Bold Software’s Live Chat Benchmark Report Shows Link Between Live Chat and Conversions

Wichita, KS (PRWEB) November 5, 2009 — After recently releasing the industry’s most comprehensive live chat benchmark report (www.boldccm.com/Live_Chat_Performance_Benchmarks?mc=pr) Bold Software today offered greater insight into the impact that live chat software (www.boldccm.com) has on online sales conversions. The report includes specific benchmarks that allow organizations to gauge the impact of their live chat implementation.

After examining tens of millions of chat records, hundreds of millions of website visit records and billions of unique page URL recorded visits, Bold Software has uncovered benchmarks that point to live chat (www.boldccm.com) as an effective sales tool, including:

-Chatters who initiate a chat themselves convert at 4 times the rate of a regular website visitor.

-Chatters engaged through a proactive chat invitation convert at 6 times the rate of a regular website visitor.

-Depending on a website’s traffic volume, the live chat engagement percentage will be between ~1% and 20%.

-The implementation of proactive chat on top of reactive chat will increase overall chat volume by between 40% to ~100%.

“Live chat is often thought of as solely a customer service tool, but we’ve long understood that it is a powerful conversion tool for sales,” said Bold Software President and CEO Steve Castro-Miller. “The benchmark data bears this out. In fact, online retailers can use these findings to optimize their live chat implementation specifically for sales, and we’ve got several customers who are already reaping the rewards. E-tailers need to be particularly focused on how to convert website visitors with an uncertain holiday season approaching.”

Using proactive chat invitations in addition to reactive chat is a strategy that pays off for The Source. “The acceptance rate on our proactive chat invitations is almost 20%, which is remarkably high,” said Greg Coles, eCommerce Sales and Operations Manager. “We’ve been using BoldChat for some time now and have found that when we invite people to chat on the right page or sets of pages, our acceptance rate increases significantly.”

Live chat should drive conversion rates of about four times that of a normal website visitor. The conversion rate for live chat at the Abt Electronics web site is 20 times the normal web site visitor rate. “About one percent of the visitors to our website make a purchase, but more than 20% who chat do,” said Jon Abt, co-president of Abt Electronics. “In fact, about 25% of chatters end up buying additional items during the purchase too. So not only does live chat enable us to convert at a significantly higher rate, it also enables us to upsell.”

SVAT Electronics is a consumer electronics e-tailer that is successfully engaging its customers with live chat. In the report, Bold Software noted that businesses should expect a live chat engagement between 1 and 20 % with the average across the entire dataset at 1.8%. SVAT Electronics experiences an engagement rate 5 times greater. “We engage more than 9% of our website traffic in live chat,” commented Brodie Mosher, Director of Marketing for SVAT Electronics. “Bold Chat gives us an opportunity to provide our customers with unparalleled service in a medium that they want. We are ensuring that people choose the best product for them and help service them to boost sales as well as customer satisfaction.” SVAT’s website features a customized chat button prominently displayed on all of its pages.

The Source also sees a much higher conversion rate with proactive chatters versus website visitors who don’t chat. According to the report, organizations should expect an increase in overall chat volume by between ~40% to ~100% and proactive chatters should convert at 6 times the rate of regular website visitors but The Source does even better. Coles continued, “Customers who accept invitations from us convert at about 10 times the rate of visitors we get who don’t chat.”

To learn more, download the full report at:

http://www.boldccm.com/Live_Chat_Performance_Benchmarks?mc=pr

About Bold Software:

Bold Software LLC, is a leading provider of world-class web communication tools designed to help businesses improve online support and increase sales. Using Bold Software’s live chat, click-to-call, email management, and active co-browsing tools, businesses can quickly and effectively engage visitors on their website. Bold Software sells a wide variety of competitively-priced products under the BoldChat, BoldCall, and BoldCCM brand names. Businesses of all sizes - from small proprietorships to large ecommerce enterprises – can provide more intelligent online customer interactions and close more sales using Bold Software solutions. The company is headquartered in Wichita, KS, with thousands of customers around the world including 3M, American Cancer Society, Corel, Dean & DeLuca, and ViewSonic. For more information about Bold Software, go to www.BoldSoft.com or call 1-866-753-9933.

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