Customers who web-chat tend to buy more
Online consumers who engage with a brand through web-based chat are more likely to buy more than their non-chat counterparts, according to an independent study by Forrester Consulting conducted for online customer engagement solutions provider LivePerson.
The study examined the economic impact and potential return on investment (ROI) that online retailers could realise by deploying LivePerson's pay-for-performance customer engagement solution.
For example, the television network NBC has reported significant incremental value and benefits from the introduction of an intelligent online customer engagement solution for its ShopNBC.com web site.
For the ShopNBC deployment, LivePerson partnered with 24-7 INtouch, a multi-channel contact centre outsourcer, for agent labour and service delivery. Low setup costs combined with the pay-per-order model were the primary contributors to ShopNBC's 3-year risk-adjusted ROI of 299% and a payback period of less than two months.
Among Forrester's key findings on the programme's results:
- Increased conversion rates in the online channel (24% on all chats, with 65% of all chat-assisted orders providing incremental sales);
- Increased average online order value (online customers who chat spent on average 38% more money than customers who do not chat);
- Reduced cancel and return rates (customers who chat are less likely to cancel an order or return their received goods, as a drop of 12.2% in the cancel and return rate was reported);
- Increased number of online orders for returning customers (customers who had previously completed chat-assisted orders also placed a greater number of orders when they returned to the web site in future).
"This study illustrates the incremental value that intelligent engagement solutions can deliver," commented Jim Dicso, senior vice president of Business Solutions Sales & Service for LivePerson. "But ensuring that the right visitor is targeted at the right moment, and with the right agent, is critical to any such programme's success."
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