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Benefits Of Live Chat: Lead Generation

June 10, 2021
June 10, 2021

There are many benefits of live chat and many ways in which it can improve site performance. We package our services into 3 programmes: Increase Conversion, Customer Service and Lead Generation.

Each with their own focus (you can probably guess which does what), we seek to improve a certain area of our client’s website performance. The programmes do of course occasionally intertwine for clients though.

This blog post will explain the benefits of live chat, and in particular how live chat can be used to improve online lead generation.

Front-line lead generation

Plain and simple, a dedicated lead generation team at your front-line, your website. B2B buyers’ most popular method of finding information about a company they are looking to buy from (47%) is directly from the seller’s website.

Having a live chat team there to assist potential leads and provide answers to their questions means that they don’t have to be left to stumble around on your website on their own. A conversation can begin right at the start of their buying journey. A higher percentage of site visitors can be generated into leads.

Lead generation through live chat means that you don’t have to wait for them to begin communication. They’ve come to your site, now start the conversation with a well timed chat and well written invite and the biggest step of lead generation has been taken.

Build trust

When there isn’t a tangible store or business office in front of a potential buyer it’s difficult for them to trust you.

To them, you could be anyone hiding behind that well designed website. Trust badges work. As do real customer reviews. A quick Google of anyone’s company can throw up some skewed negative views however.

Live chat means that the human element of your business can be brought to your website. People buy from people and if you’re able to chat with a real person, you can better trust a business online. LivePerson’s Connecting With Customers Report said that 41% of online users are more likely to trust a brand if live chat is available.

Direct confused prospects

If a prospect is having trouble finding an answer on your site, who’s to say they’ll call/email for the answer? As I mentioned earlier, most B2B buyers head to your website before picking up the phone. They like to do their research before making any kind of commitment or handing over their details.

One of the benefits of live chat is that it is less of a commitment for the prospect. There’s the opportunity for a chat to begin without any information being handed over, so prospects are happy to chat with you to get the answer which they can’t find.

Once they’ve been given a quick and courteous answer they’ll no doubt be happy for the conversation to develop with your live chat agent. Your live chat agent can set about explaining the benefits of your product/service, qualifying them and turning them into a fully fledged qualified lead.

Lead ranking

Many organisations find that their sales team are made inefficient by wasting their valuable time on cold or unqualified leads. Leads need to qualified and prioritised by your marketing team so that this doesn’t occur. This can sometimes be difficult though, prospects come through a range of funnels and some are insecure about handing out too many details. It can also sometimes be a laborious process for your marketing team. They’re hardly motivated to prioritise leads.

Did you know that on average only 25% of leads are legitimate and should advance to sales? Another, of the many, benefits of live chat is that a lead can be qualified, prioritised and sent to the right department all in the space of one chat.

Live chat can be a place where potential leads are much more willing to reveal information about themselves. A chat is informal and prospects don’t even realise that they are being qualified and ranked as they type.

Increase form completion

Got a long form which you need prospects to complete in order to get a quote, sign-up for further information or request a call back? What are your form completion rates like?

If a form completion is an important part of lead nurturing or qualification at your company, you’ll be happy to know that benefits of live chat also include increased form completion. You can read more about how live chat can increase form completion from our blog post on the matter here.

The long and short of it however is that site visitors can have confusing fields explained to them and insecurities surrounding data usage cleared up. Live chat can also be used to replace form completion entirely.

So that’s our blog post explaining some of the benefits of live chat from a lead generation perspective. If you’d like to hear more about our lead generation programme, feel free to read more about it under the “How We Can Help” tab or start a chat with one of our UK and US based live chat agents. Keep an eye out for our blog posts explaining the benefits of live chat from a customer service and sales perspective.

Want to find out more about lead generation through live chat?

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