Live chat technology has been around for a while. And while customers increasingly demand immediate attention, businesses have been relatively slow to adopt a live chat strategy - particularly in the SMB space, where deals are still built on relationships.


Live chat is often solely thought of as a customer support tool and tends to be overlooked from a sales and conversion perspective.

Why Engagement Matters

Forrester data shows that 55% of US online adults are likely to abandon their online purchase if they can’t find a quick answer to their question. 77% say that valuing their time is the most important thing a company can do to provide them with good online customer service.


Sure, customers can call an 800 number, send an email or fill out a contact form when they run into hiccups in their decision-making or purchasing process, but for every second that it takes a business to respond, the customer’s likelihood to purchase exponentially decreases.


Live chat fills that void, providing an immediate line of communication to get customers’ questions answered without leaving the page or picking up another device.

Live Chat A Powerful Marketing Tool

99% of first time website visitors are not ready to buy. A marketer’s job is to recognize their prospects’ intent, nurture them through their education and evaluation stages and deliver high quality leads to their sales team so they can close the deal.


Depending on your goals, users may or may not flow through your funnel as you’d like. While it does make sense for businesses to build sophisticated conversion paths, launch personalized email/website nurturing campaigns and use A/B testing to refine website copy and calls-to-action, the overwhelming majority of businesses are missing a key step in between - simply talking to their visitors.


Live chat allows you to pull up a virtual stool and talk to your website visitors at their peak point of interest.