Picking Up On Customer Anxiety: When to Trigger Live Chat
If customers linger for a while on your help page, or in the checkout process, or any other area of your site, it may indicate a customer has some anxiety (or got up to get a coffee and a donut).
This is a good idea from an Internet Retailer article on how to employ live chat profitably:
Orvis invites customers to chat only when they are on certain pages, such as customer service. “We have a lot of stuff on the customer service page,” Wolansky says. “If 15 seconds go by and you’re still on that page, you’re probably looking for something and haven’t found it.”
Orvis also offers chat to customers lingering on the checkout page. But Orvis does not offer chat on product pages, where visitors may linger reading reviews, examining photos, watching videos and comparing products. “Sitting there for a long time is not an indication you have a problem,” Wolansky says. “I don’t want to bother you.”
With the help of web analytics, retailers can map out the typical paths taken by customers who buy, and identify deviations that indicate a visitor is likely to leave, says Kevin Kohn, executive vice president of marketing at chat provider LivePerson Inc. If a lot of visitors abandon after two minutes on a particular page, he says “when someone’s there for a minute, 45 seconds, it’s not a bad idea to reach out offering assistance.”
Like This Article?
|
Get New Posts Delivered to You
|
Add to del.icio.us
Sphinn It!
Stumble It
As long as you have the staff for live chat you should be employing the Orvis ideas on your website.
Live chat can definitely turn potential customers away. I have never been so annoyed as when I went on Rackspace’s website (we’re not only already customers, but also Rackspace solutions partners) and every page I visit, I get a popup asking me if I want to chat.
If you utilize live chat, by all means make it AVAILABLE on every page, but don’t force it on your visitors. Maybe if they’ve been on customer service or the shopping cart for very long, ask them if they need help (once). But don’t ask on every page… it might actually hurt your conversions.
I’m with Brandon; discretion is important. Don’t let online help become the annoying salesperson who keeps dogging you, and ends up chasing you out of the store.
Beware the infamous Microsoft paperclip… ;)
I think you need to put code in all page if you want analytic for all pages!!
And PLEASE stay away from those annoying “Live Chat” windows that pop up and float around the screen! Why do you have information on your site if you don’t want me to read it?
Great work, well researched