Is Proactive Chat Still Scary?
With our recent research report on the effectiveness of live chat, we paid special attention to the survey respondent’s feedback from about proactive chat. We learned that consumers with the highest likelihood to make an online purchase are also the most likely to accept a proactive chat invitation. But as Bold Software’s Director of Sales, I find that when I talk to business decision makers at B2C companies, they widely believe that proactive chat will scare away customers.
So, the most valuable consumers respond, very few offer negative feedback about proactive chat, and yet businesses still think consumers will run away screaming.
Are these perceptions from businesses left over from brick/mortar retail? Was there research earlier in live chat’s lifespan that indicated a negative response from proactive chat? Considering proactive chat is far less Orwellian than robust analytics, what is it that people were ever afraid of?
The more I try to understand the fear about proactive chat, the sillier the questions get. It makes me wonder if this whole negative perception is based on assumptions rather than actual data.
To provide the counter point to general perceptions, here are a few statistics from our research to consider when evaluating consumer opinions about chat:
- While 52% of the sample surveyed agreed that they find proactive chat invitations helpful, 73% of those whose average online transation is greater than $100 felt that way.
- Additionally, the likelihood that proactive chat will positively influence a shopper’s willingness to engage was over 56% of all survey respondents, yet that number increased to 65% for weekly shoppers.
Looking to learn more about best practices for implementing proactive chat? Read more in our whitepaper about Live Chat’s New ROI – Proactive Chat Invitiations.