How An Online Chat Support Helps Me In Closing My Purchase Decision

By Pradeep Goel, Sr. Consultant, Retail Industry Group, Mindtree Ltd

There have been occasions when I am pacing up and down in an aisle of a big retail store to locate a product or trying to compare different models of a product. It did not take long enough for a store associate to approach me with a polite “May I Help You” greeting. Wouldn’t it be great, if similar help can be provided to me when I am browsing through pages after pages to find an item at the same retailer’s web site? Shouldn’t it be part of their strategy of providing a unifying experience across the channel? I would sure appreciate an on line chat support in a scenario as described above.

Similarly, I do not see often, people abandoning a cart in store or near checkout. However cart abandonment is a reality in online world. A simple answer or clarification on product, warranty or shipping can help me to move ahead with my purchase decision. Many other shoppers like me will agree that having a question answered by on line chat associate is an important feature. In my opinion an appropriate on line chat support can increase the conversion rate as well as provides a seamless user experience through all channels. It surely will increase my loyalty towards the brand.

Given that a web site has provided on line chat support, it may still need to figure out few things. When it should attempt to engage me in a chat proactively? When it is better not to distract me but show a big enough chat button for me to initiate a chat if needed. Let us examine the case of proactive chat.

A proactive chat life cycle starts from generating an alert, invite a shopper, engage in a chat, answer shopper’s query and offer an exit survey at the end for customer feedback. In this case an alert can be generated based on my activities on site. These alerts are predefined rules based on various behavior patterns of site visitors. Several rules can be setup based on browsing patterns of shoppers for example my browsing of more than 10 pages of a product category or time spent on a particular product category pages may signal a need for help. It is a good idea to keep reviewing and updating all these rules regularly. If a rule is generating too many alerts but not many users are accepting the invite or chats are not contributing much for sales conversion, such a rule may be changed.

Consider few points such as available agent capacity, invitation acceptance rate, before extending invite for an alert. I would not wait forever for an agent to initiate the conversation and if I want to decline the invite, it should be very simple and straight forward with a distinctive close button. 

I have always liked the experiences where responses are simple and concise. I believe many other shoppers also find clear, concise answers and reference very useful. In all, an online chat option can be a great tool for providing a great browsing and shopping experience. A well thought out implementation will sure help increase in the on line conversion and reward the customers and enterprise alike.

Pradeep Goel is the Sr. Consultant, Retail Industry Group for Mindtree Ltd. Goel has more than 12 years of experience in IT consulting, retail solution designing, product management, business analysis and retail package implementation. He has worked on E-commerce, merchandizing, Oracle Retail, Point of Sales, Order Management System for various retailers around the world.