Proactive Chat

Proactive chat is one of the features of live chat services, which helps a business to start a conversation with visitors on their websites. Mainly, businesses use this to interact with customers, resolve queries, and offer support, resulting in a higher ratio of conversions.

It initiates response to certain behaviors such as the time a visitor spends on a page or a particular action they take on the website.

Proactive chat is an effective tool for businesses. It provides an opportunity to communicate with clients in real-time by offering instant replies. This article will cover everything you need to know about proactive chat – its benefits, principles of work, and best practices for using it.

Understanding Proactive Chat

Proactive chat, as the name also indicates, refers to initiating a chat with a website visitor or via SMS. Rather than expect the visitor to ask a question or raise an issue, a window opens with a message from an agent. This message can be a greeting, an offer to assist, or a particular query about the activities of the visitor on the page.

Proactive chat typically reacts and automates with predefined sets of rules that define when and how to initiate a chat. These rules can depend on different factors, including the visitor’s location, the page they are looking at, or the time they have spent on the website. Regardless, some businesses practice a manual proactive chat where a live agent decides when to start a conversation.

Automated Proactive Chat

Automated proactive chat is based on algorithms and rules which start chats with website visitors. These rules are based on different factors, like the behavior of the visitor on the site, their location or the time of the day. For instance, a chat could begin when a visitor stays on a product page for a particular length of time or if they’re browsing from a certain location.

It effectively engages visitors and offers them help at the right time, aiding businesses in targeting potential customers as they make decisions or require assistance. However, businesses must use this tool carefully to avoid overloading or irritating visitors.

Manual Proactive Chat

In manual proactive chat, a live agent initiates the chat, deciding when to start a conversation with a visitor to a website. This is in fact more flexible than automatic proactive chat as the agent may be providing a more proactive assistance to the customer. Regardless, active support is more costly as it needs an employee to watch the site and trigger chats.

Manual proactive chat is especially applicable to companies with lower traffic on the website. In such situations, the attention of an expert live agent can be the game changer in the customer’s experience and in the conversion rates.

Benefits of Proactive Chat

Businesses can get several benefits from proactive chat. First, it adds to the effectiveness of the site by attracting potential customers and answer their concerns instantly. By being proactive, businesses help customers by providing immediate assistance and moving them closer to a sale.

Manual proactive chat has the most efficiency with companies that have low web traffic or complex products or services. This is where the personal attention and knowledge of a live agent will actually make a difference in the customer experience.

It also improves customer satisfaction by delivering a better level of service. It is a must for visitors who waits for an email response, and it takes things a step further by helping before the visitor ever has to type in what they need. This can help in creating a positive image of the business, and hence, increase the chances of repeated visits and referrals.

Increased Conversions

One of the main advantages of proactive chat is its ability to increase conversions. A business starts a chat with a visitor and engages them in a conversation, responds to all their queries and helps them in with their purchase. This can be very helpful for undecided visitors or people who may not have contacted us.

It can also lessen cart abandonment by answering problems or issues at the check out level. One example where proactive chat triggers is when a visitor spends a long time on the checkout page, and asks the user if they have any questions. This will remove any problems or doubts that visitor may have and will stimulate him to complete his purchase.

Improved Customer Satisfaction

Another advantage of proactive chat is higher customer satisfaction. Through this, businesses can show their concern and dedication for their customers’ needs. This will help create a good impression and those people will possibly be returning visitors and refer other people.

In addition, proactive chat will provide quick help and speedy problem-solving, thereby improving customer experience. Live chat is popular among visitors because of its convenience and immediacy, but proactive chat is a level above; it offers help before a visitor even asks for it.

Below are reasons why live chat is preferred by many in 2024

Referring to a HubSpot survey, it stresses that more than 80% of buyers require the reaction time of their vendors to be below 10 minutes. Remarkably, the consumer satisfaction of the live chat is 92%, with over half of chats initiated from mobile devices.

