Jeff Mason

When accessing a website's live chat functionality, you may be opening a door to your thoughts. Someone may be able to see your "rough draft" without your knowledge. Depending on the live chat functionality in use, your privacy may be in jeopardy. Most people don't know that some live chat functionality provides the chat agent with the ability to see what a visitor is typing before that visitor hits the "send" button.

With proactive chat, retailers use real-time customer engagement tools that provide a buying experience that surpasses anything that could even be delivered in a brick-and-mortar environment. When used effectively, proactive chat can be viewed as providing an extremely valuable service during the shopping experience rather than being an annoying pop-up offer to sell you something.

Although the customer service landscape has shifted over the past several years, the core tenet of keeping customers happy will never change. In the e-commerce sector, creating thoughtful online experiences for visitors will always increase conversion rates, attract repeat visits and generate long-term brand loyalty. One of the best ways to achieve this is through live chat.