The Internet is used for many things but one of the most popular is social interaction. Chat rooms have been around since the beginning of the Internet and they are still popular today. The opportunity to chat about specific topics or just about daily life is very attractive to many people. Chat rooms also offer the opportunity for professional collaboration and problem solving. Websites with popular chat rooms can earn income by placing ads around the chat room interface.
5 Reasons Why Live Chat is The Untapped Potential for Your Business.
1. Live Chat is Convenient for Customers
2. Live Chat Cuts Down on Expenses
3. Live Chat Increases Sales
4. Live Chat Gives You An Edge of Your Competition
5. Live Chat Taps into Customer Pain Points
Tips on Making Live Chat go the Extra Mile for Your Business
Live chat can obviously increase your business potential, but only if it’s executed correctly. Here are some important tips to ensure you make the most out of live chat software:
• Train your team! Your live chat representatives have to be extremely knowledgeable about your inventory and website navigation. Provide cheat sheets and FAQs to improve their performance and to make it easier for them to answer your customer’s questions quickly.
• Be aware of your shopping hours. If you own an online soccer shop in California, there is a chance that most of your visitors are international. Use analytics to determine when most of your visitors are using your site. Don’t assume 9 to 5 chat hours will work. If you have a problem sourcing local employees to cover off hours, consider outsourcing help using services like Odesk or Elance.
• Don’t be too robotic. The whole point of having live chat available is to provide warm, human help to a customer’s shopping experience. Having robotic greetings or responses can kill the effectiveness of live chat.
• Consider hiring people with sales experience. For the most effective use of live chat, consider using inside sales people and not just customer service representatives. People who have sales experience will more likely lead customers towards sales and increase the possibility of upselling.
• Don’t forget to boost your social. When your live chat representatives receive positive feedback from online visitors and customers, consider instructing your representatives (or sales people) to nicely remind your visitors to Like your Facebook page and leave a comment on it.
• Be prepared for surges in chat volume. Customers need to understand that they are in a queue and a representative will be with them shortly, if not immediately.
• Give your customers helpful chat features. Customers will also need to be able to modify the font size and to request a transcript of the chat.
Steps in building a chat room
1 Buy a domain name from a domain name registrar like Domain.com, NetworkSolutions.com or DomainName.com. Pick a memorable domain name or one with keywords that reflect the topic of your website. A domain name will cost about $10 per year.
2 Buy Web hosting from a hosting company like RackSpace.com, HostBig.com or JustHost.com. Web hosting costs about $10 per month. Follow the instruction provided by your Web host for linking your domain name to your web hosting account.
3 Create an account with a chat room provider like TinyChat.com, Gabbly.com or Yaplet.com. These companies provide code that you embed into your website which allows access to their chat network. They are all free to use provided you link back to them.
4 Copy the chat interface embed code from the chat room provider you've chosen and paste the code into the Web page where you want to host your chat room. Format the page according to your wishes and add content that reflects the topic of your chat room.
5 Locate an affiliate program that offers products that your chat room visitors might want. Sign up for the program and find one or more products that you want to promote. Copy the affiliate links for each product you intend to promote. Most affiliate programs offer banner graphics that you can use to promote their products. Copy the banners that are the most appealing to you and place them on your chat room Web page. Link the banner images to the affiliate offers with your affiliate link. When visitors to your chat room click the banners and then buy the products you are promoting you will be paid a commission.
6 Promote your chat room. Buy banner ads or pay-per-click ads to drive traffic to your chat room. Once people find your community and become interested in the conversation they will return again and again.
Choosing the Right Live Chat Package for Your Business :
If you want to get started on live chat today, be sure to scan this list of chat software reviews. There are plenty of great options when it comes to live chat software, so choose the program that offers the best interface and simplest integration into your website. Here’s a small list of some of the best live chat solutions out there:
• Bold Chat – Tends to focus on solutions for Ecommerce websites. Bold Chat serves 24 of the Internet Retailer Top 500 and 85 of the Second 500.
• Livezilla – Features include: Richtext Chats, Global Canned Messages, File Transfer, E-Mail Transcripts, (Automated) Proactive Chat Invites, Operator to Operator Chats and more.
• Live Person – Creates meaningful, real time customer connections that help businesses
increase conversions and improve consumer experience.
• Kayako – Help desk software that lets you manage email, tickets, live chat, calls and remote support.
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