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Author: Karen Lloyd-Collins

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Chat Blog

AI Wars Heat Up

As the AI wars continue to intensify, the progress being made in this arena is truly exciting. Who doesn’t use Chatgpt, or Google Bard or Bing Chat in their everyday work when having to undertake the simplest of tasks like writing an email, summarising a document, writing social media posts or analysing data? These large language models at the forefront of the technological revolution currently are making everyday tasks so much easier for all of us.  Do you have a preference as yet?  Out of the three above, I still feel that Chat GPT4 still is way ahead of the other big players for its accuracy, evaluation and content creation.

In this article, I will compare these language models as well as our very own Chat2 ai with a simple experiment, to see where we are ranking among these big players. While AI shows great promise, it’s important to acknowledge the need for human involvement and the limitations AI faces when the necessary information is unavailable.

Experiment Design:

In a fun experiment, we decided to test Chat2 AI against the likes of Google Bard, GPT3.5 and GPT4. The question sought advice on stacking an A4 bundle of 27 papers, a holy bible, 9 small marbles, and a big empty glass in a stable manner. Each AI model provided its own unique response, which we analyzed to determine their effectiveness.

AI Model Responses:

Google Bard:

Place the big empty glass on a flat surface.

Place the holy bible on top of the glass.

Place the 9 small marbles on top of the bible.

Place the 27 papers on top of the marbles.

Use a rubber band or tape to secure the papers together.

This stacking arrangement will be stable because the glass will provide a sturdy base, the bible will help to distribute the weight of the papers, and the marbles will help to prevent the papers from sliding around.

GPT 3.5:

To stack the items in a stable manner, you can follow these steps:

 1 Start with the big empty glass as the base. Place it on a flat surface to provide stability.

 2 Take the A4 bundle of 27 papers and place it on top of the glass, making sure it is centered and balanced. You can align the edges of the papers with the edges of the glass to distribute the weight evenly.

 3 Next, take the Holy Bible and position it on top of the paper bundle. You can align it with the edges of the paper or place it in the center, depending on your preference.

 4 Now, take the 9 small marbles and distribute them around the base. You can place them on top of the papers or the Bible, creating a circular pattern or spreading them evenly.

Make sure to arrange the marbles in a way that doesn’t cause the stack to become top-heavy or unbalanced. Distributing them evenly will help maintain stability.

Remember, stability is important to prevent the stack from toppling over. Take your time while arranging the items and adjust them as needed to ensure a secure and stable stack.

GPT 4:

Here’s a suggestion on how to stack these items in a stable manner:

1 Start with the Bible: The Bible is probably the most solid and heaviest object in your list. Place it on the bottom to give your stack a solid base.

2 Put the A4 bundle of papers on top of the Bible: Papers are light and flexible, making them more stable in the middle of the stack.

3 Position the 9 small marbles inside the big empty glass: This is to prevent them from rolling away and to add some weight to the glass.

4 Put the big glass (with the marbles inside) on top of the bundle of papers: The weight of the marbles will keep the glass steady, and the shape of the glass should allow it to balance on the papers.

Clearly GPT4 is smarter than Bard and GPT3.5.

Bing Chat: 

One way to stack these items in a stable manner could be to place the A4 bundle of 27 papers on the bottom, then place the Holy Bible on top of the papers. You could then put the 9 small marbles inside the big empty glass and place the glass on top of the Holy Bible. This should create a stable stack.

Chat2 AI:

To stack the papers in a stable manner, you can place them in a pile on a flat surface, such as a desk or table. The holy bible can be placed on top of the pile, and the marbles can be placed in the empty glass. To ensure stability, you can use a rubber band or an elastic band to secure the glass in place. 

The results are certainly exciting and we are in the running with these big names, as the Chat2 suggestion was focused on simplicity and practicality.

The Role of AI and Human Intervention:

It is crucial to recognize that AI, while making significant progress, still requires human involvement in certain scenarios. Businesses, especially in the tourism industry, often miss important answers to questions on their websites. AI can only provide answers if the necessary information has been programmed into it. We have started the testing creating Knowledge Bases for clients websites, so the AI generates all the links we need in a matter of seconds and can provide the answers to our template questions if the answer is available.  Though what we already know is that some crucial information  like check-in times and airport transfers are never found on a website, so there is still the requirement to seek out these responses to ensure they are accurate and relevant to the client. Some tasks still remain challenging for AI to address without human intervention.

AI as a Tool, Not a Creature:

As we move forward, it is important to view AI, including GPT-4 and similar systems, as tools rather than autonomous beings. It’s people who will be using these AI tools that will be become more effective at their jobs, though their jobs will not be taken by AI.  Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, states that “people have a significant degree of control over how AI is used. While AI excels at tasks, it is not a substitute for entire jobs.” He anticipates a significant impact on jobs but also believes that there will be new and improved job opportunities arising from this technological revolution.

At Chat2 we are certainly expecting that many of our Chat2 team will be upskilled and enhanced by the AI technology that we are currently incorporating into the backend of our software.

Acceptance in the Marketplace

In addition to the effectiveness of AI’s performance, its acceptance in the marketplace, especially in the realm of customer service, plays a crucial role. Currently, the public still exhibits hesitation when it comes to engaging with AI for assistance with questions, bookings, and sales. The human touch remains highly valued, and the majority of online conversations still begin with the question, “Are you a robot?” As a result, incorporating the human element into front-end customer service is essential for driving conversions. However, as AI continues to evolve, the connection between humans and AI will eventually become seamless. The public will no longer feel the need to ask if they are interacting with an AI, as the service they receive will be unparalleled.

Conclusion:

The AI wars are undoubtedly heating up, with Chat GPT, Google Bard, Bing Chat, and Chat2 AI competing for prominence. In our experiment comparing their responses to a stacking question, Chat GPT4 emerged as the leader, showcasing superior accuracy, evaluation, and content creation capabilities. However, the success of AI goes beyond its technical performance and lies in its acceptance in the marketplace, particularly in customer service. Currently, there remains a hesitancy among the public to fully embrace AI as they still prefer the human touch when seeking assistance with questions, bookings, and sales. The human element in front-end customer service continues to be essential for driving conversions. Nevertheless, as AI technology evolves and becomes more seamless, the line between human and AI interaction will blur, resulting in unparalleled service. It is important to acknowledge that while AI enhances tasks and efficiency, human intervention and expertise remain vital. Looking ahead, the future holds tremendous potential as AI shapes various industries, including customer service, and opens up new and improved job opportunities.

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Chat Blog

Six Months – Stop Work?

The recent suggestion of pausing AI development for six months has stirred up quite a debate. I believe that while the intentions behind this proposal may be good, it may not be the most practical solution for addressing the concerns surrounding AI development.

The term “AI” (artificial intelligence) is often debated. In my view, these technologies are not entirely artificial or intelligent, as they are ultimately created and monitored by humans. As Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, mentioned in an interview a couple of  years ago, human responsibility is crucial when it comes to AI development. 

I believe we must manage risks, just as we do in any industry with new developments. Therefore, I find it puzzling that some influential figures are suddenly advocating for a pause in AI development.

It makes me wonder if certain industry leaders are worried about being left behind, particularly when we haven’t seen significant contributions from Elon Musk or Steve Wozniak in the language model space. Imposing a six-month pause on large-scale players could inadvertently offer opportunities for smaller companies and even the underground industry to progress without the necessary safeguards in place.

Moreover, the concern that AI will lead to job displacement is valid. However, I believe it is not AI itself but rather the people using AI who are in a position to replace jobs. We should focus on upskilling our workforce and teaching them how to use these technologies to make their jobs easier and more efficient. The unknown in this equation is actually how many jobs will AI create?

In addition, I find it hard to envision how a pause in AI development could be regulated and monitored. The race to advance AI is well underway, and the coming decade promises groundbreaking breakthroughs. I think the real challenge lies in learning to use this technology effectively, as it is only as smart as the humans employing it. AI has the potential to enhance human intelligence by stimulating creativity and originality, but it cannot generate original ideas without human guidance and direction.

In conclusion, my personal opinion is that although a pause in AI development may seem like a sensible measure, it is crucial to consider the potential consequences and explore alternative methods to manage AI’s rapid growth. Human involvement and responsibility are paramount in ensuring that AI technology does not misdirect our future development. Instead of halting progress, I believe we should focus on fostering a collaborative, responsible approach to AI that maximizes its potential while minimizing the risks.

If you would like to read the letter that was released this week, then go to this link.  At the time of writing there were 1738 signatures to the letter that has made worldwide headlines this week

Pause Giant AI Experiments: An Open Letter

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Chat Blog

The Future of Sales is Online: How to Stay Ahead of the Curve and Thrive.

The future of sales lies in a rapidly changing digital landscape. Companies that don’t keep up with the latest trends in e-commerce and digital marketing will be left behind. To stay ahead of the competition and thrive, businesses must embrace innovative and creative strategies for online sales. 

 

This article will provide insight into how to stay ahead of the curve and make the most of the digital marketing and sales opportunities available. From understanding the customer’s journey to capitalizing on emerging technology, this article will help you understand the fundamentals of online sales and provide actionable steps to help you succeed. With the right strategies in place, your business can revolutionize the way it sells online and stay ahead of the competition.

Understanding the Customer's Journey

Before you can capitalize on any of the other strategies for online sales, it’s important to first understand the customer’s journey. Understanding the customer journey and where you can fit into the process will enable you to target your audience effectively and increase your conversion rates. 

 

The customer journey typically includes the following stages: 

 

  1. Awareness: At this stage, customers have identified a need or problem they want to solve, but they don’t know how to address it yet. They are often gathering information and doing research to determine what options are available and which option is best for them.

  2. Consideration: At this point, customers have identified a problem and want to solve it, but they don’t know how. They are gathering information about their options, researching different brands, and determining which solution is best for them. 

  3. Decision: At this stage, customers have decided on a brand and want to solve it, but they don’t know where to buy it. They are gathering information on where they can purchase the product they’ve decided on and determining which option is best for them.

  4. Experience: At this point, customers have decided on a brand and want to solve it, but they don’t know how. They are gathering information on how to use the product they’ve decided on and determining which option is best for them.

 

A live chat service can empower your business to capture these potential sales enquiries throughout this process if managed well.  Being in the online space, enables you to pro-actively engage with your customers in these very early stages of their journey.

 

Leveraging The Power Of Emerging Technology

Digital marketers and sales experts have predicted that artificial intelligence (AI) and machine-learning capabilities will have a significant impact on e-commerce in the future. By leveraging AI, businesses can automate many of their digital marketing strategies, which will increase their productivity and help them scale their operations.

 

Though when it comes to the customer experience with the business, customers are not as warm to the concept of AI.  In our live chat service, one of the first questions we still receive before any question is asked is:

 

Are You A Bot?

Easy one for us to answer in replying that we are real people and how can we help?  Of course we are heavily assisted by AI, but our service retains the warmth and friendliness of a human conversation for the time being.  The general public are not as welcoming of AI technology in comparison to businesses who are rushing towards it with open arms, and sometimes this is to their impediment if not managed well.

 

This year we have had the emergence of the GPT3 technology, which is one of the first language modelling systems using AI that is quite mind blowing, if you provide the right mix of parameters for it to consider.

 

GPT3 (short for “Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3”) defines itself as:

 

“ A state-of-the-art language generation model developed by OpenAI. It is trained on a massive amount of diverse text data and can generate human-like text on a wide range of topics. It can be used for a variety of natural language processing tasks such as language translation, summarization, text completion, and question answering.”

 

The sudden appearance of the technology to the level where it has a high level of fluency and coherence in the text generated, as well as its ability to perform well on a wide range of natural language processing tasks without the need for task-specific training data, has the Information Technology industry in a frenzied state of anticipation.

 

This type of technology is certainly going to speed up the process where Businesses can use AI to provide customers with more personalized and relevant experiences to increase their conversion rates, without them even knowing they are interacting with AI. 