This draws reader’s attention to the fact that user experience plays an important role in the success of apps, and it emphasizes the tendency to use in-app chat features. It covers many advantages including in-app customer support, polished user interface, enhanced marketing, higher conversion rates, decreased bad reviews, and dynamic outreach. The incorporation of live chat software boosts transactional support within the app by resulting in a seamless real time communication approach and a drastic decrease in response times compared to other channels such as emails. 

Implementing Proactive Chat

Proactive chat implementation involves several steps. This process requires very detailed planning to make its features work well and give a good service.

The first thing to do is to choose a live chat service that provides this feature as well as complying with GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI. There are lots of choices, differing in their features and cost models. A company should think of what they need and how much they are willing to spend to make a call on this.

Setting Up the Chat Software

After selecting the live chat service, you need to install the chat software on the website. This typically involves adding some HTML code to the website. You should set up the chat software according to the website’s appearance to provide visitors with a seamless experience.

In addition, the compatibility of the chat software with the platform and its ability not to reduce the performance of the site is also crucial. Some chat services provide plugins or integrations for website platforms that make the process of setup easier.

Defining the Rules for Initiating Chats

The next step is to create rules for starting proactive chats. These rules can cover various factors, such as guest behavior on the site, their location, or the time of day. For instance, you can initiate a chat when a visitor spends a specific period on a product page or is browsing from a particular location.

Be sure to indicate these rules so that the sessions begin at the scheduled time and do not bombard the visitors with requests. Lastly, you should implement tests on these rules and make any needed changes that will be able to reach the proactive chat performance.

Training Staff or Setting Up Automated Responses

Train the staff to respond to proactive chats or with automated responses. In case live agents will take care of the chats, be sure to train them how to open a chat, answer questions, and initiate a conversation.

If automated replies are to be used, they should be programmed to offer useful and appropriate answers. Answers must be written in a friendly and professional style to make sure that they work properly and create a good visitor experience.

Best Practices for Proactive Chat

Although proactive chat is useful for businesses, it should be used carefully so visitors won’t feel overwhelmed. The following is the list of best practices for making use of proactive chat effectively.

First, the business needs to actively decide on the use of proactive chats. They can trigger chat at certain points, e.g. when the visitor is on the product page of when they are about to leave the site. But it is important for the businesses not to start the chat too often, as this will interfere and irritate the visitors.

Mindful Timing

Timing is one of the principal aspects of successful proactive chat. Chats should be started when a visitor is more likely to need help or when there is a sign of interest in a product or service. It could be initiated after a visitor spends a certain duration on a product page or after adding an item to the cart.

Nevertheless, too frequent and too soon chat initiations should be avoided as well. This is disruptive and annoying, and it may also make the visitor feel stressed or troubled. Companies should monitor the performance of proactive chat timing and modify it when necessary to make the feature work at its best.

Personalized Messages

Another best practice is to personalize messages. Rather than having general greetings or offers of help. Firms should personalize their messages to the behavior or condition of the visitor. For instance, if a first-time visitor is looking at a product, the operator can provide details about the product and answer some questions.

Personalized messages make the visitors feel understood and will help the feature to work effectively. Though personalization should be used with caution and the visitor’s privacy should be kept in mind. Businesses should should adhere to all the privacy laws and regulations applicable.

Professional and Friendly Tone

Last but not least, proactive chat messages should be written in a polite and business-like manner. The style of the message can strongly influence the visitors’ attitude towards the company and their desire to start chatting.

A professional tone shows knowledge and reliability, while a friendly tone makes the visitor feel at home and respected. The message should also be straightforward and to the point, so the visitor gets the offer of help and feels urged to reply.

Conclusion

Proactive chat is one of the powerful tools that is used to engage website visitors, provide immediate help as well as the conversions. Nevertheless, the tool needs to be used wisely to make sure that it brings a proactive customer approach,

“The best chats are those you initiate. Proactive chat will help you start significant communication with your online visitors.”

Understanding the parts of proactive chat helps businesses improve their service. Regardless of whether a business uses automated or manual proactive chat, the most important thing is to be able to provide a great customer experience