While live chat fans are highly desirable, merchants need to pay special attention to frequent chatters according to Bold Chat’s 2012 Live Chat Effectiveness Research Report.
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Live chat patrons are more likely to have higher household incomes, more likely to shop more frequently, spend more, have a college degree, and be between the ages of 31-50, the report says.
While this demographic appeals to merchants, frequent live chatters (those who have chatted at least four times in the previous three months) exhibit these traits in an amplified way and warrant special attention.
Unlike previous research, this report shows that the live chat fan is more likely to be female. The mere presence of live chat on your site results in nearly 60% of this population more likely to buy. The frequent live chatter is consumed by technology across the board. According to the report, 95% of frequent live chat fans believe that live chat is a more efficient marketing tool than email.
Also, 83% of frequent live chatters prefer to shop at websites with live chat — compared to 68% of regular live chat fans – and are more likely to trust an unknown website if it offers live chat.
While 63% of the entire population is college educated and 68% of live chat fans are, 74% of frequent live chatters are college educated. While 59% of the entire population spends $750 or more online per year, according to the report, 70% of live chatters meet or exceed this threshold and 75% of frequent live chatters do as well.
“The frequent chatter is an interesting and seemingly attractive sub-group of shopper,” the report says. “But they are also more demanding of live chat. By far, the most important factors overall are the human factors – the live chat agent factors.”
So what makes a live chat session successful and attractive?
According to the report, the agent’s ability to direct the browser, the agents’ ability to co-browse, the ability of a transcript to be printed/emailed, the agents’ ability to insert images, and the look and feel of the live chat window.
The online study was conducted using a third-party opt-in panel – 75% located in the U.S. and 25% in the U.K. The total number of respondents was 2,027.