ChatMarshal.com, an outsource live chat and chatbot agency has researched 1 000 online shops and e-commerce web sites in South Africa and found that 98% of consumer-facing websites don’t use live chat, even when the benefits are obvious.
David Marshall, founder and CEO of chatmarshal.com, comments: “I can only imagine that companies feel it is difficult and time consuming to add live chat. That needn’t be the case, as this service can easily be outsourced to specialists who can handle it for you.
“Small business can afford a live chat service 24 hours a day and compete with big businesses,” he adds. “Big businesses can reduce inbound call costs by having the live chat answer all common questions through their website.”
ChatMarshal.com looked at online shops in the US and found that 20% of their websites used live chat.
“In order to compete with bricks a mortar stores, online shops should focus on customer service and sales,” Marshall adds. “But not just on one-off sales. Focus should also be on return visitors and post sales customer support.”
The research found the following:
* Out of 1 000 e-commerce web sites in South Africa, 18 use live chat;
* Out of 86 car dealerships in South Africa 5,8% have live chat;
* Out of 410 holiday accommodation sites, 0,24% have live chat;
* 16 out of the 19 companies with live chats turn them off at night – although people are shopping until 10pm or 11pm at night;
* Six out of the 18 live chats were useful and gave me an answer that was helpful;
* Four out of the 18 took more than 10 minutes to give a response;
* Two out of the 18 did not even respond at all, and one was read with no response; and
* One responded that they were on lunch and to call them directly or send them an email and they would get back to me.