Implement a live chat feature on your website and you will find it boosts guest pass conversions. Sure, offering guest passes alone makes a big difference in terms of adding to your member base and bolstering the bottom line. Yet figuring out how to get those guest passes in the hands of people who are most likely to join the gym is a bit challenging. One of the best ways to increase the number of guest passes provided to such individuals is live chat.
Live Chat's Return on Investment
Live Chat provides an excellent return on investment. It is an affordable means of connecting to prospective members. More importantly, it generates significant results. A recent eMarketer poll determined 62 percent of customers were inclined to buy products and services on the web if a form of live customer support was readily available. As long as someone responds to live chat inquiries in a timely manner, the cost of the technology and the customer service representative's wage will pale in comparison to the money it generates.
Though offering guest passes through live chat is not a direct sell, it connects your gym to those who are looking to get into shape. It is much easier to convert these already-interested individuals than those who have little-to-no interest in your facility.
Live Chat is Appropriate for our On-Demand Society
People demand quick responses to inquiries. Any sort of delay chips away at the odds of the prospect's conversion. This is precisely why live chat is so important. In fact, most people expect on-demand responses through live chat when surfing the web. Customer use of online chat has skyrocketed in the past couple of years. It 2009, slightly less than 40 percent of customers used live chat features. This percentage jumped to 43 percent in 2012 and a whopping 65 percent in 2015. This means if your fitness facility's website does not have a live chat feature and a competitor does, you will lose market share.
The Timely Answers Your Prospective Customers Crave
The beauty of live chat is that it provides potential customers with answers in mere seconds. People have questions and concerns about fitness facilities in terms of membership details, equipment, hours of operation etc. Most do not want to peruse the website for answers. They would rather type their inquiries into the live chat text box and receive an informative reply without delay. Furthermore, the live chat feature is a fantastic opportunity to offer interested parties a guest pass to your gym.
It is imperative that your personnel can promptly reply to live chat questions. Nearly 80 percent of those who prefer live chat indicate they like the technology as it yields fast answers. Leave your potential customers hanging too long and they will think less of your business. Some might even give up out of frustration, close the live chat window and begin researching your competitors.
Around the Clock Service
Implement 'round the clock live chat. If your live chat service is limited to the typical work hours of 9 to 5, you will miss out on critically important interactions with prospective customers. The last thing you need is for an interested customer to see a message appear on his screen that prompts him to leave a message when he attempts to use the live chat feature. People do not want to fill out a form. They want to engage in a real-time chat with a customer service representative from your facility. In fact, upwards of 60 percent of leads are secured after traditional business hours.
Live Chat Even Helps With SEO
Implement live chat on your website and prospective customers will spend much more time checking out the different sections on your site. This boosts the important “time on site” metric and even spurs your website's ranking on search engines like Google. A higher SEO ranking sends your website up to the first couple pages of search rankings, making it that much easier for interested customers to find your site after conducting an online search.
Proactive Live Chat Messaging
Make use of a proactive live chat message to connect with prospective customers and your conversion rate will soar. All it takes is the presence of the live chat icon on the screen to boost the odds of prospect conversion. Include a cordial message that appears without the need for a prospect to click anything. Such a message spurs a conversation that educates him about the merits of your fitness facility.
Studies show that 94 percent of customers who are proactively invited to a live chat session end up satisfied with the interaction. In the end, more live chat sessions result in more guest passes being doled out to potential customers. These guest visits result in higher lead conversions.