Sunday, May 22, 2011

If You're Losing Business To Other Sites Try Using Live Chat Software

By Richard Wilson


Your site is slowly losing ground to its competitors. If the current trends continue unchecked you could be losing money by the end of year. It's frustrating; you were one of the first sites offering the kind of services you offer and now you're losing sales to these new kids on the block. You're still ranking high for the important keywords that you've staked out and your traffic has not dropped anywhere near as drastically as your sales have. Your competitors only bothered to skulk into the market after you proved how it could be done profitably and now they're stealing bread from your table. But how are they doing it? There's not one of them that has the experience that you do and none of them offer packages that measure up to what you are offering. Maybe it's time you considered installing live chat software on your site and offering live customer support.

## The peskiest of these new competitors has something like that on his site. The thing is he's not selling anything that I don't sell and frankly he is nowhere near as credible.

That merely goes to demonstrate the power of live chat. What his website has over yours is that his visitors are able to chat live with an operator and get his questions answered right away. The problem is that his visitors were also likely your visitors. People who are prepared to buy want to have any question answered right away so that they can move on with their purchase. It's not good enough to have a contact email if your competitor has a chat option.

## But I offer a better service, with better options. I have three times the experience ,a comprehensive FAQ page, and a host of testimonials. Surely that has to count for something.

Of course it does. It counts for a lot as a matter of fact. It likely makes all the difference for every single visitor of yours that goes on to buy your service; but those aren't the individuals you're concerned with. You are primarily concerned with the growing number of visitors who are surfing over to your competitors and getting their questions answered there.

## I don't know if I can afford to renovate my entire site to accommodate a chat system and even if I could I definitely can't afford to hire people to sit on chat all day.

First of all there are several live chat software solutions on the market (Alive Chat is a popular one) that are simple to install without the need for any major site programming. Also, many of the sites that offer live chat packages can also provide operators who can man the chats. The rates are flexible and affordable and designed to cater to businesses of all sizes. Consider this, if your competitor can afford it on what he is stealing from your table, surely you can afford it on what's left.

## But how can these hired chat operators be expected to handle my customers?

They're trained chat operators. You admitted it yourself, your site boasts a comprehensive FAQ list. They can be equipped with that plus whatever extra information you choose to supply. Live chat is not primarily about giving your customers additional information it's more about the method by which your information is delivered. A visitor who becomes involved in a sales discussion online is a lot more likely to commit and convert.

If you are losing business to competitors whose one apparent edge is that they've got live chat software that allows them to better connect with their customers, then the solution is pretty straight forward; merely take that edge away by following suit.




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