Both live chat and call back (also known as instant response) tools serve a very similar function. Their goal is to help visitors on the website engage and interact with the business in a way that is easy and convenient for both the customer and the company. These tools are primarily sales acceleration tools, designed to help any potential customers who may have questions or concerns about a particular product – and ideally move them towards a buying decision. Chat tools also have a great function when it comes to online live support for technical products, but we’ll focus more on the sales side of things right now.
So here we will be looking at what makes these tools different and why a company would choose one over the others.
Live Chat
Pros
1. Good for transactional B2C website
2. Help answer customer questions when the pain point arises
3. One agent can help many customers
4. Great for providing lice support to commonly asked questions (worth mentioning again!)
Cons
1. Not very good for high value or comples sales
2. The apps seem to have a strong tendency to drain batteries on mobile phones
3. Need dedicated resources to monitor the chats which can be expensive
Call Back
Pros
1. Good for high value sales such as B2B
2. Instant response when a customer requests for it
3. Helps build relationships by growing trust with the client
4. Increases sales conversion rates
Cons
Not ideal for low value products with high number of transactions
One person can only handle one call at a time
Live Chat Strengths
Live chat is a great selling tool if your business is focused on B2C (Business to Consumer) sales, such as a shop, e-commerce store or movie cinema. All of these business focus on selling directly to the general public. There is another factor which is important, these sites tend to be transactional in nature. The goal for the business is to get the visitor to actually do something on their website such as buy a product, or buy a movie ticket. Here having a live chat tool is really useful as any questions the customer may have can be answered by one of your agents, this helps to move the customer further down the sales funnel and assist them in making the purchase.
The chat feature makes it easy and convenient for the customer to speak to the business, this means that the moment there is an issue a representative from the company can help the potential customer and hopefully close a sale. A Forbes article shows that live chat has even been proven to increase sales for many businesses by being able to answer questions for the customer.
Call Back Strengths
Call back tools are really better suited to B2B (Business to business) companies. There are several reasons why and I will go into further detail shortly. Previously I had mentioned that B2C websites tend to be transactional, in the case of B2B websites they tend to be more informative. The reason this is the case is because B2B businesses want you to read about them and the work they do. You would not pay online for a software development company to build you a custom CRM without at least knowing what type of software they specialize in building. You would make sure you met with them and understood what they would be providing you.
Businesses that use call back tools aim to establish long-term relationships with their clients and lasting business revenues. Being able to respond quickly to a client’s request for a call back shows that the business is interested in you and helps build trust for the customer.
B2B products also tend to be a bit more complex than your standard B2C product. Which means a potential customer could have questions regarding installation, configuration, customization or bulk ordering which they may want to talk more about.
A shocking 40-50% of customers say that they give their business to the first company that responds to them. Instant call back tools make sure that this immediate response comes from your business and allows your sales team to be the first to connect to the potential customer.
Live Chat Weaknesses
Live chat is really good for answering simple questions such as “does this come in an XL?” or “is this movie suitable for children?” All of these questions can be answered with quite straightforward and short answers. If the product or service requires the customer to understand more information or has a more complex selling process this creates issues for live chat. Situations where you may have follow up questions or need greater detail can be hard to communicate effectively over live chat.
The business needs at least one dedicated resource to manage the chats. People use existing members of the company but this takes away from their regular job and they are usually not incentivized to answer the chats.
A frequent complaint from live chat users is that the apps on their phone drain their battery very quickly as they are constantly “pinging” the server to see if there are any live chats going on. Several people have stopped using live chat as a result of that.
Call back weaknesses
Call back tools are not ideal if you have low value, high transaction items as the cost of managing all the sales becomes too high. It is better suited for high value, low transaction items that require a salesperson to help guide them through the process.
People need to be available to respond to the call, however the best people to use for this are your existing sales force – they are usually incentivised to make sure that no lead goes unanswered, and are equipped to understand client requirements as well as build relationships with clients.
It is important to understand what your business needs are before deciding which tool is best suited for your website. As a general rule of thumb.
Live Chat is good for low value, high transaction websites
Call Back is good for high value, low transaction websites
Want to know about how call back tools can help increase your sales check out the following posts
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