6 Tips for Managing a Remote Team

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6 Tips for Managing a Remote Team

How can you ensure that your remote team is successful?

Working remotely has quickly gained a foothold in a wide variety of American industries, allowing significantly more flexibility that can be a positive for both employer and employee. Not only do at least 43% of employees now work occasionally out of the office but about a third of the workforce spends at least four days working at home or on the go.

But while there can be a variety of benefits attached to the remote revolution, it also brings a series of challenges that team managers have to be prepared for. From learning how to run an effective and engaging remote meeting to finding a balance between micromanagement and freedom, the best managers of today know how to handle the complexity as the remote trend intensifies. Here are six tips for managers to consider when overseeing a remote team.

1. Embrace the upside of happier workers

No matter how cool your office setting might be, workers of today simply want to have the option to work from home at least some of the time. In fact, somewhere between 80 to 90% of employees would like to be able to telecommute, which is roughly double the number of employees who actually can. That’s certainly at least part of the reason why telecommuters generally tend to be happier and many studies have shown a considerable increase in productivity. But the same studies have also pointed out that happier, more productive workers aren’t guaranteed without the right system and managerial oversight.

Although managers now have a work force that can be easier to tap outside of normal office hours, they also have to be careful not to push the envelope, as more and more companies are also offering telecommuting. However, managers that can utilize a highly motivated remote work force without going too far can turn telecommuting into faster project turnarounds and better all-around team efficiency.

2. Take the time to build relationships

One of the first things to go in a remote setting is everyday relationships, which have always had a way of gluing together office-based teams. While some managers might regularly do office pools and small events to keep a remote team in regular contact, there’s nothing wrong with simply taking a short period of time during a remote meeting and seeing if anyone has anything to share. Little touches can be enormously effective when it comes to forming connections on a team, yet they’re often overlooked once a team stops sharing the same physical space every day.

Teams with unconnected workers are much more prone to a lack of engagement along with raised levels of turnover and the potential for lowered profitability, which can be avoided by a manager who is even mildly tech savvy. With the availability of tools like SnapEngage Team Chat, a manager can easily create a virtual water cooler that can keep employees engaged with each other outside of more formal settings like meetings.

3. Figure out the right meeting setting(s) for your team

One of the best things a manager can do is be honest about the team, which is a fundamental part of figuring out how to hold meetings when you have remote workers. For many companies, having regular, in-person meetings remains the easiest and most effective way to remain on the same page. Fitting with the remote culture, many managers also mix in meetings out of the office as well, with quiet cafes and restaurants off the beaten path tending to be good options for productivity and engagement.

In companies that don’t really need face-to-face meetings often, or at all, choosing the correct type of setting will be even more critical. A manager has the option to go with video meetings – especially with smaller teams – or an assortment of other ways to do group phone calls that are less intrusive. With some understanding of personnel, a manager should be able to hone in on the right fit, a process that can be made easier with a little input from the team. Even for companies that stick with in-office meetings, however, having at least some system in place for remote meetings is still an essential for a team with telecommuters.

4. Try to be consistent with meeting times

Whichever method a manager decides is the best fit for the team, it’s important to schedule meeting times as far in advance as possible and avoid changing times unless it can’t be avoided. Considering a main advantage of telecommuting – assuming productivity remains high – is increased schedule flexibility, a manager who often changes meeting times is likely to frustrate employees and struggle to get the most out of meetings. Successful remote workers need to be good at time-management no matter the industry, and erratic meeting schedules can make it much more difficult to plan a work day or week. After all, the last thing a manager wants is an engaged telecommuter having to stop for an impromptu meeting, or plan his or her schedule around a meeting that ends up getting nixed. Although some cancelled and moved meetings are inevitable, being consistent as possible with meeting schedules is even more important when you have employees who might be working from anywhere.

5. Don’t leave staff members behind

For younger generations, telecommuting is the most natural thing in the world. To other generations, it can be an awkward fit that doesn’t suit an employee’s lifestyle. If your company has started offering telecommuting, or is planning to shortly, it can be important to determine which employees are ready to go and which team members might need a few tips and a little push. Ensuring that everyone on your team – in private, if needed – knows exactly how to use any new software can be key to keeping employees from feeling alienated from more tech savvy team members. Companies also have to be much more cognizant about security software due to remote workers, giving even more incentive to follow-up with employees who might have trouble adapting. By being available to help with any technical difficulties, a manager can provide a personal touch that can help make the transition a smooth one.

6. Recognize the good and the bad of downsizing office space

A major incentive for companies to shift to increased telecommuting is obviously the possibility of cutting office space, although smaller offices can also yield a more positive atmosphere for collaboration. But there also can be a cost to the team if a manager doesn’t recognize the increased potential for problems with a smaller office, particularly if employees will be sharing office space. With remote workers dipping in and out of the office, it’s important to setup clear parameters and a schedule for who is going to be utilizing the space. If needed, some general rules about what can and cannot be stored in the space might be helpful, particularly for team members who don’t know each other well. Even with the bottom-line advantages of downsizing, managers have to be able to correctly pair employees together and set appropriate guidelines to avoid drops in morale and production.

By being aware of both the benefits and possible drawbacks of remote work forces, however, a manager has plenty of tools to quickly setup a positive work environment every bit as interconnected as in-house teams. With a manager willing to showcase the right balance of structure and flexibility, a team will be in a much better position to capture the upside of telecommuting.

Keep your team connected

Lessons Learned from Angry Customers

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Lessons Learned from Angry Customers

What sparks difficult customer support situations?

Every business has a common thread that links them together – the customer. Customers are the foundation of your company. Without them, you have no business. Furthermore, customers can be your best friend or your worst enemy. Just ask anyone who has had disgruntled customers bent on spreading the word about their perceived slights or mistreatments. In the day of social media, negative feedback is much more potent than in days past. One bad review of your company could potentially reach thousands of people. The same can be said though about a happy, satisfied customer too. Delight them and you create loyal enthusiasts who can garner support from their friends, family, and followers. This is precisely why customer service should be a primary focus for any business.

Tapping into the customer mentality is critical. You may have a phenomenal product or service, but if customer service is poor, then you may lose business. So, how can businesses create positive customer service experiences? One important step is to turn negative customer service encounters around and learn from them. Every customer-facing employee is going to experience negative encounters from time to time. Whether it be via email, over the phone, during a chat session, or in person, these encounters are likely to happen. However, there are strategies you can use to minimize the impact and learn from these experiences for next time. Customer difficulties take many forms such as:

  • The angry customer
  • The disinterested customer
  • The confused customer
  • The customer who is difficult to understand

Obviously, not all of these are equal in importance. Since an angry customer is more critical to your company brand, let’s take a closer look at problem resolution for that situation. To diffuse an angry customer scenario, it’s important to understand where the customers are coming from. What makes the customer angry? In most customer-service situations, it is usually one of the following:

 

Misunderstanding

Often, the main problem stems from a simple misunderstanding. Maybe the customer misunderstood how the product was supposed to work or misunderstood what the product was supposed to include. As a result, the product didn’t meet their expectations.

