Customer service can really make or break your business sometimes.
If you don’t think that’s true, consider all the times you’ve had to contact a company. You’ve likely had good experiences with customer service, and maybe some really bad experiences, too.
Which would you rather return to – the company with the great customer service, or the one with terrible customer service?
We know we’d prefer the one with great customer service. You probably thought something similar.
As new technology becomes available, businesses have to evolve ways to provide this service to you. Live chat is a recent development that makes assisting customers even easier.
Since the service you provide is important, we’re going to tell you about the best live chat for Shopify dropshipping. We’ll also be explaining to you why it’s crucial for you to have a live chat for your stores nowadays.
Short answer: We use Tidio which is totally free when your site is just starting to get traffic. Click here to try it out at no cost.
You may have to upgrade it later depending on how much traffic you get, but at that point, your store should be making more than enough to pay for it!
Don’t have time to read? Simply click the thumbnail below and you can watch us talk about live chat instead.
Why We Love this Free Live Chat App
It’s easier for customers to chat with you than to call or email you.
Have you ever had a question about a product or a problem with an order? If you knew you had to reach out to a company, you probably didn’t want to have to call them. In fact, companies that make you call or email them for answers might be a dealbreaker for you.
We’ve all had to call big businesses before and sat in long phone queues or struggled to find our way through all the numbered options. Alternatively, we’ve all had to email a company before and waited anywhere from 1-5 days just to get an answer to a simple question.
A live chat eliminates all the frustrations that come with awkward phone calls and slow emails. More and more customers are finding that they prefer this route because it’s the path of least resistance. In just a few minutes, they can have all their questions answered by you.
In fact, it’s so easy for customers when there’s a live chat, it might even be the reason they choose to shop somewhere. If your competitors don’t have a good live chat and you do, it will make a difference.
This doesn’t mean that you should have a phone number to call, though. We personally recommend Grasshopper for that, and we’ve reviewed it here.
You can leverage the contact as a sales opportunity
If your customers have a question about a product or an objection that needs to be addressed, a live chat is an easy way for you to handle it. You can use the comfort of written communication to push for a sale that might otherwise feel forced over the phone.
An example of a way you can push for that sale through chat is by asking a customer when they plan on ordering. You can find ways to justify why you asked that question through chat, but your customer would hear you struggling to explain it on a call if you didn’t have an immediate response.
We know phone calls tend to be awkward and uncomfortable, especially for customer service reps. It can be hard to find a point in the conversation where it feels natural to persuade a customer to complete an order. And if your customer service rep is feeling a little insecure, it’s harder to hide that in their voice.
However, through chat, your customer can’t pick up on that insecurity. It’s much easier to fake confidence in writing.
With live chat, you can also program things that can boost your sales. For example, with Tidio (the live chat service we use), you can program a message to pop up when a customer is on a specific page.
Say you have a product that you know customers usually have questions about. You can program a message to come up when they’re on that product’s page, asking them to chat if they need any help. You can essentially write a script to come up when the customer takes specific actions, from when they add something to their cart to when they try to track their order.
The best thing about this is that it can be done without them having to interact with you at all. They just get an immediate answer. No more having to wait in lengthy queues.
Read Also: Dropshipping Do’s and Don’ts to Reach $2,342,061.36 for a Single Store
You can see exactly where the customer is on your site.
As we mentioned, we use a chat software called Tidio, which can show you what page a customer is on. This is tremendously helpful, because you can program those automated messages to come up to ensure all their needs are met.
By giving them the option to ask you questions in advance, you might be able to persuade them to make that purchase. It demonstrates to your customer that you’re attentive to their needs, and that you’re there to help them.
Another benefit to being able to see where they are is you’ll know exactly how to help them when they have questions. Usually, when a customer calls with questions about your site, they often don’t give you all the information you need to troubleshoot for them right away. They have to spend all this time describing what’s going on to you.
Since live chat software like Tidio shows you exactly where they are, you’ll be able to see the page yourself and walk them through it. It will almost be like you’re reading your customers’ minds.
It makes it possible to have customer service that gives you an edge over big name businesses.
One question people ask us all the time is, “how can I compete with big businesses?” Good customer service is an amazing way to do exactly that.
Remember all the times you’ve ever had to deal with the customer service of a large company. You probably have a few customer service horror stories that convinced you never to contact a specific business again.
The problem with huge companies is they don’t have the time focus on every single customer that visits their sites or walks in their doors. They’ve got too many other customers and affairs to deal with. It’s not economical for them to try and speak with every one of their thousands or hundreds of thousands of visitors.
That’s why you won’t often see live chats popping up on their pages. However, you do have the time to focus on each and every customer that needs assistance, and that’s one of your greatest weapons against your competitors.
That being said, you do still need to factor in the value of your time. You may need to spend awhile talking to a customer before they’re convinced to buy something. This time expenditure especially pays off when you work with a customer in regards to an expensive item as opposed to one of your cheaper products.
That’s where you’ll really edge out big-industry customer support, because they won’t spend time making a sale even for their high-margin items.
Read Also: Dropshipping Return Policy: Here’s What to Do
The Live Chat Service We Use
So which live chat service should you use? Our favorite is Tidio.
We’ve used a few different options, like Zopim, Freshdesk, or Zen Planner, but we just like Tidio the most. We’ve been using it for around three years now, and will keep using it for the foreseeable future.
Why do we like it? First of all, they keep it simple. Everything you need to chat is right where you can easily find it.
Furthermore, we love how it lets us keep track of where customers are in our stores. We can program it to bring up messages when a customer is on certain parts of the site. That minimizes the amount of time we spend interacting with customers.
Even if you’re not running a dropshipping store, we think this is a great service to use for your sites. Any site where you think it would be beneficial to be able to get in front of a customer and talk to them, consider using something like Tidio.
You can check out Tidio by clicking here.
Wrap Up
If you still don’t think a live chat service is necessary, try to think about it from your customer’s perspective. You probably don’t like having to call a customer service number or wait an on email, so why would your actual customers like it?
Having a live chat option can save both you and your customer time. With a live chat program that can see where they are on your site, you can easily troubleshoot when they have issues or questions.
It is this attention to detail that will set you apart from your big-name competitors.
Want to read more about our secrets for success online? Take a look at our Online Assets Playbook or our Instant eCommerce assets course.