Think Customers: The 1to1 Blog

According to the National Retail Federation, last Cyber Monday saw 84.6 million consumers shopping online from home and work, up from 72 million in 2007. In short, Cyber Monday symbolizes a busy day for online retailers so companies must be prepared for the rush.

Cyber Monday shoppers choose the online method of shopping largely for the ease and convenience it offers. So retailers must prepare to keep the shopping experience stress-free.

There are several things they can do to get ready, including making site search easy for the consumer to navigate online, highlighting discounted items, and adding product and customer reviews to help customers with their decision to purchase. Another critical factor to providing an easy stress-free experience for Cyber Monday shoppers is quick and responsive customer service.

In recent years live chat has become an extension of that service. Newer tools like cobrowsing solutions and the rise of social media has fueled momentum for adoption of chat technologies. Two new live chat reports from ATG and Bold Software reveal just how important online chat functionality is to sales conversions.

In ATG's "Live Help Online: The Consumer View," the technology provider surveyed 1,052 U.S. consumers in June about how they use online customer service. The survey basically concluded that consumers want answers while they shop and providing online chat increases shopping conversions. Also, a live voice without dialing a 1-800 number is the preferred choice of customers needing help, with 70 percent saying click-to-call would be extremely useful when making a purchase online, and 58 percent of respondents saying that having access to click-to-call or live chat technologies is the most important feature on a site.

While ATG's survey reveals what customers prefer in terms of live chat, Bold Software culled data from tens of millions of chat records to develop its "Live Chat Benchmark Research Study." The company found five quantitatively supported conclusions. They are:

• Live chat increases sales. The combination of chat engagement and the increased likelihood of chatters to convert indicate that conversions would increase by between 4 percent and 86 percent.

• More buttons equal more chats. The data shows that as the number of distinct URLs with chat buttons increases, so too do the number of chats initiated. After five distinct Web pages, there is a more gradual slope reflecting the law of diminishing returns. Because the cost of adding chat buttons on additional pages of a site is inconsequential, the data indicates that website owners should place a button on every page to maximize engagements.

• Proactive chat is a science. Several data points from the effort have revealed an underlying system that Internet retailers and other e-businesses can utilize in order to maximize proactive chat implementations. Users can expect anywhere from 1 percent to 22 percent of visitors to accept invites, with the average being 6 percent.

• Missed opportunities are controllable. Through the implementation of pre-chat forms (or not), optimization of answer speed, and inclusion of unavailable lead capture mechanisms, Internet businesses can significantly change the number of engagements and follow-up opportunities created by live chat.

• Chat satisfies. Not only do chatters participate in post-chat surveys at a surprising rate (79% on average), but the average score they give across the variables of professionalism, responsiveness, knowledge, and other criteria, shows that these interactions are positive.

Retailers, keep these statistics in mind when headed into this holiday season. The bottom line is, whether you deploy live chat or not, make sure that your customers are being serviced when they need help, provide a positive experience, and engage with your customers to ensure they convert.