Many brands now consider a website chat function essential as consumers increasingly seek more convenient ways to connect with companies. A reliable live chat software not only simplifies improving customer experience but also enables efficient management of support requests.
In order to provide you with a selection of top-notch live chat software that offers both affordability and a wide range of features, we extensively assessed the leading options currently available in the market.
10 Top Live Chat Software in 2023
Chat Software | Best Features | |
---|---|---|
1. Tidio | Tidio is one of the best live chat software options for combining live chat with chatbot functionality. It is easy to set up and use, with customizable widgets to help you slash your response times. | |
2. LiveChat | LiveChat is convenient and easy-to-use live chat software. It has all the features you need at an affordable price and is packed with great support. It’s the tool we use on this website. | |
3. LiveAgent | Branded as one of the fastest live chat tools, LiveAgent transforms your company into an around-the-clock support center, complete with AI automation. | |
4. JivoChat | Affordable and easy to use, this tool ensures you can connect with customers wherever they are, thanks to integrations to Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and more. | |
5. Olark | Olark helps teams to solve problems faster with intelligent transcription search, translation features, and a range of automation tools. | |
6. Chaport | Chaport is an all-in-one chat software solution that allows businesses to connect communication channels and automate support. | |
7. PureChat | One of PureChat’s biggest advantages is its simplicity. You can easily build and customize your own chat tool, adding your own colors to help your widget match your website. | |
8. ZenDesk | If you’re looking for an all-in-one system for customer service, Zendesk’s wide range of ticketing, support, and chat tools will offer excellent results. | |
9. FreshWorks | FreshWorks offers intelligent insights into your target audience and helps companies to provide a comprehensive digital experience strategy. | |
10. SmartSupp | SmartSupp is an excellent tool for companies running online stores. With the ability to track and understand customer journeys, you’re more likely to boost conversions. |
Live Chat Sofware Reviews
1. Tidio
Tidio, which is trusted by numerous companies globally, is a top choice among live chat software options for integrating live chat with chatbot capabilities. This user-friendly live chat software offers customizable widgets to enhance your response times and is effortless to set up and operate.
Top Live Chat Features
Tidio provides companies with a chat widget that can be easily customized to match their brand and website. Through the company’s analytics, you can gain insights about the website visitors and even proactively engage with customers.
Tidio stands out for its impressive feature of allowing users to enhance their support team with a chatbot. With over 35 pre-designed bot templates available, users can easily customize all aspects using the drag-and-drop editor. By utilizing the chatbot, businesses can provide round-the-clock service using instantaneous FAQ-style responses.
If you are willing to pay a higher price or unlock the JavaScript API, you can integrate Tidio with Zapier for more custom connections. Tidio also offers mobile and desktop apps and can be integrated with a variety of third-party tools.
Advantages
- Chatbots and live chat software in one package
- Visual editor with lots of customizations
- Customer and browser insights
- Plenty of integrations and API access
Cons refer to disadvantages or drawbacks associated with something.
- It can be a little complex to set up custom integrations
2. LiveChat
LiveChat is a highly popular chat tool in today’s market due to its versatility and user-friendly interface. By utilizing this service, businesses can establish a customized chat box on their website that enables customers to send messages and seek support. Moreover, LiveChat serves as a comprehensive customer service platform, trusted by a vast number of enterprises worldwide, including renowned entities such as Ikea and PayPal, with over 35,000 businesses utilizing its services.
You can witness it in action on our Digital Marketing Course Bundle sales page, as it is the live chat software we utilize on our website.
Top Live Chat Features
LiveChat allows companies to effectively handle customer service requests and conversations in a centralized text-based inbox. The software provides a complete backend platform that enables customer support teams to monitor conversations, handle multiple clients simultaneously, and seamlessly incorporate various chat tools.
Messages from WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger can be synchronized in one place, allowing for instant connection with popular website builders like Shopify. The system offers integrations for over 170 platforms and includes AI automation tools to promptly direct inquiries to the appropriate team.
By incorporating custom fonts and color choices for your chat widget, you can create a completely branded customer experience. This solution enables you to preview customer input before message transmission and apply contextual tags to chats for a more personalized encounter.
Benefits
- An easy-to-use environment with a unified inbox
- Integrations to more than 100 platforms and tools
- Engagement features like surveys and ratings
- AI automation for routing and quick service
Cons are the opposite of pros and refer to the disadvantages or negative aspects of a situation or decision.
- Some limitations on chatbot functionality
- Certain reporting features are restricted to high-cost plans
3. LiveAgent
LiveAgent offers a comprehensive live chat widget that is integrated with your customer service strategy, providing 24/7 client support. Known for its fast live chat capabilities, LiveAgent can turn your company into a full-fledged support center with AI automation.
Top Live Chat Features
Businesses can connect with customers on various channels through a unified inbox with LiveAgent. It offers over 130 ticketing features to assist in organizing conversations and integrates with more than 200 tools, including WordPress and Mailchimp.
With its impressive features, the chat widget stands as one of the finest globally, enabling brands to deliver interactive real-time assistance while benefiting from an integrated CRM. This ensures continuous access to customer insights. Precision is achieved through automatic chat routing, ensuring messages are always directed to the appropriate representatives. Additionally, the automation capabilities facilitate prompt responses to inquiries by utilizing pre-determined replies.
