Apr 04

Interact Easily Through Live Chat And SMS

By Alex Therrien Engaging No Comments

Interact Easily Through Live Chat and SMS

Live chat has gotten very expensive in the last couple of years, namely INTERCOM as the leader. There are cheaper alternatives with all the common functionalities and more!

We have been using CRISP (France) for a few clients and we are very pleased with the integration capabilities and the price is very competitive. We use Live chat to intercept incoming replies to our SMS campaigns. Our SMS text copies have call to actions (CTA) with a high response rate (reply or inbound call).

“75% of people prefer live chat over any other channel.”
Live Chat Statistics 2022techjury.net

Gather information

Often we use the leads attention to provide us more information about what they are looking for. We often use reverse psychology technique such as "I know that you are looking for X" and very often the lead will reply by saying "actually no, I am looking for..." stating the product they are interested in. This saves a lot of time for the sales dept. handling these Live Chat Sessions.

Bridging SMS & live chat

Live chat is of course notoriously compatible with mobile users. It's also easy to bridge for incoming two-way SMS live communication. This allows us to track and aggregate like never before; web session for future SMS communication flows and decisions, call scripts or notes, email nurturing content decisions with dynamic offers to name just a few.

A live chat software such as CRISP allows you to grab the right data for your sales team specifically information on a lead's recent (or first visit) web sessions. For example if a user has visited a page providing information on "financing" and a specific product page... you guessed it. These can be easily pushed to the CRM for your sales reps. and be pulled during a call with the client.

Our process...

Our agency mainly use chat systems as a way for our client's sales team to interact by SMS with leads and clients. The sales team does this without having to use their personal smartphone from a computer. We simply use an API to bridge all inbound and outbound SMS received and sent from your existing live chat system.

Your sales team receives all replies on one screen, which makes things a lot more efficient. We can also push an history of the SMS text messaging campaign to the live chat. We also use specialized cross-channel SMS to Live Chat copywriting strategies that makes it more obvious for your sales team to get the intention of the lead early on in the first interaction.

92% of consumers prefer live chat

Once considered an add-on that made communication easier for the consumer and business, live chat is now a staple for most corporations. This arguably a consequence of long waiting queue of labor intensive call centers and slow email response times.

Companies figured out this often send shoppers to another merchant for this reason alone: accessibility. Pre-sale accessibility as proven to be a decisive factor for clients, as pre-sale quality increases the client grows more confident about the after sales service accessibility.

Phone, email, and web support still rank as important when it comes to instilling trust. But the presence of live chat exceeds them all — even if shoppers don’t use it. Compared to other methods of communication, 92 percent of consumers prefer communicating via live chat. Roughly 80 percent prefer communicating via social networks.

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Upsell with Boom-o-Rang SMS/AI

For example outbuilding construction companies often sell outbuilding construction DIY plans. A common dynamic retargeting strategy we've always had success with a tiny house & sheds company from Vermont is offering the DIY Pre-cut Kit that goes with the plans. There are also other the usual ecommerce strategies such as upselling in the collection or a variant of the first purchase.

Depending on the first purchase, the time delay for triggering those automated touchpoints or internal reminders for your team to make contact would follow the current sales model but also other path should be tested if there is enough volume. You can do all that with Boom-o-Rang SMS/AI.

51% trust SMS over emails

In the case of low to high ticket dynamic upselling SMS works best because it is closer to the preferred high ticket closing channel: in-person call. It is the highest response rate channel just similar to outbound call.

A trusted medium, over half surveyed consumers (51%) say they trust texts over emails when it comes to receiving important messages. Post and Beam outbuilding construction such as tiny houses, barns, garages and storage units certainly falls into that category.

Upsell on both email & SMS

Let's have a look at this PLANS to PRE-CUT KIT flow from a tiny house & sheds company from Vermont. We would typically do this on both email and SMS/AI channels for a higher success rate. After speaking with a leading POC sales manager at the Vermont company, our agency discovered that a sales rep. would typically (when they had time) reach by phone to PLANS buyers. That was about 30 days after the plans purchase and for a low pressure casual conversation.

AI makes it easier to upsell high-ticket products

PLANS are the one that comes with their pre-cut kits, but some clients will take the option of only buying the plans without the kits and give it a try by sourcing their own lumber. This is not easy to do, so the sales team reaches out and ask casually "what are the client's intentions for the build" without asking directly if they plan to build themselves or hire their own assembler.

The client is only stimulated to do the first step in providing that information. If they do let it slip, the sales rep. get them progressively interested about a pre-cut kit or related challenges they might have sourcing the lumber. This is a tedious process without AI. The client is not warmed up and the conversion rate is low, which doesn't justify running this outbound retargeting sales campaign all year round.