Miscommunication

Some customers get upset because there’s a communication breakdown between them and the customer service representative. Maybe the representative interrupted them or didn’t listen to what they were saying.

Misinformed about the price

Nothing sets a customer off more than to see added charges to their bill, a higher price than anticipated when they go to check out, or an unexpected recurring payment coming out of their bank account. If customers aren’t provided with transparent information about the total cost of everything up front, anger will ensue.

Personality

Let’s face it: some customers just seem to be angry for no particular reason. They may start a conversation in an argumentative tone or with heated words.

Five techniques to minimize sticky situations:

1. Reflective listening

Reflective listening is a communication strategy that can be highly effective when interacting with difficult people. It’s a simple technique, which involves listening to the person’s statement and then repeating it back to them in different words. You can precede your statement back to them by saying something like, “It sounds like you’re saying…” or “It sounds like you feel X because of Y…”

What this does is 1) validates the person’s feelings, 2) lets the person know you really heard what they said, and 3) gives them an opportunity to respond about whether you accurately defined their thoughts. Sometimes people just want to be heard and understood, and then they calm down and are better equipped to have a rational conversation.

2. Don’t engage in the argument

One of the worst things you can do as a customer service representative is to argue back with an angry customer and further escalate the situation. This will go nowhere but downhill (and fast). Even if the customer is making false or irrational statements, don’t jump in and start arguing about the “facts.”

3. Ask questions

Questions make a person stop a minute to think about the answer, which can distract them from their anger. Asking questions also shows them that you are interested in learning more about the situation. Questions can be a subtle way to lead the customer to important information they may have misunderstood. For example, if the person is angry because there’s something unexpected about their invoice, asking them questions about specifics on their invoice will lead them to read parts of it. In doing so, they may see something they overlooked.

4. Be empathetic

Use a tone that is understanding and empathetic when dealing with angry customers. Also, using empathetic words can soothe an angry person. Remember that some people just want to be understood. Even if they are being unreasonable, your tone can help turn the entire situation around. However, fake empathy is easily detected so strive to really feel how the customer is feeling and keep the interaction as genuine as possible.

5. Make offers

Sometimes the only way to appease a customer is to give them something to make up for the problem. This could be a discount on the item in question or a future item. It could be a gift from the company. When customers feel compensated for their trouble, they will likely continue with your company.

Dealing with angry customers is all part of being in business. However, you don’t want to let the negativity cling to you. Move past the difficult situation and consider it an opportunity to learn new customer service skills. You’ll be better equipped the next time you face this type of situation.

Create happier customers today

Reduce Churn with Customer Health Scores

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Keeping a pulse on customer health is critical

We can all agree that maintaining a strong, healthy relationship with your customers is essential for every company that relies on repeat business. But how to maintain that relationship is less clear, especially when you’re an online business with thousands of accounts and no in-person interactions to build upon. Enter the Customer Health Score (CHS), a customer-centered solution that has been gaining buzz and momentum in recent years. Here we look at what CHS is, what metrics drive it, why tracking it is important, and how you can get started.

What exactly is a Customer Health Score?

A Customer Health Score (CHS) is a company’s measure of the health of their relationship with an individual customer. The higher a customer’s score, the healthier the relationship, and the more business the customer brings in, whether directly or indirectly. A low score, on the other hand, translates to a weak relationship and more churn—a continuous loss of customers over time.

The manual approach to CHS

Some companies choose to manually assign each of their customers’ health scores based on the team’s experience with each individual customer. This may make sense for very small companies with only a handful of customers that the employees all know well. However, the manual approach won’t easily scale as you grow.

The systematic approach

Many larger companies create health score systems to at least partially automate the process of assigning health scores to customers. You may even devote a client success team to the task.

The key metrics that feed CHS

The metrics that your company uses to measure CHS depend largely on the type of business you run. As a point of reference, the list of CHS metrics at CustomerThink includes renewals, upsells, survey results, customer engagement, total money spent, time spent as a customer, and overall usage of your product or service, among several other metrics. Some of these may not apply to your company, and there may be other important measures of your customers’ health not listed here at all.

Mapping metrics to business drivers

When in doubt, a good rule of thumb is to map your CHS metrics to the key customer-related drivers of your business. For example, suppose you’re a Software as a Service (SaaS) startup that is more concerned with building a highly engaged initial subscriber base than with upselling customers to the highest-yield plans. In that case, customer-engagement indicators that reflect signs that your customers will (or will not) continue to renew their current subscriptions may serve as the key metrics in your overall customer health score.

However, as your company evolves, so will your customer health metrics. Therefore, it’s important to revisit your CHS periodically, especially if it’s automatically generated.

Number of metrics

According to the team at Wootric, a reasonable number of metrics to use is four to six (although having more or fewer is by no means a red flag). You will probably find that the more complex your revenue streams are, the more metrics you will need.

Objective vs. subjective metrics

Another important factor that Wootric points out is the inclusion of subjective metrics. Customer success experts recommend that you should generally try to restrict the number of subjective metrics to one or two.

Weightings

You will need to add a weighting to each CHS metric according to its importance in the overall customer health score. For example, suppose that after a year of running your SaaS business, you find that service subscription/membership upgrades are twice as important as referrals in generating business. Accordingly, you might give the upgrade metric a weighting of 10 and the referral metric a weighting of 5.

Net Promoter Score

Another popular approach is the Net Promoter Score (NPS). Companies using NPS periodically give their customers a single-question survey, asking them to rate how inclined they are (on a scale of one to ten) to recommend the company’s service to others. Customers that choose 9 or 10 are promoters, 7 or 8 are passives, and 1 through 6 are detractors. The NPS equals the percentage of promoters minus the percentage of detractors, and could serve as a key metric in your overall CHS strategy.

Why CHS is important to track

Customer health has a direct impact on customer churn rates, and therefore the long-term success or failure of your business. Tracking CHS is perhaps one of the best ways to prevent churn by helping client success teams sense when individual clients are beginning to drift away before it’s too late. Dan Steinman of GainSight compares the situation to two rowboats in a lake. Without anyone in the rowboats to keep them together, the rowboats will naturally drift apart. “There’s a natural tendency for a customer and vendor to drift apart if there’s not any intervention.”

