Instant gratification is the sweet spot of marketing in today’s same-day shipping, instant downloads, and text messaging culture. Financial advisors are getting into the live chat scene as attention spans decrease among multiple demographics. But is live chat the right strategy for every financial advisor website?
Nearly half of today’s consumers lean towards chat as their preferred method for support. This is not to be confused with chatbots, which simulate instant communication via automated responses to support queries.
Live chat provides a window for genuine, real-time human-to-human conversation, allowing financial advisors to:
- Connect with website visitors in real-time
- Build rapport with new website visitors
- Convert new leads quicker
- Schedule more appointments
- Pre-qualify high-quality leads
- Provide better support to existing clients
- Share helpful resources to potential clients
- Multitask or chat with one or more leads at a time
Knowing that potential clients are increasingly searching the Internet to find, research, and schedule interviews with wealth managers, do you consider this a necessary enhancement for your financial advisor website?
Read on for Q&A about live chat for financial advisors. You are one step closer to expanding your website experience with this advanced online communication tool.
What is live chat?
Think of live chat as an enhanced form of instant messaging with website visitors. Through integration with a live chat provider, you can interact with visitors and answer their questions on the spot.
With most platforms, visitors can initiate a live chat from a button, your picture, or icon on the website. It can also function as a pop-up feature after they browse a page for a designated number of seconds. Of course, visitors can “leave a message” if no one is available to chat live.
The best part could be that it captures a lead’s basic information (which can integrate with a CRM). Thus, a new prospective client is created in seconds. Depending on the CRM, you can even label each lead as hot, cold, etc.—this can help segment them for different drip campaigns if you have advanced email marketing capabilities.
Keep in mind that there’s a mobile app for most live chat plugins. Just because it’s set up on a computer doesn’t mean you can’t take it on the road. Smartphones commonly become the device alerting an advisor when a visitor has a question.
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What are live chat’s most important benefits for financial advisors?
While there may be a lot of quality content on your financial advisor website, visitors may still have questions before they want to schedule interviews. With live chat, any team member can respond instantly, book an appointment, or send a link to a qualifying landing page. Other significant benefits of live chat are based on the following features.
How do you make personal connections using live chat?
Instead of a general comment form or “email us” button, having a live chat option for visitors makes the entire experience more personal and timely. By having a timely conversation, you may not only answer the visitor’s initial questions, but the conversation may evolve into a deeper discussion that helps you convert visitors into leads and leads into active prospects.
FYI, a lead means you have the investor’s contact information. A prospect means you have talked to the lead and there is mutual interest.
How do you keep visitors engaged?
When someone is browsing your financial advisor website, they may have questions but they do not take any actions to get them answered. Or, perhaps they want an email follow-up or a call, but they are wavering because they are still undecided. Is your firm the right advisor for their needs? At this point, they may give up entirely and go visit your competitors’ websites.
Without a convenient call to action, you can lose out quickly and there is a high probability this type of visitor does not return to your website. Since investors are increasingly cautious about providing their personal contact information these days, it may require a more timely, personal experience.
With many live chat platforms, you can see which web pages people visit and how long they’ve been there without taking action. Bounce rate can be a key indicator that they are not finding the information they need.
How can financial advisors multitask?
Unlike a phone call, communicating via live chat allows multitasking while “chatting." Of course, the focus should be on the conversation at hand, but some visitors are also busy. Commonly, visitors get distracted and may take a while to answer. In the silence, chat with other visitors, check email between responses, or go about your day’s activities.
Consider delegating live chat to different financial advisors on the team—maybe they can each have an assigned day. This can be a valuable time and cost-saving utilization of your firm’s resources .
What about top tips for a financial advisor’s live chat service?
Why is training important?
Whether a solo or team endeavor, determine who will be answering live chat requests during normal business hours. Most platforms allow two live chat representatives to be available at a time. Everyone must be trained on both the technical aspects of the system and the key features and benefits that describe your firm.
This can help minimize any potential compliance-related issues or inconsistent/incorrect information being provided to visiting investors.
What about using canned responses?
Most live chat platforms can store canned responses to commonly asked questions. These ready-to-go replies save time, reduce the risk of errors, and should be written in a conversational tone so they do not sound scripted.
As a typical example, “#welcome” can be quickly typed in for this canned response to populate and send: “Welcome! Thank you for chatting. My name is Bill. I’m wrapping up another visitor chat. Please type in a few details so that I may respond more in-depth in a few moments. May I have your first name, please, while you wait?”
Why do grammar and punctuation matter?
While less formal than an email or letter, grammar and punctuation rules still apply when using live chat. While texting shorthand such as LOL and BRB might work for some brands, the financial services industry is unique due to the critical nature of the business. Investors are seeking financial experts they can trust. Poor grammar and misspelled words do not create the best first impression.
The good news? Most live chat platforms provide a spelling/grammar checking tool to help avoid mistakes. But because these tools don’t catch everything, it’s important to emphasize to all staff using the platform to pay close attention when typing.
Transcripts are accessible at all times to review chat history or access key information from a previous client conversation.
Why should you avoid keeping visitors waiting?
Again, use a canned response if a visitor is going to have to wait. When no one from your financial advisor firm is available to chat, it’s crucial to have the “chat now” button turned off. This requires team members to be mindful of disabling the feature when they step away.
Visitors who want to chat are waiting for a response. Not answering a live chat is the online equivalent of a phone ringing with no answer. This creates a negative user experience, which could cost you a potential client.
Because there are so many competitors on the Internet, visitors will likely move on if they don’t get what they are seeking fairly quickly. Suppose you happen to miss a chat (and they leave their information — hurry and chat back, call and/or send a “sorry we missed you” email).
Why avoid making it uncomfortable?
Many live chat service providers provide the ability to view visitor details. For example, if a visitor starts a chat, you can see what page they’re on, where they are geographically, and more detailed information (in some cases).
You will likely also see what they’re typing before they hit send, even if they ultimately don’t send it. While having this information can be helpful, it shouldn’t be used in an obvious way implying you’re “watching” them. This can make the visitor uncomfortable and end the conversation before providing them with answers.
Why ask questions and make visitors feel heard?
Remember interacting with financial advisors can be new to visitors and downright intimidating. The same way they feel when they interact with attorneys. A disgruntled investor could potentially pose a combative question to get quick, free advice. Try to provide empathy for each interaction with the highest level of professionalism.
“At the end of the day, people won't remember what you said or did; they will remember how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou
It’s the client experience that matters.
