Are you about to start redesigning your website? Then it’s the perfect time to think about incorporating live chat. Here’s why.
A website redesign is one of the most significant, daunting and often overwhelming projects a marketer can undertake. With that said, when done right it can also be a whole lot of fun! We've found that many tackle their website redesign without considering how to incorporate live chat or their “conversational channel”. That’s a mistake; let me explain.
You may feel that chat can be added once the new site is live. And yes, of course you can, but why dismiss this increasingly important and revenue-generating customer touchpoint when you can optimise it?
Your website is your most important customer facing "facility", so you need to make sure visitors can engage once they get there. Fonts, layouts, navigation are all important aspects of your website redesign but with the ultimate goal of driving revenue, you need to ensure your visitors can take the next step.
Before we get into the reasons to incorporate live chat let's first unpack the “why” behind your redesign project.
What is your objective?
Without an objective, how can you measure success? First you need to clarify why you are undertaking this project, what you hope to achieve and how you will measure this. At the end of the day, a redesign comes at a cost and you will need to prove the ROI.
Depending on your business, measurable objectives could look like any of the following:
- Increase the number of product purchases by X%
- Double the number of qualified leads generated through your site
- Reduce bounce rate to X
- Increase website-generated revenue by X%
- Improve customer experience by reducing customer drop-off by X%
In reality, you may hope to achieve all of these objectives but increasing website-generated revenue should be your top priority , and chat is essential for this!
Here are 6 reasons why chat needs to be included during, not after, your website redesign.
Why include chat in your redesign
1. Chat centralises the customer experience (CX)
Your website is customer-facing, meaning their experience should be central.
So when building your online CX, questions like “What information do they want?”, “Can they find what they are looking for?”, “How do they like to communicate?” and “What is their buying process?” need to be thought through.
These are particularly important when building your navigation, landing pages, creating your content and call-to-actions.
With more than 40% expecting chat when visiting a website, this is one channel you cannot overlook. It is key to centring the needs of your customer.
You can read more about this here: 6 Ways Live Chat Improves Your Customer Experience.
2. Chat enhances your typical website metrics
Not only is chat an exceptional tool to enhance the customer experience of your website, but it has been proven to positively impact many typical website metrics you’ll use to track the health of your website such as reducing bounce rate and average session time.
When it comes to reporting on your rebuild ROI, your metrics will be better with chat than without.
>>> Galliard Homes is a prime case study of a company that saw the additional benefit to their SEO from the deployment of chat. They saw a reduction in bounce rate and increase in average time on site.
Additionally, when it comes to setting up Google Analytics goals you can incorporate chat conversions.
3. Chat builds trust and customer loyalty
Recent survey results suggest that businesses with live chat on their websites are more trustworthy. It also pays to have the human connection available 24/7, ensuring brand representation at all times.
With the incorporation of live chat, you are delivering on customer expectations (42% expect chat), valuing your customers time (73% of value this highest for customer service), and increasing customer satisfaction (global satisfaction of 83.1%). This in turn will enhance customer loyalty, advocacy and therefore the lifetime value of your customers.
According to Emarketer, 63% of consumers are more likely to return to a website that has live chat.
4. Chat is for every generation
Whilst it’s true that Millennials prefer live chat to any other form of communication, chat is for the more experienced generations as well. Research shows that every age group use live chat with usage expected to continue to increase within each demographic.
Just because your target persona sits within an older age range, chat is still highly valuable
5. Chat helps your sales team
No one enjoys managing the company inbox. It’s full of resumes, time wasters, simple questions and spam. Here is where chat can shine.
Built to redirect job seekers, handle time wasters and answer simple questions, chat frees up the sales teams' time to focus on what really matters - closing deals. And if your chat is set up to qualify leads (like SmartChat is), then conversion rates will improve due to a better customer experience and faster turnaround times.
This, in turn, improves team morale and reduces staff turnover (let your Head of People & Culture know), leading to reduced overhead costs and increased productivity! It’s a win-win.
6. Chat increases revenue
It may sound too simple but at its core, chat increases revenue. We’ve built an entire business around this.
59% of customers are more likely to buy from brands who can answer their queries within a minute and 53% of purchasers are more likely to become a return customer from a company with live chat. Add that to the enhanced customer experience and trust, a higher performing sales team and you’ll see increased revenue.
Curious to see these benefits yourself? Why not try our 14-day trial!
In summary
Your core objective when redesigning your website should be to increase revenue, and thanks to digital marketing tools, proving marketing ROI is easier than ever. Yes, we all want to enhance brand awareness, increase organic traffic, and provide a great customer experience but if that doesn’t ultimately boil down to enhancing the bottom line, what was the point?
So as you head off on your website redesign project, make sure to incorporate chat. When it comes to proving ROI, your future self will thank you for it.