Tracking tools

Although you may choose to start from scratch with your own system, you don’t have to. There are many tools available (such as SatisMeter, Gainsight, Totango, and Wootric) that are specifically built to track customer health and NPS for you. Gainsight’s schema follows the widely used green-yellow-red approach. Green indicates good customer health, and is an opportunity for upselling. Yellow indicates a customer that may require attention. Red indicates a customer “in poor health,” “at risk of churning,” and in need of an immediate intervention.

Jumpstarting your CHS solution

As a first step toward a CHS solution, review your business model to determine the key customer-related drivers of your company’s success. Then turn each of those drivers into a metric in your customer health system (new subscriptions, upgrades, referrals, etc), giving the most important CHS metrics the strongest weightings.

Consider adding one or two subjective metrics to add some manual inputs into the system. Next, decide whether you want to code-up your own tracking system, or use pre-existing tools and customer health software as part of your process.

Finally, go live with your health score system and start tracking customer health. Naturally, you will want to make adjustments (adding or subtracting metrics, tweaking various weightings, and so on) as your company evolves and your experience with CHS deepens. Over time, you should find that your churn drops and business increases as your CHS system triggers timely interventions that repeatedly restore healthy customer relationships for the long haul.

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Feature Release: Capacity Report

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Feature Release: Capacity Report

Maximize staffing efficiency by viewing a breakdown of chat volume alongside team capacity for enhanced resource management

Our Analytics & Reporting offering now includes a comprehensive Capacity Report to help admins make informed staffing decisions that improve the visitor experience. The Capacity Report provides valuable insights that admins can use to help determine how to best allocate limited resources, optimize staffing budgets, appropriately schedule front-line staff, and support a satisfactory customer experience.

Enhance Visitor Experiences with Capacity Reporting

When an interested prospect lands on your website, the last thing you want is for them to get stuck in a chat queue (or unable to chat) because your sales team isn’t adequately staffed for that particular time period. This user experience is frustrating and creates a poor first impression of your business in a swift-moving medium where first impressions mean everything.

The same situation carries over to current clients. Businesses that strive to provide quality customer experiences must plan and staff accordingly to ensure that all customer inquiries and issues are addressed in a timely manner. When a customer experiencing an issue finds that chat is unavailable or is placed into a waiting queue, their frustration is compounded.

Admins can avoid negative situations like this by using the new in-depth Capacity Report to better determine how to balance current staffing resources with chat volumes based on historical data. The Capacity Report displays a color-coded 24/7 breakdown of chat volumes combined with team capacity thresholds to help admins discover trends and pinpoint times of peak activity.

Maximize resources; anticipate future needs

 
The Capacity Report consolidates historical data for the given time period to help admins identify specific days and time periods where chat may be overstaffed or understaffed. Identifying these trends makes it easier for admins to determine when and how to make staffing changes to meet customer demand while ensuring that staffing dollars and resources are allocated wisely.

This report makes it easier than ever for admins to pinpoint time periods where chat volumes have reached levels near max capacity, in addition to pinpointing the busiest, critical time periods when chat volumes have fully exceeded available team capacity (resulting in chat queues and longer visitor wait times). Admins can use these insights to better plan resources in an effort to reduce visitor wait times and maximize staffing budgets.

Read the full help guide to learn more about how team capacity thresholds are calculated. This feature is now available exclusively for Plus and above plans.

Improve your staffing decisions now

Client Spotlight: Motion & Flow Control Products

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CLIENT SPOTLIGHT

MOTION & FLOW CONTROL PRODUCTS, INC.

“In our industry, where the number of products is in the hundreds of thousands, being able to have an expert on-site ready to chat and provide information is invaluable. It’s more than just providing customer service; it’s solving problems quickly in an industry that’s not known for being agile.”

-RACHEL HAMPTON, DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL GROWTH

MFCP increases sales and attracts new clients with innovative solutions

 

Motion & Flow Control Products (MFCP) understands the value of providing exceptional customer service. For over fifty years, the company has served as one of the leading distributors of industrial fluid power, motion, and control solutions in the United States.

Clients across the western United States seek out MFCP for their expertise, drive, local industry knowledge, and above all, their steadfast commitment to the customer experience. This reputation was cemented over time as MFCP’s base of satisfied clients steadily grew, and becomes apparent from the moment MFCP representatives interact with both prospects and clients. According to MFCP, “our reputation for outstanding service, technical know-how, and best-in-class product lines is built every day by delivering what customers need, when they want it.”

About Motion & Flow Control Products, Inc.

Motion & Flow Control Products (MFCP) has served as a leading industrial fluid power, motion, and controls distributor in the western United States since 1960. MFCP has thirty stocking locations spanning from Alaska all the way down to New Mexico, and carries a diverse product offering that provides complete solutions for industries including aerospace, agriculture, forestry, manufacturing, military, pharmaceutical, and many more. The company was built from the ground up by six first-generation family businesses who came together with a shared mission: delivering what customers need, when they want it.

This iron-clad reputation serves MFCP well, but nine months ago the company was looking for new ways to remain competitive and further grow their reach and client base. During that time, the team also noticed that their website was not performing optimally. They began to experience issues including missed sales opportunities and low conversion rates.  

To address these issues and refresh their overarching sales strategy, the MFCP team decided to overhaul their entire website. Part of this website revamp included the adoption of live chat software. MFCP had never before implemented live chat into their strategy and was ready to try something new. Peter Grimes (Marketing & Operations) sought out a chat solution that would mesh well with their current processes and client base. They turned to SnapEngage.  

Their customer engagement solution needed to be flexible and have the ability to scale easily as the company grew. MFCP’s industry is defined by the distribution of thousands of varied and complex products. The MFCP catalogue alone consists of over 100K SKUs, and product sales range anywhere from $50 in value all the way up to $3-$4 million. Furthermore, MFCP sells to a diverse group of customers, including resellers, end users, and OEMs (original equipment manufacturers).

Chat streamlines processes and helps MFCP carry out their mission

Industrial parts distribution is an industry rooted in tradition and often takes a more classic approach to prospecting and sales. Many companies in this niche still rely heavily on word of mouth references, cold-calling, and face-to-face visits in the field. Peter and his team needed to find an effective way to balance these more conventional strategies with their new chat-focused approach to prospecting and sales.

The MFCP team was able to use chat agents to supplement the efforts of existing field agents, who manage 50-75 accounts each. The sales team currently includes six chat agents and there are plans to increase these numbers. Using priority tiers, the sales team routes incoming chats to frontline agents while keeping additional agents as backup for overflow chats.

SnapEngage has allowed MFCP representatives to begin transitioning away from phone support in favor of cycled chat schedules, which has resulted in lowered cost-per-interaction. The team plans to expand their e-commerce website shortly, and will soon ramp up their chat agent team size to accommodate for increased chat volumes and the resulting influx in leads.

