Trying to be available for every customer’s questions on your live chat can be extremely overwhelming. You and your team already have numerous time-restricting responsibilities to handle within your business. It’s important to manage annoying live chats effectively to maintain a balance between customer service and other responsibilities.

What you may not realize is that every live chat conversation is an opportunity to drive increased sales to your business. This could show up directly on the chat or indirectly through an amazing customer experience that turns a new visitor into a loyal customer. Either way, you need to transform the negative thoughts you have about live chat into positive ways you can keep driving in more revenue.

At HelpFlow, we provide 24/7 live chat teams to over 100 stores. Answering even the simplest customer questions has been proven to exponentially increase sales and provide a wonderful customer experience that keeps them coming back. In this post, we will show you how seemingly annoying questions can lead to improved sales.

Annoying Live Chats: Questions Answered Clearly on the Website

Even if you think all of the information on your website is perfectly laid out, new visitors will still utilize your live chat. Sometimes this method is just much easier for them to understand. Addressing annoying live chats promptly can help alleviate the pressure and improve the user experience.

For example…

• On your website, you might include a section that clarifies the free shipping procedures every customer can enjoy. The section states that there is free shipping to all orders in the entire United States.
• Then, you receive questions from multiple customers about what the shipping costs are for each order.
• Instead of getting frustrated and just answering the question quickly, use the question to spark up a different conversation.
• Ask the customer what they want to buy and why they are interested in that particular product.

This is the perfect way to transform this seemingly obvious and unnecessary question into a sales conversation. The longer you chat with this potential customer, the better chances you have to understand their thought processes. From here, all you have to do is finish strong and close the sale.

Questions About Products You Don’t Even Sell

Depending on the type of products and services you provide, you may receive questions from new visitors just wanting to know more about your business. They’ve most likely stumbled across your website online and are looking for general information rather than a specific product you actually sell.

Here’s a scenario-based example…

• Say you are a company that sells electric bikes and nothing more.
• Although you only sell bikes, you may still receive multiple questions from customers asking about different parts and accessories related to bikes even though you don’t actually sell them.
• Don’t just write this new visitor off as someone who got lost on the Internet. Use this as an opportunity to give them the information they’re after, but also figure out how you can transition the topic into a sales conversation. You may be able to get them to buy a brand new bike to go with the accessories they originally wanted!

Especially when the topic of conversation is high ticket items, this technique can work really well. Start using this strategy for even the most random questions to create more opportunities to drive sales for your business. Who knows, the customer you’re chatting with could turn out to be your most loyal customer. You’ll never know unless you take the time to talk to them.

Questions From People That Already Made a Purchase

Once someone has decided to buy one of your products or services, there is a good chance they will have more questions about the delivery process. This can be something like the status of their order or other aspects of how to use their new product when it gets to them.

Below is an example of how this may pan out…

• Picture this, you own a business that specializes in selling parts and accessories for hobbyists. Your business is booming and a bunch of hobbyists ends up buying your products.
• Then, some of them come back to ask a ton of questions about how to use the products they just bought from you.
• You may be thinking to yourself, “Why would they buy the product in the first place if they don’t even know how to use it?”
• Change that mindset! Although these may seem like silly questions for you to answer, they could end up having a huge impact on the future of your business.

Repeat buyers always make or break a business. By using a live chat service, you don’t have to worry about letting any wonderful customer experiences slip through the cracks. If you give these hobbyists a fantastic customer experience, they are more likely to come back to your business when they need more accessories and refer you to their family and friends. Also, you may be able to get them to buy a new product during your live chat conversation. Addressing annoying live chats with patience and efficiency is key to fostering loyalty and boosting sales.

What’s Next?

In short, you have to look at every single business-to-customer engagement as an opportunity. Learn about what your customers are trying to accomplish to see how you may be able to help them even if their question isn’t directly related to a product or service you sell. These conversations are just a sales opportunity waiting to happen.

At HelpFlow, we provide 24/7 live chat teams to over 100 stores in the e-Commerce market. Most companies don’t have the time to manage live chat themselves even if they put their customer service team up to the task. You just don’t have the immediate attention to give to this kind of service, but that’s okay. Feel free to reach out if you need helpful agents to respond to your customers quickly and create amazing customer experiences that will scale your business.