Live Chat (aka Live Customer Support) Software is one such
innovation of the recent e-commerce boom that enables businesses to engage their online visitors into a chat and provides a cost effective platform for proactive sales and support. Using Live Chat Support on a website can be a boon if used effectively and in a manner that is visitor friendly. Businesses should keep in mind the following tips while deploying live chat support on their website:
1. Use a Hosted and Reliable Live Support Vendor. Choosing a cheap or an open source code solution will eventually get you into trouble for lack of support and/or bugs. Choose a vendor with a proven track record, reliable support and a big client base. Most such vendors will he happy to offer you a week's trial and help in setting up the chat system on your website. Paying a small monthly fee is worth the features, support and reliability you get that you will need to use chat effectively. http://www.livechatdir.com is a good source to research live chat software.
2. Place the live chat button at a prominent location on the web page. Be consistent with where you place the live chat button on your website. This ensures that returning and new visitors can locate it as easily as they can locate the navigation on every page of your website. Additionally, you may want to place a live chat button or text at key "conversion" hotspots such as your call to action or sign up page of your website. This will not only improve visitor confidence, but also
increase your site’s conversions.
3. Customize the chat window with the theme of your website. Matching the chat window and chat button to your site's theme can ensure that a visitor does not terminate a chat on grounds of suspicion of adware or an unwanted popup. Vendors such as LivePerson and Velaro help you to blend the live chat seamlessly into your
website's theme.
4. Prepare the profile of your visitors before training your agents. It’s important to understand your visitors demographic information , what time they come in and what the best way to talk to them is. There is no hard and fast rule for every chat that comes in, and an agent must be trained to understand the individual needs of every visitor rather than relying on canned messages.
5. Man the website 24/7 with live support agents. Nothing can be more destructive for your website than having live chat OFFLINE on your website. Use live chat support only if you have adequate resources to man your website 24/7, or at least at the time when you get 80% of the traffic. By placing live chat on a website, a business shows commitment to the visitor that they are available 24/7 for help. Just ask yourself how you would feel when you are looking for support and the live chat window forwards you to a contact form! If you do not have resources to setup agents inhouse, there are cost effective chat providers such as http://www.m2mlivesupport.com who provide agents 24/7 specifically trained for chat and customized to your specific business needs.
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By: mexicutioner | 26-04-2008
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