CUSTOMER SUCCESS PAC Web Hosting Ltd. Engaging with Customers and Prospects to Deliver the Answers They Need 2014
Company Profile PAC Web Hosting Ltd. is a leading provider of Web hosting and domain name services for customers in the United Kingdom. Based in Manchester, the company serves individuals and businesses of all sizes. Business results 40% increase in overall conversions upon switching to LivePerson 300% increase in 25K traffic to special offers page due to content targeting promotion PAC Web Hosting Ltd. needed to replace its rudimentary live chat solution due to technical problems it was causing on the company s website. The company deployed the new version of the LiveEngage platform three months ago, utilizing Click to Chat, proactive chat, and content targeting for sales, customer service, and technical support. Impressive early results include a 40 percent upsurge in overall conversions since the switch, a 300 percent increase in traffic to the special offers page, and a 400 percent uptick in the use of promotional codes from that page. British Internet entrepreneur Paul Nesbitt has used a number of Web hosting companies over the years, but as recently as 2007, he had never found one that provided the level of service that he was looking for. There was a lot of very poor Web hosting in the U.K., he recalls. Some of it was downright slow or didn t work properly. Help was often unavailable outside business hours, so if something happened at 2:00 a.m. on Saturday morning, a customer had to wait until Monday morning at 9:00 to get assistance. This state of affairs was unacceptable to Nesbitt. For me, this needed to change, he says. So I took the opportunity to enter the market and really provide a service again rather than a commodity. Nesbitt and a partner founded PAC Web Hosting Ltd. in 2007, with an explicit commitment to listen to customers needs and opinions. We routinely ask not only How are we doing? but also What can we do to make it even better for you? he relates. This market responded positively to this business model, and after seven years the company has grown into one of Britain s leading hosting and domain name providers, supporting businesses and individuals from its state-of-the-art data center in Manchester. We are very proud of our 98 percent customer retention rate, Nesbitt says. It indicates that we are doing something right. 400% increase in use of promotional codes from special offers page 25K 436% increase in order value during one typical live chat conversation 25K 2014 LivePerson, Inc. 2
The Challenges Replace rudimentary live chat solution that was causing website slowdowns Engage with customers in a personal way to increase sales Move from a live chat channel to a comprehensive digital engagement strategy The Solution Engagement Model : Live chat and content targeting for sales, customer service, and tech support Key Capabilities : LiveEngage 2.0 platform with proactive chat, content targeting, and enrichment analytics I saw that LivePerson was more than a live chat solution. It could greatly expand our potential to engage with customers. Paul Nesbitt, Director, PAC Web Hosting Ltd. Moving from live chat to digital engagement Almost from the beginning, PAC Web Hosting offered a live chat channel for sales, customer service, and technical support. The underlying technology was rudimentary and was a part of a customer service application that the company did not otherwise use. And after a few years, it started causing some technical problems. Our business page started to stutter and customers were seeing noticeable delays, Nesbitt recalls. After researching the problem, we realized the live chat program was behind the slowdown. With a temporary fix in place, Nesbitt began looking at a variety of websites to see which live chat solutions were in use. He noted that many sites were using LivePerson, so he went to that company s website. I quickly saw that LivePerson was much more than a live chat solution, he remembers. I realized that it could greatly expand our potential to engage with customers. Nesbitt was also impressed with a special promotion that appeared on his screen while he was exploring LivePerson s website. It happened to have a World Cup theme, but what I really liked was the optics of how it popped up and caught my attention, he relates. I realized I could do the same thing with my own website visitors. Trying a new solution Nesbitt activated the latest version of the targeting rules to trigger both proactive chat LiveEngage platform in June 2014. He was surprised invitations and content targeting campaigns based how easy it was to deploy the cloud-based platform. on user behavior. So far, these campaigns have Everything was available at the click of a mouse, been sales-oriented, but we plan to create some from technical documentation to training modules informational campaigns and proactive chat for to campaign creation tips, he relates. It took me customer service as well, he notes. about 10 minutes to create logins for my agents As an example, one campaign triggers a pop-up and set things up. I had a couple questions as I when visitors start looking at product pages for set up my campaigns, but LivePerson s Technical the company s Web hosting products. It says, Support team answered those inquiries quickly Looking for Web hosting? Click here to see a via live chat. list of special offers, Nesbitt reports. It is by far Nesbitt deployed Click-to-Chat buttons on PAC the most successful way we have found to get Web Hosting s public website as well as its secure people to look at our special offers page, customer portal. He also wrote several simple Nesbitt reports. 2014 LivePerson, Inc. 3