 

In addition to AI, businesses should also keep an eye on how blockchain technology and augmented reality (AR) will impact e-commerce. Blockchain technology is expected to transform e-commerce by increasing data security, enabling better supply chain and inventory management, and providing an auditable digital ledger of transactions. AR will likely impact e-commerce by providing customers with an interactive and immersive shopping experience, which will allow them to visualize and explore products in the real world.

 

Optimising your Digital Platforms

To ensure your products and services are reaching your audience, you need to optimize your digital platforms. This includes optimizing your website and social media platforms to ensure they are driving sales and engaging your customers. 

 

To optimize your website, you’ll need to determine which website platform is best for you based on your business goals and objectives. If your business sells products, you’ll need to establish an e-commerce website that allows you to sell your products online. The website should be clean, simple, and easy to navigate, and it should provide a seamless and streamlined experience for customers to purchase your products. 

 

By having a live chat service in place, you will quickly receive feedback from your customers on any challenges they face while navigating your website or other digital platforms.  You will get to know within minutes, if links tools stop working on your website asyour customers will quickly let you know though a live chat service.  This has prevented many businesses from losing sales in times when their shopping cart has glitched or the booking platform has resulted in an error.  A live chat channel will immediately alert the Business of any urgent issue needing attention quickly and efficiently, if well managed.

 

While some businesses choose to build their own e-commerce websites from scratch, there are many e-commerce platforms available that allow you to create a professional-looking website with minimal effort and budget and are easily integrated with a live chat service.

 

To optimize your social media platforms, you’ll need to determine which social media platforms your target audience is using and determine how you can best engage with them on those platforms. Start by creating a social media strategy that outlines the purpose of each social media platform, how often you will post, and what you hope to achieve with each post.  You may also set up groups and pages where your customers can easily converse with one another about your products and services, with your own team also providing updates and information within these groups.  

 

Customers will see that you are easily available to be approached and to contact, which enhances the trust needed for long term customer relationships.  Maintaining the communication through social media platforms can also be challenging for businesses to maintain and respond effectively.  Though there are services available that can be set up with all the appropriate responses to ensure that customers can easily and readily communicate with your Business and receive fast, effective and knowledgeable responses.

Capitalizing on Data and Analysis

To truly capitalize on the opportunities provided by digital platforms, you need to be able to understand your data and use it to inform your future decisions. This includes understanding your website analytics, Google Analytics, and other data that will help you better understand your customers. 

 

Your website analytics will provide you with valuable information, such as where your visitors are coming from, how long they are staying on your site, what they are clicking on, and what pages they are abandoning. This information will help you understand your customers and better engage with them on the site. 

 

Google Analytics will provide you with business-related information, such as your website traffic and conversion rates. This information will help you understand your customers and better engage with them off the website.

Chat2 Concierge software and service integrates with the website and social media platforms with the ultimate goal of obtaining the online sale or booking from the website visitor while they are on the platform.  We also can answer a broad range of questions around the products and services, though ultimately guiding the conversation to a sale conversion. Businesses receive a monthly report that includes the number of chats over a 24/7 period, the most commonly asked questions by visitors, the number of visitors and returning visitors to the website and the conversion rate from chat.

 

Data like this can provide Businesses with a strong understanding of their customer base, particularly in relation to the most sought after products and services,  or potentially future products and services, the effectiveness of their digital platforms and the information they are sharing with customers and potential future opportunities of untapped markets.

 

Utlizing Automation

As you’ve likely gathered from the previous strategies, the online digital space can offer a number of automation opportunities that can help you save time and scale your operations. To start, you can use an e-commerce platform like Shopify to easily set up an online store and begin selling your products online. 

 

Additionally, you can use an email marketing software like Hootsuite or Zoho to set up automated email campaigns that will allow you to stay in touch with your customers on a regular basis. You can use this software to set up drip campaigns that send emails at certain stages of the customer journey or to send out product recommendations to your customers based on their purchasing history. 

 

And you can use live chat services to enhance your customers online experience. Providing your customers with fast and accurate answers to commonly asked questions and guiding them towards an online purchase or booking. This in turn saves your team wasted time on the phone and emails and only having to respond to those more genuine qualified enquiries that come through if the customer has not already purchased online.  Outsourcing your first tier of customer service with an AI assisted service like Chat2 will allow you to scale your business and save time and money, if it is set up and managed effectively.

Developing Effective Strategies for Online Sales

Once you’ve mastered the fundamentals of online digital strategies to attract sales, it’s time to apply them to your unique business and identify where you can improve. 

 

To start, you need to conduct a thorough analysis of your current online sales initiatives and identify areas where you can improve. You can do this by reviewing the data from your website, Google and Chat Analytics to identify areas for improvement. Additionally, you can hold brainstorming or ideation sessions with your marketing team or employees to identify areas for improvement. 

 

Once you’ve identified areas for improvement, you can implement new strategies to improve your digital sales. Start by improving your content marketing strategy by creating more engaging and relevant content that speaks directly to your visitors. You will learn alot from chat transcripts, observing how your customers ask their questions and the main topics they are interested in. At Chat2 we provide customers with access to the chat transcripts for quality assurance, continuous improvement and to identify possible opportunities for future sales. 

You can also improve your email marketing strategy by creating more personalized and relevant emails that speak directly to your customers. 

 

Finally, you can improve your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy to rank higher in search engine results and increase organic traffic to your website. You can do this by creating more high-quality content and using the language and words your customers are using through channels like live chat, pursuing link building strategies to obtain more links, and leveraging paid search channels to drive more traffic to your website.

 

Embracing Creative and Innovative Strategies

Finally, you can truly revolutionize your online sales efforts by embracing creative and innovative strategies to truly stand out from the competition. Start by leveraging emerging technologies such as AI, blockchain, and AR to provide better customer experiences, increase efficiency, and scale operations. 

 

You can also find ways to stand out with your content by creating content that resonates with your audience on a deeper level. You can also provide an intuitive customer experience by simplifying your website and focusing on customer satisfaction. You can truly revolutionize your digital sales efforts by experimenting with new strategies and exploring untapped markets and niches. For example, you can expand your offerings to provide additional products and services or explore new markets that you haven’t explored before. Doing so will help you stand out from the competition and attract new customers.

 

Also, if you are considering to offer a live chat service on your websites and social media to your customers, our Chat2 team can integrate a service smoothly and efficiently, avoiding any of the common pitfalls for a successful service setup.  It is also highly affordable. Our team has eight  years of knowledge operating in this space, which can be highly valuable to drive your business further.  Chat2 Concierge enables businesses to:

 

  • Obtain more direct sales and conversions online;
  • Enhance the online customer experience through fast accurate responses;
  • Stand out from the competition in the noisy online space;
  • Save time for their own teams;
  • Enhance SEO; and
  • Identifies new market opportunities.

If you would like to learn more about the trends online and how Chat2 Concierge provides a solution to the online service challenges businesses face everyday. Please click on this link to listen to our Information Session delivered by our Chat2 COO Karen Lloyd-Collins “  The Future of Sales is Online: How to Stay Ahead of the Curve and Thrive”.

 

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Chat Blog Industry Trends

5 Tips to Update Your Website and Drive Traffic

5 Tips to Update Your Website and Drive Traffic

Did you know that over 90% of users check the online business presence before connecting with a business?  This means that content and design of your company’s website plays an important role in attracting potential customers. A user-friendly website also works as a 24/7 advertisement for your business, which is why it is imperative that you keep it updated. You can easily freshen up your site by investing in new visuals, personalizing the experience, SEO optimization, stronger calls to action and better organization of content. If you want to drive more traffic to your website, we will explore five tips that will help when updating your website and to drive traffic.

At Chat2 Concierge, we are often talking to businesses about the best time to start a live chat service, before or after a website facelift?  You might think the answer is obvious and to wait.  Though you may not realize that the service we provide at Chat2 Concierge will significantly enhance the final website design before the website is actually updated.  How?  In several ways and not only do we assist in providing guidance and strategy to assist with the update, we also ensure your customer messaging stays relevant and up to date.

1. Initial Website Audit

We do the hard work for you. To ensure the effectiveness of a live chat service, it is essential to review the current website in great detail. The purpose of the audit is to extract the website content to form initial responses for chat conversations.  During this audit the following useful information for a website update is generally identified:

  • contradictory information across the website;
  • out of date information;
  • hidden content or content that is difficult to locate;
  • broken links;
  • missing information that is regularly sought for by customers; or
  • complexity in the sales process/checkout that could be simplified.

Even if some of the website information is out of date, you will be able to advise the team of this and easily correct it in the results from the review.  By having an experienced team review your website content and layout, any navigation issues or inaccurate content is easily identified and relayed to you for consideration in your website update. A complete new accurate content database is created, that your website developers can draw upon in the creation of the new website.

“We haven’t even started the chat service and it was so helpful having issues identified on our website that we hadn’t realised was disrupting the customer experience."

Jill - Simply Hampers

2. Make Your New Website A Personal Experience

Gone are the days where your website sits there to just display information for your customers to read, you can now have websites that are more far more personal, interactive and responsive. You can do this with bots, or knowledge base prompts, though from our current experience with the general public, the preference is to have a REAL person greeting your website visitor when they arrive on your website.  This is quite challenging for many businesses, which is why our affordable Chat2 Concierge service is so popular. Our experienced team are online 24/7, guiding your visitor to the information they are seeking. Yes a real person and in real time!

This is the icing on the cake for customer service.  So it doesn’t matter how terrible your current website is to navigate or that the information is not accurate, a website with a 24/7 concierge service can provide a memorable, personal experience for your customers ensuring information provided is accurate, on brand and on message at all times.  All this while you are going through the process of updating your website, which can potentially take several months. You could be increasing your conversion rate, leads and revenue now. We are doing this all the time for new clients awaiting a website update.

When you have the Chat2concierge service on your old, dilapidated website, your customer won’t even notice. If they are being assisted fast, effectively, getting the answers they are looking for, while receiving one on one attention, it will leave a memorable impression that will either convert them on the spot and give you the edge on your competition. Even if they don’t initially get the final answer, our live chat Concierge service gives you the opportunity to convert the lead to a sale. A lead you may have previously lost due to a poor performing website. So there is no better time than now, to start the Chat2concierge, live chat service.

If your site isn’t personalized now, then you are already missing out on a lot of traffic and sales that could be coming your way. Don’t wait for the website update, start interacting with your customers now through your current website as the information we gather on your behalf, can be used to enhance your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) on your new website.

Revamp your SEO Strategy

Once the 24/7 service is live, the knowledge base responses will be further refined and you will become more aware of the common questions your customers are likely to ask and the words, phrases they use to ask these questions.  Key words your customers use in engaging with your website will be added into the knowledge base. The system learns during the first few months how your customers search and what key words they use in asking questions about your products and services.  You will then be able to integrate these phrases and keywords into your website content and enhance your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategy. 

If you have the most commonly used phrases and keywords used in your website content, then it is more likely that you will attract more of your ideal customer to your website. You can also include this key content into your website meta description.

Your meta description tells search engines like Google and Bing, what to display in the search results following your website title. 

For an effective meta description, ensure:

  • it has active, exciting language and is compelling for the visitor to click;

  • is between 60 and 160 words and makes sense;

  • the location and some of the keywords you want to rank for are included; and

  • content is unique.

Utilising the live chat service, prior to updating your website will provide you with a great insight into what your online visitors are asking about, identifying the most common questions and what is top of mind for your customers.  You then have the edge in creating and publishing unique, current, high quality, content your visitors are searching for.  High quality content gets the attention of search engines.

Using the words, language and phrases on your website that your online visitors use attracts the ideal customer! Chat2concierge assists in identifying these words in real time, as you have an open direct communication channel with your online visitors.  We help discover the current words and phrases and what is top of mind for your customers in the Now!

4. Invest in Strong Calls to Action

Calls to action are prompts that invite your website visitor to take the next step. What could be more compelling than a message that appears unexpectedly,  inviting your visitor to start a conversation with a real customer service person and engage with your business. You are initiating an early start to the customer relationship, giving you the edge over your competition, who are just a click away.

