless you run a large eCommerce store, people don’t expect small businesses to run 24/7. However, they don’t want to open a live chat only to be left with no response.
To ensure your customers aren’t disappointed, post your live chat business hours on the live chat as well as your website. You can ask the person to leave a message for you to reply to later. While this may defeat the real purpose of live chat, it is still a helpful business tool.
Either way, you’re making it easy for your customers to get in contact. This is far quicker than composing an email or trying to find your contact details. Just make sure that you reply to the message as soon as possible.
Create a FAQ page or knowledge base
Once you have been running your business for a while, you will develop an understanding of the types of questions people ask. If you can’t have a 24/7 live chat, give your customers a FAQ page or knowledge base to consult if they are confused.
If they are stuck, they can then message you on the live chat.
Live chat can be a great tool for small businesses to harness. There are no downsides. If customer service matters to you, live chat is a great next step to take.