I didn t have to do any formal training. I just let them learn by exploring the platform. Paul Nesbitt, Director, PAC Web Hosting Ltd. Customer-focused operations PAC Web Hosting has always used a unique model for fielding sales Agents found the new LiveEngage platform to be very user friendly. and support inquiries, including the live chat channel. All incoming I didn t have to do any formal training or require them to watch one inquiries are managed by our technical team, Nesbitt explains. of the modules, Nesbitt remembers. I just gave them logins and let They re multi-skilled and can handle inquiries about sales, billing, them learn by exploring the platform. account issues, and technical support. Rather than saying, Thanks Members of the technical team found it much easier to provide for your inquiry; someone will get back to you, they are empowered excellent service with LiveEngage than with their prior live chat to get the job done for the customer. solution. They can see visitors approximate location, how they The technical team currently has nine members, and they are tasked accessed our site, and their browsing history at a glance, Nesbitt with 24 7 coverage of the phone, email, and live chat channels. explains. This often gives them really good context on what the Several people are typically on duty during the workday, and one inquiry is going to be about, and enables them to provide faster, or two at night and over weekends, Nesbitt describes. The fact that more accurate service. LivePerson charges according to usage rather than concurrent agent positions makes it economical to staff the channel at different levels at different times. A stellar customer experience Another element that supports PAC Web Hosting s customercentric model is the look and feel of the live chat as well as the content targeting experience. Visually, it is much cleaner and more professional than with our old application, Nesbitt relates. I m especially pleased with the way that our content boxes and proactive chat invitations float onto the screen. One reason for that professional look is the custom text and graphics that PAC Web Hosting uses with the LiveEngage platform. We wanted to get our branding out there, so we substituted our logo and other brand-consistent materials for the default graphics, Nesbitt explains. In the near future, he is also planning to add personalized photos of each agent to be used on the live chat engagement window and proactive chat invitations. Leveraging the power of engagement data In addition to the look and feel, Nesbitt knows that LivePerson s robust Nesbitt also reviews transcripts of the live chat conversations enrichment analytics features will help him improve the customer themselves, which is invaluable for agent coaching and also for experience over time. He is currently using live chat traffic reports planning future offerings. Reading the chats has actually given to ensure proper staffing at different hours. He is also planning to me several ideas for future promotions we could offer, he notes. integrate data with LivePerson with PAC Web Hosting s in-house CRM system and WHMCS ticketing application so that he can measure conversion rates, time to resolution, and other metrics for live chat versus other channels. 2014 LivePerson, Inc. 4
Astounding early results After three months of using LivePerson, PAC Web Hosting is already seeing very impressive results. Although we cannot yet tie specific sales to live chat conversations, I can say that we have had an 40 percent upsurge in overall conversions since we switched to LiveEngage, Nesbitt reports. It was the only new initiative we had in place at the time, so I think the vast majority of this increase can be attributed to LivePerson. Content targeting is one specific feature of LivePerson that has certainly driven revenue. Since we deployed the campaign to drive awareness of our special offers page, we have had a 300 percent increase in traffic to the page and a 400 percent increase in the use of the promotional codes, Nesbitt relates. Links to the special offers page are prominent on the website, but when a personalized pop-up appears, it really drives traffic to the page. And while Nesbitt does not yet have the infrastructure in place to measure average order values for live chat versus other channels, he knows that the personal connection helps in that regard. In one live chat conversation, our agent explained the benefit of cloud hosting to the customer s requirements and converted that order from 54.99 to 240 annually a 436 percent increase, he says. A bright future Now that the LiveEngage platform has proven itself as a potent sales we have for desktops, Nesbitt says. With a live chat experience that tool, Nesbitt plans to broaden the scope of the service. I want to fits the device as an overlay to our responsive site, customers will truly run more content targeting campaigns for both sales and customer be able to get the answers they need when they need them. It s very service and extend proactive chat invitations to visitors whose consistent with our customer-centric business model. behavior indicates a need for customer service, he says. And to make Overall, Nesbitt is very glad that he browsed the LivePerson website service even more efficient, Nesbitt plans to work with the agent team and saw its World Cup promotion. It really gave me a visual concept to write pre-defined answers to commonly asked questions for both of what I could do with a comprehensive digital engagement strategy, sales and customer service. he observes. Moving beyond live chat as a commodity has really Another near-term interest is LivePerson s mobile Click-to-Chat tool. helped me grow the business. We want to provide the same level of service for mobile users that About LivePerson LivePerson, Inc. (NASDAQ: LPSN) offers a cloud-based platform that enables businesses to proactively connect in real-time with their customers via chat, voice, and content delivery at the right time, through the right channel, including websites, social media, and mobile devices. This intelligent engagement is driven by real-time behavioral analytics, producing connections based on a true understanding of business objectives and customer needs. LivePerson is headquartered in New York City with offices in San Francisco, Atlanta, Tel Aviv, London, Amsterdam, and Melbourne. Contact LivePerson, Inc. T: 212.991.1794 475 Tenth Ave F: 212.609.4233 5th Floor info@liveperson.com New York, NY 10018 www.liveperson.com Follow the conversation on Twitter: #LiveEngage 2014 LivePerson, Inc. 5