People are so busy these days that if they find a way to receive instant answers, rather than having to spend their time searching or reading pages on a website, they will always take the easy path.  Once you have your visitor engaged and they are receiving answers to their enquiries, you are well on your way to get the conversion.  The experience is helpful, memorable and guides them ultimately towards buying.

Even if your industry is not the kind that enables instant conversion online, you will be provided with qualified leads that you will be able to action and convert immediately.

A strong call to action like our Chat2 Concierge service not only enhances the effectiveness of your own team with being provided qualified leads and saving them time from “tyre kickers”, it also increases the revenue through a higher conversion rate online. All these advantages despite needing a website update can be obtained now. The chat service is drawing upon its own knowledge base of responses as approved by you in the early stages of set up, which are accurate, relevant and enticing visitors to convert.

5. Make It Easy To Navigate

When it comes to the design of your website, you not only have to consider how it looks but how it functions as well. The design and navigation of your site must be easy to use and intuitive. In other words, you must invest in a user-friendly website.

If your website is easy to navigate it will decrease the bounce rate. A high bounce rate is when visitors only stay on your site for a few seconds and then leave. If a user finds your site difficult to use, they will quickly click away to your competitor’s site. Whereas, an easy to use, engaging website will encourage people to stay on your site. This is because users will not have to put in a lot of effort in order to navigate through the content on your site.

A website that talks to you is a great way to guide your online visitors around.  Our Chat2 Concierge service basically takes your visitor by the hand and shares information they are looking for and guides them to where they need to buy or book.  It’s that easy! Websites with our Chat2 Concierge service are the easiest to navigate, even if your website is still waiting for its update. We have all the current information available within the chat service that is maintained.  So new responses are added and the information is kept up to date as a part of the Chat2concierge service.

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Update Your Website Now!

A website update is a great way to improve your website’s performance. However, you can still provide a high level customer experience while the update is in progress.  Just adding some of the latest technology to your current website will allow you to create a more user-friendly experience immediately. Adding the highly affordable Chat2 Concierge service prior to a website update will give you the inside knowledge to ensure your new website upgrade is on point, accurate, provides the most sought after information up front, while still providing a world class customer experience to your customers.

The initial audit will highlight the missing information, you will create a more personalized customer experience on your current website, your customers will receive up to date information, you will receive insight to enhance your SEO strategy, your call to action will be strong and your website will be easier to navigate.  All this,  while your website update is in progress.  It’s a win / win for everyone!  The best time to start Chat2 Concierge service is NOW!

Karen Lloyd-Collins

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How to Attract More Sales and Enquiries Online: Tips to Monetise

The digital world gives businesses the opportunity to connect with customers in new and innovative ways. However, it also means there are more competitors fighting for visibility. This battle for attention has made monetizing online channels increasingly challenging.

According to statistics from Internet Live Stats , There are almost 2 billion websites on the world wide web and Google averages 40,000 searches every second, which equates to 1.2 trillion searches worldwide per year.  The online space is extremely busy and it’s difficult for businesses to stand out and have the edge over their competitors. 

The Covid19 pandemic has accelerated this growth online with the United States seeing a 10 year growth in online enquiries and Australia seeing a 5 year growth in online enquiries, all within a short span of 3 months in 2020 (Chat2).  In 2017, Nasdaq had forecasted that by 2040, 95% of purchases will be through eCommerce. The Pandemic has shortened this timeline, possibly by 10 years.  Hence, why its more important than ever before to start building your online presence.

By 2030, 95% of purchases will be through eCommerce due to the Pandemic.

Karen Lloyd-Collins - Chat2 Tweet

Monetizing your website

The purpose of an online marketing strategy is to attract customers and drive traffic to your website, so you can control the conversation and the conversion to sale. In order to do this, you must first understand how to monetize your website. You have spent thousands of dollars poured into your website, so let’s get it working for you. 

Monetizing your website involves having features that keep your online visitor interested, staying longer on your website to explore and to ultimately buy in the moment they are motivated to buy.

Features include having:

  • the most searched for information front and centre on your website;

  • making it interactive so customers can ask questions and get the right answers;

  • creating content to assist in bringing your ideal customer to your website;

  • your website needs to be clear, simple and concise, so it's easy to navigate and of course make it easy for your customer to buy.

55% of people will search online for reviews and recommendations before making a purchase, with 47% visiting the company website. (KPMG) So you need to ensure the visitor experience exceeds their expectations and is memorable so they return again and again. 

Websites that convert leads into sales

You want a return on your website investment, it should be generating sales for you. According to KPMG, 30% of consumers will return to preferred websites to buy. Here are some factors to consider to help increase your conversion rate.

– Key Words – Use the “key words” visitors use when searching for your product or service online. Make it clear as to exactly what they’ll receive before they make a purchase. If you offer a service, let visitors know what they can expect. If you are unsure of what these “key words” are, the Chat2 Concierge service can provide this insight to you.

– Arouse curiosity – Your website should arouse curiosity in customers. It should make them ask questions and want to know more. Outline the benefits to them if they purchase from you.

– Interactive – Online visitors are impatient, they want answers quite quickly to their questions. They don’t want to read a page of information to find the answer they are looking for. Provide for the opportunity on your website, to ask the question and obtain the answer instantly. Chat2 Concierge can provide this opportunity for your website customers easily and effectively

– What makes you unique – Every product or service has competition. If you want to stand out among the crowd, you must do something to make your company unique. This can be as simple as making your website interactive, so your visitors can easily be provided answers to their questions about your product and service. Chat2 Concierge easily answers your customers questions, but then uniquely guides your customer towards the ultimate goal – to Buy!

– Call to action – Your website should include a call to action that urges customers to purchase your products and services. Let them know how to take action and what to do next. All visitors who interact with Chat2 Concierge are guided towards taking action to buy the product or book the service. The service ensures your website is working hard to convert your visitors, achieving 80 -90 % conversion once working with a business for three months

Keep the user experience in mind

It is important to keep the user experience in mind when writing and designing your website. However, you also want to ensure your website is compelling enough to generate conversions, through content, ease of navigation and interactivity. If you fail to balance these aspects, you risk losing potential customers.

– Navigation – Visitors should be able to navigate your website easily. Poor navigation can cause visitors to leave your website without finding what they are looking for. Though Chat2 Concierge counteracts poor navigation on websites, as it acts like a concierge service, taking your customer by the hand and guiding them around your website, showing them the answers to the questions they are looking for.

– Length of content – Visitors will leave your website if your content is too lengthy. However, if your content is too short, it won’t provide visitors with enough information to make a buying decision. Though an interactivity feature, like Chat2 Concierge, can prevent you from this pitfall, as it can instantly provide answers to the questions your visitors need answers to, without relying on the length of content.

– Design of the website – The design of your website is another important factor when it comes to the user experience. If your website looks unprofessional, visitors will not trust your business. Adding interactivity features like Chat2 add significant credibility to your website, as real people are within reach for each and every conversation, making your business easily accessible day or night.

– Calls to action – Calls to action that are too strong or aggressive can cause visitors to leave your website. On the other hand, if you don’t urge customers to take action, they might leave without making a purchase. Chat2 Concierge establishes trust with your customers, slowly and gently if needed, or efficiently and effectively depending on the demands of the online visitor. By establishing trust through strong engagement, it becomes easy to stir your customer into action to buy!

Live 24/7 Customer Service

Increase Customer Engagement through your website or Google Chat - Business Messages
Click here for a free trial

Ask for the sale — directly

Did you know the average cart abandonment rate across all industries is 69.89%? (Baymard Institute) You don’t want your customers falling into this category.

Once you get visitors to your website or any online channel for that matter, you should be asking them for the sale. How? Well that is easy, engage them in conversation and ask them if they have booked or bought as yet? If not, ask them why not? Well maybe not that straight forward, maybe more like:

“Do you have any questions about our products I can help with? Is there anything you would like to know a little more about?”

These open-ended questions assist the engagement and trust process, building the relationship with the client, building their confidence with you that they will want to buy from you, as you have been the most helpful and enhanced their customer experience.

Once they have had answers instantly provided about your products and services, then the conversation is guided towards the purchase. “For that product you are looking at, just click this link to purchase” or “to order that service, just click this link to book”. It’s so easy to convert!

Though you are now wondering how do you engage a website visitor into an actual conversation. Well, that is easy, initiate a well managed live chat service and get that million dollar website working for you!”

69.89% is the cart abandonment rate across all industries.

Is Live Chat Effective?

Have you tried live chat and found it failed miserably? Did you find it difficult to manage as online visitors were too demanding for instant answers? Were you missing too many great opportunities as enquiries came in at all hours of the night? Yes we know, we hear this from many of our clients who have tried to use live chat themselves, with their own staffing and resources.

There is a strategy to implement live chat effectively so it produces results and ensures your website converts. Live chat has to be set up effectively, with the correct timings, messaging and responses. This is what we have refined over the last seven years of working in this space for a variety of different industries from tourism and Hospitality, Real Estate, Health and Wellness, Food, Manufacturing, Finance, Retail, Trades and membership associations.

Today, a new client remarked that the Chat2 Concierge service has doubled the number of enquiries in just two months, compared to their previous live chat software. That is the exact result we are striving to achieve, we see this type of result regularly, as the Chat2 team has refined the setup and techniques to ensure a successful live chat service.

Live Chat is an extremely powerful website conversion tool if set up effectively. It adds extra credibility, trust and works in partnership with your website to ensure enquiries are converted into sales. Using live chat, you are keeping your website, visitors, on your website for longer, enhancing the search engine optimisation (SEO) benefit.

"Chat2 Concierge service has doubled the number of enquiries in just two months, compared to our previous live chat."
Tourism Operator
Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia

Conclusion

The digital world has made it easier than ever to reach customers and potential clients. However, it’s important to remember that these individuals are looking for your business online. Getting their attention on your website is crucial to drive sales. A well-managed and implemented live chat service, with a few different techniques, can boost the number of enquiries and sales you receive online. Live Chat encourages curiosity, allows for interaction, makes your business unique enabling it to stand out in a noisy online crowd and can send a strong call to action. By following these expert tips, you can optimize your online presence and drive more sales and enquiries.

Categories
Chat Blog Industry Trends

Customer Service Trends to Watch Out For In 2022!

Customer service is the focal point of any business. It is through customer service that businesses can either grow or decline in the market. A business can either become an industry leader or a laggard based on its customer service practices. Customer service is a point of difference to give your business the competitive edge.

In this article, you will discover trends in customer service that are worth keeping an eye on. These trends will have a significant impact on how businesses handle customer interactions and services into the future. And as you read on, you will also understand why these trends are important for your business and how you can implement them to give your customers an excellent experience from first contact to long-term loyalty.

"96% of customers state that customer service is important in their choice of brand loyalty" (Forbes)

Artificial Intelligence in Customer Service

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already revolutionizing many industries, including eCommerce and retail, healthcare, finance, and more. Now, it is also making inroads into customer service by bringing automated, AI-driven solutions that can improve the customer experience in many key areas. 

For instance, AI can help businesses analyze customer data to understand customer behavior across different touchpoints. This, in turn, can help businesses create targeted, personalized offers based on customer needs and preferences. Perceptions of AI are changing as businesses are now finding ways to add more human-like elements to AI, including natural language processing, visual recognition, and more. 

One of the very first questions our agents are asked by online customers are “Are you a bot?”. Our agents are certainly heavily assisted by AI, to enable them to be fast and effective, though we know the importance of still having real people behind the scenes.  We are still in a transitional stage to full automation, the public are still not quite ready for the complete transition to full AI, they are still looking for that personal human touch in their customer experience with a brand.

People are not ready to talk to a robot yet, they get quite frustrated if they don’t get a quick answer or just the fact they are talking to a chat bot, they still like a personal touch.

