Chapter 4: Building a Live Chat Conversion Strategy

A live chat conversion strategy gives you the ability to leverage real-time conversations and solve customer’s problems, answer customer’s questions, and give potential customers the little nudge they need to take action. 

If you’re not using live chat to generate revenue, you’re leaving money on the table. Let me repeat myself. Support-centric customer experience leaves a lot of money on the table. And don’t even get us started on still using call centers. We understand that change is hard, but there’s good reason to ditch the phones. 

Live chat conversion strategy should focus on the customer and their needs. The secret sauce? Aligning sales and support. This can optimize your live chat and leverage it to generate loyal customers and new sales. 

Don’t let this opportunity slip through the cracks.

Here’s the deal: customer-support-centric live chat leaves a gaping hole in the customer journey. There’s an opportunity for you to talk to your customer directly, to give them the information they need, and to generate leads or upsell a product. Are you taking that opportunity? 

A live chat in the right place and the right time can be used to guide prospects into becoming conversions (and sales). The key is to influence customers with gentle, undetectable nudges. 

The right mix of support and sales.

This is kind of like balancing a tightrope. You don’t want to throw customers off by being overly eager, but you don’t want to let them fall to the wayside by not taking action. Fortunately, here at Ravience, we think we’ve found the perfect mix for helping customers out without taking it too far. 

• Build a Knowledge Base — This collection of knowledge acts as an internal and external resource for your customers and your live chat agents. This can be a section of your website that has information like FAQs, product knowledge, troubleshooting, or policies. Here’s why you need to have a knowledge base on your website.
  
  
• Map Out an EIM Flow Chart — EIM stands for Engage, Identify, and Match. It’s a flow chart that guides agents through handling a chat. This chart makes sure your agents are ready to handle whatever your customer needs, whether it’s sales or support. EIMs aren’t scripts, so it’s easier for agents to naturally flow with conversation.
  
  
• Optimize Your Agent Training — All of your chat agents need to know the ins and outs of your company, your products, and your website (so they can find more detailed information). This allows them to help your customers to their maximum ability.
  
  When you pair customer support that can provide solutions with a sales approach that can generate qualified leads, you have a magic wand that can turn live chats into profit. The key is to make sure your agents are adequately trained in both support and sales.
  
  
• Develop a Proactive Chat Strategy  —   “Proactive chats” are curated live chats that customers encounter while on certain blogs or product pages. This helps give them the little nudge they need to start a conversation with an agent. If you balance it right, you can use this to boost sales and turn web traffic into loyal customers. 
  

While you’re checking things off your list and setting yourself up for success...

• Weigh the options with our live agents vs. chatbots pros / cons list. 
• Make sure you test your chat before it goes live. Speaking of going live—Here’s everything you need to have in place before you hit that launch button on live chat. 

Watch out for these 5 common live chat mistakes that decrease conversion.