5 Innovative Ways to Implement Live Chat on Your Website

In case you don’t already know, things on the internet move incredibly fast and you only have a few seconds to capture someone’s attention before they move on to the next thing.

While live chat has been around for awhile now, businesses have been slow to adopt the technology. Most of the hesitation probably stems from it’s perception as purely a customer support tool. And while there is certainly a ton of potential in that area, livechat technology has much more to offer once you start to see the possibilities.

Here are five unique ways businesses can use live chat on their websites:

1. Personalized Customer Support

The first and probably most obvious use for live chat is for customer support. But don’t just give your visitors a generic message every time they visit your site.

With live chat, you can set up specific chat messages to appear on certain webpages. For example, if you are an ecommerce store selling outdoor gear and somebody lands on page about snowsuits, you can automatically send them a message asking if they need help selecting the right size or materials.

Personalized customer support works better than a generic “how can I help you today?” for several reasons:

1. It grabs the customers attention by being specific
2. It makes your messaging more relevant and increases engagement
3. It lets the customer know you understand their pain point

2. Multilingual Support

For companies that do business across the globe, having multilingual functionality on your website is an obvious necessity. But it doesn’t have to be limited to individual web pages. You can utilize live chat functionality to support customers who speak different languages.

There are several ways to do this. You can either look at their IP address to determine their geolocation and make an assumption, or you can simply ask visitors what their preferred language is before directing them to the appropriate representative.

3. Qualify Leads

Aside from customer support, one of the most popular uses for live chat that is also often included in a digital growth marketing stack is to qualify your leads before they reach the sales team. Initiating a live chat with new visitors is valuable for two main reasons:

1. It is more engaging than a simple form
2. It allows you to collect more detailed information that visitors would otherwise want to give out right away

Once your livechat has gathered all the right information, the agent who is manning the chat can assign these leads to the right salesperson and assign follow up tasks as appropriate.

4. Re-engage on 404 Pages

What do you do when you land on a nonexistent web page? Like most people, you will probably leave the site and find what you were looking for elsewhere.

Instead of leaving this as the primary option for your website visitors, you can set up a live chat to appear on 404 pages and re-engage your visitors. Lots of websites will do a similar tactic where they provide a list of links to recommended pages, but live chat adds a more personal and engaging touch.

So instead of just leaving your visitors to fend for themselves, you can be proactive and fire off a live chat as soon as someone lands on a 404 page. This will give you an opportunity to direct them to the content they were searching for and keep them on your site a bit longer.

5. Real-Time Counseling

This is a big one for organizations that provide counseling or rehabilitation of any kind – especially for drug addiction or suicide prevention.

In these circumstances, timing is extremely crucial and being able to respond at a moment’s notice is highly valuable. Livechat gives you the ability to respond to a request as soon as it comes in – when it matters the most.

An Evolving Technology

Live chat technology has evolved quite a bit over the years and businesses are now seeing it as a highly valuable business tool. No longer is it limited to answering customer support inquiries. So whether you are looking for ways to qualify leads, increase dwell time, or simply answer questions in real time, live chat has a lot to offer your business.