Out of all the ways customers can get in touch with businesses, few are more convenient than live chat:
- They don’t have to pick up a phone.
- They don’t have to send out an email and wait hours to hear back.
- They don’t even have to fill out a form where they disclose all their contact information in exchange for a response.
For customers, live chat is simple, and convenient, and allows them to get quick answers to their most pressing questions without requiring a ton of effort.
And if your live chat is connected to a knowledge base or FAQ page, customers might not need to chat with an actual human unless necessary,
As technology evolves, most customers are not willing to wait extra minutes or even seconds to get an answer to their questions when they know your competitor could answer that question almost instantly.
The days of calling and waiting on hold for an available operator are over. With live chat, customers can get in touch with your business instantly, increasing their chances of following through with the interaction rather than dropping off midway through. Compared to 61% for email and 44% for phone, live chat boasts an impressive satisfaction rate of 73%.
Business owners are often encouraged to look at their business from the customer’s perspective, so think about it:
Let’s say you were a customer about to hire your company to solve a plumbing, HVAC, electrical, fencing, or any type of problem that requires techs in your home, but you had a question while on the website and you need an answer asap, which would be faster –
- Send an email
- Fill out a contact form
- Call the phone and hope that whoever answers the phone can answer your question ASAP
- Live chat with an admin who can answer your questions immediately
Now that you know how important live chat is for customers, let’s list 5 reasons why live chat is very important for your home service business.
1. Live Chat Helps With Lead Capturing
Unlike long and boring contact forms, live chats are a great way to generate leads for your business, while your contact form is a great lead-generation tool, not all customers like filling out contact forms. Most live chats start with a “form” requesting the website visitors to fill in their name and email address either before connecting them to an agent or as a way to follow-up with customers who try to contact you during non-working hours.
Your sales or marketing team can also nurture these leads until they are ready to convert to paying customers
2. Live Chat Helps You Remember Past Conversations
Most Live chat software can save and remember conversations, if your live chat is connected to a CRM you can look up past conversations with the customer to get a quick overview of who the customer is, past questions they’ve asked, pages on your website they visited, etc.
This is very important because according to Customer Think, approximately 72% of customers expect customer support agents to remember their contact information and their past conversations. Imagine having to remember these without a live chat software?
3. Live Chat Increases Customer Engagement
When you make live chat readily available, you’ll likely see an increase in interactions. While some of that may be customers who switch to using chat instead of email/phone support, a portion of the growth will be people who found chat and realized they could get help instead of giving up and possibly ditching your product altogether.
With increased customer engagement comes a chance to make a good impression and give customers a reason to stick around. To add to the inviting feel, set up your chat tool to display your sales/marketing/admin/CSR name and photo (if possible), and most importantly use a friendly, conversational chat style. No one wants to chat with a customer rep or agent that sounds like the most boring press conference ever.
4. Live Chat = Less Frustrated Customers
No one likes to explain the issue they’re having or the help they need over and over again. It’s frustrating to customers and almost guarantees that they’ll choose the next guy over your business.
While phone calls often require either the customer or the agent to repeat the question to be sure everyone is on the same page, with live chats there’s no need for that. The agent simply needs to scroll up to see the customer’s question to better understand the issue the customer needs help with.
Even better, most live chat software allows both parties to send screenshots and links so that everyone is on the same page. This directly equals less frustrated customers and less stressed customer reps AKA live chat agents.
5. Live Chat Helps You Understand Your Customers
After having live chat on your website for a while, you will start to notice patterns in the types of questions people are asking.
- Do you keep getting requests to chat about your hours?
- How to book an appointment?
- Do customers often ask if your business is insured?
You’ll even know what pages on your website most website visitors start the live chat from, is it your pricing page, your About page, or your services page? Something in there might not be clear enough hence the need to contact an agent to get clarity.
Whatever your most common questions are, live chat will give you valuable insight into what kind of information prospective customers want to know, and it will allow you to add content to your website accordingly.
Now that you know how important live chat is, add one to your website. Even better contact us to have a Pink Callers Customer Service Rockstar (CSR) manage your live chat messages and follow-ups.
You’re already great at providing expert home services for your customers. That’s why you’re in business! But, while you’re out solving your customer’s problems, it can be easy to forget other important parts of running a successful business, like responding to customer queries, scheduling appointments, collecting payments, and following up on leads.
Whether it’s due to a shortage of skilled workers, or limited operating hours, Pink Callers can step in to help.
How Pink Callers Can Help
You’re already great at providing expert home services for your customers. That’s why you’re in business! But, while you’re out solving your customer’s problems, it can be easy to forgo other important parts of running a successful business, like responding to customer queries, scheduling appointments, collecting payments, and following up on leads. Whether it’s due to a shortage of skilled workers, or limited operating hours, Pink Callers can step in to help.
Pink Callers Customer Service Rockstars (CSRs) can man the scheduling and customer service front while you handle the more important stuff. You do what you do best while your CSR handle:
- Phone Services: Answer all inbound calls & make associated outbound calls & tasks each week.
- CRM Input: All leads are placed into your CRM.
- Email Monitoring: Receiving and responding to all Emails.
- Tools & Communication: Trello for all your information, and Slack to connect your team.
- Management & Oversight: Training and support of your CSR by a leadership team.
Reach out to us today to learn more about how our CSRs can help you grow your business, and stand out in the industry. Call us on (888) 325-7465 or fill out the Contact Form to find out how Pink Callers can help your Home Service Business.