What is online chat, and why should we care about it?

Online communication is one of the most colourful souvenirs of the Internet for the people of the world. Using this platform opened the door to all the people on earth, and they could talk directly with people they have never met in their lifetime. The Internet created a channel to transmit world thoughts. In the meantime, businesses also removed their luggage from this communication field. But were they successful in this? In this article, we will go to the topic of “online chat” on websites and find out the intricacies of this story.

What things are we supposed to learn together?

• Our knowledge of online chat increases
• We read the story of saving a site using an online chat service
• We compare ticket sending and online chat

Online chat on the site means what?

If you own a website, you must agree that out of thousands of daily visits, only a tiny percentage of them do what they want – for example, purchase, register on the site, read an article or see the pages they want. The task of this section is clear to the users because they agree with us and enjoy the same thing we want. But what about other users? Is there a way to redirect them to the sections we want? There are many ways to attract and direct users who do not perform the process; we are looking for a call to action. One of those ways that create a direct connection with users is “Online Chat”.

Why is it vital to have an online chat section on the site?

Let us clarify this with an example. Imagine you enter a boutique full of different designs and colours to buy a shirt. No one is inside the store, but there is a POS in front of it, and right above it is written on a piece of paper: “Swipe card to pay.” First, this issue is not very important to you, and the lack of a seller does not bother you much.

You say: “This must be the model of this shop!” With a big smile, you go to the clothes, choose one or two, and put them on. Ironically, the dress you like and have selected from after going up and down the store has one button missing! Now the situation is different, and you must find someone to help you.

You keep turning your eyes and measuring the shop to find a living thing in the shop, but nothing. What are you doing now? Most likely, you will leave the store and look for another store. If you had entered a store that had several skilled salespeople from the beginning, you would have made your purchase much easier and faster instead of wasting your time looking for a salesperson.

A website without an online chat service has a similar situation. It doesn’t matter what the topic of your site is. Because unless you use a proper support system to communicate with your users, you will lose a lot of potential customers.

Online chats impact on websites: a true story

About two years ago, when I was working in an online store, together with my colleagues, we implemented a campaign to increase the sales of the site’s products. All the statistics showed us that we did our job right and attracted many users to the site. But despite this, users’ behaviour did not lead to purchases. They would log in, see a page, and leave. Some even added the product to their shopping cart but did not complete their purchase. Almost no one contacted the store, and most users eventually left the site after three minutes. It was so confusing for us. We did not know why this was happening.

We asked ourselves: “Are our products expensive?” Is there a problem with the shipping method? Or maybe the problem is more profound than these words, and our product is not attractive!”

When the answer is in our hands, but we do not know!

The solution to this issue was much more straightforward than we thought. When we activated the site’s online chat, things changed completely. Users welcomed this very much, and their trust in the website increased. On the other hand, among these conversations, we noticed some of the site’s shortcomings. For example, there was little explanation about some products. After correcting this process and maintaining our relationship with users, the site’s sales increased.

Sometime after this incident, we decided to implement an idea on the site. After starting the campaign, based on which page the user is on the site, we would take the lead and give him the first message ourselves. For example, if the user were on the product page, we would send him a series of explanations and additional information not on the product page. Following this process, at least 60% of the users entered the conversation, and the site’s sales increased significantly.

Our work was different because we surprised the user with a customized question. Because most of the sites used repetitive and basic questions like this in their online chat section: “If you have any questions, ask us.” Our goal in running this campaign was to engage all users and attract potential customers; We wanted the cost, time and effort we spent on advertising to have an actual and acceptable result, which fortunately happened. I can safely say that if we had not launched the online chat service, we would not have achieved this success.

Sending the internet user to the real world is not a good idea.

An essential point that most website owners miss is the issue of their business being online. A user who goes online shopping and wants to use online services has little desire to communicate directly with the website’s support department. If you don’t consider this and ask the user to call you, send an email or spend time and enter his information on the contact us page to get a quote or receive support services, you will quickly lose many of your customers. These days, even giving Telegram ID to users has its problems. The best thing is if you are going to help him, do it in the same area of the site.

Send a ticket or chat online? Which one?

The ways of online communication with the audience are not limited to chat. You can also communicate with your users using the “Ticket” system. In this system, users enter their questions, and we answer them. Although this story takes place inside the site, there is no possibility of instant question and answer with the user in this method. All these conversations continue by maintaining a time interval.

We used the support ticket submission service on one of our sites and continued it for a month. The result was exciting for us. Because compared to the online chat service, users were less willing to send their questions. Perhaps one of the reasons for such behaviour is their experience of chatting; they do very easily online and get their answer without delay. Finally, we are also back to the online chat service.

Here is a summary of what we said together in the online chat:

• “Online chat” is a way to communicate directly with site users.
• Having an online chat system increases customer conversion rates.
• Setting up an online chat system isn’t just about increasing sales or service delivery. With this system, you will be aware of the hidden problems of your collection.
• Consider online chat a non-convertible feature and separate it from phone calls or face-to-face meetings.
• The desire of users to chat online is more than to send a ticket. Remember this point.