How to proactively use a live chat application to increase sales

When it comes to live chat software one of the best uses of this specific software is the fact that it allows you to reach out to browsers on a website. For ecommerce business owners this potential is endless and immensely rewarding because it allows them the opportunity to reach new consumers for the first time that otherwise may drift away.  As a replacement for the pushy sales clerk in a shop, when used correctly a live chat application can proactively increase sales, but the trick is getting down the timing and flow of the live chat software.

The major difference between live chat software and the traditional sales clerk is that in a real world store making people feel obligated to at least be polite if not more to a person talking to them about an item.  However, in the online world where life is a bit more anonymous they do not have any loyalty or respect necessarily for a live chat software pop-up box, which means that many people will simply click out of the box in a few seconds.  Therefore, you need to make sure that your hook is solid if you want to keep their attention.

You also need to learn how long to wait before you decide to contact browsers on your website to try to proactively sell them goods or aide them in their browsing.  The length of time that you wait is known as the golden rule to many who study the use of live chat applications, and can vary between websites and industries.  It basically boils down to knowing your customers and will take some experimenting with to get exactly right so be prepared to play with this time factor once you download live chat software.

The best way to do this is to have an agent, or yourself, if you are a small online business owner, use the live chat application at various times during the day and then record how the sales’ pitch works giving customers various amounts of time to browse.  By taking note of times and lengths over the course of a week or two you will start to notice a pattern for your own golden rule, or the duration of browsing that it takes for people to become receptive to your live chat software invitation.

During this time period while you are experimenting with how long to wait before approaching someone with a live chat application you may also want to take some time to think about how to best strike up conversations over the live chat software.  Not every browser will be receptive to invitations in the same manner, much like in the same way that not every shopper is going to stop and talk to the customer service representative.  With this in mind, you have to get down your pitch and an appropriate way to launch the live chat application so that you do not annoy customers.

The best way to do this is also experimentation because while it would be nice to have a set rule in place, every website will attract different browsers and different attitudes.  The good news is after a few weeks of recording your efforts you will start to see patterns emerge which will make the use of your live chat application much more effective in the long term and much more productive.  Therefore, while you may have to play with it for a bit, in the long run you will see much better rewards from your efforts.