Why Should You Incorporate Live Chat Software with Directory Websites

If you manage a directory website, you may be wondering why you should bother incorporating live chat software. Almost all website visitors will leave a site without taking any action if they don’t find a way to connect. Incorporating live chat software on directory websites can help increase leads and conversions by providing a way for visitors to get the information they need in real-time.

Directory websites can be a great weapon to be used as a medium of marketing, B2B communication, and advertising for businesses and organizations. If you already own a directory website, you may already know that there are three main types of audiences any directory website targets; directory owner, business listing owner, and individuals.

Whether you want to charge businesses for listing their products or services on your directory site or sell paid membership to specific target groups, conversion followed by communication with your audience is a must. Otherwise, it becomes difficult to sustain the initiative.

Live chat can play a vital role in both scenarios. In order to take your target audience through a perfect sales funnel, you need to establish first-hand communication with your TG. Live chat acts as the bridge between you and your prospective customers and facilitates conversion.

In this article, we’ll look at why live chat software is important for a directory website, how it can help raise conversion rates, and what are some of the most popular live chat tools available in the market.

Live Chat Software and Its Importance in Business

Live chat is a type of online communication tool that is typically installed on a website to allow for two-way communication between businesses and customers. Messages sent via Live Chat can contain links, images, and documents.

Visitors to your directory website can interact with your company by using live chat to ask questions. The reply comes from an agent who could be sitting anywhere in the world. You can solve customers’ problems faster and improve customer satisfaction.

This way, customers receive responses much faster than they would via email or support tickets, which can take hours or even days to process. The interactive nature of live chat and its quick response makes it an ideal communication channel for customer support on directory websites.

Following are some interesting facts about live chat for businesses: 

• Customers are 63% more likely to return to a website that offers live chat than one that does not.
• One of the most important things a website can offer, according to 44% of people who buy things online, is the ability to talk to a real person when they have questions.
• 38% of customers said they bought something because of the chat.

By looking at the statistics at hand, it is clear that live chat plays an important role in modern-day online business. Customers like live chat because it is fast, and their issues can get resolved quickly. 

For businesses, it is cost-effective. The ROI is much higher than traditional methods, and also building a rapport for being a customer-friendly organization is easier.

How Does Live Chat Increase Online Sales Conversions?

Big or small, whatever the size be, are using live chat as a tool for increasing their sales. Live chat, apart from being a customer communication tool also helps businesses with important insights which can be used to convert more visitors into customers. Let us see how this happens:

Consumers love it if there is someone to listen

Over the last few decades, customers have been through all sorts of support experiences. From barging into a physical store for after-sales service to modern-day live chat, businesses implemented various methods to serve customers.

These days, as modern eCommerce is taking over most of the traditional business models, live chat is becoming the go-to tool for many businesses.

Consumers love live chat because it is fast, accurate, and effective. It enables them to share whatever query or thought is going on in their mind before, during, or after a purchase. 

Customers prefer a direct method

As more and more businesses transition to online, physical stores are on the decline. Without a physical store, it becomes difficult for customers to interact with a business.

Live chat acts as a medium to offer direct communication between customers and businesses. Without wasting time here and there, they can directly ask the business whatever question they may have in their mind.

It saves time on both ends

Live chat is the fastest communication method between businesses and customers, period. Customers need not to wait long hours for their issues to get noticed, let alone be resolved.

Businesses also do not need to spend long hours to establish connections with customers and fix their issues afterward. Both parties are benefitted from this mutual communication.

Usage is increasing

More and more businesses are switching to live chat every day. Also, more customers are using live chat for customer support at the same time.

Live chat is becoming the new ecosystem for handling customer queries and support. And this paradigm shift is creating a big pressure on businesses that do not offer live chat support yet. 

When a customer starts browsing a website for purchasing a certain item and finds that live chat is available, it creates a positive impact in his/her mind. This affects purchase behavior to a large extent.

It is easier to create a satisfied and loyal customer base 

Long-term customers who are satisfied are statistically less likely to switch. They also have a lower price sensitivity. Customers who feel taken care of are less concerned with the price they pay.

Customers are more likely to share their positive experiences with your company if they feel their voice is heard and they can speak with someone behind the scenes.

As a result, they will return to your establishment whenever they feel the need.

7 Reasons Why Live Chat Is the Most Powerful Sales Generation Tool for Directory Websites

If you own a directory website, chances are almost all of your customers are available only online. In that case, it is crucial that you deploy a certain mechanism to convert your site visitors into buyers. Live chat can certainly come in handy in this case. It is arguably the most powerful sales generation tool. Let us see why:

1. Fast communication

Nobody enjoys waiting for a response, and the automated responses are even worse. Customers appreciate the easy, friendly shopping experience created by live chat because it provides quick, personalized assistance.

According to a study conducted by J. D. Power, one of the most trusted online sources for marketing research, live chat is what people want when they visit an online store.

With live chat installed on your website, it becomes extremely easy to cater to the queries of your customers on the go. Since there is no lag and customers can get their queries answered instantaneously, this improves customer satisfaction.

