In a world that never stops or slows down, instant communication has become a must-have for businesses who want to create meaningful connections with customers. Real-time communication lets your buyers get the information and answers they need faster than ever before, allowing them to make informed purchase decisions and troubleshoot issues almost instantly.

Companies have adapted to this by embracing social media and implementing things like customer support by text and website chat solutions. These interactions, however brief, go a long way in influencing the purchase decisions of customers quickly, making it important that your business embraces real-time communication. Live chat solutions that integrate with your other business tools are one of the most effective ways to do this, offering a better way to engage visitors and track their journey all the way to conversion.

The benefits of using a chatbot on your website

Chatbots are an easy way to engage potential customers directly from your website. Rather than force customers to navigate to your social media channels or give your customer service department a call, customers and leads can interact with the chatbot, where they can have their questions answered quickly, be pointed in the right direction so they can find exactly what they’re looking for, and continue to be engaged as the chatbot keeps the conversation flowing.

It’s estimated that chatbots have a conversion rate 3X higher than email. They’re easy to use, give customers a convenient and stress-free way to interact with your business, and can convert leads faster than ever. When you deploy a properly integrated chat tool, your website instantly turns into a helpdesk, offering a real-time way to connect with your customers while freeing up your customer service representatives to take care of high priority tasks – there’s no more filling in contact forms, no waiting for emails or phone calls, and no taking up valuable time with questions that can be answered by AI.

In order to be truly effective, your chatbot needs to be properly implemented and integrated with your workplace solutions, such as Zoho CRM. A dead chatbot will be a burden to your website, leading to meaningless conversations and a complete lack of data for your sales team to follow up on.

Track visitors from the moment they land on your website

Some advanced chat tools like Zoho SalesIQ offer the opportunity for your business to track every customer’s journey from the moment they land on your website. This means that you can determine what elements of your website are most engaging to customers, instantly initiate real-time conversations, and automatically deploy intelligent triggers to put articles, FAQs, and landing pages in the hands of potential customers immediately.

Knowing where customers are coming from and what’s keeping them engaged means being able to predict where they’re going to go next, letting you tailor the experience to better suit their needs. Zoho’s customizable SalesIQ chat bots let your sales team and customer service agents speak to leads, engage with them in meaningful ways, answer pressing questions, and close deals. Integrations mean that customer data can quickly be converted in Zoho CRM, interactions handled in Zoho Desk, chats started in Zoho Mail, and so much more.

Take customer interactions a step further with Podium

Podium brings all your customer interactions into one easy-to-use platform, whether they originate from your website, social media, or text message. This ensures that you never miss an interaction, and can quickly intervene in situations that require escalation. Podium also lets you convert website traffic through their Webchat feature, beginning a conversation online and giving your customers to take the interaction to text messaging for maximum convenience.

Once you’ve successfully converted leads into customers, Podium lets you easily acquire online reviews that will help bring your business to the top of search results, letting you stand apart from competitors. Using Podium, you can quickly send texts to customers, asking them for a review and linking them to where they can leave feedback, making it easier for them and increasing the likelihood that a review is posted. Customer reviews help enhance your business’s visibility, making it easier for customers to find you and increasing trust in your brand. Customer reviews are more important now than ever before, making Podium a must have for both its webchat and online review features.

ion8 is a Zoho Advanced Partner with a full team of experienced business technology consultants who are qualified to properly deploy and integrate reliable solutions like Zoho SalesIQ and Podium to help your business convert leads quicker than ever before, and build meaningful customer relationships to increase loyalty and trust. For more information on how ion8 can transform the way you do business, contact us today.