Since the pandemic, e-commerce sales have been on the rise. However, with global economic uncertainty, the need for brands to improve lead qualification and conversion rates is as important as it’s ever been.
Welcoming consumers back with open arms, the need for convenience is ever-present. As we move with the times, chatbots, live chat, and other chat solutions are revolutionizing the thriving e-commerce marketplace around the world.
Making life easier for anyone with access to an internet connection, a range of chat solutions are being leveraged by savvy businesses to improve the customer experience and drive lead qualification and conversion rates. And there’s a huge amount of investment going into chat solutions. The live chat software market was valued at around $875.37 million in 2022 and is estimated to grow to about $1,721.43 million by 2030.
So, if you’re wondering how to harness modern chat solutions’ power to drive your lead qualification and conversion rates, let’s explore this intriguing topic together.
Image sourced from financesonline.com
How Does Live Chat Increase Conversion Rates?
Live chat allows you to chat in real-time with potential leads and existing customers. It is considered the most effective chat solution to connect and convert leads for a variety of reasons.
Consider that 79% of companies say that implementing live chat has had a positive impact on their sales, revenue, and brand loyalty, and the power of live chat support cannot be ignored.
From legal intake software to graphic design services to e-commerce platforms, no matter your product or service, giving customers the option of live chat has been proven to improve conversion rates exponentially. But how exactly does live chat increase conversion rates? Well, the following factors play a big part.
- More customer engagement
- Better customer satisfaction and retention
- Higher conversion value
- Faster answers and solutions
- Convenient and accessible
It’s clear that live chat solutions are a valuable tool for improving conversion rates, but what about chatbots?
Do Chatbots Increase Conversion Rates?
The latest chatbot research reveals that 99% of B2B marketers say that chatbots have increased their company’s lead-to-customer conversion rate, with more than half—56%—saying that chatbots have increased their lead-to-customer conversion rate by at least 10%. With an industry predicted to reach a value of $454.8 million by 2027 and living in an age of continual AI development, it’s safe to say chatbots are here to stay!
Chatbots increase conversion rates because they provide better customer support, increased retention rates, and higher earning potential. SaaS churn management becomes important, especially for B2B SaaS businesses with a conversion rate of around 1%. Here, chatbots can help boost conversion rates by providing better customer support that leads to increased retention rates and higher earning potential.
This instant of personalized attention is critical to nurturing existing SaaS customers throughout their user journey. Chatbots increase conversion rates because they provide better customer support, increased retention rates, and higher earning potential.
How Do You Use Chatbots for Lead Generation?
Essentially, a computer program designed to mimic human conversation—typically through text, as well as spoken—intuitive AI chatbots qualify leads by inviting prospects to converse and then collect relevant information from the conversation log.
The data can then be used to create an accurate buyer persona that details the prospect’s unique requirements, preferences, financial status, and schedule to seamlessly guide them through the buying process.
With the uptake of chatbots expected to rise exponentially in the coming years, both B2B and B2C companies have a lot to gain by investing in automated communications.
Image sourced from Dashly
Chatbots are even being leveraged in call centres to speed up response times, reduce operation costs, and gather essential customer data before transferring customers to a live agent. So, if you’re thinking about how to manage a call center more efficiently, setting up a chatbot may be the answer.
Live Chat vs. Chatbot: What’s the Difference?
On the surface, it’s fairly self-explanatory. Live chat is human-to-human communication with a customer service agent that’s available at certain times of day. A chatbot is a type of automated communications solution preprogrammed to respond to customers using artificial intelligence and is available around the clock.
For absolute clarity, we’ve created this handy table to delve deeper into their notable differences to help you identify the best chat solution for you.
| Live Chat | Chatbot |
| Available during business hours | 24/7 immediate response |
| Genuine empathy and insight; a real person | Instant answers to frequently asked questions |
| Capable of handling complex customer queries | Automates repetitive tasks |
| Typically shorter resolution times | Uses conversational data to personalize the experience for each customer |
| Can converse with two to three customers at once | Can converse with multiple customers at once |
How Can I Improve My Live Chat Service?