Rachel Hampton, Director of Digital Strategy, notes that “chat reps are fans of the platform because of the quick engagement and ability to solve problems faster. In our industry, where the number of products is in the hundreds of thousands, being able to have an expert on-site ready to chat and provide information is invaluable. It’s more than just providing customer service; it’s solving problems quickly in an industry that’s not known for being agile.”

The MFCP team has also benefited from features such as co-browsing, which allow sales representatives to better engage with website prospects and guide them around the website. This ensures that sales consultants can provide a personalized, high touch customer experience to website visitors and address detailed questions throughout what can be a complex and confusing process.

The team also relies on proactive chat to automatically engage with website visitors based on targeted trigger metrics such as location, time on page, website URL, and more. In fact, the team has seen even more success with proactive chats than reactive chats and appreciates that proactive chat allows the sales team to engage with prospects efficiently.

Chat shortens sales cycles and provides a competitive edge

 

Surprisingly, Peter notes that many of MFCP’s competitors are not yet using chat on their website, and it’s clear that they are missing out on a valuable opportunity. Peter views chat as a “differentiator” and explains that it offers them a competitive advantage in the industrial parts distribution space.

“Nothing makes us happier than pairing our customers with the right products.”

-Peter Grimes, Marketing & Operations

Since implementing SnapEngage, MFCP has experienced impressive reductions in sales cycles. This can be noted by the dramatic difference between the average time to close experienced in live chat sales vs. field sales. For MFCP, traditional field sales take an average of eight weeks to an entire year to close. After implementing chat, Peter’s team began closing deals on chat in as little as 7 to 10 days. The results are even more impressive where knowledgeable, qualified prospects are concerned. These types of incoming chat prospects (who already know exactly what they need) often close in as little as a single day.

“We saw value in reducing sales interactions from two steps to down to one,” Peter recalls. Previously, interested prospects had to search for a phone number on the website and then set up a call, search online and find a location to visit, or fill out a form and wait for a response from a sales rep. Using chat “got the whole thing done in one fell swoop.”

This reduction in the sales cycle has resulted in increased revenue and conversion rates for MFCP. Most importantly, it has allowed MFCP to continue delivering the unparalleled customer experiences they are known for. “Nothing makes us happier than pairing our customers with the right products.”

Use SnapEngage to pair your clients with the right products

Higher Education Institutions Increase Engagement and Admissions Rates with Live Chat

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Connecting with students during the initial discovery phase is key

Choosing a university is one of the most exciting – and stressful – decisions that a young adult (or anyone seeking continuing education) will face. Rising costs, information overload, and complex application processes are making it more challenging than ever for prospective students to navigate college admissions. This leaves higher education marketers with the formidable task of connecting with and effectively engaging a large, distributed pool of prospective students.

College admissions marketers must also navigate a changing landscape as older students within the ‘Post-Millennial’ generation are now beginning their higher education journey. Generation Z is even more technologically-savvy and hyper-connected than previous generations – it’s all they’ve ever known. Admissions departments hoping to win over new students need to find innovative ways to connect with not only prospective students, but also their peers, families, teachers, guidance counselors, mentors, and other key influencers involved in the decision-making process.

During the college-search process, high school students receive an incredible amount of information from college outreach offices and recruiters in the form of mailings, emails, calls, etc. This information overload often proves to be confusing and downright overwhelming at times, leading to missed or ignored outreach attempts.

Colleges around the world are increasingly adopting live chat software on their websites to address these challenges and attract interested, quality students. Chat and other conversation management technologies provide college marketers, admissions officers, and educational staff the ability to more easily connect with prospective students from the moment a potential student lands on their institution’s web page, and allows for website visitors to begin a productive conversation during critical times when interest is piqued. Chat also gives admissions staff the opportunity to address false assumptions and potential roadblocks that could hinder a student’s path to higher education.

Chat improves application processes; connects students with vital services

According to Hanover Research, up to 31 percent of four-year applicants abandon online college applications before they complete and submit the application form. Universities must do everything in their power to streamline and simplify the complex admissions process for students, and live chat plays a critical role in that mission.

When an applicant encounters a roadblock during the online application, they can instantly connect with college support staff via chat and receive the necessary information they seek. This increases the chances that applicants will continue on with the application and submit the online form, instead of abandoning the application altogether and possibly never returning to that institution’s website. This reduced form abandonment results in increased conversion rates and application counts.

Up to 31% of four-year applicants abandon online college application forms.

The rising financial demands on those who pursue higher education also make financial aid resources more valuable than ever for prospective and current students. These resources are especially vital where lower-income students are concerned. Jeffrey Selingo noted in The Atlantic that “simply adding more money to financial aid is not the answer to recruiting more low-income students because these offers usually come in too late in the college search process, typically after the admissions decision. That’s why many low-income students never even apply to college, scared off by high tuition prices and a lack of understanding of the financial aid process.”

Colleges like Grand Canyon University address this lack of understanding of the financial aid process head-on with website live chat conversations that dispel myths and/or doubts about financial aid and provide students with comprehensive education about all available options and how to pursue them. They also rely on features like cobrowsing and secure data transfer to further assist students with completing applications efficiently and accurately.

More engaged prospective students lead to increased admissions rates

Marketers and admissions officers that work in higher education find themselves responsible for a host of metrics, including application submissions, new student enrollment counts, information requests via online forms, and campus visit signups. If you feel that your college struggles with marketing and engagement efforts to impact these metrics and others like them, you’re not alone.

42.1% of marketers in higher education oversee at least one webpage that converts at less than 1.1%. These low-performing pages resulted in an average of 1,734 missed conversion opportunities.

A 2017 research study conducted by Unbounce found that the higher education industry has some of the lowest conversion rates across all major industries. In fact, 42.1% of marketers in higher education oversee at least one webpage for their education institution that converts at less than 1.1%. Researchers found that these low-performing pages resulted in an average of 1,734 missed conversion opportunities.

In an effort to increase student engagement and positively impact these metrics, colleges are increasingly adopting live chat as part of their overall marketing and engagement strategy.

College marketers and other communications and outreach staff can use features like advanced proactive chat to revive under-performing webpages and drive engagement rates with targeted messaging based on a website visitor’s current URL, location, and more. These automated proactive invitations save valuable time and energy. In addition, recruiting staff have the ability to hold concurrent conversations with website visitors, resulting in a lower cost-per-interaction and decreased phone and email volumes.