Karen Lloyd-Collins COO - Chat2 Tweet

Uptake of Digital Technologies

After such a challenging year with the pandemic, online customer service has become an important priority. As customers have been isolated in their homes, they have turned to the online space to connect with brands in their purchasing decisions.  

We saw a 10 year growth in online enquiries in the United States in only 3 months in 2020 and a similar trend was seen in Australia, with 5 years growth in only 3 months.

https://chat2.com/the-simplest-way-to-double-your-online-conversion

Businesses need to be seen to be present and connected with their customers in the online space. They now want to improve their customer’s online journey by adopting different technologies to improve their customer experience by:

  • offering more channels
  • improving response times
  • automating business processes
  • switching to cloud-based solutions

97% of executives say the pandemic sped up their move towards digital transformation. 

We have recognised that businesses are now being pushed faster to offer more channels and improve their response times, with this significant growth of online enquiries. 

Our Chat2 Concierge service has adapted to offer integration with several channels including the website, Facebook Messenger, Instagram Direct Messages and Google Chat.  So all online conversations are directed through one platform.  The service is 24/7 and our AI assisted technology allows us to respond on average in 17 seconds across all clients, so customers feel their interactions are important to your brand.

The Rise of Customer-Centricity Culture

An important customer service trend that businesses must watch out for is the rise of customer-centricity culture. As customer expectations shift and become more demanding, customers are not just expecting good customer service, but excellent customer service. And businesses that can’t meet these rising expectations will either see their profits plummet or will be forced to shut down entirely. 

Customer-centricity culture is about meeting and exceeding these customer expectations by putting the customer at the center of everything you do. This includes understanding your customer base and their needs, developing relationships with customers, and delivering an exceptional experience at every touchpoint. 

There are many tools you can implement to find out what your customer is seeking when they are considering your brand.  Tools to consider include: or acquiring key word data which helps you understand how your customer describes your product or service. 

  • Surveys
  • Live Chat Analysis
  • Social Messaging analysis
  • Key Word Data
  • Contact Us Forms content
  • Interviews
  • Trade Shows

Undertake an analysis of the information obtained via all those tools to identify common trends, commonality and reoccurring themes.  You may also be able to Identify the common values that are important to your customer, they may be environmentally conscious, so sustainability practices may be important to them in their purchase decision. 

Businesses that implement customer-centricity culture will have an advantage in the marketplace because these companies are customer-focused. They are responsive to customer needs and expectations. And they are constantly looking for ways to improve customer satisfaction.

The surge of instant messaging

 

Communication has always been a key part of customer service. The rise of social media and the Internet created new ways to engage in conversations with your customers. Now, however, we are seeing a shift in customer communication. This shift is known as the rise of messaging. 

The growth of messaging apps and the decline of social media has led to brands shifting more of their communication efforts to messaging apps. And while these apps were primarily used for one-on-one communication, brands are now exploring ways to use them to reach out to a broader audience, including customers and prospective customers. 

 

The global Instant Messaging App market size is expected to grow at 9.3% during 2022-2028.

 

This shift in customer communication is important because it means businesses must find ways to engage with customers on the channels that are most popular with their audience. This includes social media, google chat, live chat, email communication and messaging apps. The challenge for business is how to manage all these channels.  

 

Messaging apps have surpassed social networks in popularity and usage. Messaging apps users statistics from the Business Insider Messaging Apps Report state that messaging apps now have 20% more active monthly users than social networks. While many businesses choose not to have a social-media presence, it’s more difficult to opt out of communication apps and platforms that everyone around them relies on. (kommandotech.com)

Our Chat2 Concierge service has grown with this demand and integrates all instant messaging platforms into one platform that is fully managed for your business.

Live 24/7 Customer Service

Increase Customer Engagement through your website or Google Chat - Business Messages
Click here for a free trial

Responsive Websites equal Happy Customers

Gone are the days where websites only provide information for the online visitor, they can now be interactive.  So there is a two way flow of information and communication between the visitor and the business.

 

 

Online consumers are very impatient nowadays and if they can not find the information they are looking for on one website, they quickly click to the next.  https://chat2.com/how-fast-is-fast-enough/

There are services now available that allow you to have a knowledgeable, professional Customer Service team online for your customers 24/7.  Providing instant gratification to customers answering those common repetitive questions, or providing reassurance around the business operations and cancellation/refund policies or just listening to the customer and providing a response so they feel your business values them as a customer through providing an exceptional level of customer service.

“If you exceed your customers expectations with your online customer service, they will keep coming back to you and referring you to others”

This is easily achieved through your website by introducing a service like Chat2 Concierge. The service integrates with many different website platforms including wordpress, wix, shopify and custom made websites.

Responsive Staffing Practices

Finally, businesses must respond to the changing tides of customer service with responsive staffing practices. In particular, businesses must implement new hiring practices that help them recruit and retain exceptional customer service representatives. Customers who reach out to businesses for help expect that their questions and complaints will be resolved quickly and effectively. 

If a customer reaches out to a company and their issue isn’t resolved after a few interactions, the customer is likely to become frustrated and leave the business for good. That’s why it’s important for businesses to hire the right people for their customer service team. Businesses must find ways to recruit and hire highly skilled and experienced customer service representatives who have the personality and skillset to deal with all types of customers. Customer service representatives must be flexible, empathetic, and knowledgeable.

 

The Chat2 Concierge team have been working as online customer service representatives for the last 7 years for a variety of industries from tourism and hospitality, real estate, health and wellness, retail, trade services, food delivery and many more.  The software used by the team has built in AI features that enables the team to be fast, knowledgeably, though still retaining some human element with every conversation. 

 

Staffing shortages are a serious issue across the world at the moment following the Covid19 pandemic.  Every new prospect we are talking to whether they are in the United States or Australia are saying the same thing, that they can’t get staff.  The Chat2 Concierge service is a solution to this issue, so if you would like a customer service team that are already trained in the practice of exceptional customer service, trial the team to determine if we are a good match for your business.

Summing up

 

The customer service landscape has rapidly changed and businesses must adapt their strategies to keep up with these changes. The uptake of digital technologies, the focus on your customer who is still look for some personalisation in customer service and the significant growth of instant messaging platforms are some of the strategies businesses need to consider in this challenging, changing post pandemic environment.

If you want your business to thrive, it is important to keep these trends in mind and work to implement them within your organization. By doing so, you can create an excellent customer experience that will bring in new customers and retain loyal customers for years to come.

Categories
Chat Blog Industry Trends

How Live Chat Boosts Tourism!

Keen to retain more revenue within your business? Prefer to attract more direct bookings through your website?  Well you don’t have to look any further, we have 3 top tips showing you how you can save on paying exorbitant fees to third party agents and get more dollars through your door from your own website, google and social media!

 

Chat2 Concierge’s Top 3 Tips

As you are aware the first place people go when considering holidays, vacations and travel activities is to one of those large third-party booking agents like Trip Advisor, Booking.com, Expedia etc. But what you might not realise is that many consumers start their research there, but then seek out the business website of the place they are considering staying, or the activity that looks appealing. They are searching you on Google and landing on your website and social media pages. This is providing you with an opportunity to directly engage with your potential guests when they land on any of these platforms and attract the  direct booking. But how you may ask? 

Did you know that Live Chat allows you to engage in the moment with your online guest when they are either:

1. Searching for you on Google;

2. Landing on your website; or

3. Visiting your social media pages.

Live Chat systems are now not only for your websites, but now integrate with all platforms your guests use, looking for more information about your products and services. Of course, not all Live chat systems can do this as well as offering a live team ready to engage your guests 24/7, so you need to do your research carefully.  You need ensure you set up live chat systems effectively to ensure success. 

At Chat2, our live chat service is not only on your website, but our service integrates with Google Chat, Facebook Messenger and Instagram Direct Messages.  We ensure a successful setup and initially generate around 200 – 300 responses to upload into the system so the AI can assist our live operators to knowledgeably respond to your guests.  

Our Chat2 Concierge service captures your guest’s attention in the moment they arrive on your website or social media page or are searching in Google! The service provides a personal customer service experience, that will “wow” your online guests for a fraction of the cost of the hefty fees charged by the OTA’s, so they will want to stay on your site longer and will come back after booking for any further information they need saving you time.

The Chat2 Concierge service is regularly responding to comments,

“hey, I’ve just been on Agoda and they are offering this ……” or

“I’ve just been to booking.com and they are charging this….”

We are providing the opportunity to tourism and hospitality businesses to be able to respond to these comments and attract the direct booking by promoting their best offers in the moment they have their guest’s attention. 

Chat2 Tip 1 – Respond fast 24/7

Technology has changed the way consumers behave online. They are no longer patient to wade through pages of a website looking for an answer. They are far more demanding than they have ever been before. 53% will exit your website if they cannot find the answers they are looking for quickly.

Did you know that even if you ask a question outside of normal business hours or on the weekend, online consumers still expect the business to respond in the same amount of time as if it was during normal business hours? It’s a tough and challenging expectation to meet, though our 24/7 Chat2 Concierge service is meeting this expectation and enabling tourism businesses of all sizes to compete against the OTA’s.

Around 30 – 40% of enquiries are now received outside of normal trading business hours for our tourism and hospitality clientele.

The Chat2 Concierge service enables tourism and hospitality businesses to be available to their guests 24/7, providing answers quickly to questions they may have and guiding your guests towards an online booking. Our service is manned by real people who are there in the moment your online visitor arrives, obtaining trust, providing reassurance and ultimately obtaining the booking or lead (70 – 85% conversion rate).

Chat2 Tip 1 – Respond to your online guests fast and effectively,  so your visitor wants to stay and spend more time finding out what you offer. You can do this by introducing our Chat2 Concierge service that engages your guest 24/7, keeping them on your website while answering questions in the moment they are being asked and guiding your guest to book in the moment. 

Chat2 Tip 2 – Encourage your customers to book direct

You should make it simple for guests to navigate and book directly on your website. As soon as your customer arrives on your site, make sure you have an eye-catching direct booking button to take their attention.

The Chat2 Concierge service assists tourism and hospitality businesses to obtain the direct booking, by guiding the guests through to the booking button. Frequently, guests just need some reassurance that they are in the right place and be shown where to select dates, guest numbers and room/activity types. Then they may have some questions around the types of rooms and activities, which the Concierge team are well placed to answer and continue to encourage the guest towards a direct booking. We have several different techniques we utilise to obtain the conversion in the moment the guest is looking to book. 

It’s helpful to promote the benefits of booking direct by offering that little extra, enhancing terms and conditions or our team share the benefits to the guest on the importance of booking direct.

Chat 2 Tip 2 – Make it easy for the guest to navigate and book online, maybe offer that little extra to promote booking direct or ultimately provide an enhanced online customer experience utilising a service like Chat2 Concierge 24/7. 

Chat2 Tip 3 – Consistency and Reliability

Guests ask questions in such a variety of ways online, it is certainly very tricky for any chatbot to answer based on a limited range of pre-programmed questions and answers. It doesn’t matter what way the questions are asked, our Concierge service team are highly assisted with the artificial intelligence built into the Chat2 software, to ensure your guests will always receive a response that is on brand and on message, while being professional, warm and friendly that is adaptable to the request.

It’s important for potential guests to always receive knowledgeable and consistent answers, in line with the branding of your business. You will discover if you trial a service like Chat2 Concierge,  enhancing the online customer experience, your guests will return to your website again and again (boosting Search Engine Optimisation SEO as an add-on benefit).

When guests re-visit your website and notice you are still available to them 24/7, answering questions quickly and effectively, you will be gaining a higher degree of trust, hence an increase in obtaining the direct booking. Did you know that according to Forbes and Forrester Research 2021, that 66% of adults feel that valuing their time is the most important thing a company can do for them?

Chat2 Tip 3 – Ensure the online customer experience you provide to your online visitors is consistent and reliable and you will attain a competitive edge over your competitors while attracting the direct booking.

We know the service works!

