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time: 5 min
Dear
reader,
This
a couple of years old but still up-to-date interview contained so
many important thoughts about increasing sales of online stores that
I had to acquire permission to republish it for your benefit.
Please
enjoy the article!
Christian
Dillstrom
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Is
there anything I can do about the abandoned shopping carts in my
online store?
If
I could receive a single Euro every time a client asks me that, I
would spend a nice, long vacation in Hawaii with my loved ones every
two years.
Of
course, I try to answer that question every single time, but most of
the actions for improving the situation just seem to take too many resources from their development departments. That is of course just
my guess, as nothing ever changes.
The
problem is a big one, as on average only 24.9% of shopping carts are
checked out.
“A
whopping 3 out of 4 shopping carts are abandoned!“
So,
how can I help my customers with an easy and quick solution that
decreases the percentage of abandoned shopping carts?
Lately
I have become a bit lazy about creating ideas and innovative approaches to
business. This is because I am getting so much inspiration from my
master growth hacking contact Christian Dillstrom.
”And
he is still answering my questions!”
Last
week I asked him similar questions about how to get three times more sales
leads from a website. So, I am going to use the same questions in
this interview to help those readers who asked me to expand the
interview to also cover online stores.
What
is the fastest and easiest way to improve the sales of an online
store?
You
must be joking – I could spend weeks answering this question and
never repeat myself. There are thousands of reasons why online stores
lose sales and what needs to be done to improve their situation.
The
biggest problem is that most of the changes needed will require
investing resources to make those changes a reality.
The fastest and easiest solution is to have a human chatting to the
visitor and to fix the sales problem on the fly. Therefore, I would
say that a pro-active live chat is the solution you are looking for.
Why
would a live chat generate more sales than a web form?
People
like people and no one likes forms. Therefore, most of the visitors
that face a problem would rather shop from a competitor than fill out the
form informing the vendor about the problem.
If
you don't even know about the problem, how can you fix it?
Having
a pro-active live-chat is a game-changer as visitors are much more
likely to complain to a real human being. This way you will both
learn about the problem and have a chance to fix it for the
complaining visitor.
Wouldn't
a pro-active live chat annoy visitors?
If
you pro-actively start a polite chat that will suit the situation,
your online store webpage or at least your brand, it will not annoy
visitors. They came to an online store to buy something.
“Things
done with a good taste never annoy the receiver.“
Of
course, you need to communicate like you would in the same situation
in an off-line store. So, stay away from any grandstanding, no matter
how much your company's management demands that.
“Always
chat like you would speak with a relative whom you rarely see.“
Why
don't you like live chats which the visitor needs to open with a
click?
The
reason is very simple – I like increasing sales and I hate losing
sales! How many visitors leave an online store without clicking the
chat open?
“How
many visitors can you let to do that?“
Pro-active live chats, when executed correctly, make a lot of money for online
stores.
There
are also numerous ways to improve sales with pro-active live-chats
that are non-existent for passive live-chats.
By
passive live-chats I mean chats that the visitor has to click on to
start chatting. Why would they make this extra effort? Especially
when the chat contact is offline most of the time.
I
guess the main purpose of passive live chats is to tell the potential
customers that they are respected but not enough to service them.
What
do you mean by ”other methods to boost sales with pro-active live chats”?
We
covered this quite extensively when you interviewed me last week
about pretty much similar issues with websites. Please copy and paste
those here too – there is not much point for me to repeat the same
things again.
“And
so I did ... if you already read that article, you can skip the rest
of this answer... “
First,
the
pro-active live chat is already open when visitors come to the
webpage, so you can say there are interesting interaction features
for the visitor on this page. The chat message will get the visitor's
attention but will not startle them like launching a new chat window
would do.
“This
feature can be used to generate a lot of sales.“
Second,
you
will know about the interests of your visitor and as a bonus, you can
offer something of value like a video, a PDF etc. in exchange for
the visitor's email address and other contact details.
Again,
if done correctly, this works great. We used this method to collect
over 4 million email addresses from LinkedIn article readers who
liked my articles and who signed on to receive my recommendations for
other LinkedIn articles.
