Just read an interesting paper on Live Help that was send to me. This paper, from ATG, offered some interesting stuff on live help. I will summarize the parts I liked best:
(1) According to Forrester Research, 66 percent of consumers do not apply for financial services online because they prefer to apply in person or over the phone, while 52 percent want human assistance to validate their decision (Source: "Getting More Financial Services Shoppers to Apply Online" Forrester Research, Inc., September 2008).
(2) What customer-centric organizations realize offering Live Help:
- reducing web site abandonment
- acquiring more customers
- increasing sales and form conversion rates
- increasing average order sizes and total sales
- increasing customer present value and lifetime value
- differentiating products and services
- accelerating customer sales cycles
- reducing contact center costs
- optimizing web site and live sales approaches
(3) Myth #1: Voice increases costs. Chat reduces costs.
(4) Myth #2: Voice is for sales. Chat is for service
[I think this is actually true, although ATG states it's a myth. When a question in a sales process is easy enough to handle by chat, my guess is that it can be handled by intelligent FAQ or virtual assistant as well. If you do not agree with my opinion, do not hesitate to react to this post!].
(5) Myth #3: Offering both chat and voice help is redundant - I don't need both.
[I agree that it's a myth; customers/visitors/buyers tend to have a preference for a certain channel, there fore companies should offer different channels to make sure abandonment of the sales process is not based on a missing channel].
(6) According to Gartner, web chats are only more cost-effective than voice calls when an agent can handle three or more chats at a time.
You probably knew some or even most of it already, but it is good to have confirmation once in a while.
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Hi Kees -
Thanks for your post - I'm glad felt the paper was insightful. I contributed to this paper (I'm the marketing director for ATG's live help products) and wanted to give some concrete examples of why Chat can absolutely be used for Sales. One of our customers is a major apparel retailer. They often get simple, quick, yet very personal questions about their merchandise which cannot always be handled by an FAQ. They have found Chat plus Voice delivers a higher ROI for Sales than just using Voice alone. This is mainly because their Chat agents can handle multiple, simultaneous Chats while still providing a high quality of service and helping online shoppers get the information they need quickly. Another customer of ours is more of a niche retailer but appeals to a wide age range of shoppers. They offer both Click to Call and Chat help, and find that younger buyers prefer Chat whereas their older demographic prefers Voice. Offering both options helps them close more online sales than just using Voice. Another customer is a major U.S. airline. They use Chat for both Sales & Service. Their Contact Center is trained to try to assist consumers online and use co-browse to show them how to buy online. This "sales & service" use of Chat helps close more sales but also helps customers get familiar with booking online so that the Contact Center can increases first contact resolution. These are just a few examples, but I hope they shed some light on how Chat can be used effectively for both sales & service.
-Ryan Hoppe, ATG
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