iContact + LiveChat: Facilitating Engagement - iContact

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At iContact, we make our API available to developers around the globe, so they can integrate iContact with the applications that make life easier for businesses and organizations.

We recently sat down for a chat with Olga Kolodynska, Content and Email Marketing Specialist at one of our featured apps, LiveChat, to talk about how the customer communication environment is evolving in today’s digital marketplace.

What is LiveChat and how does it help improve the bottom line?

LiveChat is an easy-to-use online chat solution that allows you to have real-time conversations with your customers directly on your website. With this tool, you can help online visitors find what they need before they leave your website.

By providing immediate help, LiveChat increases the number of successful transactions and improves customer satisfaction. While phone and email can also provide instant help, LiveChat allows you to speak with a number of visitors at the same time.

What’s unique about our software is that it allows you to see who is on your website in real time – their name, previous conversations, and even the site they came from. You need this data if you want to build long-term relationships with customers.

How does LiveChat integrate with iContact?

LiveChat integration with iContact allows you to ask customers if they want to receive your newsletter campaigns, before they start a chat with you. In the pre-chat survey, they can leave you their names and email addresses. It’s a great way to grab your online visitors’ personal information, gain new subscribers to build your email marketing lists, and simplify your follow-up after customer chats.

What kind of an advantage does that give to an iContact customer? Is it easy to integrate?

LiveChat integration with iContact boosts your lead generation efforts and increases your newsletter’s reach. Once you place LiveChat on your website, you will begin to have a lot of chats. If a visitor leaves you their email address before each chat, suddenly your potential to reach customers increases.

It is very easy to integrate — it’s a matter of a few clicks. Your IT guys don’t need to be involved and it shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes.

What expectations do today’s consumers have with respect to online customer service?

Today, customers are very demanding when it comes to customer service. To satisfy their needs, companies constantly need to increase their level of service. They need to learn to provide better service, and to come up with innovative solutions.

When it comes to customer service, we’d say that the most important expectations are:

How do you engage people on a website?

There are a couple of possibilities here. You can use chat greetings, which are proactive chats, and start a chat with visitors based on their behavior.

Let’s say that a customer spends a lot of time on your website without taking any action. You can start a chat with them in real time and find out if there’s any additional information they need, or if they need some help with placing an order. That’s an immediate and personalized response in real time, something that would be difficult to do otherwise.

To engage visitors in chats, you can also use this cool feature we have, called the eye-catcher. It’s a great looking image that makes a chat more visible on a website. When customers see it, they know instantly and clearly that they can get help whenever they need it.

How important is mobile in today’s marketing environment?

Mobile is essential both for customer service and marketing. When it comes to customer service, you can use LiveChat on your mobile phone and provide help no matter where you are and at any time. It’s nice to be available for your customers whenever they need your help, just by using your phone.

It’s the same case with marketing. Customers are using their phones to check emails on a nearly 24-hour cycle. It’s important to make your emails responsive so they’re easy to read on every device. Mobile marketing has big potential and it would be a wasted opportunity to not use it correctly.

If you had one piece of advice to offer today’s email marketers, what would it be?

Don’t be afraid to be yourself! And when I say yourself, I mean step out of corporate shoes and forget “official” language that is boring and that people will not remember. Be casual, use emotions, use your imagination. Don’t treat your emails like a transfer of information, but rather as a way to create a continuing dialogue with your subscribers.

Speak a customer’s language and evoke emotions by choosing subjects that interest them.

What opportunities do you see ahead for digital marketers?

The biggest opportunity for marketers right now would be big data analysis. It’s something that many organizations struggle with, but it is a great opportunity — if handled correctly.

For marketers, what they do with the data they collect can make a huge difference. Right now, marketers have a great opportunity to leverage big data in order to provide high-impact, engaging content to the right audience. Then, by segmenting their audience, they can also deliver targeted emails at the right time.

By analyzing big data, marketers can also optimize their pricing, gain customer insights, and focus on making customer relationships more successful. If handled the right way, big data analysis is a great opportunity.

If you want to learn more about LiveChat, visit their website. 

To learn more about other great products that integrate with the iContact platform, please visit our website.