We’re all about having live chat on your website and here’s why: it provides prompt assistance to your website visitors and, most importantly, can increase conversion rates by 40%. (Is your website missing this feature? Reach out now for our vendor recommendation). That being said; while we are firm believers in live chat, this is not a blanket statement as the vast majority of live chat options are lackluster. So, let’s discuss your practice or med spa’s options.
Allow live chat to educate your visitors.
The best live chat companies allow you to customize a “knowledge bank” their teams of live agents can access to share with your patients. If it is not in that knowledge bank, it cannot be shared, which allows you to carefully limit the team from over or under sharing. The key info you want to empower your team to share is information that is actually already on your website, but may be difficult to find for some site visitors. In other words, live chat should effectively act as a librarian for your website and help your visitors quickly find information that is already on your website. This might seem like a waste since it isn’t providing anything “new,” but it is providing something even more important: convenience.
For example, if someone is curious about the different types of rhinoplasty that are performed in your practice, they can pose their question in the chat box and get a timely and accurate response along with a link to the page with this information. This saves them time from scrolling through the service page and helps them move forward with submitting their information to speak with you directly.
… but avoid giving TOO much information.
We want our live chats to help visitors on the site, but they should refrain from discussing specifics such as pricing, recovery time, or other medical details that can vary significantly from patient to patient. This information is highly personalized and depends on a multitude of factors including the patient’s medical history, the complexity of the procedure, and the individual’s overall health. Further, providing prices before building value is one of YellowTelescope’s “sales felonies” as you are encouraging patients to make decisions about their looks and safety based solely on who is the cheapest option. This is not sugar or white rice – this is a treatment or procedure that affects one’s look for a lifetime, so picking a superb option, even if a bit more costly, is always the best decision.
Instead, live chat can offer general ranges or direct patients to contact the practice for more precise information. For example, a chat operator might say, “The recovery time for this procedure generally ranges from 2-4 weeks, but can vary from individual to individual. For more detailed information, I’d be happy to connect you with our patient coordinator.” This approach ensures that patients receive accurate information tailored to their specific needs directly from healthcare professionals.
Here is an example of an appropriate live chat response from one of our client’s websites (the patient asked for the cost of a blepharoplasty). :
This important takeaway is not whether to offer a complimentary or paid consultation (we have many clients doing it both ways), but rather to recognize the goal of contact-info capture in a professional and reserved fashion.
Another crucial area where we see non-YT practices miss opportunity and lose revenue is through correctly realizing that live chat is a good option, but incorrectly allowing several other “misdemeanors of sales” that can add to big losses. This leads us to #3 and #4…
Do NOT Use Chat Bots
We STRONGLY recommend against using AI chatbots as of the time of this article’s creation though as it evolves it may be a good option in years to come. Too often the bots seem like, well, robots, and do not sound authentic. Further, they often can give incorrect information which is a legal concern, and a service and sales issue.
Turn OFF Live Chat Appointment Scheduling
Do not allow live chat agents to schedule appointments or allow for online scheduling in general. Unless you are extremely short staffed and will lose clients anyway by not answering phones or keeping up with leads (in which case, call our sister-company YellowTelescope immediately as you must get help running your business), direct scheduling is a terrible idea at many levels.
The inability to build value, losing the option to confirm if the patient even needs what they are signing up for, the regular lack of ability to reach the patient pre-appointment even if your goal is to reach them prior, and the loss of any cross or upselling opportunity or the ability to treat their face or body holistically, are just a few of the negatives of allowing online scheduling for medical aesthetic appointments and consultations. Add in a lack of any rapport or commitment to coming, and you have a recipe for disaster.
Every year we see a few more live chat platforms espousing the value of their online scheduling feature, and we do love it for scheduling medical follow-ups or non-revenue-generating appointments, but you must exercise caution in using it for scheduling consultations or revenue-generating procedure appointments.
Summarily, if your goal is to run a profitable and efficient business, save the scheduling for your trained Patient Care Coordinators (PCCs) and front desk staff.
Live chat can be a great tool to include on your website and 63% of users prefer using live chat over other communication support channels. However, it’s key to know the nuances of how to effectively use this feature for an aesthetic practice (which can differ from other industries). Call us at (305) 455-0720 or reach out here if you have questions about optimizing your live chat service or other digital marketing efforts.