A conversation with a human can make a world of difference for customers.

Whether they're on the hunt for the perfect product or running into issues with your product, a few minutes of your undivided attention may be all your clients need to walk away happy or decide to buy.

A live chat pop-up may be the website feature your business needs to take your sales, marketing, and service to the next level.

This article will provide seven innovative ways that you can use a versatile live chat box to sell more or create an excellent user experience.

4 Ways to Use Live Chat Pop-Ups for Sales and Marketing

Live chat agents all have a superpower: They're real people. Unlike chatbots and written knowledge bases, they have empathy, which means they can effectively spark a client's emotional connection with your brand. And when a consumer is emotionally engaged, they can spend twice as much.

In fact, when potential customers use live chat on a website, they offer 4.5 times more value than those who do not.

Live chat windows are undoubtedly a powerful sales and marketing tool. When you use live chat sessions for the following purposes, you can further amplify their power to land more and bigger sales:

1. Virtual Consultations

Personalization is high in demand. The majority (91%) of customers prefer shopping with brands that offer relevant recommendations. When customers don't know the right product or service to choose, they want to get your expert advice online, just as easily as they could walk up to a sales rep in a physical store.

A live chat widget makes this possible. Without leaving their current webpage, customers can send you a chat message — or initiate a live video call using ServiceBell's tool — so you can instantly start a conversation about their needs. Examples of this in action include:

• A SaaS company advising shoppers on pricing plans based on team size, priority features, and industry

• An online luxury fashion retailer offering style advice based on personal taste, proportions, work requirements, and current wardrobe

• An e-commerce outdoor sports store creating custom lists of hiking gear suggestions based on terrain, climate, and experience level

Within minutes, your customers will know the best solution for their situation — and they may even commit to a purchase right after your chat session.

Virtual consultations are especially effective when you want to achieve high ticket sales. The more expensive the product or service, the more customization clients expect in the user experience.

2. Product Demos

When you're selling a product, shoppers may need to see it to believe it. Live chat solutions that offer video chat capabilities (like ServiceBell) let you show, rather than tell your customers about the features that fit their needs. Shoppers can see a blender in action, tour a condo, or compare countertop samples for a kitchen renovation.

Live chat gives shoppers an in-person sales experience, from the comfort of their own home. And when they visually experience your product in a demo that's custom-fit to their needs, they can confidently make a purchase from your site.

3. Lead Generation

Live chat pop-ups allow businesses to capture leads 24/7. When shoppers can conveniently initiate a chat from any page on your site, they'll be more likely to reach out. And when they do, you can easily collect essential details about who they are (like their full name and industry) as well as their contact information.

Having a live conversation with your leads can also help you qualify your leads and make sure they're actually a good fit for your product or service. But even if your team's away, many live chat solutions like Intercom even allow you to set up bots to collect basic information about your site visitors on your behalf.

4. Customer Insights

Beyond just generating leads, a live chat pop-up allows you to gain valuable new insights about your customers. For example, an appliances company may learn if a potential client has a gas hookup or an electrical outlet for their stove, or when they bought their home. Live conversations often unlock helpful details that forms and chatbots can miss.

Since you'll be managing your chat feature on your computer, you can easily plug any details you learn into your customer relationship management (CRM) tool during your conversation. Any support agents who go live with the customer in the future will then have the context they need to offer high-quality recommendations and support from the start of the conversation.

3 Ways to Use Live Chat Pop-Ups for Customer Support

Live chat is one of the most well-appreciated support channels that your business can offer. Post-chat surveys show that customer satisfaction rates exceed 83%.

The success of live chat pop-ups for customer support is, in part, due to its flexibility and convenience. Using live chat, you can meet a wide variety of client needs, much faster than you would with back-and-forth email conversations or visual-free phone calls.

Here are three ways you can use live chat software to help your website visitors:

1. Real-Time Resolutions

The most basic use case for live chat support is for achieving real-time resolutions. Consumers don't like to wait on hold — and 42% prefer live chat because it reduces or eliminates wait times.

When visitors have simple questions while browsing your site — for example, "Do you have a pricing page?" — visitors can get an answer within seconds instead of waiting 24 hours for a one-sentence answer. Similarly, live chat allows customers with urgent issues to work through potential solutions with you instead of sitting through a day's worth of untimely messages.

Using live chat for real-time resolutions can be especially helpful if you're chatting with dissatisfied customers. Rather than leaving them with one more poor user experience due to long wait times, you'll be building rapport. This can save and strengthen your client relationships.

2. Collaborative Troubleshooting

When clients are running into issues, it can be helpful to see exactly what's going on on their screens as they're chatting about it. Live chat pop-ups can support this in two different ways:

First, if you choose a traditional live chat solution, you and your potential client can exchange screenshots in real-time to give your conversations more context. If your shopping cart is glitching on your e-commerce site, you can visually see what's wrong.

ServiceBell helps you work even more closely with shoppers. The tool is equipped with co-browsing capabilities, which means you can take over your customers' screens while continuing a live video-based conversation. You can check out an issue yourself in real-time to offer more exact solutions.

3. Live Tutorials

Live chat pop-ups allow support teams to walk clients through specific processes, too. Even if your product or service is working perfectly fine, customers may struggle to use it when they’re new or if you just released a new feature. Live chat enables you to guide them step-by-step — or completely take over their screens to demonstrate a process with ServiceBell.

This use of live chat can quickly decrease customers' frustrations and help them experience the full benefits of your product or service. It’s also a great opportunity to personally welcome new clients who are just getting started with your brand, or touch base with existing customers.

Build Customer Satisfaction With Live Chat Pop-Ups

Whether you're offering real-time messaging or live video calls, live chat pop-ups are an effective tool for sales teams, marketers, and customer support agents.

Live chat allows you to get more proactive about lead generation and add personalization to your sales process, which can help you raise your conversion rates. For both potential and existing customers, a live chat box can even help you resolve issues faster through co-browsing and real-time support.

ServiceBell is an effective solution that integrates directly with your website, so you can amplify your sales and support efforts with video chat and screen takeover. And it can even integrate directly with Intercom's live messaging service, so your clients can choose their preferred method of interaction. Sign up for ServiceBell for free to unlock your new sales and support experience.