Everyone has seen the online consultant window in online stores. In a sense, it has become a standard, everyone is used to it. It can help, it can be annoying, but few know what is happening on the back of the phrase “Hello! How can I help you?"

And on the reverse side (in any case, in my office) Lena happens!

Guest: Good afternoon! How can I help you?
Lena: Good afternoon! What can I do for you ... Your mother!

Lena is a student, she is studying at the philological department, and at the same time she is trying to work as a consultant in my online lingerie store. Why trying? In many ways, because she, naturally, is not a professional, and secondly, because Lena, in a sense, is part of the experiment to answer the question “Do I really need an online consultant?”

Prehistory

When I decided to seriously deal with, I'm sorry, “cowards”, there were no questions like “increase conversion”, “increase upsale” and other “sales funnels”. I had to explain to the client that this “elka” (size L) would be perfect for his / her gentle ... ass, would be packed in a nice box and delivered on time.

Agree, the question, “Do I need an online consultant for a laundry store?”, He, to put it mildly, is not correct. I explain: there are products, the sale of which in the network, without text communication can not do. Why? Because calling ashamed, scary, scrap. Examples: underwear, sex products of all stripes, cure for hemorrhoids, men's sanitary pads (you will laugh, but there are such!).

The first online consultant on my site appeared by inheritance: it simply migrated with the ready, but not working at that time, online store, which I bought. It was a simple live chat, supplied with CMS.

Since at the time of launching the business I was the director, the loader, and the chief accountant, I also had to answer the rare customer questions. The first thing that immediately put me out in the default live chat was those amazing little discoveries: “Oh! And they wrote me a message 25 minutes ago, why did I not notice it? ”Or“ Can I somehow automate the answers to the questions. Not? Not at all? That bliiin! ”

But time passed. Somehow by themselves I got loaders, salespeople, a designer and a marketer who always drinks coffee, a professional logistician and even the most real chief accountant. And somewhere between the cry of one of the salespeople, “Yes, I’ve got tired of answering this chat!” And an open letter from the marketer with the phrase “Conversion makes up something%”, I thought: “Should I take a consultant?”

So in the life of our small company appeared an island of heat - Lena. When asked during the interview: “Have you ever bought underwear in the online store?”, - Lena did not hesitate to answer: “Mom buys,” and then added: “To me ...”, and after a little thought she whispered: “In regular store. " “Adopted!”, I shouted, realizing that I would rather not find an employee for such a salary.

We will not talk about the age of Lena (after all, women are not asked about this), but like most of the representatives of today's youth in Lena are full of energy, ideas and creativity (sometimes asbolyutno insane). A typical humanist, Lena can write a lot, in detail and without errors. And most importantly, from anywhere and from any device. And it turned out to be very important, because Lena (again, as a typical humanist) is not at odds with time, she is constantly late for work and regularly leaves for studies.

In the search for the optimal live chat (I somehow didn’t have much hope at the default), we are going a long way. Rather, I go behind, and in front, stumbling over all possible bugs, is Lena. And this whole thorny path is littered with spontaneous ones: “Oh where everything is lost”, “Again there is no connection to the server!” And “Where did this aunt go with an order for a swimsuit, have you just been here !?”

All these little things that will drive you crazy.

To be honest, online consultant services are about the same in functionality, and at first glance they seem like twin brothers. But the devil, as they say, is in the details.

Old men are not the place

My personal opinion is that live chat rooms, which appeared more than 5 years ago, carry with them a mountain of various debris, which is a pity to throw out and cannot be properly maintained. Such tools, despite their fame in the market, are too bulky or something. If you go to the technical support forum of the same Jivosite , where users ask a lot of questions day after day, you will understand what I am talking about. No offense, Zhivosayt - cool service, I used it for a long time. But each time something changes, and the dancer begins to get confused in his own legs.

Amnesia vs History

Lena: Good afternoon! How can I help you?
Guest: Hello, order number *****, when will you send the parcel?
Lena: Tatiana, as we agreed earlier, will be sent tomorrow morning.
Guest: Could you send something today?
Lena: Tatyana, you ordered a swimsuit ... do you urgently need a top or a bottom? :)
A guest: )))

Most live chat rooms suffer from serious memory problems and do not keep the guest’s correspondence history with the operator. The operator of this correspondence, as a rule, is stored (though not the fact that it will be tightened, with the next dialogue). But the guests every new visit - a clean sheet. WhatsApp stores the correspondence, Skype stores the correspondence, even Facebook stores the correspondence, and many eminent live chat do not store. Some kind of stone age.

