- Intro
- C. O. N. N. E. C. T. I. O. N. S.
- Let’s chat… live
- Live Chat: People V Bots
- Good for business
- Making it happen
- Some watch outs…
- Next steps
Intro
Picture this.
You’re on vacation in a small beach town. And after a lazy day in the sun, you come across a cute market on your way to dinner.
A stall with stunning jewellery grabs your attention, and you wander over to inspect.
You want to try stuff on and ask questions, but the stall holder is sitting at the back with a look on his face that screams disinterest.
So you just walk on.
Then you come across another jewellery stand.
The stuff isn’t as nice as the first place, so you’re not particularly interested – but the owner welcomes you with such a friendly hello and the biggest smile, so you can’t help but go over.
Your intended ‘quick glance’ suddenly turns into a mini jewellery fashion show.
You try on lots of items. Learn all about the pieces. Get a lesson on the different stones. And laugh a lot.
Fifteen minutes later, you leave with $50 worth of jewellery for yourself, and a few small pieces for family members as gifts.
You’re happy. The owner’s happy.
Now think back to the first stand. Think back to the attitude of the owner… and the potential sales that slipped past him.
He had products you liked. And you had a purse full of cash you were more than willing to part with.
But what was missing was communication.
Sure he might have been having a bad day. Or his pet goldfish may have just died. But the fact that he was unwilling to engage with potential customers meant that he missed out.
Which is why conversation is *so* important for a business.
Because if you’ve got the chat. You’ve got the customers.
And online, it’s called conversational marketing.
C. O. N. N. E. C. T. I. O. N. S.
Customer service.
It’s the backbone of any business.
Right up there on the same important branch as your product quality. Your marketing. And your financial management.
Why?
Because well, without customers you’d be… nothing.
Not only does the way you treat customers reflect who you are as a brand, it’ll also save AND make you a heck load of money in the long run.
- Repeat customers are more likely to spend up to 67% more.
- 50% of customers spend more with a brand after a positive customer service experience.
- 77% of happy customers share their positive brand experience with others.
That’s a lot of potential earnings to make just for being nice, right?
And these days there are many ways to keep in touch with customers.
If you want to keep things old-school, you have phone calls and letters.
And then there’s the more 2019 approach to making connections: social media messaging and live chat.
Let’s chat… live
Nowadays, customers want everything and they want it NOW.
Pronto. Immediately. In an instant.
They have busy lives and they’ll be damned if they’re going to wait 3 – 4 business days for a response from you.
Which is why instant messaging is on the rise.
In fact, it’s the #1 preferred method of communication with a business.
Offering the most satisfaction at 73%, over email (61%) and phone (44%).
Customers want to be able to have a real-time conversation with you. Book tickets through Messenger. Buy a cute dress from a photo. Order a pizza with an emoji.
…while also writing up that report for work. Chuckling at dog memes. Chatting about the latest Kardashian drama. And eating some wasabi pistachios.
All at the same time.
We are a world of multi-taskers with zero time, so we want quality and quick customer service without having to leave the comfort of our smartphones to get it.
Not asking for much, right?
Live Chat: People V Bots
All this talk of live chat… but how does it work?
Chatbot Support:
At its most basic, a chatbot can be defined as: ‘A computer program designed to simulate a conversation with human users, especially over the Internet.’
Chatbots work by running the text you write through an algorithm to figure out what you want, before responding with an answer that’s based on your keywords. And the level of intelligence can range from simple conversation flows and automated responses – to hardcore AI programming that learns from customers.
They can be used for pretty much everything, and can be found within most existing messaging sites, like Facebook Messenger, Youtube or Instagram, social commerce platforms and any websites.
Bots can provide round the clock support and take on a thousand chats at the same time,therefore giving your live agents more time to work on difficult cases.
Real Person:
You don’t need me to tell you the benefits of having an actual person communicating with a customer.
But that all takes a lot of time, effort and money.
Which is why the bots are taking over.
Some businesses claim they don’t need chat solutions or that they can’t afford it.
But when you consider the rising on-demand nature of customers, can you afford NOT to have it?
Especially when an in-depth study by Forrester Research revealed that 44% of online customers say that having questions answered by a brand while in the middle of an online purchase is one of the most important features a website can offer.
Good for business
Besides the fact that 62% of customers say that they would buy more if a chat option is available, let’s dive into some more undeniable business benefits.
Customer Support
As mentioned, live chat is extremely convenient for customers and the #1 preferred method of contact because you’re always on-hand to answer any questions or resolve any issues. And with advances in AI, automation and chatbot flows, you or staff members don’t actually need to be there in person.
Instant Conversions
Need I say anymore?
Lead Generation
Not only can live chat help to seal a sale right there and then, it’ll also allow you to look out for prospect customers. You can use the name and email address they enter to start a chat for future targeted marketing emails to lure them back.
Efficiency
An agent could easily handle up to six live chat conversations at once. Now imagine the efficiency if you bring in some back-up bot help.
Upselling
Live chat lets you suggest other products to go along with a customer’s order to maximise the value from a sale.
Engagement
Instead of just passively waiting for a customer to contact you, you can actively engage them on your website with pop-up chat boxes. Which is certainly good for sales.
