Personal contact enhances the customer journey and increases consumer satisfaction
Live chat can be the tipping point for customers deciding to buy paint products on your website. Often, that personal contact is all the confidence they need to fill their virtual shopping cart, press the checkout button and complete that online purchase.
Essential to creating a seamless omnichannel experience, live chat is the virtual bridge between your physical and online storefronts, delivering a customer experience that is viewed as personal, professional and positive. According to a report by Forrester, at least 50% of consumers say having a live person answer their questions while in the middle of an online purchase is one of the most important features a website can offer. What’s more:
- 73% of customers find live chat to be the most satisfying way of communicating with a business.
- 42% of customers selected live chat as their preferred method of giving contact information.
- 63% of consumers are more likely to return to a website that offers live chat.
- 77% of customers won’t make a purchase if there’s no live chat support.
(Source: Invesp)
Simply put, paint retailers that implement live chat as part of their e-commerce strategy are optimizing their online presence. Those that don’t run the risk of losing customers after regular business hours. Live chat can no longer be considered a “frill” feature when it is actually the gateway to closing more sales online.
Live chat preferred over email, phone and social media
Just as the customer journey has evolved, retailers’ path to greater online transactions is paved by live chat.
For the customer, live chat is an efficient means of communicating and an effective way to get their questions answered. It also allows them to multitask and get better information rather than if they emailed or called. Plus, if they’re not comfortable talking on the phone, or it’s simply not convenient for them to talk on the phone (Did you know that 69% of consumers admit to online shopping at work?), live chat still encourages them to engage.
For retailers, live chat enhances the user experience by allowing customers to speak with a paint expert about color, product recommendations and application advice – and that makes them feel better about their purchases. In fact, a study by Zendesk found that live chat drives the highest customer satisfaction with 92% of customers feeling satisfied when they use the live chat feature, ahead of other options like voice, email, and social media.
In short, live chat makes customers feel like they matter.
Initiating a friendly “how may I help you?” discussion instantly creates a customer connection. It lets them know that you value their business and that being of service to them, day or night, is never an inconvenience. And let’s face it, even in the digital age it’s still refreshing and reassuring for most of us to chat with another person.
The best virtual welcome mat is live chat
We share your goal of providing customers with the same quality of shopping experience online as they would expect to receive from your in-store team during business hours. That’s why, when it comes to creating your online retail presence, we feel strongly that the best virtual welcome mat is live chat.
As soon as customers visit your website, they’ll be greeted by a little chat box that pops up to say hello and invites them to look around and stay a while. Live chat opens up the fast lane to finding the information they seek or getting navigation help while they browse and ultimately make their way to the checkout.
Ready to get started or want to take live chat to the next level? Read our live chat expert Trista’s list of 8 key success factors to converting live chats into bigger online sales and more satisfied customers.
Are you optimizing live chat as part of your e-commerce strategy, or would like to learn more about turning customer engagement into more online sales? Our team is always looking to connect with other retailers to share ideas, contact us today!
Looking for tips to keep your online presence relevant, grow your online paint sales and reach more customers? Check out our other blog posts.