Online Chat Test
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How site visitors voted:
VERSION A (60%)
VERSION B (40%)
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Actual Test Results:
Sometimes being more aggressive can really pay off. The chat invitation that was pushed at page-leavers increased the total monthly memberships sold by 62.6%. Darren Waddell, VP Marketing, MerchantCircle, and his team ran this test in-house using Vertster’s optimization platform. The visitors were small business people considering membership options ranging from $29.95-$249.95 per month for online marketing tools. Important to note: the visitors who saw this page had already filled out a registration form and were logged onto their free account at the site. So, the brand had a relationship with this traffic before it shoved automated chat invitations at them! These test results might be very different for a page seen by unregistered users and raw newbies. Cool side note: Waddell’s team also A/B tested the chat-free version of this page with and without the hotlinked text “A representative can call you” at the end of the subhead. Results were, to our mind, stunningly different. That little bit of hotlinked text alone increased paid sales by 34.43%. If you offer your registered users a product that is a bit of a considered purchase, such as a monthly subscription or a high-priced product, you ought to consider testing ‘click to call’ hotlink text as well as a chat invitation overlay! WhichTestWon.com is sponsored by: WiderFunnel Conversion Optimization, the A/B and multivariate testing firm that guarantees Conversion Rate Lift. Click here for info on improving your site’s results – risk free – today! |
Wonderful wonderful wonderful test Anne!
As online marketers we tend to be turned off by aggressive techniques since we are online all day every day. The result of our being turned off is a tendency to gravitate away from using them.
However, for the average web user- being aggressive definitely pays off as this example clearly demonstrates.
Very interesting test. Actually I think it worked because 1) it offered live chat and 2) it offered a 10% discount. Without those incentives, it would have been just another one of those no-added-value “PLEASE let me leave” irritations.
I am so enjoying these tests. The voting/results aspect is brilliant and a lot of fun. Thanks, Anne.
I think this works for two reasons:
One – It appears at the end as the user is leaving the site. If it pops up at the beginning of the session, you are interrupting someone when they are trying to complete a task. At the end, they have finished what they were trying to do. “trying” being the key word. which leads to point two:
Two – one of the main reasons people leave sites and don’t convert is because you have not answered their questions/addressed their concerns. Providing hotlinked text “A representative can call you” gives them a direct way to get those questions/concerns addressed.
Nice test. You should change the crazy grammar of your headline on this one, though.
Great information on this test, Anne.
The numbers show that this was meaningfully helpful, but then again, couldn’t the ONLY outcome be that Version B would outperform Version A?
I don’t see how “doing nothing” when someone leaves can possibly outperform “doing something,” no matter how small that “something” might be.
What an eye opener! My first reaction was i would not like it. But going after someone who has a relationship with you makes sense. For the newbee’s I am sure the strategy has to be more sensitive.
I agree with Paul, A/B testing with a “no live chat” and “with”, is a bit of a dead give away. However it could have gone the other way and decreased visitor sign-up.
Would be interesting to see the long-term stats on this one. Might be that bigger spenders are being turned off.
I love this example. Really surprising result to be honest. Those marketing on Adwords should not pop-ups are not allowed so sometimes you may get away with it, sometimes not.
How many customers were lost because they were completely turned off? How do you measure that?
I found this test fascinating. Is there a split test coming up that looks at the copy, headlines and images for abandoned cart order emails – is that possible?
Sometimes I vote the other way just HOPING that the results didn’t support something as intrusive as a chat popup.
Great test. Offering the option of a live chat is likely to be a relief to someone who is experiencing information overload, plus I’m with Holly, doing it right at the end, makes it less of an irritation. My whole site needs a major overhaul, I will keep a note of this
I guessed ‘B’ because I don’t like pushy people (or websites). I was surprised to see the increase in conversion was that drastic….maybe I should be more pushy ;~)