Benefits of live chat for businesses

Live chat is a great solution for companies that want to increase customer satisfaction, improve customer service, and maximize sales. If you’ve used live chat before, you know it quickly went from differentiator to expectation. A perennial top complaint across all industries is customer support response time. Engaging with customers and website visitors in real time can improve customer feedback, boost positive reviews, close sales, and turn any customer into a brand ambassador. Best of all – it can save your business money in the process.

While this article is relevant year round, we chose to publish it this month because of the holiday traffic spike. The holiday rush is coming and whether you sell goods or services, chances are you’re going to be busy this December. More sales means more customers, onboarding, and most importantly customer support.

Whether you’ve already got a live chat solution, or you’re looking to upgrade the martech that supports your buyer journey, this guide provides strategies, tips, and insights to maximize your live chat value.

More agile customer service

Live chat means real-time issue resolution. It’s no secret, the faster you solve the problem, the happier the customer will be. Live chat, especially SMS live chat with Helios, ensures that no customer’s inquiry is left sitting in an email inbox. Earning higher customer satisfaction can often be as easy as being available, quick, and precise.

Improved customer satisfaction

Speedy solutions certainly help, but they’re not the only factor when it comes to delighting your customers. Every recent poll shows that customers regard SMS as their preferred channel of communication. Customers want to talk to a person and they love the occasional emoji. Helios business SMS can be set up to accommodate these customer requirements. With SMS, MMS (images and videos), a full emoji keyboard, and other personalized touches, customer live chat via Helios will check every box on your customer’s list.

Another customer expectation that can be challenging to accommodate is around-the-clock access to support and information. Live chat offers an effective solution to meet this demand, providing 24/7 support that ensures your customers receive assistance whenever they need it. With Helios, your platform is on desktop and mobile, so you and your team never miss a beat.

By offering uninterrupted, speedy support on your customer’s favorite channel, your business will capture every potential opportunity and address each issue promptly, further strengthening your brand's reputation for reliable and accessible customer service.

Boost team productivity

Unlike email or phone calls, live chat agents can manage multiple chat conversations simultaneously. Live chat with Helios equips teams with the tools they need to succeed, including automatic message routing, segmentation, automated keyword replies, global message templates, and much more. Increasing the ratio of agents to customers, essentially how many customers each agent can handle (at once, per day, per month, etc.) opens up budget and time for other tasks while increasing CSAT (customer satisfaction). SMS live chat provides the speed and efficiency required to boost your customer service.

Increase sales conversions

Live chat prioritizes customer convenience by enabling interested shoppers to get answers to product-related questions in real-time. Capitalizing on an engaged customer by catering to their unique questions and interests increases sales. Don’t overestimate what a small increase in conversion rate could do for your business.

SMS powered live chat enables your sales team to actively interact with potential customers, assisting them in their purchase journey, suggesting suitable products, and resolving any queries they might have. This immediate and tailored support fosters trust and dependability, increasing the chances of successful sales and boosting your business' revenue.

Save money

Customer service phone calls are inefficient and frustrating for both parties. Call centers struggle to represent your business with the same standards, culture, and quality that you would require from in-house staff. The cost to staff team members for this role is often even more expensive. If you don’t have a phone answering team already in place, that new hire will need training and their own support. So whether you err on the side of quality or savings, you’re still left with a subpar outcome with phone agents.

Live chat software makes this much easier with templates, automations, queues, internal notifications, message records, and more. Leveraging the right software allows support agents to complete more successful conversations per day, reducing business costs. This boosted efficiency also means that small business owners can consider taking on this task, or delegating it to someone who has spare time.

Live chat implementation is a breeze

Adding live chat functionality to your website is simple and can even be done without the help of a developer. Integrating live chat with your website is done by inserting (copy and pasting) a simple code snippet, which is often generated for you by the live chat provider. From there, it's just a matter of familiarizing yourself with the live chat’s user interface and features. Locating the dashboard, setting up notification and permission settings, and/or connecting to your CRM are all logical next steps.

Live chat tools, like the one Helios offers, are user-friendly. This means there’s no extensive down time or training time. Support agents can quickly master the intuitive platform, ensuring a smooth transition and immediately-more-efficient workflow.

A record of every conversation

Live chat automatically stores and allows your team to view chat history. Similar to call logs, this history shows every comment of every conversation. Easy access to chat history, for the right strategist, means the ability to parse past interactions, issues, and preferences. With this information, your brand can optimize the customer support flow and inform future product development. This context is extremely valuable as it improves your brand’s reputation, saves time, and eliminates repeat customer concerns.

Prioritize your customers

Implementing live chat proclaims your commitment to providing efficient and responsive customer support. Your customers will notice. Just the appearance of a chat widget alone shows your customers that you’re a brand that prioritizes their needs and happiness. It states that your brand thinks far beyond the sale, which ironically, leads to more sales. Even if other brands offer standard customer service, they are offering a slower and less interactive customer experience. Customers will recognize the emphasis you put on their happiness and gravitate towards companies that prioritize their convenience.

Live chat with Helios can help your business progress leads all the way through the buyer journey. No matter where you prospects or customers are in the funnel, they are more likely to convert with personalized, instant communication on their favorite channel.