Traditionally, university outreach coordinators have relied heavily on purchased student prospect lists from resources such as the ACT and the College Board. While this strategy is still useful, colleges are increasingly turning to social channels to further increase outreach efforts. Social media is used by 81 percent of teenagers, and admissions officers can further their reach by tapping into these channels. In fact, “two-thirds of [teenagers] use social media to research and inform their college decision.” Colleges who aren’t maximizing this social reach, and their digital presence in general, will lag behind.

Admissions marketers and student relations managers can drive their social engagement by integrating chat with Hootsuite, Facebook Messenger, and other social media tools to connect with students in the channels they already frequent.

Admissions staff have also found creative ways to tap into students’ preference for digital, text-based interactions by offering services like SMS-to-Chat. For example, colleges can list a convenient SMS number on all direct mailings and handouts at recruitment fairs, giving prospective students a quick and easy way to ask questions and exchange information with admissions officers.

Chat reinforces core values and college branding

When higher education establishments strategize on effective ways to build interest in their organizations and educational offerings, the tactics they must employ are not so different from marketers working to promote and sell products and services to consumers. Marketers working within both traditional consumer sectors and higher education institutions face the similar challenge of effectively articulating their organization’s core brand and values to a varied audience.

Mary Baglivo, Chief Marketing Officer at Northwestern University, noted in an interview with Ad Age that “there is a growing interest and belief in the importance of defining and articulating your university brand because it’s important to be differentiating and compelling – not unlike a product in the consumer space.”

“There is a growing interest and belief in the importance of defining and articulating your university brand because it’s important to be differentiating and compelling – not unlike a product in the consumer space.”

-Mary Baglivo, CMO, Northwestern University

In a technology-based era where prospective students are used to dealing with a veritable flood of incoming information and content, live chat gives colleges a competitive advantage by facilitating human connections between knowledgeable staff and prospective students.

The instantaneous, effective conversations that live chat produces gives colleges like Gonzaga University’s Graduate School of Business, Ohio State University, and University of Southern California a prime opportunity to showcase their unique brand and articulate core values through custom chat form design and one-to-one conversations between staff and curious website visitors. Choosing a college is an incredibly personal decision, and colleges that can effectively communicate their brand and mission to prospective students will more easily attract those that align with their values, further increasing admissions (and acceptance) rates. Alignment on values and goals upfront also ultimately results in happier, more successful students.

As Higher Education Marketing notes, prospective students value the “human connections fostered by direct, open, two-way communication” that live chat provides. Colleges that wish to remain relevant in the ever-changing landscape of student recruitment and admissions must embrace live chat conversation technologies in their strategic efforts to attract and recruit top students, and provide them with the instant information they seek.

Learn more about student engagement solutions

Live Chat Streamlines Sales and Support Processes for Industrial Sector

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Live Chat Streamlines Sales and Support Processes for Industrial Sector

Chat forges new opportunities in industries with complex product offerings

 

The manufacturing industry is booming. A 2016 report by the National Association of Manufacturers estimated that the manufacturing industry contributed $2.18 trillion to the United States economy and accounted for nearly 12 percent of the economy’s GDP. Manufacturing and related verticals such as machinery and distribution are all defined by complex product offerings, and therefore face unique challenges when it comes to lead acquisition and conversion.

Whereas traditional sales processes in this segment have been primarily driven by field sales and word of mouth, more and more buyers are turning to online channels in the awareness and research phases of their buying cycle. The business website is often the first impression and opportunity for engagement with potential buyers, making it a crucial tool for lead capture and conversion efforts. Industrial-focused businesses can use live chat to proactively engage website visitors with personalized messaging to capitalize on prospective buyers at their peak level of interest (before buyers turn their focus to competing, alternative solutions).

Companies including Motion & Flow Control Products and Riegl USA have already experienced profound results after implementing live chat into their sales and support workflows and view chat as a differentiating factor among their competition.

Amplified sales; impressive ROI


When Riegl USA decided to incorporate chat into their overarching sales strategy, they were experiencing delays in their sales pipeline, and as a result, both customers (and their own sales and engineering teams) were frustrated. They needed to streamline their sales processes and turned to chat software.

What they experienced next cemented their purchasing decision. Jillian Kreider, Communications Specialist at Riegl, recalls that during their free trial of SnapEngage, they engaged with an interested prospect via a live chat conversation who needed a scanning device made right away. Two weeks later (in a company that has an average sales cycle of 6 months to three years), the $110K deal had closed. Their new chat software had just paid for itself many times over within the first three weeks of use, and Jillian and her CMO were sold.

“[SnapEngage] paid for itself in the very first sale.”

-Jillian Kreider, Communications Specialist

Live chat builds relationships (and reduces acquisition cost)


In a well-established industry that often relies on a time-honored, more traditional approach to sales, live chat offers up a refreshing solution that keeps the focus on building customer relationships. Products across the industry generally cost anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars each, so it’s understandable that trust, transparency, and the quality of customer interactions play a huge role in buying decisions.

Manufacturers attempting to sell their products used to rely primarily on word of mouth recommendations and face-to-face interactions with prospective buyers at trade shows and onsite visits to build deeper connections and instill trust. While a handshake and a smile still closes many manufacturing deals today, vendors have discovered that a quality conversation over live chat can offer the same, immediate human connection that buyers crave without the associated costs of traditional sales approaches.

This cost reduction can give organizations the flexibility to put more dollars towards improving their product offering and funding additional growth strategies and other company initiatives.

Shortened sales cycles drive revenue

Typically, the more complex the product, the longer the sales cycle. Organizations that adopt live chat can reduce delays between steps in the buying process and streamline efforts across every customer touchpoint.

Nine months ago, Peter Grimes (Marketing & Operations at Motion & Flow Control Products) decided to implement live chat for the first time in hopes of reducing the sales cycle. “We saw value in reducing sales interactions from two steps down to one. Previously we relied on customers to find a phone number, email, or physical location on the website, resulting in a back-and-forth communication with delays at each step. Chat got the whole thing done in one fell swoop.”

“We saw value in reducing sales interactions from two steps down to one […] Chat got the whole thing done in one fell swoop.”

-Peter Grimes, Marketing & Operations

Indeed, these efficiencies contributed to a shorter sales cycle, with Grimes noting that an average sales cycle for chat is just 7-10 days, in contrast to field sales cycles that can take anywhere from 8 weeks to over one year to close.

Organizations can further optimize their workflows and maximize incoming leads by integrating chat with CRMs and help desks such as Salesforce. Native integrations allow sales consultants to send data from chat conversations directly to their preferred CRM for seamless follow-up and pipeline management. This ensures that interested prospects receive swift follow-up, and that deals don’t accidentally slip through the cracks.

