How to turn website visitors into loyal customers

Everyone wants fast, friendly service when they need help on a website. The hard part is offering it to every visitor.

Here are 12 tips to make your website or online store more customer-friendly, and turn visitors into fans.

Welcome visitors and answer fast

1. Don’t scare customers off with pop-ups

A pop-up that appears the moment someone arrives spoils the experience. When people land on your website, they want to look around first.

Their main goal isn’t to start chatting with you or to sign up for your newsletter right away.

2. Show your business hours in the chat

On many websites, the chat icon sits in the bottom right corner, but no one answers in real time.

Tell customers when you’re there, for example Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Check when your customers visit most, because that’s when they need the most support.

3. Reply within 5 minutes

During your business hours, reply as soon as you can, within 5 minutes at the latest. Turn on notifications for new chats.

Always see a conversation through to the end, and never leave a customer hanging.

Serve customers on their terms

4. Offer multilingual support

Your support agents don’t need to speak 4 foreign languages. With real-time translation, they reply in their own language, and customers read the answer in theirs.

Askly detects each customer’s language automatically. It works the same way for Facebook Messenger and Instagram messages, from one inbox.

5. Don’t ask for more information than you need

Let customers chat anonymously, and don’t ask for unnecessary details. You don’t need a customer’s name, email or phone number to say whether an item is in stock.

In a physical store, nobody has to give their name to ask a salesperson for the right size.

6. Give complete answers

If a customer has a general question about a product or service, use your expertise. Always link straight to the best option.

• Ask whether your suggestion met their expectations.
• If the product they want is out of stock, offer the best alternative instead of ending the chat.
• Make sure the customer found what they were looking for.

Be proactive. When you join a conversation, ask questions to find out what the customer really needs.

That’s how you help them make the right buying decision.

Work smarter as a team

7. Serve more customers in less time

You can’t take 2 phone calls at once, but you can easily keep 3 live chats going on screen. That cuts the time you spend on customer service.

You can also give more precise answers and serve more customers at once.

8. Measure and analyze results

Without chat statistics, you can’t find bottlenecks or look for better solutions. So tag each conversation, for example as a new customer, an open case or a completed sale.

Link that data to your store’s orders, and you can measure conversion and how well the chat performs.

9. Track what people ask most in chat

Log and categorize every question for, say, 2 weeks. You’ll get an accurate picture of what customers need help with most.

If most questions are about late deliveries or returns, you may need an FAQ page or process changes.

Turn chats into sales and repeat business

10. Reward successful sales

Give your support agents an incentive for chats that end in a sale. A customer asking questions in the chat is often ready to buy and deserves your attention.

Don’t lose them to a competitor through silence or indifferent service.

11. Cross-sell in the chat

Use the chat to raise your average order value. If a customer is looking for running shoes, suggest your best-selling warm tights and gloves.

Mention the minimum order for free shipping, or a sale that’s running.

12. Strengthen the relationship

Turn new contacts into customers. Suggest they create an account on your website, so future purchases are faster, cheaper and easier.

Or invite them to join your newsletter, with a discount on their first order. It shows customers they’re welcome back anytime, and that you’re ready to help again.

Where Askly fits

Askly is one AI agent for web chat, Facebook Messenger, Instagram DMs and email, answering from one knowledge base. Your team works in one inbox.

• Three modes: fully AI, AI + team, or fully human. In AI + team mode, a person takes over mid-chat with the full context.
• Automatic language detection: 30+ languages work instantly, and 100+ are available on request.
• Order status: the AI agent answers order questions with data from Shopify and WooCommerce.
• Clear labels: AI answers are labeled as AI, so customers know when AI is replying.

What good chat does for your business

Used well, live chat can set your website or online store apart from competitors. It can:

• improve the customer experience
• speed up service
• win new customers
• make your business more profitable

Which of these 12 tips will you try first?