You have added a chat room to your website and registered yourself as the operator, but you have very few chats per day. This section tells you how to increase Livechatoo’s effectiveness and the satisfaction of your site’s visitors.
If you have established clients and constant traffic, live chat becomes yet another way for your customers to reach you. If your site is just getting started and not a lot of people know about it, live chat is a marvelous opportunity to reach potential customers and boost your credibility. Some advice will be specific to new sites, and some can inspire even those sites which have been around for a while.
Time plays a critical role.
First of all, monitor when you need most to chat. Are people interested in your products while they are at work or viewing them at home? Note the hours when your website gets the most hits. When you distribute promotional e-mails or publish ads about a new sales event, anticipate increased interest in your site and be online for new visitors.
A personal approach makes an impression.
If you solve a problem with someone and expect a response in the future or if a customer will be contacting you more often, either save their name or add a comment. When they come to you next time, surprise them with your “retentive memory”.
Politeness and courtesy = professionalism.
Of course, you can’t sit all day in the chat room. Even though you are certainly often busy, never let your customer feel that way. When you need to work on other jobs, go offline and answer your e-mails later. In no case should you say something like: “I don’t have the time right now…” If you have several active chats going and can’t keep up with them, ask for their e-mail addresses and answer their needs in peace.
Give your customers something beyond the norm.
As you will notice, not all your customers are going to be equally technically proficient. Sometimes try either to handle the order for them or offer them a product that makes using it more pleasant. Good dealers know how to give “that special customer” a symbolic discount, which only improves their image. Imagination has no limits :)
Write briefly and say a lot.
Try telling customers more than what they are asking you. However, be sure the information you give is most of all useful to the customer. Large amounts of text will lose readers and confuse them, when you should be helping them.
Example:
O: “Hello, how can I help you?”
C: “Yes, I’d like to ask you whether the Electrolux ABC1234 refrigerator has a surface finish against fingerprints.”
O: “No, unfortunately, the fridge has none, but I can suggest the Whirlpool XYZ567 which is similarly priced and has such a finish.”
Provided you follow basic etiquette, customers will come to rely on you and you’ll be inspired by our advice, bringing Livechatoo rewards in the form of increased sales. How you can increase sales even more is discussed in the next section.