Vendors using chat have also been able to supplement their cold-calling efforts with live chat. In the past, businesses in the industrial/manufacturing sector have relied on cold-calling as one of their primary outbound marketing and sales strategies. While this is still a viable strategy, organizations have discovered that live chat complements cold-calling efforts and maximizes reach. Instead of spending all their time pursuing leads who may or may not be interested in purchasing (or even hearing about the product), sales teams can use services like proactive chat to efficiently and automatically drive engagement with interested website visitors. This frees up time for sales consultants to focus more of their efforts on inbound opportunities and engage with the most qualified buyers.

Chat strengthens support workflows

After a deal closes, organizations continue to receive immense benefits from live chat, particularly in their aim to provide quality customer support. Riegl and Motion & Flow Control have both experienced reduced call and email volumes since implementing SnapEngage. In fact, M&FC is considering transitioning away from phone support entirely in favor of chat support. Increased efficiencies throughout support processes positively impact CSAT metrics, as customers have the ability to receive quality, instant assistance with the simple click of a button. Additionally, this assistance can be provided to multiple customers at once via chat conversations, which reduces the cost-per-interaction and further streamlines support team workflows.

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Client Spotlight – Rent Like a Champion

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CLIENT SPOTLIGHT

RENT LIKE A CHAMPION

“We pride ourselves on top-notch customer service, and offering reliable live chat support is a valuable extension of this mission. Our primary goal is to make it as easy as possible for someone to list or rent a home, and live chat provides that instant assistance that neither phone nor email are guaranteed to deliver.”
-BETTY GRAHAM, CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Making a play for success


In the world of college sports, Rent Like a Champion (RLAC) has made bold strides. The company works hard to transform and improve the college sports experience by providing premier home rental services to sports fans in cities and towns across the United States. “Many college towns lack the infrastructure to support the tens of thousands of football fans who flock to town on game weekends,” says Mike Doyle, CEO.

The true source of RLAC’s pride, however, comes from the unrivaled customer experiences their team delivers day in and day out. Over 50,000 guests have used RLAC’s home rental services since the company’s creation, and the company manages a growing roster of 3,500+ homeowner listings. As the company and its client base grew, so did the need for more effective customer engagement strategies.

Rent Like A Champion logo

About Rent Like A Champion

Rent Like a Champion (RLAC) started in 2006 in Chicago, Illinois as a student housing company, and has quickly expanded into one of the most popular home vacation rental services in college sports. RLAC now offers weekend home rentals and home listing services in more than 27 college towns around the United States. The RLAC team is comprised of rabid football fans who are passionate about providing the highest levels of customer service to ensure their customers have the best college football experience possible.

 

The RLAC team needed a solution to help them scale their business and drive rental bookings, all while giving them the necessary tools to continue providing exceptional customer support for both hosts and guests. The Customer Experience team relied on phone and email support in the past, but quickly realized that these modes of communication fell short when it came to their lofty customer engagement goals. RLAC needed to revamp the tools they were using and decided to implement SnapEngage’s live chat software into their overarching strategy. 

Betty Graham has worked on RLAC’s Customer Experience team for nearly three years, and notes how live chat supports their efforts to provide immediate, quality support: “We pride ourselves on top-notch customer service, and offering reliable live chat support is a valuable extension of this mission. Our primary goal is to make it as easy as possible for someone to list or rent a home, and live chat provides that instant assistance that neither phone nor email are guaranteed to deliver.”  

Stellar service, powered by SnapEngage


RLAC experienced a “seamless” implementation of SnapEngage chat software, which was crucial as the software was implemented during RLAC’s busiest time of the year when even a small hiccup could be detrimental to the business. This positive initial experience during the implementation phase helped Betty’s team and other key decision makers feel confident in their new customer engagement solution.   

The Customer Experience team relies on SnapEngage daily to communicate with potential (and active) hosts and guests. They have multiple agents configured in the system, which provides flexibility to schedule shifts based on chat volume and the ability to transfer chats among agents. Priority tiers allow the RLAC team to route chats primarily to frontline support agents while keeping additional agents in backup tiers for assistance during periods of high chat volume. When agents are offline, website visitors can submit offline messages that are automatically routed to the Customer Experience team’s email helpdesk. This ensures timely responses to incoming messages while preventing anything from slipping through the cracks.   

One of the primary reasons that RLAC chose SnapEngage over other live chat providers was due to SnapEngage’s robust, native HubSpot integration. The Customer Experience team uses this integration to route all data from SnapEngage chats directly to HubSpot after conversations close. These conversations appear within HubSpot directly in the Contact timeline, giving staff a 360-degree view of lead activity and history to further bolster lead generation efforts.

Custom mapping options within the integration (shown above) give RLAC incredible flexibility when it comes to tailoring the integration to their needs, allowing Betty and her team to send specific types of data to their preferred fields within HubSpot.

Rent Like a Champion lands on a winning strategy

 

Since implementation in March 2017, Rent Like a Champion has experienced impressive results across the board. These results are hard to ignore. The team completes more successful customer transactions on a daily basis than they were previously, and Betty notes that SnapEngage “helps drive renter checkouts and homeowner signups.” RLAC’s use of SnapEngage has also “resulted in decreased call volume.” This decrease in call volume has streamlined internal efficiencies and frees up agents to assist clients concurrently via chat.

“SnapEngage helps drive renter checkouts and homeowner signups, and has resulted in decreased call volume.”

Website traffic has increased, too, and the Customer Experience team is better equipped than ever to engage these new visitors efficiently and effectively using advanced proactive chat routing. Proactive chat has “aided [RLAC] greatly in engaging qualified users with [RLAC’s] live chat services.”

With an average yearly growth rate of 80%, it’s clear that RLAC has landed on a winning strategy. “The price of the service for the value-add to customers makes perfect sense. It’s very easy to get SnapEngage on your website and the results of customers using the service are instantaneous. Additionally, SnapEngage gives you the tools to constantly improve the experience you’re providing to your customers through analytics, customization, and support.”

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Healthcare Industry Reaps Benefits of HIPAA Compliant Technology

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Healthcare Industry Reaps Benefits of HIPAA Compliant Technology

HIPAA Compliant Live Chat Elevates Customer Experience in Healthcare Vertical

As technological advancements continue to infuse and transform every facet of society, the healthcare industry is no exception. While some may argue that healthcare technology adoption has been too sluggish at times, consumers, patients, and providers alike can all be thankful that a rapidly changing landscape solidifies the need for HIPAA compliant technology solutions in 2017 and beyond. Organizations already using HIPAA compliant technology have experienced profound results, including:

  • Reduced cost-per-interaction
  • Higher patient satisfaction
  • Improved efficiencies
  • Reduced risk of facing costly noncompliance penalties
  • Improved reporting and data collection
  • Increased conversion rates

The CDC reports that in 2015 alone the United States spent $3.2 trillion in healthcare expenditures, and this number continues to climb. Providers today can adopt innovative and creative uses of HIPAA compliant technology in their efforts to curb rising costs while meeting the needs of a growing population that is living longer than ever before.