Lena: Good afternoon! How can I help you?
Guest: Tell a joke
Lena: Sergey Ivanovich, did the underwear fit?
Guest: How ?! You remember me )))

Mobile version of the site

Another popular “oldies” syndrome is the monstrously huge live chat label in the mobile version of the site. And it would be just great, it also slows down when scrolling the screen. Disable or change its position is not possible. In this case, the client does not see part of the useful information. My advice, choosing a live chat, try it from your smartphone, you will learn a lot of interesting things.

And once again about scrolling

Be sure to hear me, be sure to check whether the scrolling of correspondence works well, both in the user window and in the admin area. I do not know what they are doing there with him, but this thing works very selectively. “Anti-personnel, fragmentation grenades. Give misfires about 50 to 50 ". This is not funny: the correspondence is being conducted, the chat has gone up, and it is impossible to get it back. Rather, it turns out, but not always. The operator had forgotten a little about what they were talking about (no wonder at three simultaneous chats), and already had to be twisted to avoid being an idiot.

Lena: Please tell me the order number
Guest: Where is he?
Lena: Look in the mail. Number can be copied
Guest: www. redtube.com/********
Guest: oh
Guest: damn ...
The user has left the chat.

Work outside the office and touch screen

You ask if you can work in an online consultant remotely? Let's just say, Lena on the iPad mini manages to simultaneously respond to 4 chats, ask questions to the logistician and communicate with her boyfriend in contact. But it turned out that not all online consultants allow working adequately on tablets. Some have mobile versions for iOS and Android, but they are usually cropped and not very convenient. The best option is when the admin has a mobile web version: there is full functionality and there is no need to install anything. You can engage in dialogue with customers even from the tablet, even from the phone (which, strictly speaking, Lena does).

I was wondering how Lena manages to communicate with several guests at the same time? The secret is in quick phrases that can be customized. It fills more than half of the text from blanks. Just scrolls the window of quick phrases and clicks on the right one. This is another plus in the work of the operator on the touch screen.

Please note that many well-known services do not allow working on a PC and tablet at the same time, such a tricky policy. When choosing an online consultant, I recommend checking the ability to fully work admin on mobile devices.

Reasonable automation. “The woman was taken out, the machine was stuck”

Guest: I changed my mind, can I still give money to the courier
Lena: Of course, simply, you indicated that you would pay with a credit card ...
Guest: Yes, but I have not worked with you yet, I will pay for it, and you will “see you later”
Lena: Goodbye, we were glad to help!
A guest: ????
Lena: Sorry, this auto answer is buggy)

I noticed one peculiarity: the pop-up window of the online consultant is not perceived as an offer to talk with a living person. Judge for yourself: the automatic prepared phrase of greetings, the operator's photo-avatar, frozen in a very broad smile, all this is more like a gas station from Kin-dza-dza: “They took the woman out, put the machine in”.

But Lena went further: she began to talk with guests who had been looking through some goods for a long time. You understood correctly, she first started talking to them in a living human language! When I picked up the archives of the dialogs, they came across phrases like: “Hello, pack?”, “After washing, they don’t sit down 100%”, “Awesome” (this is about women's panties). However, she put some phrases on the machine. The reaction was different. Someone was shaking, but someone answered. One way or another, but the result of this approach is positive.

Why it happens? I have a small theory on this subject consonant with the anecdote about Rzhevsky "They can go in the face, but sometimes they give it." The fact is that if a person has a single product for a long time, it is most likely that he simply cannot decide to buy: the mouse flies around the screen, the text is randomly highlighted. With this approach, it is likely that now the guest will simply go to another resource and will not return. And if the client still goes away from minute to minute, then any action, especially a non-standard one, can push him to purchase.

What do we use?

(boasting and conceit, it is possible not to read)
Give me any famous live chat service and I will talk about its advantages and disadvantages for at least half an hour. We tried them all. So far, they have stopped at a more or less new Salesform , largely because it has the possibility of a la trade-in (free use for a period of already paid subscription from competitors). Roughly speaking, we did not lose anything financially during the transition. Lena herself agreed, and the guys from Sailsform hooked everything up for free. As I have already said, I recommend to pay attention to new services, they are cheaper, more convenient, and do not suffer from “senile” diseases of popular online consultants, some of which are 10 years old.

Lena: Please specify the delivery address
Guest: Troitsk * *) Troitsk is near Moscow and near Chelyabinsk
Lena: What city is next to you?
Guest: So I do not live in the forest! :)

Does online consultant increase conversion?

