Benefits for e-commerce companies to integrate a chatbot

Why implement live chat? 

Benefit number one: more online leads. Chat providers are promising big things. For example, ApexChat promises its users an increase of 40% in the number of online leads. The direct effect of the implementation of a chatbot on the website conversions has been proven several times, but did you know that the chat can also indirectly impact conversions? 

A chat function stimulates conversion. The point here is, you should have the capacity internally to man the chat. If you don’t provide users with an answer quick enough, they might get frustrated and leave the website. That is something you need to prevent at all times. A solution to this problem is a chatbot that automatically answers the questions of users. Some time ago we wrote that chatbots are a trend in the digital world and now they are a must instead of a trend. The direct effect of a chat on conversions can be considerable. In addition, the chat can indirectly have a major effect.

Use chat to track down user problems

Imagine you visit a website which offers a large assortment of laptops. You are eager to search for the best laptop. Quickly you discover that there are a lot of possibilities, and actually, you don’t know what it exactly is you are searching for. You decide to navigate to contact to write an email. On the contact page, you discover the chat option. Because a chat is often much easier and quicker, you start the chat and receive answers to your questions in no time. This is a typical example of the use of a chat function. A user struggles with something and asks for help. As an organization, you can offer help directly. Meanwhile, the chat transcript is saved. It is possible to analyze these transcripts afterwards. 

In practice, this is often used to measure the quality of the chat. Did the user receive an answer to his/her question? And is the user satisfied with the provided answer? You can also analyze the chat transcripts in a different way. There is a lot to discover. In the transcript, you can see what it is the user struggles with. The so-called conversion hurdles come to light. Take the above example, by analyzing the chat transcript afterwards we can discover that it is not clear which laptop is suitable in which situation. Do more users struggle with this? Think about adding some sort of decision aid or tips on choosing to the website.
The chat can be a goldmine for user problems. It is used to find a solution for the problems users experience. Now you are aware of this, you can rush into reading chat transcripts. However, this is not efficient. So, how should you approach this?

Efficient chat analysis 

To get started in an efficient matter, ask yourself the following questions beforehand: 

• Do I gather data on the use of the website?
•  Do I know which pages users view?
• Do I know how users experience these pages? What is the average time on the page? Is this the last page of the website users see? Are there any conversions?
• As a result of this, so I know what the bottlenecks of the website are?
   

If you can answer the above questions with “yes”, please go ahead and dive into the chat transcripts. Start with analyzing the bottlenecks, those pages of the website that perform the worst. Users leave the website after viewing these pages or struggle with them. Search for the chat transcripts that have been started on the page URL of the bottleneck. Read the transcripts carefully and make notes. Write down all things users needed help with. You can translate these points into issues that are unclear, do not work or do not exist in the current set up of the website. By doing this for all bottlenecks, you can get a clear picture of the problems that users experience.

You can then look for supplementary evidence or maybe contradictory facts from other sources, such as Google Analytics or Hotjar. Is the available data in line with the points that emerge from the chat? If so, nothing will hold you back in taking the next steps and resolving the issues. 

Do you not have a good insight into the data of the website yet? Perhaps we can help you. Feel free to contact one of Youwe's data and conversion specialists.