How to Help Consumers Make Financial Decisions

When it comes to making financial decisions, there are plenty of options available on the market, however not all of them may be understood by the consumer. They can also be confused by which is the best route due to the pros and cons of each choice.

This can include:

• Buying a new car with a personal loan or car finance,
• Relocating by re-mortgaging or selling up and renting,
• Receiving short term finance buffer by applying for a credit card or overdraft.

There are a few things your organisation can do to ensure the visitor has everything they need to make an informed decision and receive the best experience on your website.

Mobile-friendly                   

In July 2019, over 50% of website visit statistics reports were made via a mobile phone browser.  It is more convenient for consumers to look up anything on their phone as it’s instantly connected to the internet and they don’t have to wait for the device to turn on.

Therefore, one of the first things to do is ensure you have a mobile responsive website. There is nothing more frustrating than having to zoom in and pan the view to be able to simply read the information or click on a button. This can lead to the visitor abandoning your website out of frustration at the user experience.

Instant Communication

The second thing to do is have your customer service representatives waiting for the consumer to approach them with their enquiry. You wouldn’t lead a customer out of the building to speak with your in-store advisors, so why make them use a contact channel away from your website? Live chat is present on your website with your representatives’ one click away allowing the individual to gain instant help.

If you would prefer to be proactive in your approach to consumers, they can be prompted into the websites chat for advice, similar to how a representative would be floating around the branch floor asking if anyone needs help or directing them to the relevant area. The Proactive Invite automatically presents to the website visitor after they have browsed for a certain amount of time or viewed a certain page.

Once the visitor is in the chat for websites window, your advisors can do what they do best and talk them through their options and answer their questions. To help them achieve this efficiently, various functionality is available to the agent to use.

A library of predefined replies is accessible during chat when the advisor can select an answer to frequently asked questions. This helps to respond to repetitive enquiries more efficiently as the advisor doesn’t have to keep typing the same response.

Advisors are able to suggest products with auto navigate that automatically directs the visitor to a relevant page available on the internet. Your organisation can define a list of common used URLs, which the agent can select from; alternatively at any time during the chat they can select a URL for a one-time use. This helps signpost enquirers to the correct information and reduces the amount of time the operator has to spend typing a readily available answer.

To help provide more accurate answers, the advisor can also use co-browse to see a replica of the page that the visitor is viewing, allowing them to see the products and/or services they are interested in. This can also provide the agent with opportunities to cross/upsell when they deem appropriate, supplying them with a better chance of succeeding as they are more informed about what the enquirer wants.

Click4Assistance has been providing live chat for websites to the financial industry for over 15 years, helping them to bring their services online and successfully converse with their website visitors. For more information contact our team on 01268 524628 or email theteam@click4assistance.co.uk.