I've been asked this question many times. I do not know where he came from in such a formulation. This is tantamount to the phrase: “Does the wrench help the plumbing repair?” My friend plumber - Petrovich (he has a grasp like a robocop) does almost everything with his hands. I once asked him: “Petrovich, why do you need a monkey wrench if you do not use it?”, - to which the plumber replied: “I will use it. I beat off rust. ”
')
Live chat is only a tool, not an antibiotic, and there are many scenarios for using it. By the way, the same Salesform uses the phrase “online consultant - a traffic capture tool”, and LiveTex says “omnichannel service tool” (to my shame I don’t even know what this means).

We try, test and check

I repent, I have been thinking for a long time (most likely under the influence of fashion) that live chat should be on the main page and pop up immediately after entering the site. As a result - the conversion slipped. I began to independently go to the site every hour and imitate activity. After several attempts, the jumping consultant finally finished me off (poor, poor my visitors).

As a result, I blew it away from the main one. Oh miracle! Conversion went up (or rather, almost returned to the initial value). Then I set a delay of activation of the online consultant for 1 minute. Conversion has grown a bit. I tried 2 minutes - fell. Familiar prompted to disable the timer altogether and set the activation of live chat only if the guest scrolls the main page to the bottom. It turned out the maximum increase in conversion!

“Funny,” I said, and set the activation time of the online consultant in the goods for as much as 3 minutes. The logic is simple: if a guest is stuck on a product for more than 3 minutes, then he is likely to have something to talk with a consultant.

Conversion increased on average. I checked the conversion by product group, and found that there are sharp distortions. They sat down with the marketer to analyze, and that's what it turned out: the conversion of new products slipped. Why? But because the marketer slapped on new products for 8 detailed photos, and yes even downloaded a video review for 2.5 minutes. After looking at the photos, the clients switched to the video and a smiling Lena immediately appeared with a suggestion of help. Video closed or stopped playing. Who would like it?

As you can see, there is no universal scenario. The tool must be used wisely. And I no longer appeal to Petrovich, because I replaced the pipes with plastic ones.

We look, analyze and draw conclusions

A good online consultant is a great tool for collecting analytics. If you think that I am interested in which operating system is the most popular among customers or which screen resolution is on their laptops - you are mistaken. I wonder what their “pain” is.

Lena: Good afternoon! How can I help you?
Guest: I'm afraid you won't agree ...

Example. Do you know that men most spoil the conversion rate when selling swimsuits? Here's how it happens: the girl has a birthday in the summer, gather at the sea, her young man decides to give a nice swimsuit. Visits the site and immediately bummer: “but how to choose the size?” In the live chat unit turn, because it is embarrassing. But even two appeals to a thousand visitors are invaluable information.

Once I analyzed chats for 3 months in the section of swimsuits and realized that the men did not seize anything in size. At all. Complete zero. Therefore, the marketer added the “Tips for Men” bookmark to all swimsuits. And flooded. The men began to order, and not stupidly staring at the pictures.

Guest: Please tell me the details of the courier.
Lena: Sorry, in what sense?
Guest: Mode object. Passport details of who will be delivered.
Lena: No problem. Delivery will be carried out in the period 12.00-15.00 Olenem VI 45 00 1234567 ...
Guest: Do you have delivery on deer? !!!!

Another example. We have long been engaged in popular brands of lingerie and our customers were mostly women who knew exactly what size they needed. The scheme often worked: “I died in the store, I ordered it on the Internet”. Over time, we began to sign contracts with new brands, even tore off one small exclusive. And then the questions fell into the chat: “And if they don’t work?”

Everyone knows that under the law linen is not refundable. This is a real problem and the cause of many conflicts. What have we done? A button was added to the goods “What to do if it didn’t fit?” When you click on it, the inscription appears: “Yes, it happens, but what should be done in this case, our online consultant will tell you” and a dialog opens with the text: “Good afternoon! Are you going to buy underwear, but are you in doubt about it? ”

In the case of a positive response, Lena clicks on the prepared phrase: “As you know, under the law, linen is not refundable, but we promise that if the size does not fit you, then we will gladly change it to the right one. Will that suit you? ”Naturally, many agree. This script was psychologically pushing the client to buy, because he already said “Yes” twice.

Lena: Good afternoon! How can I help you?
Guest: Money borrow?
Lena: I switch to a credit specialist
A guest: ))))))))
Guest: Wait, you can take a brief on credit? eight-)

The conclusion is: an online consultant is an invaluable source of information for analytics, with which you need to be able to work.

P.S

At first, I wanted to write a brief and dry instruction on how to work with an online consultant, but then I realized that I could not in a nutshell convey the full picture. As it is impossible to put a child’s swing in the yard without a mat, it’s impossible to tell about pitfalls when working with live chat without irony and humor.

I hope my story will be useful to those who are thinking about their shop or dream of increasing sales in an existing one. Anyway, if you have funny stories about online consultants - please write in the comments, I will be grateful, they will join my collection.