Tourism Case Study

One of our tourism operators who has been utilising the chat2 Concierge service since 2017. They have seen their online enquiries grow from year to year, despite having to cease operations in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This operator was heavily reliant on the international back packer industry and after seeing significant growth in enquiries from 2017 – 2019, they had to cease their diving and cruise activities for a short time while Australia went into lock down.

The Chat2 Concierge service was not impacted by the COVID-19 event and operations and  continued normally. The service kept this tourism operator open with an online presence. When visitors arrived on the website, they were reassured that the business would restart activities once restrictions were eased. Visitors were invited to keep coming back by the Chat2 Concierge team and there were even some future bookings that were obtained for the following year.

Eventually this Cruise Operator resumed operations late in 2020, with only the domestic market. Though despite losing their international clientele, they received more online enquiries than ever before. May 2021 saw a 27.5% increase in the number of enquiries compared to May 2019, even without international guests. This is quite impressive growth, just by being there online consistently. Unfortunately lockdowns hit the southern states in July 2021 and the loss of confidence rocked the tourism industry once again. 

Now in 2022, the number of enquiries in January started above 2021 and has continued to surpass all previous years! This Tourism Operator has consistently and continually been online and is not reaping the benefits over its competitors by being so available to its guest, many internationally that are now returning, so it should only be onwards and upwards from here.

The Chat2 Concierge service empowered this tourism businesses to enhance their online customer experience to their online visitors 24/7, with a team of real people, who are providing visitors with fast and knowledgeable answers to their questions, but most importantly educating them on the benefits of booking direct, promoting the business, sharing the booking link and ultimately encouraging them to book direct in the moment. 

What’s in it for my business?

If you are keen to:

  • Attract more direct bookings at a much lower cost;
  • Save money;
  • Be available to guests 24/7;
  • Increase online enquiries and conversions; and
  • Improve Online Customer Experience for your guests through various platforms.

We recommend you enhance the online Customer Experience on your website, through Google and social media pages. You can trial your first month of Chat2 Concierge complimentary. Though there is a small upfront fee to create the specific knowledge base of responses customised to your business. The service makes it attractive to your guests to book directly in the moment they are looking to book, as they are receiving instant answers to questions, they learn of the benefits of booking direct and the service is consistent and reliable 24/7.

In May 2022, the Chat2 team are attending the Australian Tourism Exchange 2022 event, so if you are attending, Kellie and Karen would love for you to come and introduce yourself and say hi.  There will be a special opportunity for all attendees at the Event.  

Or we invite you to register  today or Book an online demo here to find out more .

 

Categories
Chat Blog Industry Trends

New Ways to Connect with Customers!

In the digital world, customers are more connected than ever before. They expect to be able to buy just about anything from their phones — from entertainment to groceries.

Customers want businesses to be digital first, and physical stores second. Today’s shoppers are looking to companies like Apple, Amazon, Sephora and Starbucks, who are creating shopping experiences that are seamless, convenient and personalized. Businesses that want to stay competitive in today’s market need to understand how to best reach their customers in a digital world. Read on to learn about the rise of digital customer engagement, and how you can connect with your customers in a whole new way.

What is Digital Customer Engagement?

Digital Customer engagement is the act of building a relationship with your customers through digital means. It is the process of communicating with customers through digital channels, nurturing leads, enhancing customer service experience and keeping repeat customers.

Digital engagement allows businesses to keep their customers’ needs, wants, and desires top of mind. It enables personalization through data analysis and the ability to deliver targeted, highly relevant content. It encourages conversation and feedback through digital channels including live chat and social media channels and rewards repeat patronage through loyalty programs.

The way we communicate has changed: 75% of consumers now prefer to engage with a brand over private messaging channels versus traditional channels of phone and email. 

Recently a new digital entryway is on offer, that will enable your customers to connect with you in the moment they conduct a google search on mobile, through new Business Messages offered by Google (displayed in image below).

The Rise of Digital Customer Engagement

Customers have long been able to connect with businesses digitally through websites, online shopping, email and social media. Digital engagement, on the other hand, goes way beyond these traditional forms of customer communication. It is the process of creating a personal connection with customers through digital channels.

In 2021, retail e-commerce sales were approximately 4.9 trillion U.S. dollars worldwide and this figure is expected to grow by 50% over the next four years reaching about 7.4 trillion dollars by 2025 (Statista 2022).

 

“ The online digital space is essential for any business to connect with their customers in light of the current e-commerce growth.“

Karen Lloyd-Collins - COO - Chat2 Tweet

In recent years, customers have grown increasingly attached to their phones and we are seeing a surge in purchasing through mobile devices (m-commerce).   According to Statistica, m-commerce sales are forecasted to make up over 10% of all US retail sales, which is a growth of 7% since 2018.

 

In this new digital ecosystem, customers are looking for more than just a product menu and purchase option. They want brands to understand their needs, anticipate their needs, and satisfy their needs.

This is where digital customer engagement comes in. It can help businesses achieve a higher degree of customer intimacy by strengthening relationships with existing customers and earning the trust of potential customers through personalized experiences.

“Our Chat2 Concierge service is assisting businesses to successfully transition into the space of digital engagement. Our team are online 24/7 engaging with the online visitor to drive sales and provide customer support” advises Karen. “We have recently become a Google Partner with Business Messages, so your customers have another entry point via mobile to connect with your business directly when they google you, without leaving the google search page”. 

To find out more on this new method to connect with your customers via a google search click here.

Live 24/7 Customer Service

Increase Customer Engagement through your website or Google Chat - Business Messages
Click here for a demo

The Benefits of Digital Customer Engagement

As we’ve seen, digital engagement has a wide range of benefits for businesses. To gain a better understanding of these advantages, let’s examine some of the major advantages of this marketing strategy.

 

Increased Customer Loyalty

One of the most significant advantages of digital customer engagement is increased customer loyalty. By using digital channels to keep customers informed, engaged, and happy, companies can create a sense of trust and familiarity that encourages customers to continue to shop with them.

Digital engagement also has the potential to reduce customer abandonment, or prevent customers deciding not to continue with a purchase or enquiry.  By providing a warm friendly touch point that is easily accessible, not only builds and strengthens the trust relationship but also enhances the customer experience with the brand, providing a competitive edge.

 

Increased Productivity Among Employees

When utilizing digital engagement channels, your business can easily qualify genuine enquiries from the not so genuine “tyre kickers”.  The digital technology, in many cases, enables the businesses to engage with several customers simultaneously, increasing staff productivity, saving time and also filtering those enquiries that are more genuine to buy. This also leads to decreased customer acquisition costs with this increase in efficiency.

This means your team can focus their efforts more on the genuine buyers and hence with more time available can deliver better service to customers and generate higher customer satisfaction.

There is also less time spent on initial enquiries through traditional channels of phone and email.  Customers will choose to communicate through the channel which is the easiest for them and nowadays that is in the digital realm, websites, social media or google searches.

 

Increased ROI

With higher customer engagement comes a higher ROI. Companies that leverage digital customer engagement can expect to see significant returns on their marketing investment.  If you make it easier for your customer to connect with you, and responses are fast, accurate and knowledgeable, you will also achieve higher customer satisfaction, alongside increased customer engagement resulting in an increase in revenue.

Research by Deloitte and Touche found that brands that focused on customers were 60% more profitable compared to companies that were not.  

Increased customer loyalty, increased revenue, increased productivity, increased competitiveness and decreased customer acquisition costs (CAC) are just a few of the benefits that investment in digital customer engagement can provide.

How to Achieve Digital Customer Engagement

Digital customer engagement starts with an honest assessment of the state of your business. By looking closely at your customer engagement metrics, you can identify areas of weakness and determine where additional investment is needed to achieve true digital transformation.  

Is your business readily available to your customers outside of normal trading hours? Are your customers responded to in a timely manner? Do you need to look at more channels to ensure it’s easy for your customers to contact you? Google Business Messenger is certainly a new option now on the market to consider.

Next, you’ll want to identify the key players within your organization responsible for customer engagement. This includes your customer service team (internal and virtual), marketing department, business development team and anyone else who can help you create and deliver highly engaging experiences.

You’ll also want to look closely at your digital infrastructure. This includes your website, digital marketing strategy, and digital communications and channels you have available to your customers.

Bottom Line

Digital transformation can help boost both customer loyalty and ROI. By leveraging digital customer engagement strategies, you can create a more personalized experience for your customers, boost productivity among your employees, and enhance your overall customer service. Ensure you take advantage of new portals that are opening for customers to connect with you like live chat and Google Business Messages. Though they need to be implemented well to be successful.

With so much potential for growth in this area, it’s important for businesses to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to digital transformation.

Note: Chat2 has been working in the online customer engagement space for the last seven years and manages the initial online contact from customers for a wide variety of industries to drive sales, conversions and provide customer support.  We answer questions and guide online visitors towards a sale from your Website, Facebook Messenger, Instagram Direct Message and now Google Messenger. The team are highly trained and experienced to ensure you are successful in implementing a customer focus engagement strategy.

 
Categories
Chat Blog Industry Trends Why does your business need Chat?

How to become available 24/7? Customer Service Matters

Australia’s international borders were finally opened and businesses across Australia are again welcoming their international visitors with open arms. If your business has international customers it’s more important than ever before to be available to them 24/7. You will get the first early sales and bookings and have a competitive edge over your rivals. This can be challenging for any business, though it is easily done. Read on to find out how…..

According to research by Forrester, a company with an excellent customer service rating will have a net income up to 33% higher than those without a high rating. 

Being easily contactable 24/7, no matter what time day or night, 365 days a year is one of those factors that has a dramatic impact on your customers and provides for excellent customer service. Here are the best ways to enable your brand to be available 24/7 providing a high level of customer service,  to increase revenue and stand out from your competitors.

Why 24/7 customer service matters

If you’re not contactable 24/7, you could be missing out on significant opportunities of revenue. With a 24-hour customer service channel, you will attract more enquiries, establish trust sooner to build that customer relationship and close more sales at night and weekends, when customers are more likely to contact you after their work days. You are also providing a more convenient service to your customers, knowing they can contact your business at any time they want. There is an 80% increase in revenue for businesses that focus on improving customer experience.

The first time the Chat2 Concierge team took a major hotel chain live with chat at 6pm in the evening, they obtained a lead for a 400 person wedding (pre-Covid) and a 250 business conference, all within two hours! Just by being so available and in the space your customer is present and you can engage with them, allows you to capture opportunities like this for your industry.

Providing an excellent customer service experience is important for many reasons, but most importantly, it will ensure that your customers will stay loyal to your business. If your customer has any issue with their booking, product or service and you are easily contactable and they receive excellent customer service, they will remember the experience and feel confident to return. According to Experience Matters, 87% of customers would come back to make another purchase from a brand if their previous experience(s) were recorded as very good. If your customer service is fast, convenient, consistent, friendly, and always available, customers become loyal.

The second thing to remember is that it’s important to solve the problem quickly and efficiently so that the customer has what they need and leaves happy. Of course, this is not possible all the time, like at 2am in the morning, but if there is someone available to understand their query, clarify the issue and reassure them that someone will be contacting them within a certain timeframe, then the customer is happy. By providing a service like this, you will ensure the customer will come back to your company when they are looking to book or buy the same service or product again.

Did you know that 72% of people that have a positive customer experience will share their story with six or more people, that is attracting more sales at no extra cost!.

The importance of 24/7 contact

If your business provides a service or sells to international clientele, then it is more important than ever before to be available 24/7, especially in this technological era. This is particularly true for the Australian tourism and hotel industry who are looking to recover from two years without international visitors. They are now looking to make themselves easily available 24/7 to capture those first early bookings from the international market to boost revenues moving into 2022 after the Covid19 pandemic.

The first place international customers go to is the internet, so it’s important for all tourism and hospitality businesses to have a strong presence in this noisy space to perform well. This industry along with many online retail stores operate 24/7. Providing a higher level of customer service 24/7 over your competitors can provide a strong online web presence. Forbes states that 81% of companies view customer experience as a competitive differentiator.

