As part of Missinglettr’s online conference, Uppercase, James gave a talk on how the buying and selling process can be revitalised through ‘conversational’ selling. Live chat is moving from being a go-to customer service tool, to becoming a reputable sales tool and we want you to get as much as you can from this.
Here, we pull out our top 10 tips for adopting live chat as a team and how to use live chat in sales. Listen to and watch the full talk on the Uppercase website.
1. Remember, it’s not email
Take the chance to be informal. Live chat is more human than email – adopt the language of the channel and make an emotional connection with the person on the other side of the screen.
Use images, use emojis, and never underestimate the power of a well timed GIF.
2. Be proactive
If you are a smaller company and are driving a manageable number of leads to your site each day then reach out instead of sitting back and waiting for them to chat. At GoSquared we do this through auto prompts, a small widget in the corner of your page encouraging the visitor to ask a question or start chatting – you might even see one on this page, please say hello!
Make sure your prompts are smart; no one wants to be grabbed by a salesperson the moment they walk into a shop, so don’t do that online either. Set your prompt to appear when the person has scrolled half way down the page, or is a return visitor.
3. Be helpful
Always Be Closing is going out of fashion. Enter, always being helpful.
“A big opportunity with live chat, is not to shove products down people’s throats to buy buy buy, but to help and educate people about your product or service” – James Gill, CEO @ GoSquared
Long term, successful customers, start as people with real problems that you can solve. Help them out, make sure there is product fit, then guide them towards your product.
4. Be contextual
Understanding the behaviour of your customer is key to better conversations, and more conversions!
A blog page visit is very different to a pricing page visit. Similarly, someone clicking on and off a page in a few seconds vs. an extended stay requires a different approach.
Use this information to inform yourself about the mindset of your visitor and tailor the conversation to their needs. Meeting the customer where they are on their buying journey has much more impact than dragging them towards a sale when they were perusing a blog post.
5. Speak their language
Modern day businesses are often international. Especially if you are selling a SaaS product, anyone in the world has the potential to be a customer.
One of the features we are most proud of here at GoSquared is Live Translate, enabling more conversations, with more people, in more countries.
If you don’t have access to this, keep your language as simple as possible so that there is the highest chance of strong communication.
6. Be fast
Live chat is all about the instantaneous reply. Segment your visitors to ensure you have the ability to respond at light speed. You should be thinking in seconds, not minutes, as data shows that you are 100x more likely to reach a lead if you respond in under 5 minutes.
7. Start small
Don’t overwhelm yourself and your team by throwing a live chat widget on every single page of your site on day one.
Target your customers using smart group segmentation and begin by placing live chat on the page that matters the most to you. Have you just changed your pricing structure? Stick it on the pricing page. Getting a load of questions about a new feature? Why not try putting it on that specific help page?
8. Nail your process
We have spoken about our process of all-hands live chat before, and you need to make sure you find the method that works best for your team. Pitch in live chat as an experiment; set a target of bringing 10 leads this month via live chat and see how this can motivate your team.
A few other basics: save your replies, make sure you reach inbox 0 at the end of every day, and use your office hours to control incoming chats.
9. Know when to transition
To make live chat most effective, you need to know when it’s time to stop using it. If you are sent through a long, perhaps technical, question it might be time to switch to email, or if the visitor wants a personalised proposal, perhaps its time to jump on a call. Watch out though, handovers are an opportunity for communication breakdowns.
“When you ask a friend out for a drink via WhatsApp, you don’t then get the drink on WhatsApp” – James Gill, CEO @ GoSqaured
10. Be yourself
Have some fun with it. Be yourself and show off your personality. Live chat is supposed to make your life easier and your business better.
Go watch the talk!
Watch James’ full talk which includes more details on all of the points here, and also a discussion about how the traditional buying and selling process has broken down. If you have any questions they may have already been answered in the Q&A, or you can reach out to us on Twitter.
We’d love to hear how you get on with these tips – stay in touch!
