Test Data From Earthlink

03/02/2005
How to Convert More Online Shoppers with Live
Chat Invites: Test Data From Earthlink
Ouch — 70% of the consumers shopping at Earthlink's site for ISP services were
leaving without purchasing... even when they saw broadband was available in their
zip code for a "best offer" price.
So, the sales team decided to test popping up a live chat request box in front of
fleeing shoppers. Learn how they figured out how to test it without annoying
everyone who got a pop.
The tactic worked so well that Earthlink execs now consider live chat a key online
selling tool.
15% of chats converted and 80% of consumers gave the chat a good or excellent
rating. Here's the link for our Case Study featuring loads more data:
CHALLENGE: In a typical week, almost three million visitors go to Earthlink's site,
many of them considering becoming a new customer.
Most of these ISP shoppers would immediately type in their zip code to see what
types of services were available in their area. "We have a pretty good footprint
nationally with 78% available for high speed Internet," says Donald Berryman, EVP
Customer Support.
So, you'd expect most of these shoppers to be delighted with results, and sign up for
service. Not so. At least 70% of shoppers left without buying.
"How can we shrink that 70% disappeared number?" Berryman's team wondered.
They tried running site-only Best Offers and simplifying the check-out process, but
nothing budged the needle too much.
Meanwhile, the customer support team reported adding live chat capabilities to their
part of the site reduced monthly phone call volume by almost 20%. Plus, customers
clicking to chat loved it, and tended to be an upscale demographic who could be
upsold to more services.
Hearing this, the new account sales team yearned to pop up proactive chat
invitations in front of shoppers.
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Page 2 of 5
On the other hand Earthlink's marketing department, like most, viewed chat pops with
fear and loathing. Sending pop-ups to shoppers wasn't exactly in tune with Earthlink's
brand. "Our culture was never to bother a customer," says Berryman.
CAMPAIGN: Jennifer Garrett, Director of Earthlink's Sales Call Center, got the ok to
run a chat beta test in five very careful steps...
Step #1. Set measurement standards
Garrett worked with Earthlink's chat vendor to develop easily-readable measurement
reports for her goals in three key areas:
-
Conversion performance — how many visitors qualified as "hot" enough
shoppers that business rules would give them a pop-up; click rate for popinvites; stick rate for chat sessions; ultimate buying conversion rate from chats.
-
Shopper experience — survey results showing how potential customers rated
their chat experience.
-
Operator performance — based on typical call-center stats such as the
average wait time, chat length, staffing requirements, etc.
Step #2. Select and train chat reps
Garrett had a ready pool of applicants for chat positions in her inbound call center.
She chose the most eager ones with the best writing skills for the beta test.
Critical — these reps already had two weeks of intensive training in all facets of
Earthlink services, so they already knew the answers to most shopper questions.
Now they had an additional three full days of training in chat-specific operations.
Rules included:
-
No chat shorthand — all communications were to be professionally spelled
out.
-
Personal answers preferred — although chat reps were provided with a full
library of canned answers to common questions, they were encouraged to
answer in their own words and create their own personal library of most-used
answers.
This fits with Earthlink's brand campaign running on TV now featuring real-life
employees competing for viewer votes to get parking spaces, vacation time, etc.
-
Only run four chats at once maximum — any more than this and response
time slows too much.
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Page 3 of 5
-
Focus 100% on chat — while these reps could swap into call center roles if
needed in a crisis, Garrett preferred to focus them on one mode of
communication whenever possible.
-
Pick up on chat requests in under a minute. Don't leave shoppers hanging too
long.
Step #3. Launch click to chat offers on the shopping pages
First, Garrett added a 'click here to chat' offer as a standard part of the site navigation
on most left-hand site pages. (Link below to sample.) It was a great way to get the
reps used to answering shopper questions.
Step #4. Test business rules for chat pops
"We don't send chat until a customer requests it," notes Berryman. And, in fact, that
pop-up invitation doesn't appear to all shoppers.
Instead the team created a set of business rules determining if and when a shopper
might see a chat invitation pop. These included what the team suspected were
warning signs that the customer was confused or uncertain and might welcome a
helping hand:
-
Repeat visits by an individual shopper to the same page more than once a day
or multiple times in a week.
