In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, live chat is quickly rising to become an essential communication tool for veterinarians. It meets a very pressing need for both veterinary practices and pet parents–the need to stay in contact, relay important information, and maintain the veterinarian-client-patient relationship in the absence of face-to-face conversations. Live chat has given countless practices the ability to adapt to the many changes currently taking place. And it also helps them prepare for a future in which virtual connections will be a commonplace feature of veterinary medicine.
Let’s Break It Down
When offering live chat for veterinarians’ websites, our goal is not just to help practices reach their clients and potential clients. The most important benefits we want your practice to reap from our live chat feature include the following.
A Better Customer Experience
What makes a better customer experience? A lot goes into smoothing the way for people to learn more about you and build a promising relationship with your practice. Used effectively, live chat can improve customer support because it allows your team members to provide immediate responses to common and uncommon questions. This immediacy is essential to customer satisfaction–when people reach out to a practice for information, they want that information as quickly as possible. And more than ever, pet owners (and every other type of customer) want to know that they’re communicating with a living, breathing human being who cares about their needs.
Furthermore, using live chat on your practice website can help you build trust, because it allows you to engage people in direct conversation. A study into Global Consumer Trends found that 90% of customers surveyed claimed live chat gave them confidence about finding the help they needed.
Efficient Communication with Your Clients
This is critical to building an overwhelmingly positive customer experience. Getting in touch with your practice shouldn’t be a chore–especially when all of your phone lines are busy! Live chat serves as a “bridge” between you and your clients, an alternate means for people to get in contact with you. It also makes it easier for your team to quickly and conveniently address any client concerns that arise.
And if you can expect to receive a high volume of live chat inquiries on your website, it’s critical to have multiple team members monitoring the chat in real-time.
A Better Understanding of Your Clients’ and Patients’ Needs
You can review your live chat transcripts any time to see what kind of questions you’re being asked, which questions are being asked the most, and how your responses affect your client or prospect’s relationship with your practice. This information can give you a better idea of what pet owners are looking for and what’s on their minds when they’re browsing your website.
You can also use past conversations to help your team members prepare quicker answers* for new visitors coming to your website, and train new team members so they’ll know what to expect and how to respond to live chat inquiries. Finally, you can even turn to live chat to refresh your memory regarding a past conversation with a client so you’ll be able to follow up with them.
*While quicker communication is great for your clients and your team, it might be best not to use scripted responses too often. According to Kayako: “29% of consumers say they find scripted responses most frustrating, and 38% of businesses agree.” Using scripted responses can leave visitors to your site feeling like they’re talking to a bot–and nobody likes talking to a bot.
Gain An Edge Over Your Competitors
The information provided by reviewing past live chat transcripts can also help you optimize your marketing campaigns. What are the most common concerns and questions you’re getting from clients and prospects visiting your website? What do they want to know about you and how you can help their pet? Live chat can give you and your team valuable insight into what’s going through the minds of pet owners in your area, and can help you target your audience in ways that your competitors haven’t even thought of.
Plus, consider the fact that a majority of veterinary practice websites don’t even have live chat. These practices are missing out on the opportunity to communicate directly with pet owners and build trust with them before they even pick up the phone or walk through the door. If you’re using live chat frequently–and well–you’re way ahead of the curve.
Increase Conversions and Sales
Having InTouch’s live chat feature set up on your website can actually help you boost your conversion rate–as long as you use it properly. From Kayako: “38% of consumers are more likely to buy from a [business] if they offer live chat support.” Live chat can also raise customer loyalty, with “51% of consumers [being] more likely to stay with you or buy again from a company if they offer live chat support.”
In short, creating positive experiences for your clients with live chat support makes them more inclined to do business with you, and more likely to stick around for the long haul.
Out of All the Live Chat Options Out There, Why Choose InTouch?
At InTouch, there are few things we value more than providing quality customer service to our clients–and we know it’s important to you, too. Patient care and customer service are vital to the success of a veterinary practice, and we want to help you stay ahead of your competition. With our live chat feature, you can benefit your practice, your fellow team members, and your clients in many ways, including quickly and conveniently addressing any concerns your clients might have.
Examples of What Our Live Chat Support Feature Can Do
The capabilities of our live chat tool include:
- Helping you communicate more quickly with your clients
- Supporting communication of new COVID-19 protocols
- Monitoring, in real-time, the number of people visiting your website every day
- Letting you view all the live chat messages you received while the feature was turned off
- Letting you attach documents and forms for clients to review
Have any questions about our Live Chat add-on? Call InTouch today at 800-493-9003!