Welcome to the Initiative. Make yourself at home as you learn about the next generation of business-to-business applications and how Internet Business Services are energizing the industry.
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The Internet Business Services Initiative (IBSi) is a mutual benefit, non-profit corporation formed to assist companies in providing better software solutions to the marketplace.
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The work of the Initiative is carried out through member committees, the Board of Directors and executive staff. The IBSi also sponsors periodic members-only marketing and technical forums and a series of educational seminars and events that are open to the industry.
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Formed in December 1999, the Initiative has announced a general road map for standards development, held its first membership meeting and is developing a series of educational seminars. It offers a speakers bureau with industry and technical experts, and participates in relevant trade events.
Read MoreGive Your Online Sales a Boost! Why It Pays to Get Live Chat Service
Now that more and more entrepreneurs are building online rather than physical stores, it is a must for these 'virtual storeowners' to instantly answer their customer's inquiries. When you walk into a brick-and-mortar shop selling clothes, you expect the proprietor or sales clerk to answer your questions about the price, availability of sizes or colors, material used, etc. How can this be made possible if you are running an online store?
This is where a live chat service proves to be handy. Here, we will take a look at the importance of having a live chat service, the benefits that it will bring about your business and how it can give your online sales a boost.
The Importance of Making that Instant Connection with Your Customers
First, let's take a quick look at how live chat services work. Depending on the live chat service provider that you will be working with, there's a particular type of live chat service solution that will suit your particular needs as a business.
Generally, live chat services offer two types of support for online visitors: technical and sales or pre-sales. Technical support representatives who answer inquiries through live chat usually offer step-by-step troubleshooting steps for problems that customers might encounter while using or operating the product that they bought.
Sales live chat services, on the other hand, involve representatives answering any product and sales-related inquiries that customers might have. Both of these live chat support channels are extremely important when operating an online business because it gives your customers another venue to get in touch with you if, for one reason or another, they are unable to get to the phone for live support.
This is probably one of the most important reasons why you should consider getting live chat service incorporated on your website. Let's say that there is an aspect about the product description on your website which sounded unclear to a customer. Instead of dialling a phone number, most would much rather send their inquiries through chat because they're already online anyway. Usually, it takes customers a long time to get through toll-free phone numbers so live chat is a much quicker way for them to get in touch with you.
Additional Benefits of Getting Live Chat Service
More than making that instant connection with your customers, there are additional benefits that you will get to enjoy by using live chat services.
Take a look at the following list:
- Having a live chat feature on your website increases customer confidence.
Online users are usually doubtful when they come across websites which do not publish their contact information, because they fear that it is not real. The same thing holds true for shady online companies which only run on a part-time basis, and do not put any importance to customer service.
With the help of a live chat feature, you can instantly boost customer confidence because online users will know that they can easily get in touch with you should the need arise.
- Incorporating a live chat feature on your website is one of the best ways to close a sale.
One of the most frustrating things is for online users to not have someone to answer their questions in case they want to purchase a particular product in your website. If they're not sold on the price or they find a product description unclear, having a live chat service would clear up any doubts that they may have, so that they can be convinced to go ahead and purchase products from your site. If there's nobody to chat with, chances are they will go to another online store so that their inquiries can be answered – and you would have already lost a potential sale.
- A live chat service broadens your market and maximizes the use of your website.
If you're offering worldwide delivery of electronic goods, for example, you can broaden your market by reaching out to non-English speakers. There are live chat services which translates chat text in real time in both directions. This way, you can answer all inquiries from all parts of the world without having to hire language experts. This not just broadens your market, but maximizes the earning potential of your online business as well.
To sum it all up, increased customer confidence and maximizing the earning potential of your business are the primary benefits that you will get to enjoy simply by adding the live chat feature on your website. If you have an online store, this is definitely a feature that you should seriously consider incorporating on your site.