Live Chat in Perfume and Cosmetics Shops: Common Questions and Best Practices
No matter which country you are in, the eCommerce space is heavily crowded with cosmetics shops. If you are familiar in this industry you might have noticed that many of the mainstream websites offer support over the website in the form of live chat. Why exactly is this tool so popular and what exactly can cosmetics shop owners gain from it?
Typical Questions asked over the chat in cosmetics shops
Live chat allows cosmetics shops to offer a personal voice of advice inside their shop. For those uncertain shoppers who need it, live chat support can be that trustful voice that guides and gives confidence to the choices they make. Let's take a look at common issues discussed over the chat in cosmetics shops:
1. Allergies
According to the European Comission , more than 2.500 ingredients are used to produce different cosmetics, either to give them a pleasant smell or texture or to produce the desired effect on the skin. No wonder people with allergies are on their toes when buying cosmetics! Each person is different and individual reactions to certain products can be expected to happen.
To be prepared to answer any customer enquiry concerning allergies or potential skin reactions, you must have easy access to a full description of each product, provided by the manufacturer, with information about all the ingredients present as well as some useful informational links to hand out to your visitors.
When it turns out the product in question does in fact carry substances for which the visitor is allergic, the chat operator should be able to quickly search the database for similar products that exclude these substances. Such support actions are sure to win you new loyal customers.
2. Animal Testing
Serious marketing campaigns have been taken out by proactive animals defense organisations against the use of animals in cosmetics R&D. In March 2013, the EU banned the sale of cosmetics or cosmetic ingredients which have been tested on animals. Therefore, if you are selling in the European Union you are not allowed to sell such products in the first place.
However, not all people are aware of this fact, so some might still question you about this. By informing them about your compliance with European Union restrictions and that you care deeply about this matter yourself, ethic driven visitors will feel comfortable in buying from you. You can use live chat to smooth the concerns of these customers and send them all the necessary information and links.
3. Combining Products
Just like what they do when they visit a cosmetics retail store, customers will use live chat to question you about the usage of the products, doses, application, timing and others. Similarly, they will also be curious to know the effect of combining the desired product with others they currently have. Combining certain products might be recommended to propulse the desired effect even quicker or more effectively, but might also be inadvisable due to potential side effects.
Such concerns entice web visitors to start a chat with you. Next to providing them with a timely and correct answer, one shouldn't forget the upselling opportunities that are inherent to these types of chats. The voice of an expert can convince people to buy complementary products for maximum results.
General benefits of live chat
Those were just a few examples of common live chat conversations occurring in online cosmetics shops. More generally, live chat is a superior contact channel for the following reasons:
A. Provide instantaneous support to any question/issue
Live chat gives you the opportunity to provide an on-site and real-time answer to any customer enquiry. This is something you cannot do with other support channels such as phone or e-mail, because customers would always have to wait for you to pick up the phone, answer the e-mail and, both ways, they need to change device or at least change page to talk to you.
Some people are quite shy and they prefer avoiding personal contact as further as possible (and that’s why online shopping is so popular for some of them). Live chat gives them the chance to pose their questions anonymously and without any invasive confrontation.
B. Become Personal
Even though some customers prefer to communicate anonymously, others have no barriers against getting a little more personal. To do so, you can start by asking their name, e-mail and maybe some information about who they are.
Getting personal and collecting personal information via live chat is vital in lead generation and is a good way to start developing your own database of customer preferences. With the information collected you can also offer personalised recommendation, advice and even improve customer loyalty.
As Userlike live chat can be integrated with your CRM software, all this information can be easily transferred to your client management system for further follow-up.
C. Improve Customer Satisfaction
We have already mentioned some of the reasons why customers are happy to reach you via live chat. First one, the fact that they don’t have to wait to get the answers they are looking for. Then, because they can talk to another real person, the operator, which can give them personalised advice and answer all their individual questions. Finally, because live chat demonstrates the value a company gives to a customer, showing they are trustworthy to deliver the promised service.
D. Increase Support Productivity
During each chat, operators are free and able to multitask without causing any effect on the quality of the support provided. Userlike has developed several productivity features to enhance your support teams’ productivity, helping them to reduce the time taken to answer each single chat while improving the quality standards.
Curious enough to try out Userlike live chat software? We recommend you starting with our free 14 days trial and check the results for yourself.
