Learn reasons why customers prefer chat before and after purchase. And best in class practices to improve online sales and customer support with live chat. This presentation explores 1) Live Chat industry research 2) Online Sales 3) Shopping Cart Abandonment 4) Advantages of Chat 5) How to implement live chat 6) Quality Assurance metrics
Implementing Live Web Chat for Customer Service Google Hangout: http://youtu.be/_MIaFxFAO8A
Stratus Contact Solutions
http://stratuscontactsolutions.com
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3. World Internet Percentage Rates
by Geographic Regions – 2012 Q2
79%
of North
America is
Online
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4. Over 50% of US Internet Users
Shop Online
• Last year, 167 million people in the U.S. made online purchases
amounting to $200 billion in sales.
• Shopping cart abandonment rates normally average 72 percent.
– Last year, shopping cart abandonment was at 70 percent.
• 2012 Black Friday
– $1.04 Million in Online Sales
– Online Sales Up 28% from 2011
• 2012 Cyber Monday
– $1.47 Billion in Online Sales
– Online Sales Up 17% from 2011
5. US Internet Users‟ Expectations of
E-Commerce Sites (% of respondents)
Pricing/shipping information clearly stated
95.5%
Looks credible and trustworthy
76.5%
Product displayed on homepage
70.8%
Visually appealing
66.7%
Total cost calculator (shipping, tax, etc.)
59.1%
Online Users
Search function
Privacy statement
48.2% Have High
Onsite customer reviews/testimonials
45.5%
Expectations
40.9%
Online customer service (live chat)
32.5%
Links to social networks (Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
22.7%
Source: Oneupweb, „Revolutionizing Website Design: The New Rules of Usability‟,
6. Shopping Cart Abandoners are
Valuable
• Plan to conduct more online research before purchasing
• Online comparison shopping will become ever more commonplace
• 84% more likely to research online to ensure best price
• More likely to use voucher codes or look for them online
• Spending more online than those that do not abandon shopping carts
• Like to shop around before making a purchase
What this tells us is that visitors that abandoned
shopping carts are very valuable:
higher income customers that are more tech savvy, and use this Source: Forrester Research
knowledge to comparison shop and get better deals online.
7. Top 5 Causes for Shopping Cart
Abandonment
1. Shipping and handling costs were too high - 44%
2. I was not ready to purchase the product - 41%
3. I wanted to compare prices on other sites - 27%
4. Product price was higher than I was willing to pay -
25%
5. Just wanted to save products in my cart for later
consideration - 24%
8. Would you open a retail store with
no sales clerks?
Web Chat Services not only help improve shopping cart
abandonment, but also improve customer experience by
answering questions and providing peace of mind during
the shopping experience.
9. Chat Advantages
• 20% increase in online sales
• 25% decrease in operational cost
Service
• Customer satisfaction higher than other
channels Sales
• 90% + “Top 2 Box” CSAT
• 90% First contact resolution
• Agent productivity double than phone
• Preferred contact method
CHAT
Clients leveraging web chat solutions realize
higher or more advantages than phone
channel
10. Quality Assurance and Data
Analytics
Chat interactions provide valuable insight to businesses
to help improve marketing efforts, product development,
IT related challenges and existing business interactions.
• What obstacles to buying are your customers experiencing?
• How are your customers and prospects responding to your promotional
offers?
• Why are your customers not buying?
• What issues with service quality are your customers talking about?
• What are the primary customer objections (i.e. price, quality of the product,
service experience)?
• What is the marketplace saying about your products and prices?
11. Reasons for Customers to Chat –
Before Purchase
20% Top Reasons Why
PROMOTIONA Customers Chat
L OFFER 35%
QUESTIONS • Product Questions
PRODUCT
15% QUESTIONS • Shipping Questions
RETURN
POLICY • Return Policy Questions
QUESTIONS
30% • Promotional Offer Questions
SHIPPING
QUESTIONS
Answering questions before
purchase increases online
sales by 20% or more!
12. Reasons for Customers to Chat –
After Purchase
Top Reasons Why
12% Customers Chat
RETURN
POLICY 36% • How do I track my order
19%
HOW DO I
DELIVERY
TRACK MY • Copy of my online receipt
POLICY
ORDER?
• Delivery policy
6% 27% • Return policy
ACCOUNT
INFORMATION
COPY OF • Account information
MY ONLINE
RECEIPT
CSAT is higher and
operational costs lower
with chat!
13. Verbatim Chat Transcripts Provide
CSAT & DSAT
Average % CSAT vs.. DSAT - MTD
DSAT
19% Drill Down on the
Negative Surveys
CSAT Average MTD CSAT is
81% at 81% and DSAT at
19% 37%
37%
REASON
S OUT OF COACHING
AGENT WITHIN
Improved beyond canned response AGENT
CONTRO
Coaching Improved in discovering customer needs L 26% CONTROL
Improved in product knowledge ALERTS
WITHIN
More effectively answer customers‟ questions AGENT
Alerts Go above and beyond assisting customers CONTRO
L
Customer interaction savvy
Unavailability of the package that customer
Out of Agent wants
control Unable to resolve customer questions
Existing customer
14. Best-in-Class Performance for
Implementing Chat Services
1. Chat Strategy and Goals 4. Training
• What business needs am I • What is the most effective way
trying to address? to train new chat agents?