International online visitors who receive a warm, friendly welcome with prompt and knowledgeable answers to questions through your website with a channel like live chat, will enjoy the customer experience, be reassured and feel confident to book with you, in the moment they are online and motivated to book.

With a high level of customer service 24/7, there are many studies to show that those companies that focus on their customers’ experience, receive  substantially higher revenue in comparison to their counterparts. According to Deloitte, a positive customer experience encounter can increase customer spending by up to 140%.

Brands with superior customer experience bring in 5.7 times more revenue than competitors that lag in customer experience. So it is worthwhile for companies to provide a high standard of customer service 24/7 to customers for this extra boost. 

3 Ways to Become Available 24/7

Here are 3 ways to make your business contactable 24/7 alongside providing excellent customer service.

1) Have live chat on your website – this shows customers you are available at any time of the day and it provides the quickest possible answer or solution to their query. You then have the opportunity to steer the conversation towards a sale. You can also chat with multiple customers at the same time, unlike the traditional methods of phone and email. By being able to chat with multiple customers simultaneously enables you to be more available to more customers. Though this can be a challenge for businesses to staff this channel effectively 24/7, which is why services like Chat2 Concierge can help.

2) Offer 24/7 phone support – this can be done through a rotating schedule so that there is always someone available to support customers, though this is normally best suited to larger businesses. This option is a little more expensive as it requires more staff than chat, especially in these times of low unemployment.

3) Make it easy for customers to contact you – ensure your contact details are easily found on your website, on the home page and contact us page.  Online visitors don’t like to fill out forms so ensure your email address is also available. Make it clear on the times and the channels of communication you offer and set expectations for response. Be prompt in replying when customers reach out, otherwise you will find your customer has moved on to your competitor who was accessible.

The eight benefits of being contactable 24/7

As consumers prefer to research their next purchase or holiday online after hours, when they have the time to sit down after their work day or on the week-ends, it makes sense for your business to be in the same space as your customers, at the same time. Here are eight benefits of having a customer service channel that is open all day, every day.

1) For those with international customers, like the Australian tourism industry or online retail, you’ll be able to provide a high level of customer service and support for guests from all around the world, no matter what time zone they are in. Your new guests will be impressed.

2) You will gain a higher level of trust from your customers. If they know that you are always available for service and support online, no matter what time of the day and night. This will move your customers more swiftly through your sales pipeline as the trust in the customer relationship forms faster. 

3) If you have a team that are available throughout the graveyard hours, there will be less pressure and overwhelm when your day team starts, they won’t have an overflowing email inbox to manage and numerous phone calls to return. Customer service has been provided throughout the night, so only those more genuine and qualified leads passed through from the night shift will be focused on, likely to result in a higher level of sales. 

4) By demonstrating to your customers that you are responding fast and effectively no matter what the time day or night, is likely to result in a stronger customer relationship with more returning customers who enjoy such a high quality of customer service .

5) By being contactable 24/7 gives you the edge over your competitors who are not easily reached outside office hours.

6) Customers will be less likely to leave negative reviews on your business online if they can instantly get in touch with you directly at any time to discuss issues that may arise with their order, booking or experience at your venue. It may not be resolved immediately, but they will feel better just having had the chance to vent to a real person.

7) You will be aware at the earliest moment possible if issues do arise with any customers or sales. You will then be able to put strategies in place to manage the situation and take action towards resolving the issue quickly and preventing any escalation.

8) Your brand image and promotion will become stronger when your customers see that you are available 24/7 providing a high standard of customer service, particularly as most people shop and book after normal business hours. They are more likely to recommend you to their friends, attracting more sales at no extra cost.

What does the future hold for 24/7 customer service?

Providing customer service 24/7 is a win-win for everyone. You love it, as it attracts greater opportunities, more sales and more revenue. Your customers love it as they are receiving a high standard of customer service when ordering, buying or just having a few questions about what you offer at any time of the day and night. 

In this technological age it is starting to become the expectation from customers that businesses should be available to assist whenever they want to interact with your brand. You may want to consider engaging professional online services, utilising a team of engagement professionals partnered with innovative software that allows your brand to be available 24/7, providing world class customer service. Just make sure they have the experience in your industry and the capability to have the right setup in preparing the online responses required to set you up for success.

 

Conclusion

Customers are more impatient than ever, as technology has changed the way people have access to information. Customers are no longer willing to wait until regular business hours to get in touch with you, they want answers to their questions in the moment they are looking to buy and book, which is why it’s starting to become essential for businesses to be contactable 24/7.

 

Author: Karen Lloyd-Collins COO Chat2

Get started on the personalisation of your website and social media channels with our all-inclusive ADAPT Package.

Take advantage of the savings with 50% OFF + FREE Set-up. Our all-inclusive ADAPT 6-month Package is designed to boost sales and elevate your #online customer service. #GetStarted in 2022!

MORE Enquiries – EASY Conversion – SAVE Time – MORE Sales

💥 50% OFF for 6-months

💥 includes 200 chats per month

💥 FREE Set-up including Knowledge Base (save $199)

💬 Chat2 Software 💬 Concierge Service 24/7
💬 Website and Facebook integration
💬 Dedicated Account Manager
💬 ROI Reporting & Data

To learn more visit our ADAPT Page

ENDS: 16th March 2022

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Chat Blog Industry Trends

Artificial Intelligence: The Secret to Staff Shortages.

Artificial Intelligence: The Secret to Staff Shortages.

Artificial Intelligence has been rapidly developing and is already a part of many things you do on a daily basis. It is now playing a large role in solving one of the biggest issues businesses are currently facing operating in a pandemic environment: staffing shortages. Businesses are struggling with keeping their businesses operational worldwide due to low unemployment rates, staff either falling sick to Covid, or they are required to isolate from being a close contact.

This is affecting many industries worldwide from tourism and hospitality in Far North Australia to Fruit Sellers in Miami, U.S. Many of these businesses are having to close parts of their operations while they ride out the Pandemic until they can find the staff to undertake key operational roles.

In some areas of these businesses AI has a role to play to assist with staff shortages. Over the years there has been a notable increase in the need for people who can manage these technologies and implement it into businesses effectively, especially in these challenging times. Businesses are striving to retain some semblance of operation to keep themselves open while it riding the Pandemic wave.

AI can assist with staffing shortages either in the short or long term. While some feel that this will mean mass unemployment, others see it as an opportunity to become more efficient with their current employees. With the introduction of AI removing the more mundane time consuming tasks from employee responsibilities, this enables you to empower your employees with a strong knowledge of the business, to focus on developing the business further into areas of greater profitability.

What happens when many jobs become automated? How will we balance the progress of technology with the loss of human jobs? The future is uncertain, but one thing is certain: Artificial Intelligence is here to stay. Here’s what’s going on with AI right now and how it may affect your business.

What is artificial intelligence?

Artificial intelligence is a term that has been coined to describe machines completing tasks that were previously associated with human intelligence. It includes the ability of computers to process information and come up with solutions, as well as the ability of computers to learn from experience. 

Many industries are transitioning towards incorporating artificial intelligence into their daily operations with AI functions assisting humans to do current jobs faster and more effectively. Examples including manufacturing robots, automated financial investing, proactive healthcare and virtual travel booking agents.

The AI Revolution

Artificial Intelligence has been rapidly developing and will soon be a part of many things we do on a daily basis. It is already showing that is has the power to solve one of our biggest issues: staffing shortages. Even though we are still a fair way off from when a machine can learn from itself, we are in a transitioning stage where humans are assisting machines in the learning process.

For example, the customer service experience is now being heavily supported through AI. Particularly during the Pandemic many businesses have had to rely on placing more emphasis on the online customer service experience through their websites and social media. This has led to more communication occurring online between customers and businesses. This is a challenging area of managing the communication channels between online customers and business staff.

Most communication has traditionally been undertaken via email and phone calls. Both these channels are time consuming and slow to getting answers to customers as they are heavily reliant on staffing resources (difficult in these times) and availability of staff when the customer is online. Also these channels can only attend to one customer at a time.

40% of enquiries from customers are now received outside of normal business operating hours.

Karen Lloyd-Collins - COO Chat2 Tweet

40% of enquiries from customers are now received outside of normal business operating hours. In the online world customers basically expect businesses to be available 24/7 and to respond as if they were always open, which is highly challenging for businesses. So managing the online customer service space can be quite difficult.

A strong emphasis was placed on chatbots about 3-4 years ago and this technology was trialled by many businesses to assist in being available 24/7 and providing service to multiple customers at the same time.

 Though it was soon discovered that customers rejected this technology, they found that their questions were not answered efficiently and they wasted much time going around in circles trying to obtain answers. This left the online customer frustrated and even turned them away from the brands they were trying to deal with. This phase of online ai customer service was damaging to the reputation of chatbots. So is there a role for AI in enhancing the online customer experience ? How can businesses deliver great customer service in times when they are struggling to find staff during a Pandemic?

The AI-powered workforce

One of the most exciting aspects of AI is that it can assist us in what we are doing now to be more effective, not necessarily taking over completely what we are doing. We are in a type of a transitioning stage where we can use AI to improve what we are doing now by doing it differently and more efficiently. 

For example, back to our online customer service challenge. There is now chat software in place with AI features that can assist the operators to respond to customers faster, with accurate answers and to chat with several customers at the same time across many different industries. If the software is set up correctly, it can suggest to the operators responses from interpreting what the customer is asking. 

 

Live 24/7 Customer Service

AI can assist with real live customer service online, directly through your own website.
Click here for a demo

The software allows the operator to be faster in responding to customers, more effective by providing correct answers in the shortest amount of time, responding to multiple customers efficiently at the same time, therefore promoting faster and easier conversions. The customer is happy as they are getting the answers they are looking for quickly and hence are more likely to book or buy from the brand with a higher level of online customer service.

 

Setting up systems like this now empower our customer service teams and enables for easier transition to full automation once the technology has reached its full potential. The business will have a much better understanding of their online customer, as they will discover first hand the information their customers are looking for and the most common questions asked. This data allows for an easier transition to full automation in coming years.

In this scenario, AI is assisting humans to manage and maintain a high level of customer service more effectively and efficiently online. But what about the other side? As more industries shift their business models to incorporate AI, there’s a notable increase in the need for personnel who can manage these technologies. With low unemployment rates, a pandemic and an ageing population, this can be difficult for businesses to even consider implementing online customer service systems.

A better future with AI in Customer Service

The team at Chat2 are working with businesses worldwide to assist in relieving the pressure of staff shortages, providing online customer service for many businesses to ensure customers receive a warm customer service experience online. Our team work with our unique Chat2 software, with its built-in AI features that assist the team heavily to answer questions across a fortitude of industries fast and knowledgeably. Our team at Chat2 are filling this gap for businesses who feel that its more important than ever before to be more available to customers online 24/7 and to provide a memorable customer service experience.

As the world is changing quickly with new challenges from technology and pandemics, Chat2 is assisting many businesses to manage their online customer service experience effectively utilising the skills and experience of our team who have been working with AI for the last 7 years. If our online team are bringing in the customers, this frees up our business managers to focus on what they do best and that is delivering their final product and service to ensure happy customers.

Conclusion

Although artificial intelligence seems like a futuristic concept to some, we have already begun incorporating it into everyday life. Artificial Intelligence has the potential to solve many of the world’s problems–including staffing shortages. There are many jobs that require problem-solving, object recognition, and pattern identification that AI is already capable of doing. Machines are getting smarter every day, and it’s unlikely they’ll stop developing.

If you’re in a field where your job can be done by an AI program, it’s only a matter of time before humans will be working more closely with machines to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of tasks. But machines can’t do everything on their own. When industries shift to AI-based technology, there is an increase in the need for people who can manage these technologies.

As businesses and organizations continue to grow and become more data-driven, the need for automation becomes more and more apparent. And that’s where artificial intelligence comes in. AI helps us to automate human tasks and decisions with the use of machine learning and deep learning algorithms. And not only does it help reduce staffing shortages, but it also helps us to think more creatively and improve our online customer experience.