New audience; new technologies

The demand for advancements in healthcare technology has been spurred in part by our nation’s changing population and recent shifts in demographics. Millennials have officially overtaken Baby Boomers as the largest living generation in America, as reported by Pew Research Center. In fact, millennials now number 74.5 million in the United States alone and represent over a quarter of the nation’s population. It’s hard to ignore the fact that these 74.5 million individuals possess immense purchasing power. As members of the generation continue to move into their prime spending years, advance in careers, raise families and assist aging parents and/or grandparents, this power and the generation’s desire for a revamped healthcare system that integrates with their lifestyle will increase. In fact, 60 percent of millennials are in favor of incorporating telemedicine (the use of telecommunications technologies to support remote health care, education, and administration) into their comprehensive healthcare strategy. Smart healthcare organizations looking to cater to a changing demographic while remaining competitive in the landscape can use HIPAA compliant technology solutions such as live chat to their advantage. HIPAA Compliance Guide

HIPAA compliant chat offers up innovative solutions for providers seeking a competitive edge

If you think that your organization isn’t a good fit for live chat, think again. The applications for chat in healthcare are as varied as the providers implementing new technology and the patients and consumers they serve. Here are just a few examples:

Telemedicine and remote care

Patients no longer need to schedule appointments face-to-face with providers in order to receive quality care. Many healthcare providers and health insurance companies now offer patients the ability to connect with a doctor or nurse remotely in a telemedicine setting. Patients experiencing less pressing, routine issues such as the common cold can log into secure web portals and chat with a nurse about their symptoms and recommended course of treatment from the comfort of home. Telemedicine represents an exciting development in medical care, and is already working to help alleviate overcrowded urgent care centers and doctors’ offices, freeing up providers to see patients for more complex medical issues that require in-person attention. This remote care option is almost always cheaper to administer, and the resulting reduction in cost-per-interaction helps practices cut down on ever-increasing healthcare costs while providing patients with more affordable care options.

Doctors’ offices, clinics, and hospitals

Doctors’ offices, clinics, and hospitals see thousands of patients every year, and the demand for quality service is only going to increase with a rising population. Live chat helps clients such as Phoenix Children’s Hospital address inquiries, complete tasks, and resolve issues that used to be reserved for in-person, phone, or email interactions only. Chat software allows those fulfilling administrative functions in provider offices and clinics (office managers, front desk receptionists, medical assistants, etc) the freedom and flexibility to assist multiple patients concurrently. This results in shorter wait times and increased patient satisfaction. Administrative and billing staff can use chat technology to help them schedule patient appointments, answer commonly asked questions, resolve billing and insurance issues, refill prescriptions, and more.

Health insurance providers

Anyone who has ever groaned in frustration over precious time lost trying to resolve insurance coverage questions and claim issues knows that this is an all-too-common occurrence. Chat technology helps insurance providers deliver an improved customer experience by giving patients the option to connect instantly with insurance customer care teams. Consumers receive the answers they need when they need them, and satisfaction increases as a result. For insurance companies, this is only one of many enormous benefits that chat technology delivers. Insurance teams can streamline internal processes and improve efficiencies by implementing chat. Instead of assisting a single client at once over the phone, customer care teams can assist multiple consumers at once, which significantly reduces cost-per-interaction spend and wait times. Insurance providers can also use chat to guide patients and potential subscribers through online surveys and form submissions, helping providers avoid costly errors down the line and further saving on time and money.

Behavioral health and treatment centers

HIPAA compliant chat offers a compelling advantage for organizations that routinely deal with sensitive topics in which trust, speed, and anonymity are of the utmost importance. Drug and alcohol addiction treatment centers, mental health care providers, behavioral health organizations and more have all witnessed powerful results after implementing chat. Drug treatment marketing industry leader, Netjumps International, experienced a 225% increase in conversion rates per admissions representative when online leads interacted via a live chat engagement as opposed to a contact form engagement. Chat breaks down barriers and helps providers assist potential patients during an extremely vulnerable time in their lives. Treatment centers and programs, such as Aid in Recovery, that offer live chat support are seeing increased admissions rates and helping more people than ever before. This technology also helps providers cut down on costs across the board, creating additional budget bandwidth for new programs to assist those in need. Read more about the ways live chat is reshaping the behavioral health field.

Medical equipment, pharmaceutical companies, and medical SaaS providers

Medical equipment distributors, pharmaceutical companies, online prescription delivery services, and medical practice management SaaS companies can all derive exceptional benefits from implementing live chat within their overarching growth strategy.  Services such as PillPack, a revolutionary online pharmacy, use HIPAA compliant chat technology every day to streamline and enhance their customer service workflows and sales and lead generation efforts. Companies in this space can connect instantly with prospects securely and privately via HIPAA compliant conversation platforms, allowing providers to answer questions about products and offerings in a shorter amount of time, reducing the sales cycle duration and increasing conversion rates and revenue. On the flip side, customer support teams can rely on chat technology to help them deliver quality customer support and answer questions or resolve issues concerning products and services. They can use online conversation platforms to do this more efficiently and cheaply, all while maintaining high levels of customer satisfaction.

Cord banking and fertility services

HIPAA compliant conversation technology also proves to be incredibly valuable for medical services such as cord banking and fertility clinics, in which potential users of these types of services often conduct extremely thorough and time-consuming research. Chat helps providers address detailed questions and explain procedures in a secure, non-threatening setting and allows providers to help future patients make confident and well-informed decisions.

This competitive edge continues later down the line, as chat technology gives providers the necessary tools to engage in seamless and concurrent customer support interactions (with reduced support staffing requirements) from the beginning all the way to final stages of complex medical procedures.

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AlienVault Case Study

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AlienVault Experiences 80% Growth With TeamSupport’s Messaging & Live Chat

The Challenge

In June 2014, AlienVault began experimenting with live chat as part of their overall strategy to increase sales and their customer base. They needed a solution that integrated seamlessly with Salesforce, had an intuitive UI for agents and provided robust analytics and reporting capabilities to prove the ROI of their chat program.

The Solution

AlienVault switched to TeamSupport’s Messaging & Live Chat after experimenting with another chat provider that wasn’t meeting their needs. Shortly after implementing Messaging & Live Chat, AlienVault started to see immediate results, improving their chat-to-opportunity conversion rate to 46% (on average) with 80% growth quarter-over-quarter.