For those of you looking for effective hints to improve your live chat service and increase online sales, here are a few tips to get you started.
Personalization
Customers seek the human touch with live chat, so it’s imperative that you provide them with a genuine, organic conversation that flows.
Benefits: Increased customer satisfaction, higher order value, reduced cart abandonment.
Examples: Pre-chat surveys to gather information that can be used when it comes to chatting in person, addressing customers directly, or using a unique profile photo.
Proactive Live Chat
Proactive chat anticipates your visitors’ needs by inviting them to engage in a live discussion. The invite often includes an image or a small chat window that pops up at a certain place and time on site.
Benefits: More customer engagement, increases leads, boosts sales.
Examples: A discount on their first order / Cart abandonment feedback requests / Product recommendations.
Integrate Live Chat With Social Media
For those seeking an integrated messaging solution for their website, the integration of social media apps like WhatsApp chat on WordPress has become increasingly popular in addition to using live chat or chatbots for communication.
By integrating live chat with social media apps using apps like Chaty, you can handle conversations from multiple sources with ease, all in one place.
Benefits: Multichannel communication, easier task prioritization, instant conversation history, integrated chat service.
Examples: Chaty, WhatsApp, Facebook.
How Can I Make My Chatbot More Effective?
The accuracy and efficiency of your chatbot depends on how you approach the following points:
Map Confusion Rate (CR)
If your chatbot is having trouble understanding a lot of requests, it’s time to have a look at your chatbot’s confusion rate. All you need to do is divide the number of times the chatbot has used a fallback response by the total number of messages received.
Fallback answers ÷ total answers offered = confusion rate.
Keep Information Up-To-Date
Your chatbot is only as strong as the information it’s fed. If the information isn’t up-to-date, how can you expect to satisfy your customer base? Ensure it’s updated with real-time relevant information in exactly the same way you keep your website up to date.
Bring NLP Techniques Into the Equation
Natural Language Processing (NLP) offers a way to make your chatbot appear friendlier and more human. Helping to analyze and create the right tone for your audience, NLP will allow your chatbot to recognize real language and develop conversational abilities that will eventually be indistinguishable from a real human.
Stay Compliant
It’s also worth making sure that every chat conversation is compliant with your insurance policy, that the system is reliable and functional, and that the progress of every exchange is recorded. Conducting regular compliance audits will evaluate whether your chatbot software is following the correct set of standards.
Add the Personal Touch
Personalization is the name of the game these days. 69% of customers want a personalized and consistent customer experience across multiple channels, both physical and digital. You can use pre-chat surveys or user profiles to customize conversations and provide a more individualized experience.
You can also gather customer data to provide a more tailored experience. Keeping records of interactions can also have the added benefit of reducing frustration as customers won’t have to repeat themselves.
Tip: Some customers will want to talk to a human agent regardless of the effectiveness of your chatbot. Make sure that you have a seamless handoff process that will put your customer in touch with a human agent and give the human agent all the relevant information they need to resolve any queries.
User Feedback
Continual improvement and iteration are vital to providing an effective chat experience. You can ask customers to take a survey at the end of their conversation. This can be as simple as a satisfaction rating. If the customer clicks a low score, you can follow up with questions about what issues they encountered and how you can improve your service.
Engage and Convert More Leads With Efficient Chat Solutions
The rise of e-commerce since the pandemic has highlighted the importance of effective solutions that generate leads and increase conversion rates. Live chat solutions such as chatbots have emerged as essential tools for modern companies.
Live chat excels in real-time engagement, while chatbots boost conversion rates with AI-powered support. Businesses can leverage these solutions to enhance customer experiences and drive sales.
By incorporating live chat and automated chatbot options into your marketing strategy and following our top tips above, you can turn more leads into customers with ease and finesse.
Author’s Bio: Jessica Collier is VP of Growth Marketing at Assembly Software. Her passion for digital innovation and agile marketing has led to significant success in innovative tech marketing, client collaboration and driving conversion results.