Get started on the personalisation of your website and social media channels with our all-inclusive ADAPT Package.

Take advantage of the savings with 50% OFF + FREE Set-up. Our all-inclusive ADAPT 6-month Package is designed to boost sales and elevate your #online customer service. #GetStarted in 2022!

MORE Enquiries – EASY Conversion – SAVE Time – MORE Sales

💥 50% OFF for 6-months

💥 includes 200 chats per month

💥 FREE Set-up including Knowledge Base (save $199)

💬 Chat2 Software 💬 Concierge Service 24/7
💬 Website and Facebook integration
💬 Dedicated Account Manager
💬 ROI Reporting & Data

To learn more visit our ADAPT Page

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How To

How to set up, cancel and troubleshoot auto pay with Chat2

If auto pay has been activated for you, it can be set up from a link on the email you receive with the invoice attached.

You need to complete these steps to set up auto pay on an invoice and make payment:

  1. Click Set up auto pay and enter your credit or debit card details.
  2. Select the Automatically pay invoices on the due dates checkbox and click Pay.

Your card will be charged immediately for that invoice. Subsequent invoices will be automatically charged on the relevant due dates.

Existing overdue invoices won’t be paid automatically.

Once payment is made, you will receive:

  • Confirmation that auto pay is set up
  • Confirmation of the payment which displays at the top of the invoice
  • An email confirming payment, with the receipt and invoice attached

When the next invoice is due, you will receive an email with a link to the invoice and a message that it’ll be paid via auto pay on the due date. On payment, you will receive an email with a receipt and a paid invoice attachment.

Cancel auto pay

You can cancel auto pay from the online invoice. To do this, you need to:

  1. Click Manage auto pay at the top right of the invoice, then select Cancel auto pay.
  2. Click Cancel auto pay to confirm the cancellation.

You will receive an email confirmation of the cancellation.

Troubleshoot a failed payment

If an automatic payment fails, you are notified and asked to update your payment information so that the automatic payment can be retried.

To do this, you need to:

  1. Click Manage auto pay at the top right of the invoice, then select Update card information.
  2. Update the card details and click Update card information.

When the payment is successful, you will receive an email confirmation.

 

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How To

How to install Chat2 via WordPress plugin

To install Chat2 via the WordPress plugin – you can either go to this link – https://wordpress.org/plugins/chat2/ and click download. For the plugin to work you need to already have registered your website with Chat2.

Once you have downloaded and activated it should show up on your WordPress dashboard with the website listed in the field in place of “Destination Trinity Beach” shown below:

Alternatively, you can install the plugin through your WordPress dashboard.

1. Just log into your WordPress dashboard and install a new plugin as follows. Click on “Add New”.

2. Search for Chat2, install and activate.

Done!

 

 

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Chat Blog Industry Trends

How to attract MORE Direct Bookings in Tourism and Hospitality Online: 3 Top Tips!

Keen to retain more revenue within your business? Are you weary of having to pay the Online Travel Agencies up to a 1/3 of your revenue to get bookings? Well you don’t have to look any further, we have 3 top tips showing you how you can save on paying exorbitant fees to third party agents and get more dollars through your door from your own website!

Chat2 Concierge’s Top 3 Tips

As you are aware the first place people go when considering holidays, vacations and travel activities is to one of those large third-party booking agents like Trip Advisor, Booking.com, Expedia etc. But what you might not realise is that many consumers start their research there, but then seek out the business website of the place they are considering staying, or the activity that looks appealing. They are landing on your website and social media pages, so it is essential you are able to keep them there, for as long as possible to attract the direct booking. You want to stop them from going back to the third-party website to book! But how you may ask? It’s pretty tough competing against the Online Travel Agency (OTA) giants, particularly as their booking engine may be very slick, their site is easy to navigate and now many even have real people there to answer any questions!

Well, a system has been created for anyone that can do all that and more. A service that captures your guest’s attention in the moment they arrive on your website or social media page! It provides a personal customer service experience, that will “wow” your online guests for a fraction of the cost of the hefty fees charged by the OTA’s, so they will want to stay on your site longer and will come back after booking for any further information they need saving you time.

The Chat2 Concierge service is regularly responding to comments,

“hey, I’ve just been on Agoda and they are offering this ……” or

“I’ve just been to booking.com and they are charging this….”

We are providing the opportunity to tourism and hospitality businesses to be able to respond to these comments and attract the direct booking by promoting their best offers in the moment they have their guest’s attention. Our Tourism Recovery Package ends soon…don’t miss out on 2 months free and 50% off set-up. 

Chat2 Tip 1 – Make your website more attractive

Technology has changed the way consumers behave online. They are no longer patient to wade through pages of a website looking for an answer. They are far more demanding than they have ever been before. 53% will exit your website if they cannot find the answers they are looking for quickly.

Did you know that even if you ask a question outside of normal business hours or on the weekend, online consumers still expect the business to respond in the same amount of time as if it was during normal business hours? It’s a tough and challenging expectation to meet, though our Chat2 Concierge service is meeting this expectation and enabling tourism businesses of all sizes to compete against the OTA’s.

The Chat2 Concierge service enables tourism businesses to be available to their guests 24/7, providing answers quickly to questions they may have. Our service is manned by real people who are there in the moment your online visitor arrives, obtaining trust and most commonly in this environment, providing reassurance around any health and cancellation concerns.

Chat2 Tip 1 – make your website attractive so your visitor wants to stay and spend some time finding out a bit more about what you offer. And don’t forget our Chat2 Concierge service enables you to do this 24/7 by answering questions in the moment they are being asked and when your guest is motivated to book. 

Chat2 Tip 2 – Encourage your customers to book direct

You should make it simple for guests to navigate and book directly on your website. As soon as your customer arrives on your site, make sure you have an eye-catching direct booking button to take their attention.

The Chat2 Concierge service assists tourism and hospitality businesses to obtain the direct booking, by guiding the guests through to the booking button. Frequently, guests just need some reassurance that they are in the right place and be shown where to select dates, guest numbers and room/activity types. Then they may have some questions around the types of rooms and activities, which the Concierge team are well placed to answer and continue to encourage the guest towards a direct booking. We have several different techniques we utilise to obtain the conversion in the moment the guest is looking to book.

Chat 2 Tip 2 – Make it easy for the guest to navigate and book online, with an enhanced customer experience utilising a service like Chat2 Concierge. 

Chat2 Tip 3 – Consistency and Reliability

Guests ask questions in such a variety of ways online, it is certainly very tricky for any chatbot to answer based on a limited range of pre-programmed questions and answers. It doesn’t matter what way the questions are asked, our Concierge service is set up so that our team are heavily assisted with artificial intelligence built into the Chat2 software to ensure your guests will always receive a warm, friendly, human response that is adaptable to request, consistent and is on brand and on message.

It’s important for potential guests to always receive knowledgeable and consistent answers, in line with the branding of the business. You will discover if you trial a service like Chat2 Concierge to enhance the online customer experience, your guests will return to your website again and again (boosting Search Engine Optimisation SEO as a side benefit).

When guests re-visit your website and notice you are still available to them 24/7, answering questions quickly and effectively, you will be gaining a higher degree of trust, hence an increase in the probability of obtaining the direct booking. Did you know that according to Forbes and Forrester Research 2021, that 66% of adults feel that valuing their time is the most important thing a company can do for them?

Chat2 Tip 3 – Ensure the online customer experience you provide to your online visitors is consistent and reliable and you will attain a competitive edge over your competitors and attract the direct booking.

We know the service works!

Tourism Case Study

One of our tourism operators who has been utilising the chat2 Concierge service for the last 5 years, has seen their online enquiries grow from year to year, despite having to cease operations in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This operator was heavily reliant on the international back packer industry and after seeing significant growth in enquiries from 2017 – 2019, they had to cease their diving and cruise activities for a short time while the country went into lock down.

The Chat2 Concierge service was not impacted by the COVID-19 event and operations continued normally, the service kept this tourism operator open with an online presence. When visitors arrived on the website, they were reassured that the operator would restart activities once the restrictions were eased. Visitors were invited to keep coming back by the Chat2 Concierge team and there were even some future bookings that were obtained for the following year.

Eventually this Cruise Operator resumed operations late in 2020, with only the domestic market. Though despite losing their international clientele, they are now receiving more online enquiries than ever before. May 2021 has seen a 27.5% increase in the number of enquiries compared to May 2019, even without international guests. This is quite impressive growth, just by being there online consistently.

 

The Chat2 Concierge service empowered this tourism businesses to enhance their online customer experience to their online visitors 24/7, with a team of real people, who are providing visitors with fast and knowledgeable answers to their questions, but most importantly educating them on the benefits of booking direct, promoting the business, sharing the booking link and ultimately encouraging them to book direct in the moment. 

What’s in it for my business?

If you are keen to:

  • Attract more direct bookings at a much lower cost
  • Save money
  • Be available to guests 24/7
  • Increase online enquiries and conversions and
  • Improve Online Customer Experience for your guests

We recommend you enhance the online Customer Experience on your website and social media pages to make it more;

Attractive to your guests – timely, knowledgeable answers to questions in the moment

 Encouraging to your guests – so they book in the moment they are motivated to buy and

 Consistent and Reliable – your visitors know what to expect

Don’t Miss Out!

We invite you to trial NOW as currently there is a 2 month free offer* until the end of June for Tourism and Hospitality businesses. You can start immediately by finding out more here chat2.com/tourism/

Or

Alternatively, to find out more we have an information session for Tourism and Hospitality on Friday, 25th June at 10am. Just go to this link to book a spot.

*There is a one-off setup fee of $99, currently offered at 1/2 price.

 

Book an online demo here to find out more today or register to join us for our upcoming information sessions.

 

Businesses need to act quickly to cash in on this unprecedented online consumer behaviour!

 

Categories
Chat Blog Industry Trends

The Simplest Way to Double Your Online Conversions

Have you invested thousands of dollars in your website? Would you like to convert more of your website visitors into actual paying customers? We can show you how! More than ever before consumers are going online to buy, particularly in the face of a global pandemic. It’s much safer to shop and buy online.

Across the world more purchases and enquiries are being made online.  There has been a massive spike in this behaviour.  This means that online traffic has grown exponentially, and your business needs to take advantage of this change in behaviour. It’s free traffic to your website.  But once visitors land on your website, how do you engage with them and stop them from bouncing off to your competitor?

 

Why are more consumers shopping online?

Firstly, it is safer to shop online. With the global pandemic, there is no need to go out into the public and risk your chances of being exposed to the Covid19 virus. It’s much safer to shop from your lounge room couch. This is what has driven this sudden surge in online traffic.

Secondly, it’s easier to compare prices with websites such as Amazon or Ebay. It’s much easier to compare products to see which one is better value for money. Amazon can even suggest other products that you may want to buy.

Thirdly, it is also cheaper and less time consuming as there is no need to travel anywhere as purchasing can be done from home.

A study done by the Bank of America in 2020, labelled the growth of this online traffic as “The Quickening”. In the United States, they saw a 10-year growth in online activity in just 3 months. A similar trend was also seen in Australia with 5 years of online growth[1].

Businesses like yours need to take note of this change in behaviour online and reap the rewards of website traffic growth.

Why would a customer want to shop from your website?

 

Why you need to take advantage of this change in behaviour

This massive growth in website traffic is unprecedented and no one knows how long this period of intense online activity is going to stay around. So it’s important to take advantage of this change now.

Bounced visitors are very costly. These are the website visitors that land on your website, take a quick look, can’t find what they are looking for and bounce off to your competitor.  If you are spending significant dollars in getting them to your website in the first place, then you are potentially wasting your investment.

The goal is to provide an effective engaging website so that when your visitor lands there, they stay, look around and engage.  The longer they stay on your site, the more likely they are to convert. So how do you engage with your website visitor and keep them on your website for longer?

