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The first point of contact is your chance to grab attention, introduce your business, show off your products or services, and offer help leaving a good first impression.
As a potential user visits your website for the first time, a friendly message pops up “Hello! Welcome to our website, if you need any assistance feel free to ask.” This is the power of proactive live chat, which enhances customer engagement by offering real-time assistance from the moment they arrive on the site.
Rather than waiting for your customers to struggle or reach out for help, your live chat agents instantly step in at just the right moment to answer customer questions and concerns.
This article will explain the key benefits, best practices, tools, real-time use cases, and how to set up proactive live chat messages.
What is proactive live chat?
Proactive live chat refers to a strategy where businesses take the initiative to start interaction with website visitors before they reach out for assistance.
Proactive chat initiates conversations based on user behavior and anticipated needs before customers even voice them.
By analyzing data points like how much time visitors spend on a page, what they click on, or their past interactions, your business can unlock key moments to offer real-time assistance or suggestions.
At one point, we all landed on a website and were greeted by one of these friendly, proactive messages.
- Need help?
- Welcome back!
- Are you facing an issue?
- Hi there!
These messages encourage engagement between your customer and your support agent.
The key differences between proactive chat and reactive chat
As a business, how you approach live chat support can really shape the way you connect with customers.
So, which approach fits your style: proactive or reactive chat? Let’s take a look at how each works and what makes them stand out:
| Reactive live chat | Proactive live chat |
| Customers initiate the chat. | The company initiates the chat. |
| Few number of conversations. | High number of conversations. |
| Customers may leave the website without finding what they are looking for. | Customers are approached at the right time and immediate action is taken. |
| Focuses on resolving issues and answering questions. | Focuses on starting a conversation and guiding users. |
Proactive live chat stands out when your business wants to offer immediate solutions before problems arise or escalate; hence, it is the way to go.
Benefits of proactive live chat software
One common practice to proactively use live chat software is to take the first step. You have to proactively reach out to your visitors before they ask for help. Remember; “Change starts with you!”. Let’s look at the key reasons why proactive chat support is important.
- Increases engagement on the website: Proactive live chat enables online businesses to start a conversation with website visitors, grabbing their attention, and keeping them engaged, transforming their interaction enjoyable.
- Better customer insights: Proactive live chat tools track customer activities, such as the time spent on each page, the pages they visit, and the products they view. Your businesses can leverage this data to engage customers at crucial moments, providing personalized support tailored to their behavior.
- Improves sales performance: Research by Popupsmart shows that 51% of users make return purchases from a company that offers live chat. Performance-wise, proactive live chat can greatly improve customer engagement and boost conversions, especially for new visitors, returning shoppers, or hesitant buyers. By tracking what customers are browsing, your sales team can suggest relevant products, making the experience more personal and encouraging purchases.
- Minimizes cart abandonment rate: Businesses use proactive live chat to address customers’ technical issues, such as checkout problems or payment difficulties, guide them through the steps, preventing frustration or confusion that could lead to abandoned purchases.
- Increases customer satisfaction: According to Helplama 89% of consumers who were contacted proactively by a company found the experience to be highly positive. Business chat agents utilize proactive live chat tools to offer support and guidance to visitors, showing them that you care about their experience with your website, thus making them feel valued and supported and improving customer service.
Best practices for proactive live chat
Ready to take your customer engagement to the next level? Proactive live chat lets your business start the conversation before users even ask for help. Below are some key strategies to make proactive live chat work for your business. 
Choose the optimal timing for proactive chat
Timing is everything when it comes to making proactive live chat work for your business.
Let’s take an example: if a visitor spends too much time on a page, it might mean they are thinking about buying or exploring options. This is a good time to send a proactive message.
Pay attention to customers’ actions, such as the time spent on a particular page, or consider their journey, location, time zones, and peak activity hours to avoid overwhelming them.
A time limit for proactive messages helps improve user experience by preventing them from staying too long and interrupting the visitor’s browsing, while still giving enough time for engagement.
Personalize proactive chat messages
Think about this, when you tailor proactive chat messages to each user, you are not just reaching out; you’re making the interaction personal and relevant.
This approach lets your customers know you’re truly paying attention to their needs, offering support that fits their unique situation. An example of a proactive message would be:
Initiating a proactive message helps the customer open up about the specific issue, and live agents provide tailored solutions.
Automate your proactive live chat
It’s all about engaging customers right when it counts. Imagine this, your company can set up automated messages that reach out to visitors exactly when they need it.
