Live Chat Software |

Live Chat Software – Does it Increase Sales or Just Annoy People?

Posted in Uncategorized. Written by Leonie George on August 20th, 2010

Like most online business owners I often spend time looking at new options and potential improvements to the way we do business. This week I started to wonder if having a live chat facility on our website would turn more new visitors into new clients so I decided that a quick Google search was in order. Being ever cost conscious I always make a habit of adding “free” to my search terms, just in case. Well, this week it led me to the Comm100 website – it offers an open source, hosted, live chat program. Completely free. No monthly fees and no cost for adding it to your website. It looks great – but will it work for us?

The big question is, does having a live chat facility on your website actually encourage potential clients to ask questions and eventually order? Does it drive some people away by annoying them? When I walk into a retain store and various assistants approach me every 3 minutes asking “can I help you?” it’s just annoying and much more likely to result in me leaving the store prematurely. Does the same apply to an online store assistant? Would people just prefer to be left alone? Personally, if I wanted help I’d ask for it. In an online environment, that is as easy as sending an email. This might be a little cynical but surely one of the reasons people like doing things online is because they don’t have to talk to anybody!

On the other hand, people shopping online, particularly those looking for a service, are impatient. They want immediate answers. I’m very quick to click away from a site if it doesn’t provide the volume of information I need to make a decision. Would I ask a question if I was invited to chat live with a business representative? Maybe. Would you? Would your prospective customers?

If you’re an Aussie online business operator and you’ve tried, or are currently trialling a live chat facility on your site I’d love to hear about your experience. Is it increasing your conversions or is it just annoying the site visitors?

If you’re interesting in checking out the Comm100 live chat facility you’ll find it here. They also offer free hosted forum facilities.

Related content:

Recent News

AWA talks to Rebecca Derrington (SourceBottle).

This week we start the first in a regular series for Article Writers Australia; a wide-ranging collection of interviews with Australian business owners with an innovative touch who have made their mark in their field. This week we are delighted to talk with SourceBottle's Rebecca Derrington, who gives us the rundown on her business connecting [...]
What’s the right time to post social media?

Skilful use of your business-related social media should make it one of your key marketing weapons. By keeping posts original and regularly updated (with links pointing back to your website) you can provide an effective two-way communications portal with your readers and clients. However if you are new to social media networking you may well [...]
Five ways to improve your social media message for the New Year

Well its that time of year again, when we all reflect on the rapidly-disappearing year, work out what went right and what went wrong and try to remedy that with our traditional New Year’s resolutions. If you’re anything like me, some of your resolutions will just be recycled from last year but hey…it’s the thought that [...]
Google Analytics: Helping You Track Your Website’s Performance

Keeping an eye on your website’s traffic will give you a good idea of how your site is performing. Analysis like this can help you understand what is working on the site, as well as what needs to be tweaked to get it working at maximum efficiency. Often you can use traffic analysis to help [...]
How to Construct a Snappy Article for Your Website

Keeping your blog or website updated with snippets of news or general information bulletins will not only improve your readers’ experience as they land on your site seeking information, but also improve your visibility with search engines. This is an important part of the much dissected and discussed search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy. So how [...]
Keeping Up Appearances: the Importance of Layout in SEO

Business owners who are looking to optimise their websites are increasingly understanding the premier role the content of their site plays in SEO. While it is important to instruct article writers, whether they are being outsourced or from in house, to follow content rules designed to optimise the site, in many cases it is how [...]
Advantages of Using a Writing Service

Writing services are used increasingly by business owners to provide content for their websites as they find outsourcing has advantages over adding text in house. Not only can using a professional writing service help increase your visibility with search engines — well-written and original text is an essential component of search engine optimisation (SEO) — but [...]
Using Active Verbs to Improve Your Website Text

In the post “Using Text to Optimise Your Website”, we touched on the importance of text content on your website. We saw that paying attention to how your text is written and presented can play a big part in the success or otherwise of your search engine optimisation (SEO). More importantly though, clear and concise [...]