Do you know how to use chat on company websites?
What is it for?
But do you also need it on B2B websites?
Yesterday I landed on a vendor’s website, and a chat appeared at the bottom right with a gentleman saying, “Dear Customer, I’m _____, your account manager.”
That’s good, I thought…
The chat is a very effective tool: it’s immediate and activates a dialogue without being perceived by the prospect as invasive.
The chat immediately “hooks” the visitor landing on the website and helps to CONVERT the visitor into a qualified lead.
And this is also true in B2B sales.
But is it valid in all markets?
Not all of them. But it’s certainly useful when your lead generation and sales activity goes through informing, educating, solving doubts, answering questions.
Some typical cases:
– markets overcrowded with offers
– technological products (e.g. software)
– professional services where finding the differences between the various suppliers is not straightforward.
But…
But you have to use the chat properly, like any other tool.
If for example you think that chat is ONLY a service tool for those who land on your website, your operators must answer quickly so as not to make your website visitors wait.
There’s no way that the operator will answer you after more than half an hour. But yesterday it happened to me.
And more than once. Because people in chat also answered the phone. So, every time a phone call came, they eclipsed for endless minutes without even giving notice.
Therefore, if you use chat, you must ensure reasonable response times.
Otherwise you risk making a bad impression.
(For example, we have never implemented it because we’re worried about not being able to guarantee adequate time coverage).
But it doesn’t end there.
If you want the chat ALSO to be a CONVERSION tool in your sales funnel (which I recommend), then you absolutely have to use it to collect the prospect’s email.
As it happens, in addition to having waited for hours to get the answers, neither a form nor the operator asked for my email… and in the end I disappeared as a perfect stranger! And that vendor, without the email, will never again be able to do any follow-up to convert me into a customer.
So, if you use the chat, use it as a lead generation tool and collect the prospects’ email.
Otherwise it’s wasteful.
In short: the corporate website is the heart of your b2b marketing and sales machine and it must help generate leads continuously.
And the chat is an add-on to the website that can help you a lot.
But don’t make the mistake of considering it the classic “Information Desk” where there’s never an employee available. And then make sure that it can record all those who pass.
Because the website, like any marketing and sales tool, must be at the service of the prospect, but also at your service. Otherwise, it risks becoming just a cost without ROI.
Instead, the ultimate goal of the website is to help you make more sales. It’s not there for beauty.
Read here the recipe for having a website sales & marketing automation system that generates leads 365 days a year:
https://www.b2binternationalgroup.com/the-system-sl1
