In the past decade, live video chat has become another part of everyday life. There are multiple video-chat brands enjoying huge success today, and the video communications platform-as-a-service (PaaS) industry’s revenue is expected to reach $1.7bn by 2020,
The concept of speaking with another person face to face using video technology was the stuff of science-fiction for years, appearing in everything from the writings of Philip K. Dick to James Cameron’s classic movie Aliens. Today, though, we can simply hop onto our choice of video-chat platform to enjoy real-time conversations with people from around the world.
While this is a popular way for friends and family to keep in touch over long-distances in a more intimate manner than a simple phone call, video chat is also an incredibly efficient tool for businesses. For smaller companies in particular, embracing video-chat technology can help to put you ahead of your competitors. Why?
Live Video Chat Offers Customers Maximum Convenience
While live chat is a common feature on business websites, this is generally text-based. Without doubt, this is a useful tool, providing customers with fast, personal assistance from an agent. However, there are drawbacks:
- Customers have to articulate their questions or issues in written form, which can be frustrating when trying to describe technical problems
- Customers have to wait for their service agent to type their response
- Spelling and grammar mistakes can cause confusion
According to a survey, 90 percent of consumers consider live chat helpful, with 63 percent more likely to go back to a website providing live chat. 62 percent also said they would expect to buy from these websites again, too.
With live video chat, your customers will enjoy a face-to-face conversation from their home or workplace. Any technical problems or complex questions can be articulated more easily with speech and gestures, while visual aids can also be incorporated to demonstrate specific points. Your customer service agents can also present solutions in far less time.
As live video chats can be completed in less time than text-based conversations, agents can accommodate more calls. This offers small businesses on a tight budget a more cost-effective solution, as fewer agents are needed.
Live Video Chat Boosts Sales
With 40 percent of online consumers who use live chat buying goods at least once per week, live support is an effective aid to your brand’s sales. Live video chat adds a personal touch to your business, and friendly agents representing the company will help to make customers feel more valued, engaged, and loyal.
If they have any questions before they buy, a consumer at the purchase-ready stage can simply click a video-chat button and have their queries answered within moments, rather than having to type a message or even send an email.
This speed and convenience helps to ensure shopping carts reach the checkout stage, rather than being emptied as customers search for assistance elsewhere.
Quality of Experience (QoE) is more important than ever today: as consumers have an incredible variety of options online, competition is fierce in most sectors. By providing live video chat, small businesses can show customers that they are serious about providing the best, most efficient service, and help to nurture a more loyal buyer base.
However, to maximize QoE, you have to offer customers the best video chat possible. Simply relying on standard internet connections and platforms can lead to frustrating problems: lagging visuals; poor sound quality; and loss of connection altogether. Investing in cutting-edge services focusing on global connectivity is key, and initial expenses will pay off along the way when customers discover how much more efficient your service is over competitors’.
Tony Zhao, CEO of video chat company Agora.io, emphasizes the importance of high-quality connections: “Traditional WebRTC is prone to technical problems, including loss of visuals, audio, and even total blackouts. For customer-service applications, this can be disastrous. For internal and external meetings, it can be a deal-breaker – after all, why should an important client accept poor communication when there are so many other people to work with?”
“Agora provides 80 data centers around the world, filling in gaps between dropped data packets for uninterrupted, clear video calls. Without the risk of failed connections, your business can maximize QoE again and again.”
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