The Smart Lab: Implement the Chat Feature on Your Website

It’s the best way to personally assist your customers remotely, writes Emmanuel Raheb.

Emmanuel Raheb eraheb@smartagesolutions.com

Emmanuel Raheb is the CEO of Smart Age Solutions, a digital ad agency and coveted Premier Google Partner. Contact him at eraheb@smartagesolutions.com.

As the country faces another week of quarantine, so continues the national state of uncertainty.

Forced into a new and confined routine away from the daily interactions of the office and meet-ups with friends, we’re all feeling a bit disconnected from the outside world.

Communication is a key component to any successful relationship and especially within the stranger dynamic between customer and merchant, forming the basis of customer service.

While you may be physically separated from your consumers and unable to have a conversation at your store, you as a business have the power to declare your presence with a live chat support feature.

Here’s why it’s worth implementing.

Live Chat or Text Chat Makes Sales, Even If You Don’t Have Ecommerce
With how fast everything unfolded across the nation as governments enacted stay-at-home orders, businesses didn’t get time to perfect their website experiences. Some retailers don’t even have ecommerce enabled.

By implementing a live chat or text feature on their websites, however, these retailers have a chance to speak to their customers and guide them through a purchase process in real time. A lot of businesses are making sales via chat and using their phone to process payments—a great way to circumvent actual ecommerce if you’re lacking it.

Live Chat Means Excellent Customer Service
From dealing with frustrating video chat malfunctions to the overall dread of being unable to leave the house, these are very stressful and impatient times we’re living in. When a customer shopping online with you has an issue or question and must call or email your business to resolve it, that can add to the frustration they’re already feeling.

With live chat, the direct one-on-one conversation ensures the consumers' needs are being prioritized and will be handled in a quick time frame.

It’s Reliable and Helps Customers Return
What hasn’t changed since our lives have been disrupted, and what provides us with a safe route to living an abridged version of our daily lives, is the internet.

Consumers are more likely to continue with the familiarity of shopping online from websites that feel reliable and safe. This is where live chat support comes in, as it provides us with the safety we currently require by allowing us to ask questions in real time and feel like an actual human is answering, not just a bot.

The Early Bird Catches the Worm
Already all the rage as a hot trend in 2020, live chat support has been the secret weapon of many businesses.

Banner will be right here …

Fortunately, it’s still the new kid on the block, which means that you still have time to beat your competitors to it.

Especially now that the pandemic has brought us to a place where we’re using the internet more than ever, hopping on the wagon and catering to the increasing digital population could be a major help to your business.

Live Chat Helps You Keep a Tab on Your Customers’ Needs
Live chat also helps you as the business owner. Just like your customers are distanced from you, you too are no longer able to share the same room with your customers and offer help and guidance.

With live chat, you get to interact with the online shopper and understand their needs and behavior.

Emmanuel Rahebis the CEO of Smart Age Solutions, a digital ad agency and coveted Premier Google Partner.