 

How to engage with visitors to your website

These three simple steps will help you convert more visitors to paying customers:

  1. Interactive and Personal Websites
  2. Easy Website Navigation
  3. Memorable Customer Experience

 

Interactive and Personal Websites

You need to make your website more interactive and personal, not just with bells and whistles, but with real humans who can explain your products and services in ways that will engage them. Today’s digital savvy consumers want more and more information, transparency and reassurance. They want to find out more about a product before they buy it.

Our Chat2 Concierge service enables businesses to do this 24/7 with a team of real people online when your website visitor arrives on your website.  The team answer many of those simple, common, repetitive questions initially to gain trust but ultimately to convert your visitor the moment they are motivated to buy. We set up specific responses for your business that the team can draw upon, heavily assisted with the artificial intelligence (ai) built into the Chat2 software.

We do this for a fraction of the cost you spend on advertising and many times we are protecting your advertising investment.

If we don’t convert your visitor in the moment, they are online, it’s easy for us to obtain contact details for you to add to your future marketing strategies.

 

Easy Website Navigation

Ensure your website is easy to navigate for users.  Do you know what information is most commonly searched for when visitors arrive on your website? It’s important to have this information front and center on your website, so it’s easy for visitors to find. Our Chat2 Concierge service can easily identify this information to you.

The online visitor is exceptionally impatient nowadays and is no longer willing to wade through pages and pages of a website.  They want to find their answers quickly and efficiently, normally if this cannot be done in sixty seconds, they quickly bounce off the website. The Chat2 Concierge service does capture the attention of these visitors. It does this by inviting them to engage just before they leave the website.

You also get a great insight into the language and words that your online visitors use with our Chat2 Concierge service. You get to know firsthand the words and phrases used so you can incorporate them into your website content to attract more organic visitors to your website.

 

Memorable Customer Experience

Once a visitor arrives on your website, you need to gain their trust by providing them with a memorable online customer experience.  Contact Us forms on websites are no longer as successful as they once were, as many consumers are tentative to provide any personal details up front.  Also, it’s not normal acceptable human behaviour. 

When you walk into a shop you don’t immediately hand over your contact details before you get to ask a few questions.  Online customer service should be no different.

Many companies that attempt to use an online communication channel like live chat, set it up so the visitor is required to enter their name and contact details before they even ask a question.  This does not work and blocks about 50% of the engagement for your business.

Our Chat2 Concierge service engages your website visitor with a real human conversation, one that is warm and friendly and adapts easily to the tone of the visitor. We are able to engage your visitor easily and convert them in the moment they are motivated to buy. This can be direct through your website or obtaining contact details and handing over a very warm lead for you to do what you do best. Some clients have reported to us an increase of 20 – 40% in conversion utilising an online customer experience service like Chat2 Concierge. We focus on providing a warm welcome and memorable customer experience.

Conclusion

Even the smallest changes to your website can turn around your business. Having a personal and interactive website allows you to stand out in a very noisy space.  For maximum traffic, make sure you’ve done everything you can to optimize your site, such as having solid, user-friendly navigation. And lastly, make your customer experience memorable so that they want to come back again and again. Remember that good website design should be an integral part of your digital marketing strategy. Always keep in mind that the first impression is the most important one!

Join one of upcoming information sessions to learn how Chat2 can help you to double your website conversions is 2021!

To register go to https://chat2.com/info-sessions/

Businesses need to act quickly to cash in on this unprecedented online consumer behaviour!
 

Book an online demo here to find out more today or register to join us for our upcoming information sessions.

 

[1] Shawspring Research 2020

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How To

How to Login to Chat2

2 easy steps to log into your Chat2 Dashboard

1. Go to your website and login through your chat2 widget.

2. Enter your email and password

If this is your first time to log in you will need to set your password, so click the password reminder link to get a password emailed to you.

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Chat Blog Industry Trends

2021 – Year of Online Opportunity

 
The future has been pulled forward – now every business is an online business

Consumer behaviour in 2020 changed dramatically, which was hardly unexpected as COVID spread worldwide. 75% of consumers have changed the way they purchase.

 

Source McKinsey

 

In June 2020 Deloitte surveyed 10,000 US online adults and found and 65% of these consumers state they will maintain online digital behind buying behaviour, post-crisis. 42% said they would not return to shopping in stores once stay-at-home-restrictions are lifted.  

The change in behaviour drove an unprecedented acceleration in the digital environment. The United States  experienced 10 years of e-commerce growth in three months and Australia five years in three months.

 

Sources: Shaw Spring Research, Bank of America, U.S. Department of Commerce. KPMG COVID-19: Retail’s survival and revival.

 

 

Chat2 has been operating in the online customer service space for the last six years and we have been observing the escalating trend of consumers taking more of their purchasing activity online due to improvements in technology. 

Now with the ‘quickening’ the changes we had observed gradually have hit warp-speed.

As respected global researcher McKinsey said;

“If you’re feeling whiplash, it might be the ten years forward we just jumped in 90 days’ time.” 

Digitalization, online ordering, remote delivery and remote working have become the new norm. Businesses need to recognize the changing online environment as exceptionally significant, and take action now to take advantage of the exceptional opportunity this presents online or be left behind. In this new online environment businesses need to look at new ways to reach customers. Why?

If they do, they will be able to take advantage of this unprecedented online behaviour and move ahead of the crowd in this very busy and noisy space. 

Brands need to act now and launch themselves head on escalating their digital capabilities, looking at how they reach their customers, communicate with customers throughout the sales journey during the decision-making through to final purchase and after sales. 

Those brands that are now winning are being more creative, more authentic, seeking help from the online experts, and implementing digital capability fast.

Consumers are demanding businesses to provide a first-class e-commerce experience with seamless digital service. 

Now some brands have turned to AI (artificial technology) to attain their goal, though this strategy needs to be carefully managed to be successful. From our experience online, consumers do not want to engage 100% with AI alone, they demand human interaction and assistance by a real person. 

98% of people try and bypass IVR (interactive voice response systems) in order to get to a human agent. The top three terms used are “representative”, “customer service”, and “live person”. Hubspot 2018 Customer Service Expectations 

Particularly in this time of crisis, we are interacting with online visitors every hour of every day who are demanding more reassurance in that it is safe to buy (e.g. checking refund and cancellation policies) and that it’s safe to visit (i.e. what hygiene practices are in place). 

Traditional brand loyalties can no longer be taken for granted as 36% of consumers are trying out new brands, as the business they previously used has not kept pace with new  consumer demands for availability, instantaneous service and seamless digital engagement. 

Millennials and Gen Z have been the widest adopters of contactless activities. Gen Z (1996 to 2012) are on their mobiles on average six hours a day researching before they shop (Reuters Institute and Flamingo Group).

As consumers are now spending more time online during their buying journey, this has created the demand for businesses to become more available online. Consumers demand businesses to respond in the same timeframe out of hours or on the weekend as they would during normal business hours.

 

Australia Post Consumer Survey, Jan- April 2020 and Chat2 clients

 

This has placed a huge stress on businesses [especially smaller ones] who need to offer longer operating hours to meet this demand.

In this “new normal” digital environment, businesses need to include a clear digital route to market and integrate customer contact into their capability. 

We have seen that the early adopters of a digital strategy have been able to provide effective customer service and enhanced operation, with an increase or maintenance of sales during the COVID-19 event. This is a clear advantage over their competitors.

The profound impact of this pandemic requires businesses to reevaluate how they do business and communicate with their customers. Businesses have to modernize their core operations which is uncomfortable for many, moving away from how they have always done business. 

Bold moves are needed to build and maintain resilience to survive. The most important move to consider is the enhancement of digital communication and being online in the space where and when your consumers. 

Chat2 has been assisting businesses worldwide from large corporations through to the single business operator. We help businesses stand out from the crowd in this noisy online space, by providing a 24/7 online presence with a team of “real people” providing reassurance, responses to questions, guiding online sales, sharing promotions or obtaining leads. 

As we have been working in this online space for six years and noticed the escalation in behaviour changed to the COVID-19 crisis, we are able to provide the guidance and assistance necessary to businesses to enhance their online digital capability and service to customers immediately. 

If you would like to find out more on how we do this, go to chat2.com where you will find short videos explaining what we do, you can book for a free demo with one of our consultants to give your business immediate digital capability and connection with your customers.

Businesses need to double down on digital in the ‘new normal’ and test new methods of customer engagement (yes we offer a free trial) especially in these times of unprecedented online traffic. 

We can escalate your digital consumer connection to enhance your personalisation of messages, provide real assurance, attract/convert more sales, assist with customer issues, obtain more leads, accelerate loyalty, enhance customer experience and communicate proactively with customers 24/7 for a fraction of the cost if you were to do it yourself. 

Book an online demo here to find out more today or register to join us for our first information session of the year “2021 – Year of Online Opportunity”.

Businesses need to act quickly to cash in on this unprecedented online consumer behaviour.

 

Categories
Chat Blog

How to be more ‘OPEN’​ for business this Holiday Season

With the Festive season upon us and staff winding down for the school holidays with plans for local vacations and staycations, our team are ramping up the for holidays!

2020 has been such a challenging year for many businesses and we are lending a helping hand to those who are struggling to remain open this Christmas. So if you are keen to remain open especially in the online space where the amount of visitor traffic has increased substantially over these last few months – then read on…. as we can help!

With the significant increase in online traffic, some businesses are struggling to keep apace to respond in a timely manner to the number of enquiries they are now receiving. We are helping many businesses to respond to their customers in the moment they arrive online, on their website or Facebook page, with a team of real people, professionally trained in your industry. We have been working in the online space for the last 6 years and we know the commonly asked questions and how to gain the trust of the online visitor to either encourage them to book directly in the moment they are motivated to buy or at least to get their contact details for your team to follow up and convert.

How do we know what to say? As a part of our Chat2 Concierge service, we create a knowledge base specific for your business. Apart from having the responses to questions that we see all the time, we also review your website to add those that are also likely to get asked. Your staff can review and add to this knowledge base before they go on holidays!

Once the knowledge base is approved, it is uploaded into our software where our team utilising the AI interface can draw upon the knowledge base to answer questions fast (on average 19 seconds), we personalise and edit the responses to ensure they are relevant for the questions being asked, we hold a genuine warm friendly conversation online with your customers (yes, don’t expect every chat to be done and dusted in 2 minutes, that doesn’t work on this channel), we obtain trust to either get the customer to buy in the moment or we obtain the contact details for you to follow up as well as adding to your own database.

We can answer general enquiries, or even some specifics depending on the quality of the knowledge base, we can take bookings, make bookings online, we can even respond to clients on emails as an additional service during the holiday season to encourage more sales and ease the burden of your own staff upon returning to work. Our aim is to promote and encourage purchases in the moment the customer is online. Or we obtain quality and genuine leads to push through to your skeleton staff to easily finalise the sale as we have done most of the qualification work.

Just by being there in the moment, consistent and responding fast, you are more likely to attract more enquiries than ever before. To keep your business growing and sales coming through during the festive season while most of your team are taking a well-earned break.

We are already saving our clients so much cost in ongoing labour costs just by being there and able to easily manage and answer online enquiries around those constant and repetitive questions knowledgeably. This infographic shows these savings for five of our clients.

As we are answering conversations for others in your industry and our operators can be managing up to 8 -9 conversations simultaneously we are able to take advantage of economies of scale and offer this service at an exceptional cost.

You can use our service just for the festive season (there is no contract) or you can choose to use us just for outside of business hours or of course every month 24/7, it’s your choice! Only until the end of November – you can accept an offer to start in December for only $30 for the first month. The knowledge base creation is normally $199 to create, though we will also include this and our Google Analytics integration for 12 months (normally a monthly fee) though this special ends Sunday midnight.

This offer will be available at this link for the next 3 days for Black Friday sales – just go to https://chat2.com/cash_in_online_this_christmas/

With our unique, innovative live chat software and our team of online engagement agents 24/7, you will have the power to maximise your sales, leads, bookings, conversions & attract more enquiries.

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