“Using
pro-active live-chat this way will generate you a very big marketing
database for future sales.“
Of
course, you can only do it with sensitivity and good taste as well as
following all local legal requirements.
Third,
you
can set Facebook or other sharing competitions into the frame of your
live-chat window.
For
example, we have a Facebook-button at the bottom of our live-chat
window, and we ask our visitors to take part in our video sharing
competition. Every visitor who takes part in our competition will
generate over one thousand video views on Facebook which are endorsed by
our visitor and his friends within the next 60 minutes.
“This
is also a good sales booster and it is easy to make that happen in a
casual chat.“
Finally,
you
can also try to activate passive visitors who have not responded to
your pro-active chatting. If done with sensitivity, it does not annoy
anyone. I have found out that tracking what the visitor is doing and
having chat actions related to that works best.
The
first step is to make the 'right noises' relevant to the
visitor's interest.
The
second step is to offer links to material relevant to the
visitor's interest.
The
third step is to offer a direct connection with a knowledgeable
sales colleague and finally a purchase incentive relevant to the
visitor's interest.
The
best action plan varies from company to company, but the main thing
is an online store sales conversion can be multiplied by three.
What
hours should pro-active live chats be operational?
Of
course, all the time when people are visiting your online store.
When the number of visitors drops drastically, it might indicate a
time when they do not expect you to service them.
How
about weekends and holidays?
You
need a live chat on weekends and holidays only if your online store
has visitors during that time. B2B online stores need less service
time and B2C online stores will usually need more.
It
is our experience that more visitors do not like to shop at
online stores that lack the live-chat service. They feel that the
questions prior to their purchase decision need to be answered
straight away.
Can't
we just turn on a ”we are offline - please fill out the web form”
mode?
How
annoying is it to go to an online store, and see that they have a
chat service, but it is not available now! My purchase or
my person is not respected. Who would like that?
“I
would just do my shopping where my hard-earned money is respected.“
Therefore,
I strongly recommend using a pro-active live chat and doing it well.
This is one of the cheapest ways of making potential customers feel
respected.
Have your potential buyers tried to come to your online store, and you
are disrespecting him with lack of service?
When
can I have the ”we are offline - please fill the web form” mode
on?
I
could ask: Which sales can you afford to lose? Seriously, just check
what time of the day your online sales start to dry up and at which
time they pick up again.
“After
all, when there is no customer, there is no need for a pro-active
live-chat.“
So, will a pro-active live chat eat a lot of expensive working hours?
A
pro-active live chat will provide a massive increase in sales, so I
would compare its expenses to the value of the sales it generates.
To
be honest, a pro-active live chat will require quite a lot of hours
if done correctly, but its burden can be split between multiple
colleagues.
“Our
own experience is that a pro-active live chat generates so many sales
that the cost is not really an issue.“
How
do your customers handle the problem of expensive working hours
pro-active live chats require?
Some
of them do it in-house and the rest of them outsource the work to
companies that handle the chat for them.
“Usually
in-house solutions are used by online stores that have sensitive
information about their customers or by those with challenging legal requirements.“
We,
for example, handle chats in 130 countries and on millions of web
pages. It is not our core business, but we do whatever is needed to
boost the sales of our clients, and therefore we do it for €5 per
hour, all included.
Is
there a chat service you recommend?
This
is a tough question. Pro-active live chats can either be integrated
deeply into the online store system or they can be an external
service that just sends actionable information back to the online
store personnel.
Also,
there are so many different live-chat services. Each offers different
options and has their specific restrictions, so it really depends on
your online store requirements.
“My
advice is to think first what your online store needs and, after
that, to research which chat service can cater to those needs.“
The
research should include testing the live-chat service. Although the
features of the services might be the same, their performance might
miss important elements and you can only tell after trying them.
What
should never be done in a pro-active live chat?
Do
not over-promise, especially not on the delivery time. Potential
customers ask for the delivery time when it matters to them.
Over-promising on the delivery time will create disappointed
customers who will not order again.
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So,
for this time, this concludes my interview with the growth hacker
Christian Dillstrom. I truly hope it helped you as much as it helped
me.
One
thing I learned this time is that anything can be used to
improve your sales.
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Christian
Dillstrom.
Please
stay tuned for more interviews.