The essential tool that cannot be dismissed when starting an online business. Live chat is considered as a sales support tool to help you increase the conversion rate on your website over time. However, some business owners responded that although they have used live chat to chat directly with potential customers, it has not been effective.

To answer the question: Does live chat on the website convert leads and increase conversion rate? The article below will analyze based on scientific and psychological data to help business owners use live chat effectively.

Define Chat as a Conversion Optimizer

In the past, businesses used advertising to direct customers to call their hotlines. Customers will contact a salesperson for advice and close the sale.

Today, customers will consult a website before they speak directly to a consultant. It can be said that the website will help reduce the questions that need to be answered by staff. From there, businesses will be able to save on personnel costs. However, customers do not always go to the website and buy immediately. Statistics show that, on average, only 2% convert website visitors into inquiries or orders.

However, installing live chat on the website will overcome these weaknesses because customers will be able to talk, consult and answer questions with staff at the moment they are accessing the website. Besides, with live chat, businesses won't need to worry about cost, time or resources for A/B tests or landing page optimization.

If you plan to follow up, you'll find between 10% and 50% of all visitors interact with employees through A/B tests. Usually, if done properly, 1/3 of them will turn into leads or even buy your goods/services.

Live chat can sometimes slow down conversions

If you think that interacting and talking with customers via live chat always brings good results, you are wrong. We can understand this through psychological analysis. Customers find your website when searching Google. Then, they visit the website and see the live chat button automatically appear.

However, proactively reaching out to customers can have negative results. Live Chat automatically displayed in front of customers can distract users from the shopping experience.



Which website is suitable for setting up live chat?

Any website in any industry can set up live chat. However, each website will have a different implementation. The easiest way to track ROI is lead acquisition rate from chats, signup growth and sales are also essential but the process is more complicated than you think.

– If a website has a conversion rate of 5% or more, do not use the live chat feature until you have done the data analysis.

– If a website has a 2-5% conversion rate, you need more data to consider (see more below).

– If a website has a conversion rate below 2%, install live chat immediately.

Data collection

This data-driven approach works well for websites that convert well. You may have noticed that the home page is a likely place to have a high conversion rate, but the “About Us”, “Price” or “Contact Us” pages don’t convert so well.

Here is a list of data you need to check regarding live chat:

Make a list of all the main pages on your website that are likely to attract potential customers.

– Find the conversion rate for each page, broken down by the rate during and after office hours.

– For each page, find the average time it takes a customer to request or press the subscribe button. For example, from the time someone lands on a page, it takes an average of 25 seconds for them to start filling out the questionnaire, and they submit it within 50 seconds. This information can be found through Google Analytics.

Who are your customers?

Drawing customer portraits will save you time and avoid wasting resources on non-potential customers. Here are the questions you need to answer:

Question 1: What countries are potential customers from? Where do non-potential customers come from?

Question 2: What pages on the website will interest potential customers and which are likely to waste their time.

Question 3: Which pages on your website require a login? This will help limit showing live chat to old customers.

How to choose the right live chat software?

Currently, there are many live chat platforms, the most common go to platforms are the one that offers free live chat trial. You need to consider the following factors to make a decision to choose the right platform.

– Proactive greetings with custom scenarios.

- Can be used with mobile devices.

- Chat utility works on mobile apps.



To conclude

Live Chat will always be a great tool for you to interact with your visitors if you know how to implement it. Determine why you want to use live chat ( leads, conversions, customer support) and take the right approach. We hope this article can help you with choosing the suitable automation service for your business.