We all hate voice mail. When you call a service provider and get a recorded response, you might leave a message, but even as you do, you're probably already wondering who else you can call.
Online contact forms, it turns out, are the voice mail of internet service calls. We fill them out, but we don't have high hopes for a quick or satisfying response when we do.
If you're struggling to overcome low conversion rates, don't just say, "My forms are not converting" and try to improve them. Instead ask yourself, "Why am I still relying on forms at all?"
The power of one-on-one communication
In today's connected world, everything is faster and more urgent than ever before. Personalized communication and immediate responses are no longer a luxury. Customers want to hear from you now, yet an online form carries the message, "I'll get back to you... eventually."
Yet like voice mail, online forms are popular for a reason. Most businesses just can't keep up with a high volume of real-time conversations. Fortunately, there's an affordable, effective alternative to online forms.
If you've been saying, "I need more leads," it's time to consider chatbots for your business.
Your customers are ready for chatbots
According to our research, 82% of customers consider an immediate response important when they have questions. Almost all of those customers—79%—are willing to use messaging apps to get the answers they need. Yet only 36% of companies use live chats for sales or service. To a certain extent, this is understandable. Staffing live chats while keeping up with all the other aspects of your business is a challenge, after all.
That's where chatbots come in. Automated chatbots can get the conversation started, answer questions in a timely manner and, as needed, speed up the process of connecting potential customers with real people.
Chatbots get results
Reaching out to potential customers with a chatbot is only the first step, of course. Ultimately, you want to turn inquiries into leads and leads into customers. To make sure chatbots can not only open the deal but also help close it, we've gathered data from our clients on how chatbots are working for them. We'll be releasing a fact sheet with the results of these case studies soon.
What we can say now is that the results have been striking. One client, who was turning around 11% of online form submissions into paid business, more than doubled that number when using chatbots.
Another business found a modest increase in initial leads from chatbots when compared to forms—followed by a dramatic increase in final conversion rates. While less than 2% of their form submissions ultimately led to a new customer, more than 10% of their chatbot interactions did.
That's right—those who used chatbots were five times more likely to become customers than those who submitted forms. With results like that, you can't afford NOT to offer chatbots to your customers.
Ready to learn how chatbots can help turn your low conversion rates around? Contact us today.