Whether you like it or not, live chat is used pretty extensively online in many different ways. Often it is large companies like AT&T or Hostgator.com who use live chat to answer the large volume of sales questions that are generated on their site.
But Live chat is becoming more common for smaller sites and blogs and so I’m wondering – do people like to have a live chat opportunity on a website they are visiting? And do they like to have it pop up right in their face over the page they are currently browsing?
Whether you like it or not, live chat is used pretty extensively online in many different ways. Often it is large companies like AT&T or Hostgator.com who use live chat to answer the large volume of sales questions that are generated on their site.
But Live chat is becoming more common for smaller sites and blogs and so I’m wondering – do people like to have a live chat opportunity on a website they are visiting? And do they like to have it pop up right in their face over the page they are currently browsing?
A More Interactive Internet
The internet is growing up and in recent years it has become more interactive than just viewing text and images that other people create. With the onset of social media, Google Hangouts, YouTube, and other new media outlets, a more interactive internet is being created and if smaller sites don’t adapt, they might be left in the dust.
One way to keep your site more interactive is adding a live chat option. While it can be a great addition to your site, it can be risky so there are some important things to keep in mind.
- Live chat is probably only worthwhile if you are selling something on your website. Questions that your visitors have can then be answered live on the page and the result should be higher conversions.
- Only use live chat if you will be available most of the time to chat. Live chat that is unavailable is often more annoying than not having it at all.
- How the chat appears on the page is vital. A popup can be very effective but annoying for some visitors. Some chat software like SnapEngage (the chat software I use) have very effective proactive chat options that can be customized and aren’t annoying for your visitors
My Experience
I’ve had a mixed experience with live chat on my website which is why I write this article asking questions and not necessarily giving all the answers.
On my site, WebEminence.com, for a long time I had live chat installed on every page of the site including blog posts so every time a visitor landed on blog post, a live chat box would pop up and ask people if they had any questions. I realized after two people within a 24 hour period told me to “$#% off that live chat on my blog is probably not the best idea.
Luckily, with SnapEngage and many other live chat software packages, you can customize the pages where live chat is active. So now I strategically place the proactive live chat on pages where visitors are reviewing my website services are likely to have questions that I can answer right away.
It has been extremely effective for me and over 80% of my prospects who become clients chat with me live on my website at some point. So the $30/month I spend to have a high-quality live chat application on my website is well worth the cost for me.
If you sell a product or service on your website and are getting considerable traffic to your website, it may be worth it to spend the time or money to install live chat on your site and measure the results. You may be surprised!