You’re silently losing leads every day and don’t even know it.
Here’s a scenario. Imagine you’re going about your usual day as a small business owner, when you get a question from a prospect. “Do you offer a warranty too?” You quickly answer and it convinces her to go ahead and buy from your company.
Great outcome, right?
The difference is this didn’t happen over the phone or in-person. It happened on your website. In a live chat.
If you hadn’t answered her right way, she would have moved on to a competitor’s website – a silently lost lead you would never have heard from.
Convert more leads
You don’t need an online or e-commerce business to convert more leads on your website. All it takes is a live chat tool.
Once exclusive to big businesses, live chat is now an affordable tool for the small business owner — in some cases even free. It lets your website act like a salesperson or customer service rep with features that make it convenient for you.
You may have seen them on other sites. They’re little boxes that pop up in the bottom corner with messages offering to help or answer questions.
Why use live chat?
You know those times when you have one last question before you decide to buy? The answer may be crucial to your decision.
Well not everyone is willing to call or email you with that question. Most just move on to the next website. In fact, not finding an answer to a question is one of the top reasons why a visitor will leave a site.
Live chat gives you the best chance to keep prospects on your site and to answer that critical question.
It helps you turn web visitors into buyers.
Here are a couple of other reasons:
35–50% of sales go to the vendor that responds first
Responding to leads within 24 hours is no longer enough. On the web, prospects expect a response within minutes or they move on.
In a study of 433 companies, only 7% responded within 5 minutes. Of those companies, all had live chat. Most (over 50%) took more than 5 days or didn’t respond at all. Which do you think got the most business?
Live chat can increase your conversion rate
Per Intercom, 1 response from you in a live chat can increase the likelihood of converting a lead by 50%.
Keep in mind that the average conversion rate for a small business website is about 2%. This means 98% of visitors leave your website without taking any action. Converting just 1% more adds money to your pocket.
Let’s see how this plays out in numbers. A small business website with an active blog and social media can get about 1,000 visitors per month. If it converts 2% of visitors, that means 20 sales from its site. Another .5% or 1% would add 5 to 10 more sales per month.
How does it work?
Install a live chat tool on your website so it will pop up when a visitor arrives. (You may need help from a web developer.)
What’s most important are the settings for how (or when) you’ll respond. For example, some chat tools will alert you with a ring tone on your browser when there’s a message, while others will allow you to get messages by text on your phone or through a mobile app.
You can set it so you respond live directly or, if you’re busy, can arrange for it to auto-respond with an “I’ll get back to you soon” message.
There are many live chat tools available. Livechat, Olark and Zendesk are a few with rates starting at $17 a month. Chaport and Freshchat also have limited free plans. The Facebook Messenger live chat for websites is also free.
Will I have to be a slave to instant messages?
No. The beauty of this tool is that you can set an “away” message when you’re not available. You can also assign it to someone else in your business, like an assistant or a salesperson, or even rotate it among a few people.
Test it out and see if it helps with converting prospects for your business. We bet it will!
If you need help, let us know below or contact us.
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