How Nextiva increased lead quality and conversions with live chat
Customer StoriesAbout Nextiva:
Over 150,000 businesses trust Nextiva for their cloud-based communication needs. Nextiva products include business VoIP phone service, call center software, and CRM software for sales and support teams.
Launched in 2006, Nextiva has expanded to more than 1,000 team members and count Delta Airlines and Conan O’Brien as clients. This expansion has transformed Nextiva from a traditional VoIP services provider to an up-and-coming leader in the unified communications (UC) vertical.
Rapid growth enabled Nextiva to continuously innovate and improve. That same success also brought growing pains.
Gaetano DiNardi is the Director of Demand Generation at Nextiva. As Gaetano explained, “Speed to contact is everything. Quick touch points with prospects are invaluable.”
The Challenge
Speed to Contact
Gaetano was looking for a way to increase inbound lead conversion. Getting prospects to the site is one thing, but capturing and qualifying those leads quickly is quite another. Every opportunity to reach site visitors counts, and not only from the conversion side. Every touch point is a chance to showcase your brand and put your best foot forward.
Meanwhile, the Nextiva sales team was also dealing with rapid changes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only were they managing their own remote teams, but they were also servicing the influx of prospects looking to use communications products like Nextiva’s to facilitate remote work.
While the number of leads was growing, Gaetano noticed that some visitors would arrive at the site, peruse content, and then leave without starting a conversation. He realized that speed to contact was a critical factor in lead conversion.
Technology has changed the market’s expectation of client engagement. Today, people expect fast food, fast internet connection, and fast answers to their questions. Many even expect businesses to anticipate their needs.
As Nextiva uncovered that prospects wanted immediate answers and helpful touchpoints, Gaetano knew they needed a multi-channel solution to quickly graduate engagement from an initial online touchpoint to a phone call.
The need to streamline processes and reach prospects faster was suddenly front and center.
The Solution
Chat as an instant lead-to-sales connector
“Chat is easier and better than prompting visitors with web forms,” Gaetano noticed.
Chat doesn’t discriminate. Any business, regardless of size, is welcome and feels comfortable using web chat.
When compared with a web form, the chat platform at SnapEngage gave Nextiva visitors confidence and ease by:
- Giving prospects a path of least resistance
- Enabling prospects to chat on their own terms (like including or excluding contact information)
- Proactively providing value through automatic touchpoints
“Chat gives us the opportunity to answer prospects’ questions. Once we do that, prospects feel more confident in our relationship and the entire sales process goes smoothly,” notes Cameron Johnson, the Business Segment Leader who oversees all of inside sales.
In addition to being the path of least resistance for prospects, chat is also a powerful channel to have more conversations. Nextiva has seen significant year-over-year growth with chat. Last year, Nextiva saw 195 leads from SnapEngage in one week. This year, they see 355 leads from chat each week.
%
82% increase in leads since creating a proactive chat strategy
%
2x year-over-year chat volume growth
%
24.3% rate of chat conversations to sales quotes
%
13% increase in year-over-year chat lead-to-sale
Chat becomes a top lead source for Nextiva:
Chat has become a top lead source for Nextiva. Sales team members even have to earn their chat license. Why? Getting access to this coveted channel is an incentive given to top performing sales people.
SnapEngage’s analytics have enabled Nextiva to test chat messaging and identify the top performing pages. Using a combination of SnapEngage analytics and Salesforce KPIs, Nextiva can identify the best and lowest performing pages.
Nextiva can also quickly tweak messaging on low-performing pages in order to get higher-quality traffic. The strongest pages boast a 24.3% rate of chat conversations to sales quotes.
Key to this strategy was the addition of SnapEngage proactive chat and bots to the Nextiva marketing site. Nextiva can customize proactive chat and chatbot messages depending on the web page the visitor is on, the visitor’s physical location, the product they are viewing, and much more — hyper-personalizing the prospect’s experience.
Nextiva sees a 13% increase in year-over-year chat lead-to-sale.
Nextiva now sees a 13% increase in year-over-year chat lead-to-sale after integrating chat. The sales team is busy, happy, and most importantly, efficient.
Chat has become the quickest and easiest way for Nextiva to gather lead information and start moving the prospect through the sales funnel. Chat has even short circuited a significant portion of the Nextiva sales funnel — resulting in faster closes and improved customer experiences.
Gaetano is now able to use specific pages and keywords when auditing chats, and can refine messaging instantly. He can easily tweak proactive messages to test updated text, tracking what messaging works best.
The experience for prospects has also improved. They’re able to chat on their own terms and ask their own questions. Rather than being overwhelmed by a salesperson looking to book a meeting, the prospect can now drive the conversation.