From an operations standpoint, it’s important to know that live chat is 50% cheaper than providing customer service over the phone. If you’re currently offering phone support, adding a chat tool in to ease some of the burden on your phone agents is a worth a try. You’ll provide your customers who prefer phone support with a new way to reach you and capture questions from those customers who avoid or dislike calling customer service phone numbers too. Plus, at 73%, live chat has the highest customer satisfaction rates of any customer service channel. By comparison, phone support only averages around 44%.

In this day and age, you can’t afford not to have live chat. More than half of all customers will abandon a purchase if they can’t get their questions answered quickly. Chat is the perfect way to capture those sales. With live chat, you can assist customers immediately to help them overcome any potential roadblocks while using your product or attempting to make a purchase. Chat has the added benefit of building trust with customers and increasing their confidence in your ability to help them whenever they need. You won’t need to talk to everyone, but you’ll be available when a customer needs you most.

Live chat isn’t just about answering questions and helping customers. It’s also a great tool for sales, marketing, and customer experience too. In fact, 44% of consumers say having live chat available to have questions answered during a purchase is one of the most important features a business can offer. Plus, even without actually participating in a chat, 63% of shoppers are more likely to return to your website simply because you offer it.

Live chat will decrease support costs, increase sales, and improve customer happiness, as well as increase trust and provide your customers with quick access to the help they need.