Introduction

Does your sales training strategy include online chat? If the answer is no, then you’re missing out on training your team in a valuable tool that will help your business engage with your customers, respond promptly to queries, and convert leads to sales.

Why consumers love live chat

So, what’s all the chat about? Spending hours on hold to call centres or waiting 24 hours for an email response to your query is now a thing of the past. Online chat is fast becoming a preferred means of communication for consumers to interact with your business.

Reasons customers love it;

1. Real-time – We’re living in an instant world. If a customer decides to engage with your business whether it be to fix a problem, ask a question or purchase a product or service, they now expect an immediate response
2. Multitasking – Live chat lets consumers get on with their day. It’s fast, immediate and allows the consumer to continue on with what they are doing without sitting on hold, waiting for a response
3. Satisfaction – Customers want great service. They want it to be personal and they don’t want to be the twenty-seventh caller in the queue. People, not numbers.

Why businesses need live chat

We know why customers love it, why should your business? There really are so many things to love about online chat. Done well, live chat offers businesses the opportunity to build relationships, promptly rectify issues that may be causing your customers’ grief and your business damage, and most importantly live chat can increase your sales.

Reasons businesses should love it:

1. Employees can work remotely. Agents no longer need to be in the office to offer customer service. Online chat can be run from anywhere, at any time and the lack of audio means that professional customer experience can be given whether the dog is barking or the baby is crying
2. Agents can be in engaged with multiple customers at any one time
3. Your sales agents can proactively engage with your customers. An online sales chat can be initiated as soon as a customer arrives on your website
4. Live chat support during checkout has proven to increase conversion rates
5. Online chat gives agents the ability to offer personal customer service that can help build long term customer relationships

Why live chat needs to be done well

You may already have an online chat function on your website, but have you and your staff received the appropriate level of sales training to convert leads into sales? Having the functionality is great, but not knowing how to use it may render the service useless and do more harm than good.

That’s where your sales training comes in. Online chat is about text not talk. Your staff may be trained to establish a good rapport or deftly handle a disgruntled customer over the phone, but the conveying tone in written communication, keeping up with required response times, or creating a personal connection via text is something that needs to be taught and practiced.

Whether it be via online chat, phone calls, or emails that your sales staff engage with your clients, they are the first point of contact in your business and the importance of them having undertaken sales training within the method of communication that they work, cannot be understated.

Still not convinced online chat is for you?

Head over to any reputable or successful business online and you’ll see the chat box pop up in the corner. These businesses are following the trend and giving the market what it wants. Adding online chat to your sales playbook gives your customers more options to engage with you in their preferred platform. And it lets them know that great customer service is just as important to you as it is to them.

Get in contact with our team today!