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Quarter-over-Quarter Growth

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Chat-to-Opportunity Conversion

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Opportunity-to-Deal Conversion

About AlienVault

AlienVault is a top-rated, award-winning security information and event management (SIEM) provider. AlienVault’s mission is to enable organizations of all sizes to detect and respond to today’s security threats in cloud, on-premise, and hybrid cloud environments.

Over 5,000 customers across the globe (including Subaru, U.S. Air Force, and Dole) trust AlienVault to provide highly intelligent security that is both affordable and simple to use. Their Unified Security Management™ (USM™) offering delivers a comprehensive array of security capabilities to help organizations meet the need for effective threat detection, incident response, and compliance. These capabilities include asset discovery, vulnerability assessment, behavioral monitoring, SIEM, and intrusion detection.

The Need for a Seamless Sales Solution

In June of 2014, AlienVault was experimenting with live chat services for sales as part of an overall strategy to increase revenue and their customer base, and began using LivePerson on the sales front (along with Footprint chat). The team knew that no matter which software they used, one of their key requirements for any chat solution was the ability to integrate seamlessly with Salesforce (the team’s primary CRM for all sales/marketing activities and lead tracking).

AlienVault had recently brought on Graham Cohen, a Web Product Manager within the team responsible for managing front-end products and operations such as the Open Threat Exchange, marketing website, Salesforce and Marketo integrations, and the company’s service-layer integration. Graham was tasked with fleshing out the organization’s live chat program further, and quickly realized that their current chat provider was not meeting their needs.

Graham and his team discovered that their provider’s Salesforce integration did not offer an intuitive UI, resulting in sales chat agents wasting valuable time in their attempts to pass information from chats into Salesforce. In practice, they were copying and pasting chat data into the Salesforce lead records (displayed in an iframe), leading to team-wide frustration and hindering the flow of their overall sales process.

Furthermore, they were not getting the level of analytics and reporting they needed to prove the ROI of their chat program. Graham was responsible for making data-driven decisions in regards to chat performance and future strategies. In his previous attempts to dive into the data and find, for example, the URLs where chats were started from, he faced unexpected difficulties. Since their chat did not offer analytics reports that could easily be exported to CSV, Graham found himself manually copying analytics data cells over to his own reporting mechanism on a monthly basis, ultimately wasting precious time.

Discovering TeamSupport’s Messaging & Live Chat

Fed up with lackluster chat experiences, Graham immediately went to the Salesforce AppExchange and searched based on his team’s primary requirement, “website chat Salesforce integration.” Messaging & Live Chat, along with its native Salesforce integration, was one of the first listings to appear.

When Graham clicked through to the TeamSupport website, he began a conversation with Messaging & Live Chat solution consultant, Dan Mowinski. This initial discovery conversation, along with all subsequent interactions with the TeamSupport team, quelled any lingering doubts he held about switching chat providers.

Graham recalls another key requirement: “We were unable to get a custom experience through LivePerson.” The custom experience he was seeking included the ability to create a custom chat form (shown above) that incorporated AlienVault branding (logo, colors, etc) along with multiple custom data fields such as first name, last name, email, company, etc. With Messaging & Live Chat, he learned that this custom chat experience would be easy to implement, and it was “exactly what [he] wanted.”

Every question was answered. I wasn’t in a queue, I didn’t have to wait in line, people picked up the phone. I’ve never worked with a better company than TeamSupport.

Graham Cohen

Web Product Manager, AlienVault

After a full product demonstration (tailored to AlienVault’s specific use case and desired outcomes for chat) and a cost-benefit analysis, Graham was sold. And his company was, too.

“We had a great roll-out. Dan was there every step of the way, every question was answered, my support issues were answered. I wasn’t in a queue, I didn’t have to wait in line, people picked up the phone.” This entirely new and refreshing customer experience played out in stark contrast to Graham’s previous disappointing experiences with other live chat providers. “I’ve never worked with a better company than TeamSupport.”

During the implementation of Messaging & Live Chat on the AlienVault website, Graham and his team were able to tackle their third primary requirement for a live chat service. They needed to be able to silo off certain types of chats from one another (general sales vs. resellers). With the multi-widget offering, they were able to create two unique widgets and install them on corresponding pages throughout the entire website. For Graham, this experience was “fantastic, and it was so easy to implement” compared to previous chat providers.

After installing TeamSupport’s Messaging & Live Chat on the product and pricing pages, the team quickly decided to install on over 47 technical solutions pages, the support resource center, and finally, the AlienVault homepage. Using multiple widgets and priority tiers, Graham was able to break down “the allocation of the chat behind the scenes” for a seamless end-user experience tailored to their complex product offering. Robust reporting and analytics made it easier than ever to tie data into Salesforce for a 360-degree view of chat performance and its impact on overarching sales goals.

AlienVault Grows by “Leaps and Bounds”

It didn’t take long for AlienVault to experience results. “Quarter over quarter, [we’ve experienced] 80% growth. It’s unbelievable.” After TeamSupport’s Messaging & Live Chat was installed on the homepage for just a few months, their reactive chat-to-opportunity conversion rate increased to 30%, with the opportunity-to-deal rate at 15%. After they added proactive chat functionality to their setup, the proactive chat-to-opportunity conversion rate performed even better: averaging 46%, with the opportunity-to-deal rate at 17%.

Chat puts you right in front of the visitor immediately. It opens a portal to create that instant dialogue between the visitor and the sales rep. It works out to our advantage.

Graham Cohen

Web Product Manager, AlienVault

To sum it up, “chat converts better than anything else” for AlienVault.

In order to further increase chat volume and conversion rates, the team enabled the Call Me feature so that interested prospects could immediately jump from a chat conversation to the phone to tackle more in-depth, technical conversations. The team also used javascript variables to route proactive chats to the appropriate sales reps based on verticals, for a customized end-user experience. Using the Salesforce integration, all chat data and variables flow seamlessly into the Salesforce lead record after the chat ends, ensuring seamless follow up from AlienVault’s sales team.

AlienVault’s chat volume has tripled since implementation in 2014, and the team has fielded over 11K live chats since the adoption of TeamSupport live chat services. Chat volume has increased so much that they now hire dedicated chat reps to meet customer demand. Graham has taken steps to scale up the chat program and train new agent teams in chat etiquette and best practices, and even created a Messaging & Live Chat/AlienVault training guide for new sales agents.

Graham explains the driving reason for his success with Messaging & Live Chat best: “Chat puts you right in front of the visitor immediately. It opens a portal to create that instant dialogue between the visitor and the sales rep.” Messaging & Live Chat allows AlienVault site visitors to instantly receive accurate and quick answers about “exactly what [visitors are] looking for. It works to our advantage.”

As for Graham? “Messaging & Live Chat has made me look like a champ.”

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