How to effectively use an online consultant? (Part 3)

Очень многие пользователи, установившие онлайн консультант на свой сайт, не получают желаемую отдачу от этого инструмента. Более того, некоторые “фиксируют” уход посетителей со своего сайта после попытки консультанта завязать диалог посредством чата. В этой статье я попытаюсь дать практические советы по эффективному использованию “живого чата”.

Online consulting with the apparent external simplicity and ease of installation of modern systems, consists of many nuances that may not be visible to the novice user of online chat. It is very important to realize that an attempt to initiate a conversation through a drop-down window is, in fact, an analogue of a “cold call” on the phone and is designed to breach the distrust typical of the first contact. It is no coincidence that there are a lot of trainings on the technique of “cold calls”. A similar situation with chatting. You need to learn this, only then you will begin to receive positive results from use.

0. The zero step to start successful use of the system is the competent integration of the chat window on the company's website. I talked about this in sufficient detail in my previous article .
Here I briefly note the key points:
• Modern chat should not use popup windows. Such windows do not meet the latest HTML-5 standard. In addition, they can simply be blocked by site visitors.
• The dialogue invitation form should be in the form of a chat, and not in the form of an invitation banner. Studies have shown that the invitation form in the form of a chat is 50% more often accepted by site visitors than other forms of invitations. By chat window, I mean here the only one window in which the text of the operator’s invitation is written and in which the visitor can immediately write the answer. There are no pop-up growls and windows in which there is no room for a response to visitors, but there is only a welcome phrase from the operator. Such windows look artificial and cause less confidence in the visitor.
• Pay attention to the speed of the chat. Some systems prohibit the initial connection with the operator for too long. Messages can also “walk” with delays.
• The window should organically fit into the design of the site, and not look like an alien element. Ideally, this condition is satisfied by systems with the ability to flexibly configure the chat window and the ability to load their own chat window code.
• Do not overload the window with design elements. This makes it look like a banner and increases the risk of a visitor being denied chat.
• Additional fields to fill before the chat, reduce the number of chats. It is obvious. On average, 38.5% of visitors who independently turned to an online consultant and instead of receiving an answer received an offer to fill out a desire to start a chat. However, on the resources visited, this makes some sense, therefore it is better if the system can be configured.
• The presence of the “operator writes” indicator in the chat window is not the most useless option. It helps the visitor to feel that the operator is dealing with his question and helps to increase the time that the visitor is willing to spend waiting for the operator to respond.
• No backlinks to the online counseling service provider in the chat windows! For a serious commercial site, this is simply unacceptable. This not only reduces the image of the site, but also “leads” visitors to someone else’s resource. Commercial online consultants are simply obligated to be able to remove their logos and links from visitor windows
• Check how well chat windows are displayed in different versions of browsers. Cross-browser layout is a matter of accuracy, in addition, new versions of browsers are constantly being released and manufacturers of online consultants should monitor these changes.
• It would be nice if the design of the chat window can be easily changed without replacing the active code on the site. For example, this is possible when using EasyWay 1 technology

.In this paragraph I will talk about the active call. Systems that have this feature allow you to increase the number of chats by 40% -100% in relation to systems that are not able to actively call visitors. At the same time, we remember the conversion figures, which say that visitors who accepted an invitation to chat from the operator are converted 6.3 times more often than visitors who did not use the chat. Thus, after you have integrated the chat window into your website, the next step should be the rules for inviting customers to the dialogue that you put into the system. In the simplest version, the system should be able to send a greeting to the visitor after a certain time the visitor is on the site. In the right, modern online consultants, systems for filtering visitors and sending individualized invitations to dialogue are responsible for this. Including it is not bad to have the opportunity and manual invitation to the dialogue for low-visited, highly specialized and exclusive sites. Where every potential client is worth its weight in gold and there are practically no random visits to the site. Filtration systems allow you to get away from the dull “Hello, can I help you something?” And maximize the invitations depending on the visitor’s search query, location on a particular page of the site, geography, the number of visits to your site, and also allow you to create complex filters combined by logical conditions.