2. Increase conversion rates

Live chat allows a more personal and direct form of communication provided for businesses. This helps create instant relationships. In the long run, these relationships become deeper, creating loyal customers and further revenue on the back of them.

Customers are more likely to share their positive experiences with your company if they feel their voice is heard, and they can speak with someone behind the scenes.

3. Reduced expenses

Live chat is less expensive than a good email provider and much less expensive than phone support. This is due to the fact that live chats allow your support or sales teams to multitask and assist multiple visitors at the same time. 

This live chat feature, known as chat concurrency, saves B2B lead generation companies a significant amount of money on personnel costs by allowing a small team of live chat agents to serve the same number of customers as a larger team of phone support employees.

4. Capturing leads

You can integrate your live chat software with customer relationship management (CRM) tools. Integrating live chat with CRM tools allows you to collect and save data from website chat conversations with visitors.

Here are some examples of how CRM integration can affect live chat lead generation.

• You get a clear picture of the customer journey and can provide better sales support.
• When visitors start chatting on your website, they are regarded as potential leads. You can generate more sales leads with higher conversions by using live chat sales data throughout your funnel.
• Allows your sales representatives to gain a deeper understanding of each customer’s history. You can instantly resolve sales queries, which increases conversion.

The sales process is improved by CRM tools because the team does not have to look for the information needed to engage customers.

5. Sales automation

You can effectively collect relevant data that helps your business improve services and personalize individual customer journeys by using the best live chat software solution.

You can easily determine which pages of your website are frequently visited using live chat automation. And, if you know which ones have the highest conversion rates, you can send them proactive live chat invitations. 

This way, you’ll be able to instantly connect qualified visitors to your sales department.

6. Generate sales

Recognize that your customers are looking for a solution, something that will assist them in overcoming a challenge. Nothing delights customers more than immediate response and resolution.

When compared to other traditional support channels such as phone and email, live chat provides greater speed and accuracy. A company can gain a competitive advantage over others in the market by incorporating more customer support platforms that make it appear more approachable.

That means you can interact with customers as they move through your live chat sales funnel in real-time.

Furthermore, sales chat software allows you to approach visitors and tap into their thought processes by understanding their browsing behavior.

7. Better website experience

Assume something is wrong with a product you ordered, the delivery was late, or you require one specific piece of information to be certain. 

Or maybe you want to buy a piece of information from a website and their pricing model is unclear to you. Which option would you prefer?

Waiting for two hours in a call-center line or two days for an e-mail response? Or just 46 seconds if you use live chat? This is the average time it takes for businesses to respond to channel requests.

Adding a live chat to your website improves customer service and provides a much better experience for your customers. If live chat is used correctly, visitors convert to customers, and customers become loyal brand ambassadors.

7 Best Live Chat Software for Directory Websites

Now that you know quite a bit about live chat and how it contributes to an online business, let us explore some of the best live chat services available in the market:

ThriveDesk

ThriveDesk is an easy-to-use, low-cost live chat software ideal for small businesses and startups. It has a shared inbox, live chat, reporting, a community forum, a knowledge base, and an email signature generator. 

If your company sells products, services, or information on its website, ThriveDesk is the most convenient way to manage all of your client tickets. You can enable live chat, reporting, check order status, update or cancel an order, and much more with ThriveDesk.

ThriveDesk comes with all the necessary features along with some amazing extras that help small and medium businesses thrive with their customer support. All the premium features of other live chat tools are available in ThriveDesk Free Plan for businesses to check things out. 

Additionally, ThriveDesk is always evolving keeping in mind the ever-changing industry demands.

Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
i. Premium features at the most affordable price ii. Efficient app integration support. iii. You can access all your emails through the shared inbox. iv. Automated replying from the knowledge base to keep things simple and hassle-free.	i. No quality mobile app support yet.

Gorgias

Gorgias is a one-stop solution for merchants who need customer service, support, and a live chat help desk all in one place.

The solution works with Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, and WooCommerce. It has a comprehensive feature set that includes email integration, autoresponders, ticket management, and intent detection.

Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
i. Easy integration with Shopify. ii. Conversations with personalized tags. iii. Intent detection (you can define customer intent such as shipping, refund, exchange, and so on).	i. The interface is difficult to use. ii. There is a steep learning curve. iii. Not the best option for eCommerce collaboration features — transferring a live conversation to another rep is difficult.

Zendesk

Zendesk is a large and well-known CRM service provider that offers a comprehensive live chat solution.

Zendesk’s real-time chat feature allows you to start targeted and customer behavior-driven chats, send files, ask customers to rate chats, change the company logo, and much more.

Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
i. Real-time view of visitors. ii. It can be used on several websites simultaneously. iii. Lots more integrations.JavaScript API.	i. Outdated interface and chat widget design. ii. The free plan has very limited features and is not of much use. iii. Advanced reporting is limited.

Intercom

Since 2011, Intercom has been one of the best live chat applications available.