• Proactive vs.. Reactive chat? • Ongoing education and
• How will I define success? training?
2. Technology Selection 5. Ongoing Operations
• Which chat technology meets • How do I integrate my chat
our requirements? interactions into my quality
program?
3. Recruiting • How do I gather business
intelligence from the chat
• Implement internally or interactions?
outsource?
• How do I fix issues and
• What characteristics make a continually improve?
good chat agent? (hint: they
are very different than good
voice agents)
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15. Thank You
Jim Iyoob
Senior Vice President of Corporate Development, ILD Corp.
Jim.iyoob@ildmail.com
210-839-1020
Stratus Contact Solutions
San Antonio, TX
Confidential 15
Editor's Notes
UPDATEDConsumers are online! Over 272 million consumers online in North America.That is almost 25 million more consumers online than 2008 (248.2).
UPDATEDThat is over 78% of North America’s population. – which is a big jump from 2008 of 47% of North American consumers online.2008 – 47%2010 – 77.4% (shown)2011 – 78.3%It is projected to have a steady growth year after year. It’s not too late to get on board!
UPDATEDU.S. alone - 154 million of the online consumersspent more than $165 billion last yearYet, the shopping cart abandonment rate averages 70%. Wouldn’t it make sense to assist these consumers before they leave without purchasing?*Personal Shopping Experience Story*Have you ever gone online, found the product you’ve been looking for at what you thought was a great price, but you felt you needed a 2nd opinion? So you get up and go call a friend or talk to your wife later that evening only to find that after your much needed 2nd confirmation, the deal you found is gone? Your chat reps can be that 2nd opinion!
STILL CURRENTWhen implementing chat services on your website, there are several factors to keep in mind that your customers are looking for... As an example – over 95% of the information that your consumers are looking for is already on your website. But let me ask you this – is it easy to find?Consumers want the information NOWThis is how chat and chat web masters deliver excellent resultsIt’s fast food for the internetBottom-line: Functionality. Keep it simple—that goes for both back-end management as well as front-end usability. In other words, pick the platform that’s best suitable for your strategy. If online customer service – keep it serviceIf online sales – keep it sales
Nearly one half of shopping cart abandoners say that they plan to conduct more online research before purchasing in order to get the best price.As people abandon the shopping cart, they are going to competitors who may have chat and will capture their sales.As more website visitors become more experienced online, even more visitors will abandon their shopping carts, and online comparison shopping will become ever more commonplace.Website visitors that abandon shopping carts are also 84% more likely to research online to ensure they get the best price. Research. Why not give them an expert to chat live with?Highly educated, experienced and wealthy shoppers are more likely to use voucher codes or look for them online. Chat agent can offer the codes for them so there is no more searching and time spent not making the sale and increase AOVForrester found that web buyers that abandon shopping carts spend more online than those that don’t.More than two –thirds of shopping cart abandoners say they like to shop around before making a purchase. Reiterates how valuable it is to keep customersLook, if I can answer the shoppers questions in real time, do their comparisons for them in real time, keep them on my site and satisfied, they are more likely to make the purchase from me.
STILL CURRENTWe know through chat, we can talk to the consumer and explain to the customer why S&H costs are as is.We can tell them everything they need to know about the product to make them comfortable with the purchase.Chat agent can do the comparison for them and let them know how much it would be other places. – or compare quality.Chat agent is able to offer multiple discounts if needed.Doing this because they feel they have not found all the answers yet. Might want to discuss with someone else. With chat, we are that someone else.Incase someone asks about %s being over 100% - - this was a survey where people had the option to select more than one answer. And shown are the top 5.
Is your online store opened 24/7? Based on site traffic, you may consider “sales clerks” to be available 24/7.- Alright! Hopefully you’re as excited as I am about Chat! Now I’m going to share with you some basic metrics you should expect from a reputable partner…
All of the consumer questions are typically found somewhere on your site. But consumers do not want to search for them. They want the answers now! – and can get that with a live chat agent.- And if staffed properly and the proactive rule is implemented, your consumers hold time is less than 30 seconds. Fantastic compared to voice!
What is great compared to a phone call, is chat is verbatim. You can actually see everything that the consumer is saying and wants/needs.Ability to review chats vs. phone is more efficient. *Use 15 minute call sample.*
1a. Do not just put a button on the site. There is no strategy or goals set with this action and you will not see your ROI. 1c. Do you want to talk to all customers? Or just the ones that are interested in purchasing?2. Look at all options. They offer different specialties. Then pick the one that best suits what you are looking for.3a. This is a debate. Inhouse – ramp up time is approximately 6 months. Case Study – Experience out of gate. 3b. 99% of the time, beat the internal team because they are wanting to use their voice team for chat.4. Netiquette5. QA / MI