Data Collection
Live chat lets you collect a ton of data about customers. Gather all that up and use it to retarget them in the future.
Making it happen
Now that we’ve sold you on the benefits, here’s how live chat can work with your existing, more one directional, operations.
Website:
Take your website to the next communication level by adding a Live Chat Box.
Usually found in the bottom right corner of the screen, these are really easy to add and to manage. Especially if it has automated functionality.
Having a chat box on your website will allow you to help a customer exactly when they need it. Not only can you answer a question immediately, you can guide them to where they need to go. Thus taking you one step closer to conversion.
You can also set the functionality to be initiated by you or the customer.
Person or Bot?
Both can be utilized here. An automated bot can help with the initial inquiry, and then if needs be, a customer can then be directed to a live agent for extra support.
Example: Hubspot
The Hubspot chatbot starts by featuring a text box that initiates conversation with the customer.
By asking ‘👋 Want to chat about HubSpot?’ it encourages customers to get in touch.
Clicking the chat box then offers up multiple support options.
- The chatbot starts by providing help options three of their most popular FAQ – products, pricing and educational content.
- By typing into the text box the user help from a live support agent.
This means that customers can choose between hunting down the information they need themselves or having a more in-depth conversation with an employee.
Email:
Whether you’re emailing a customer about an amazing new offer or sending them their order confirmation, you can add a chat button to your email.
This will allow customers to immediately ask questions about the information you’ve just sent them.
Make it clear that the recipient just needs to click to find out more.
Initiating conversation like this leads to a wealth of data that you can then use to deliver even better user experiences.
Person or Bot?
Both can be utilized here. An automated bot can help with the initial inquiry, and then if needs be, a customer can then be directed to a live agent for extra support.
Example: Vision Direct
Vision Direct uses a chat box to their emails in the retargeting stage of the sales funnel.
As I ‘should’ have ordered replacement lenses by now, especially after the two reminder emails they’ve already sent me, they’ve added a chat box within the email to encourage me to get in touch. This will allow them to gather more information about why there’s been a delay, or to address any issues I’ve had.
Display Ads:
You’re already using display ads to talk at customers.
So why not use them to talk to them instead?
Integrating live chat options to your ads is an amazing way to reach new people and increase sales.
Placing these ads in relevant spaces will put your brand in the right place at the right time and will allow people to find out more, there and then, by asking questions.
This removes steps in the sales journey as you can give customers personalized information about your offering without them having to seek it out. Saving you time, effort and money.
Person or Bot?
As display ads are usually focused on one product at a time, automated bots are the most effective option. They can give customers information about a specific product, before directing them to check out or your website.
Example: Emirates
Emirates used live chat ads to promote four key destinations: the Maldives, Bangkok, Milan and Seychelles.
So to ensure they were reaching customers at the perfect moment, they strategically placed the ads next to articles that referenced one of their top locations.
This meant that customers could start asking questions when they were at peak wanderlust, and interested to find out more.
Facebook Messenger:
With conversational commerce on the rise, Messenger has seen a huge growth in live chat.
The most common are the chatbots that follow a predetermined path.
They usually only respond to specific commands or require users to answer multiple choice questions in order to move on to the next stage of the conversation.
This means there are a limited number of outcomes of the conversation.
Person or Bot?
Bots are the best way to go with Messenger.
Example: Marvel
To boost ticket sales for both Avengers: Infinity War and Ant-Man, Marvel wanted to try something new and bring the box office to where fans hung out: social media.
And they enlisted Jumper.ai to help.
Using personality-packed images and gifs to build hype and short persuasive copy, they prompted users to comment on the post using the hashtag mentioned in the post. Here they were directed to a Messenger checkout chatbot who seamlessly took them through the sales process and the tickets were booked in no time.
This was extremely convenient for customers as they didn’t have to leave the comfort of Facebook to buy their ticket.
Some watch outs…
When creating and rolling out live chat solutions, things can go wrong. So bear these tips in mind.
Conversation Fails –
Sure you want to be always-on and responsive to users, but if your conversation flow is automated, make sure the chatbot is smart enough to handle freestyle chatting. We want to avoid this:
And also make sure that your live customer service are well trained so they’re providing customers with the right information.
Offline –
Nothing will irritate your customers more than needing help with a query… but everyone being AWOL in their time of need. To avoid this, if you’re bringing in live chat, make sure you have an element of automation or bot support so customers will always get some level of assistance.
Slooooooow responses –
As I’ve already mentioned, customers can get pretty impatient if you’re unable to help them pretty rapidly with a query. So if you’re using live agents instead of bots, make sure they’re quick at responding as 83% of customers abandon live chats if the responses are super slow.
TOV –
Whatever chat solution you decide to bring in, make sure it aligns with your brand. If your brand is fun, bring some of that personality into the conversation. If you’re offering financial services, make sure your communication is serious and professional.
Next steps?
Live chat is a truly fantastic way to communicate with customers, deliver positive experiences and build loyalty, so it’s certainly worth exploring.
These chat solutions are our jam here at Jumper.
It’s what we do. And do very well. (So humble.)
So if you want to bring some conversation into your marketing arson, just get in touch and we’ll be more than happy to get you on the right chatty path.
And in the meantime, sign up to our newsletter to learn loads of amazing things about conversational commerce.