It is positioned as a conversational connection platform that facilitates the development of customer relationships via live chat. Intercom provides better conversational support through proactive chat, self-service options, and human assistance.

Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
i. Well-designed and user-friendly. ii. Best-suited for enterprise-size organizations. iii. The knowledge base is quite diverse. iv. Robust API and lots of integrations.	i. Expensive for smaller businesses.

Fresdesk

Freshdesk is a cloud-based customer support solution that allows you to interact with customers via a variety of channels.

Campaigns, sales bots, integrated self-service, intelligent message routing, canned responses, customizable branding, and supportive integrations are among its many features.

Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
i. Excellent customer service. ii. Free plan is available. iii. Integration with WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and LINE apps is simple. iv. Tools for tracking productivity.	i. Expensive. ii. Users report notification lagging. iii. Lacks customization in the customer portal.

Olark

Olark is simple, highly customizable, and one of the most affordable options for small businesses.

You can change the colors, position, and shape of chat boxes, as well as add welcome text and a customer support agent photo, as well as integrate with CRM software, using a slew of automation features.

Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
i. The user interface is extremely easy to learn and to use.  ii. Advanced chat widget customization options. iii. Affordable pricing.Lots of integrations.	i. Not suitable for multichannel messaging. ii. No mobile app.

Drift

Drift is yet another live chat platform that focuses on lead generation and qualification and has a robust integrations library.

It is a powerful piece of software that provides conversational communication on websites, with features such as smart notifications, email playbooks, saved replies, enriched data, and activity history.

Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
i. Lead generation and productivity features.  ii. Reporting dashboard.Ease of use.Lots of integrations.	i. Cannot be used for multiple teams. ii. Lack of pricing transparency.

How to Identify a Powerful Sales Generating Live Chat Software for Directory Websites?

While choosing a live chat software for your business, it is crucial to consider some of the features available within the software. Following are some important aspects to consider:

Make sure the connection is instantaneous

As we have already discussed, the reason customers love live chat is that it facilitates an instantaneous solution to their problems. Customers can simply knock the business using live chat and any agent available on the business side can answer accordingly.

Therefore, it is important to make the live chat you are using is transferring data in real-time. Any lag caused by any kind of technical reason is not appreciated. It may cause cart abandonment and a high bounce rate.

The scope for personalization

Who does not like to receive special treatment! Customers are no different. In fact, customers like businesses that offer personalized products/services based on their specific needs.

The chat software you choose for your directory site should have personalization options. Your agents should be able to see the previous purchase history of the customer along with the page visit style.

This way, whenever a customer asks for something, they can receive a response in a more personalized manner.

Easy access to doc or Knowledge Base

Apart from keeping your customers happy all the time, you should also keep in mind that your support agents are not a robot. 

The easier it is for them to respond to the query of a customer, the more relaxed they will be. Their job satisfaction will likely increase, and so will their productivity.

Easy access to doc/knowledge base makes the job of the agents easy. Instead of having long and boring conversations with customers regarding technical matters, they can simply hand out links to doc files or a knowledge base that will serve as a reference point for solving the issue. They will also be able to serve more customers in a small amount of time.

Integration with other software

Live chat software that offers integration with other software facilitates the process of running multiple business operations simultaneously. It increases efficiency to a large scale and saves lots of time.

Business owners are always busy taking care of important things. In order to run a business online, many mission-critical processes need to work together at the same time. 

The live chat tool that easily integrates with other social media platforms saves time and makes serving customers on multiple platforms easier. 

If you find that it also offers integration with your project/team management tool, then you will not be required to go back and forth for every update. The same is true for your team members.

File upload 

From time to time, customers/agents may need to upload files to give to each other. For example, a customer wants to share a screenshot of the issue or the support agent wants to send a special software package to the customer. 

In both cases, it is essential for the live chat software to allow file sharing by file upload. One might suggest cloud storage links, but for that, both parties will be required to use an additional tool. Everyone likes a comprehensive solution within one single platform.

Teammate routing

Your agents might fall sick or be unavailable due to some personal reasons. Someone else from the team should still be able to continue the conversation and serve a specific customer. 

This allows both flexibility and better service within the team. A live chat that does not allow team collaboration will definitely fall short in the long run. 

As an admin of the shared inbox, you can also take over any conversation if you feel this is a high-ticket customer, and it needs closing ASAP.

Reporting

What gets measured, gets improved. Hence, it is crucial to be able to monitor the performance of your agents. The important insight a live chat app provides to the user helps determine many improvement areas. 

Some agents might need some training, and others may need some warning. You should also be able to determine how many satisfied customers you have served over a specific period of time.

Wrapping Up

If you are still unsure about incorporating live chat into your directory website, consider conducting a test run. There are numerous live chat tools that provide a free version.

When you have more knowledge and experience, you can upgrade to a paid plan. But keep in mind that your competitors are also out in the wild.

Live chat is an excellent way to increase conversion rates for your company. You will see it yourself if you optimize your website with the right live chat support tool. To reap the ultimate benefit of your efforts, the right things must be in the right places and all should work in harmony.