Creating SLA rules and triggers in your live chat system allows you to send messages based on specific actions or behaviors. Let’s say a visitor is browsing a product page; you can set up a rule that triggers a message offering assistance or suggesting related items.
For instance, if a customer has been inactive for a while, you can use an automated chat such as:
This ensures faster resolution time to common customer queries and allows your support agents to focus on more complex tasks.
Use timeout for proactive messages
A pause in the conversation can give your customers the clarity they need to decide. You can give customers break time to maintain a natural flow or reduce chat fatigue and then follow up with them later when the time feels right.
For example, a 15-minute time out for a product page. Using a timeout to space out messages helps prevent overwhelming the customer with excessive information.
Send minimal messages
Sometimes, customers just need a break from all the constant messages. Too many messages can turn a helpful conversation into a frustrating experience.
Instead, aim for the perfect moment, whether they are showing interest in a product or about to leave your site.
Customers prefer short, clear, and relevant messages that are tailored to their needs, rather than being overwhelmed by excessive notifications or unrelated messages.
Real-time use cases and examples of proactive live chat messages
Ready to see how proactive live chat can make a real difference for your business? Here are some key situations and examples where it can truly have an impact.
Recovering abandoned cart
A study by Baymard shows that the average documented online shopping cart abandonment rate is 70.19%.
In order to reduce cart abandonment, use proactive chat to offer real-time support, address concerns, and guide visitors smoothly through the checkout process, helping them complete their purchase.
For instance, a user having trouble checking out, you can make the checkout easier by shortening the steps, offering guest checkout support, and enabling autofill for form fields. An example of a proactive chat could say:
Greeting new and returning customers
For users browsing your site for the first time, it’s an opportunity to shine, introduce your business, be supportive, and make visitors feel comfortable, hence creating a positive impression.
While returning visitors acknowledge their familiarity with your site, help them with any new or updated information and provide personalized support based on their previous interactions. Here is an example of a welcoming message for visitors:
An example of a welcome back message:
Tracking pages where users frequently exit or bounce
Many visitors tend to open multiple pages comparing your services to competitors, thus having a high chance of losing interest and leaving your website. Here is an example of a proactive live chat to help you begin:
By finding these pages, you can reach out to visitors and send a targeted message offering help, such as answering their questions and guiding them to finish their journey on your site.
Engaging struggling visitors with live chat proactive
A website without visitors is like a garden without flowers. Customers may spend a lot of time on a particular product page due to doubts.
This is a great opportunity for you to send a proactive message by asking them if they need assistance. An example of a proactive chat you should consider:
Offering discounts on first orders
Nowadays, businesses tend to send proactive messages with discounts to new customers who visit the page for the first time, creating a positive first impression. For instance, a message pops up:
Sending product recommendations
Product recommendations are a key strategy for proactive customer service, helping clients find what they need quickly.
With a sales chat tool, you can personalize suggestions, upsell, and control the timing and products, creating a tailored experience. For example:
Providing a quick FAQ
Proactive live chat is essential on the FAQs page since visitors can find specific answers to their questions.
Here is an example of a proactive chat:
Messaging users from referral
Getting in touch with referral customers is an excellent method to greet new visitors.
When you offer customers personalized assistance or exclusive offers based on their source, your business can enhance their overall customer experience and make it more engaging. For instance, a message can pop up:
How to set up proactive live chat software
The following guides will help you set up proactive live chat messages for the best customer experience.
- Choose the best live chat software that supports proactive messaging and offers features like automation, triggers, and customization.
- Set up an SLA trigger based on the user’s behavior, such as time spent on the current page, time spent on the website, or returning visitors.
- Create the right proactive chat message that is friendly, helpful, and non-intrusive. Keep the message short and to the point.
- Regularly test and optimize your proactive messages to monitor their performance and adjust based on their behavior. Try different messages, triggers, and timings to see which ones get more engagement and conversions.
Implement real-time customer interactions with proactive live chat
With proactive live chat, each interaction becomes more than just a routine. It’s a chance to connect with customers and resolve their issues in real time. Proactive chat serves as a helpful channel for businesses to promptly reach out to users before they ask for assistance, ensuring their smooth and effortless experience.
Contact us today to learn how BoldDesk® can help you deliver real-time live chat support. Schedule a live demo or start a 15-day free trial to experience these features. We hope this article is helpful. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.
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