It’s the year 2022 and people are used to instant-everything, from coffee and communication to shopping and customer service. A business that is unable to satisfy this need for speed among its customers is bound to lose out. For instance, did you know that 53% of customers may ditch an online purchase if they cannot find quick answers to their questions? One of the best ways to offer real-time answers is with the help of live chat support. Adding live chat triggers on your website or app can be a great addition to your customer support offerings and goes a long way in improving customer experience.
Live chat not only provides quick responses to customer queries, but the proactiveness of chat allows you to show your customers that you care. Not all customers initiate conversations with a business right away. Many customers are like the average new kid in school – they will have a lot of questions but unless encouraged to speak, they may go on confused and lost. When a customer lands on your website, a chat invitation will make them feel welcome to converse.
How to Begin a Non-Intrusive Chat
Although proactive communication is great, constant pop-ups can sometimes be intrusive and annoying. So it’s important to choose the scenarios where proactiveness will be valued.
To initiate conversations, it’s best to trigger messages that pop up when a customer undertakes a specific action. Trigger-based live chat is contextual, smart, and helpful. A live chat can be triggered when a customer visits your website for the first time, seems stuck on a step for too long, or is about to abandon a purchase at checkout. Effective chat triggers are:
- Personalized: As the triggers are set off by a visitor’s particular action, the message is customized to the requirements of the website visitor. This way, it sounds less robotic and not too pushy.
- Attention-Grabbing: The pop-ups are unmissable. it will divert the eye of the customer to the chat widget with the help of text, image, or video. Moreover, including the right keywords in a triggered chat message will encourage them to talk to you.
- Prompt: Timing a chat is just as important as the content in it. A proactive chat that leads the conversation with relevant suggestions will definitely yield improved customer engagement.
Choosing the Right Chat Triggers
Based on data available and the nature of the business, every marketing team will have its own criteria to determine which triggers will work best for them. However, while setting up triggered chat widgets on your website, here are the different kinds to consider:
A first-time visitor on your website needs to be treated differently from a repeat customer. While a friendly greeting to a first-timer may suffice, a returning customer can be a high-quality lead and may need more attention. Customizing your chat according to the number of visits can improve lead generation.
Timing is one of the most common forms of proactive communication. Time-based triggers are set-off by the amount of time a visitor spends on a page. While enabling time-based triggers, remember to give your user some time to explore on their own before sending them a message. On average, the minimum time to be spent before a message is triggered is 5 seconds.
The where of chat plugins are just as important as the when and how. Placing easy-to-access chat widgets on specific pages like on the landing page, support page, product page, pricing or checkout pages may be much more valuable to a customer than having messages pop up on the ‘About Us’ section.
Tailoring a chat message based on customer data can be an excellent way to add personalization. For instance, location and language preference can help you begin a conversation that connects with them better. Differentiating between mobile or desktop communication can also improve customer experience.
Changing up automated messages depending on how the customer found your business can be another way to trigger meaningful conversations. Customized proactive live chat triggers for direct visitors, referrals, or those who found you through marketing campaigns can improve the way you interact with them.
When a customer is about to exit your site or abandon a purchase, a timely discount or offer can lead to conversion. Live chat that is triggered on exit intent can help with better customer retention and conversion.
The Benefits of Proactive Chat Triggers
1. Improve Customer Experience
The obvious byproduct of a 24/7 live chat function is being available to communicate with the customer round the clock. Deploying a chatbot will help However, with targeted live messaging, customers receive timely and useful support as opposed to an overenthusiastic business trying to establish contact the minute they appear on the site. It improves the overall customer experience.
2. Provide Valuable Insights
The data input and output in live chat is a cycle. While you need reliable data to trigger a timely chat, the information you gather from a successful live conversation can be valuable to improve your marketing campaigns, products, and even a website interface!
3. Boost Upselling and Cross-selling
Once you’ve successfully managed to engage a visitor, live chat can be used to upsell and cross-sell products. Once a customer has added an item to the cart, at the time of checkout you can suggest a complementary product that they could purchase and offer a discount for the bundle. You could also suggest upgraded versions of a product that offer better features to see if a customer is willing to upgrade.
4. Improve Long-Term Relationships
When customers use a live chat function on a website, 63% of them are likely to return to the site. Satisfied customers will keep returning to your business and even recommend it to others.
Few use cases for Live Chat Triggers
Getting the chat message right is a craft you will need to perfect to improve customer engagement. Here are some ideas to get you started:
→ First Visit
A first-time visitor may not even know that you offer live chat support. This is the time to alert them and make a good first impression. A first-time chat trigger should be empathetic and supportive without trying to make a hard sell.
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- Hi! Thank you for visiting us today. Looking for anything specific?
→ Repeat Visitor
A user who returns to your webpage is more likely to turn into a lead than a first-timer. With chat history, you can personalize the conversation and let them know they aren’t neglected.
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- We’re glad to have you visit us again! What’s got you coming back?
→ Idle Visitors
When a visitor shows no activity on a page for a while, it could mean they’re stuck or simply disconnected. This would be a good time to trigger a chat.
- Trouble, trouble, trouble? Let us help you get out of the rubble!
→ Knowledge base Visitor
While knowledge portals are meant for customers to find their own answers, a little help never hurts. You can always ask customers with a gentle nudge if they need some support after some time has passed.
- No answers here to your query? Our executives can help you find what you’re looking for!
→ Page Visits
Product and pricing pages are crucial conversion points. Especially with SaaS and tech products, they can make or break a lead. A thoughtful trigger here can work wonders.
- Confused about which of these options is for you? We can help you find the right fit!
- Can’t find a subscription plan that’s suitable for your business? Chat with us to find one.
→ Cart Abandonment
In March 2020, 88.05% of online shoppers abandoned their purchases at checkout. If you suspect your customer is ready to ditch at the last mile too, a friendly chat invitation that offers encouragement (or discounts!) can motivate them to complete the purchase.
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- Not sure this is what you want? Don’t worry, we all have second thoughts. Let’s help you clear that up, shall we?
→ Errors
Errors can often frustrate your customers. They may abandon action and never return. Use an effective chat trigger to establish direct communication and support.
- Sorry that you’re having this issue! Tell us your concern and we’ll get back ASAP.
→ Offers
Finally, you can use chat widgets as promotional tools to let your customers know what special offers and special discounts you have going on. The product or pricing pages may be a good fit to prompt these conversations.
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- It’s our birthday! To celebrate, we’d like to offer you discounts of up to XX% on all our products!
Quick Tips for sending Proactive Chat messages
- Outline the goals you want to achieve and set up corresponding triggers. For instance, if you want to boost sales, product or pricing-based chat triggers may have better success than on the FAQ page.
- Set the tone of the conversation. Do you want to be seen as approachable or reliable? Live chat can be a powerful branding tool.
- Be consistent across all your channels so your customer is not confused.
- Always use updated customer data to make the most of live chats.
- Monitor KPIs and analyze performance so you know whether your strategy is working.
Freshchat for Useful Chat Triggers
Freshchat gives you the tools to engage in proactive conversations with your customers. With our effective chat triggers, you can communicate with, capture, and qualify leads with better success. Our chats will let you add visual cues like emoticons and coupon images that can work as effective eye-catchers for customers. Time your chat invitation, set a trigger limit for each visitor, launch campaigns, track the success rate of each trigger, and much more with Freshchat. Get started with Freshchat now.