-
A shopper "sitting on" a page for more than the page contents would seem to
warrant (could range from five seconds to 30 seconds).
-
A shopper abandoning an order form midway through entering their
information in it. ("A lot of people start sign-ups but don't continue the process.
Fall-out is very heavy," notes Garrett.)
Important: Garrett only tested sending pops to a few business rules at first instead of
sending pops to everything that moved. "We try not to be really aggressive about
this. We didn't want them to think we were hovering over them or overwhelming
them."
Plus, business rules were never set in stone. Garrett's team tweaked where and
when they'd send a pop based on ongoing results from their metrics reports.
Step #5. Create inoffensive chat invitation pops
"We would nicely float the chat invite onto the side of the screen," says Garrett. "I
don't want to call it a pop-up because it's not really intrusive."
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Page 4 of 5
The invitation was carefully copywritten to reduce the potential annoyance factor.
Berryman describes typical copy, "We use very passive-type questions. 'Would you
like help?' 'Is there anything I can do to help you?'"
Only after a shopper clicks to accept the invitation would the actual chat begin. So
the shopper felt like they were in control and no sales rep was breathing down their
mouse too heavily at them.
At the end of every chat, the shopper was presented with a quick five-to-seven
question survey so they could score their chat experience. Questions were radio
buttons to make it easier — no typing.
RESULTS: 15% of shoppers who interact with the chat pop-up wind up converting to
buying services during their session. "We were really surprised," says Berryman. "It
was outstanding. It told us we really needed that little extra push on the site because
it increased our percent of conversion dramatically."
Here are a typical week's pop-chat metrics from Garrett:
-> Data on Pop-up Chat Performance (does not refer to the ‘click to chat’ icons)
-
Average Weekly Site Visitors – 2,769,492
Hot Lead Rate – 4% (determined by our pre-set business rules such as being
on a page for a certain number of seconds)
Invitation Rate – 57% (% of hot leads that we actually invited)
Acceptance Rate – 3.80% (% of invitation rate that accepted) - this is actually
above industry average
Interactive Rate – 81% (% of acceptance rate that was fully engaged and
finished chat after starting the session)
Close rate – 15% of interactive rate
-> Post-Chat Survey Results Data
-
Exit Survey Completion Rate – 12% (very high compared to industry
benchmarking)
Excellent or Good Rating – 80% (this is actually higher than our phone
customer satisfaction in most cases)
Chat as Preferred Contact Method – 61%
-> Data on Operator Performance (call center-type metrics that measure efficiency)
-
Average Wait Time – 47 seconds (time it takes for agent to answer chat)
Average Chat Length – 8 minutes 53 second
Abandonment Rate – 6%
Concurrent Chat Rate – 2.43 (number of chats the avg. agent handles at the
same time)
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Agent Utilization – 80% (a measure of ‘staffed time to productive time’) —
anything above 80% is good.
Two key lessons from the above data for other marketers to consider:
Lesson #1. Chat as a preferred mode of communication
61% of chat users named it their preferred contact method. Garrett strongly suspects
this will keep rising as a percent of all shoppers. "Chat is a mechanism they enjoy
communicating through.
"I'm 33. I did not grow up chatting. The people who grew up chatting are all about to
get jobs. They're the ones who will be buying via chat. It's probably an up and coming
buying channel."
Lesson #2. Tweak business rules for incremental gains
"Over the last six months, we've increased sign-ups 25-30% from chat just from
managing business rules," says Garrett. "It's just like direct marketing, you'll do a
bunch of different tests. If you stick it on there and let it sit, you're probably going to
just get a bunch of tire-kickers. You have to work, work, work to understand the
behavior of people visiting your site."
Useful links related to this article:
Samples of chat creative from Earthlink:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/earthlink/study.html
LivePerson, the chat technology Earthlink uses:
http://www.liveperson.com
Earthlink:
http://www.earthlink.net
© MarketingSherpa, Inc. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this document or this document in its
entirety in any manner or medium whatsoever. For additional copies go to: http://www.sherpastore.com