2.The step is not the very first in terms of presentation logic, but perhaps the key to the successful use of the online counseling system. Regardless of the “tricked out” of your counseling system, the excellent integration of the best and most convenient chat window, the perfectly selected invitation and the right time to issue it ... absolutely nothing will go wrong if your consultant manager is asleep and is not able to answer the FIRST minute Incoming request from a site visitor. Let me give you a simple analogy, again with the phone. There is an unspoken rule of “three beeps”. After you have not picked up the phone during this time, it is likely that the customer will hang up and most likely will not call you back. So in consultation via chat. If the client does not receive a response within 1-1.5 minutes, there is every chance that he will simply leave, not only the chat, but also the site. It is very important that your consultants answer the first call as quickly as possible. If the question is complex or requires a detailed answer, the rules for sending messages of the type “second”, “wait a minute, please”, as well as techniques when you break a complex thought into simple sentences or even parts of sentences, must become mandatory. Do not forget this chat and here you can give out information in portions - this will not be a sign of uncertainty or stuttering of the interlocutor. You need to respond as quickly as possible, remember that your message will not be delivered immediately to the visitor, but with a server delay. This in total can throw another 5-10 seconds. by the time of writing the message. In subsequent replicas, it is permissible to take longer pauses, but according to the rules of courtesy it is better to warn the interlocutor that you need a little more time for an answer. Maybe, all this sounds somewhat corny, but because of the non-operational response, the largest number of those who really wanted to learn something from you leave. As a result, he not only did not receive an answer to his question, but also received a portion of the negative from visiting your site. There is a “subtle” psychological moment. Everyone has gotten used to the phone and have some idea of ​​how to behave. With chat rooms and forums, ICQ and Skype - many are also familiar. But chatting through the site is the shortest and psychologically “easiest” way to make contact, but it also requires a lightning-fast reaction. Pay close attention to this! In some systems, it is possible to see in reports which of the operators is in no hurry to communicate with customers. Each replica of the operator, with a delay of more than 1 min. marked in red in reports. but because of the non-operational response, the largest number of those who really wanted to know something from you are leaving. As a result, he not only did not receive an answer to his question, but also received a portion of the negative from visiting your site. There is a “subtle” psychological moment. Everyone has gotten used to the phone and have some idea of ​​how to behave. With chat rooms and forums, ICQ and Skype - many are also familiar. But chatting through the site is the shortest and psychologically “easiest” way to make contact, but it also requires a lightning-fast reaction. Pay close attention to this! In some systems, it is possible to see in reports which of the operators is in no hurry to communicate with customers. Each replica of the operator, with a delay of more than 1 min. marked in red in reports. but because of the non-operational response, the largest number of those who really wanted to know something from you are leaving. As a result, he not only did not receive an answer to his question, but also received a portion of the negative from visiting your site. There is a “subtle” psychological moment. Everyone has gotten used to the phone and have some idea of ​​how to behave. With chat rooms and forums, ICQ and Skype - many are also familiar. But chatting through the site is the shortest and psychologically “easiest” way to make contact, but it also requires a lightning-fast reaction. Pay close attention to this! In some systems, it is possible to see in reports which of the operators is in no hurry to communicate with customers. Each replica of the operator, with a delay of more than 1 min. marked in red in reports. As a result, he not only did not receive an answer to his question, but also received a portion of the negative from visiting your site. There is a “subtle” psychological moment. Everyone has gotten used to the phone and have some idea of ​​how to behave. With chat rooms and forums, ICQ and Skype - many are also familiar. But chatting through the site is the shortest and psychologically “easiest” way to make contact, but it also requires a lightning-fast reaction. Pay close attention to this! In some systems, it is possible to see in reports which of the operators is in no hurry to communicate with customers. Each replica of the operator, with a delay of more than 1 min. marked in red in reports. As a result, he not only did not receive an answer to his question, but also received a portion of the negative from visiting your site. There is a “subtle” psychological moment. Everyone has gotten used to the phone and have some idea of ​​how to behave. With chat rooms and forums, ICQ and Skype - many are also familiar. But chatting through the site is the shortest and psychologically “easiest” way to make contact, but it also requires a lightning-fast reaction. Pay close attention to this! In some systems, it is possible to see in reports which of the operators is in no hurry to communicate with customers. Each replica of the operator, with a delay of more than 1 min. marked in red in reports. ICQ and Skype - many are also familiar. But chatting through the site is the shortest and psychologically “easiest” way to make contact, but it also requires a lightning-fast reaction. Pay close attention to this! In some systems, it is possible to see in reports which of the operators is in no hurry to communicate with customers. Each replica of the operator, with a delay of more than 1 min. marked in red in reports. ICQ and Skype - many are also familiar. But chatting through the site is the shortest and psychologically “easiest” way to make contact, but it also requires a lightning-fast reaction. Pay close attention to this! In some systems, it is possible to see in reports which of the operators is in no hurry to communicate with customers. Each replica of the operator, with a delay of more than 1 min. marked in red in reports.
In addition to the above. If you are not sure of your ability to quickly answer a visitor’s question at the moment, then it’s better to use the so-called offline forms or completely disable any chat forms at this time. Such opportunities are provided, as a rule, in any commercial system. I also recommend that you inspect everything related to the operator notification system when a new message arrives. There should be no flaws here. Sound and pop-up alerts are required.

3.The next tip goes hand in hand with the previous one. Learn to type messages fast! Please note that the online consultation system would be able to insert pre-prepared phrases to frequently asked questions, have search by templates and be as convenient as possible from the point of view of the user interface. A good help in the speed of response will be the function of a spy indicator. This indicator not only knows how to show the visitor writes or does not write to the operator, but also allows you to see the text written in the chat window by the visitor, but not yet sent to the operator. We leave ethics outside the scope, but this “peeping” certainly helps to reduce the operator’s reaction time, and, consequently, increases the satisfaction of our customers. An example of a system with such an indicator.

four.Literacy. Everything is clear here, without comment. I would like to note that the operator needs to check what is written for the impossibility of a “double” interpretation of the text of his answer. If you don’t understand something from the visitor’s question, please specify (but do not “shut up”).

5. If you are serious about using chat as a new channel for attracting customers, it makes complete sense to take appropriate specialized training in chatting.

6. It is worth remembering that you should not wash your fingers to the phalanges in the chat at all. Chat is used to easily overcome the barrier of first contact. After the contact is established you, by mutual agreement, can switch to communication by phone.

7.Well and most importantly ... An integral part of any consultation, in fact, an excellent knowledge of your product - without this, nowhere. This is a universal recommendation, whereby you would not communicate with a potential client.
In conclusion, I will give a small summary plate of how American colleagues represent the ideal manager-consultant. Key skills in the table are arranged in decreasing order of importance.



Do not despair if, even if all the conditions are met, visitors will sometimes “run away” from the site after sending them an invitation to the chat. Remember that activity never interfered with sales, and visitors who left most likely did not want to buy anything. The farther, the more familiar live chat will be for visitors, as has already happened in the United States. Experiment with the design, call time, invitation text and you will succeed. By adhering to these simple rules, you can really increase the conversion of site visitors to customers and will not be disappointed in online counseling as such.

Wish you luck!