Agents receive additional guidance to assist customers through custom chat flows and recommendations. Additionally, the widget incorporates video chat, facilitating the transformation of text-based conversations whenever necessary. The adaptable system enables the creation of personalized rules, the monitoring of user activity on your website, and the proactive initiation of conversations.
Advantages
- Easy-to-use dashboard for agents.
- Strong integrations with social media channels
- Comprehensive ticketing tools
- In-built CRM and AI insights
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- Slightly higher pricing than some alternatives
4. JivoChat
JivoChat is an excellent choice if you need top-notch live chat software for website support. It is both cost-effective and user-friendly, enabling seamless communication with customers across various platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp. Furthermore, agents can conveniently handle calls, chats, and emails through a unified inbox, ensuring efficient management.
Top Live Chat Features
JivoChat, which ranks among the highest-rated apps in the App Store, aids businesses in providing comprehensive, omnichannel support. In addition to bridging communication gaps with customers via their preferred chat platforms, this app also enables the incorporation of telephony functions through callback requests.
JivoChat offers a variety of features to enhance customer service, such as integrating with CRM to provide detailed visitor information and sneak peeks at customer messages. It also allows for gathering customer insights through service quality ratings and enables real-time conversation translation using AI solutions.
The “Quick Phrase Helper” tool provided by JivoChat allows your agents to be guided on what to say when dealing with complex service scenarios. Additionally, you have the option to categorize your users into departments in order to effectively route conversations.
Advantages
- Easy-to-use back-end environment
- Telephony features with call-back
- Intelligent tools like translation
- Real-time monitoring and analytics
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- Fewer integrations than some alternatives
- Limited features on the free version
5. Olark
Offering a range of customer data tools and live chat software, Olark guarantees businesses an opportunity to gain further insight into their target audience. Whether it is initiating proactive interactions or addressing customer queries, agents can effortlessly manage all conversations through a user-friendly backend.
Top Live Chat Features
With its wide array of tools, Olark places emphasis on enhancing brand/customer relationships. In a matter of minutes, you can create and deploy a personalized chat widget on your website, enabling you to gather customer data and enhance their purchasing experience.
With Olark, you have the benefit of searchable transcript technology, allowing you to swiftly search for customer information and promptly address issues. Moreover, Olark offers numerous integrations with renowned tools such as Salesforce, WordPress, and Google Analytics. Additionally, Olark enables users to store and arrange customer data, facilitating convenient analysis of individual users.
Olark users have access to a variety of built-in analytical tools that simplify the process of discerning trends and patterns in their customer service strategy. Additionally, they can utilize “Power-Ups” such as Visitor Co-browsing and Live chat translation or multi-language support.
Advantages
- Excellent searchable transcript function
- Team management and reporting tools included
- Power-Ups for real-time engagement and enhanced support
- Lots of customization options
Cons refer to disadvantages or negative aspects of something.
- Some power-ups can be expensive
6. Chaport
Chaport simplifies website chat integration and support automation for businesses by offering an all-in-one chat software solution. Its user-friendly interface enables agents to easily navigate while allowing seamless connection of communication channels.
Top Live Chat Features
Chaport assures businesses of boosting sales and enhancing prompt support by offering a centralized messaging inbox that aligns and empowers teams. It allows the consolidation of messages from various channels such as Viber, Telegram, and Facebook, minimizing the need for agents to switch between different apps and saving time.
In addition, Chaport provides a tool for creating a knowledge base, enabling the creation of a more diverse set of customer self-service features. Moreover, you have the ability to construct your own chatbots dedicated to frequently asked questions, ensuring immediate answers are provided.
Chaport provides dedicated mobile apps that synchronize with web and mobile instances, ensuring that all team members are in sync. Additionally, the platform allows integration with over 4000 apps using Zapier and also offers an API connectivity option.
Everything from saved replies (canned responses), typing insights, group chats, automatic chat invitations, and detailed reports is encompassed in the extensive array of features available.
Advantages
- Multilingual chat widget with customization options
- Detailed customer information and reports
- Automation and artificial intelligence included
- Create your own chatbots and knowledge base
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- Integrations can be a little complex to implement
7. PureChat
PureChat is a user-friendly choice for implementing live chat on websites. In contrast to other providers, this company solely concentrates on chat features, offering unlimited chats in all its plans. Users can personalize the widget for branded conversations and conveniently engage in chats via native Android and iOS apps.
Top Live Chat Features
PureChat’s simplicity is one of its main advantages. It offers the convenience of building and personalizing your own chat tool, enabling you to incorporate your preferred colors for a seamless integration with your website. Moreover, you can seamlessly connect your chat tool with an extensive selection of over 1000 apps, such as Slack, HubSpot, Zoho, and more, allowing you to consolidate all your conversations within a single inbox.
PureChat offers unlimited chat histories and transcripts for enhanced auditability of conversations. Additionally, it incorporates real-time analytics and visitor tracking, allowing the collection of valuable information on customer journeys to improve service delivery.
PureChat enables business leaders to easily establish individual access controls for each user for the purpose of security. Additionally, every plan comes with extensive account statistics and reports, allowing you to assess the performance of all members within your group.
Advantages
- In-depth analytics and useful business insights
- Advanced widget customizations with extensive branding
- Automations for routing and canned responses
- Integrations with a huge range of tools
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- Requires a higher-priced plan to remove PureChat branding
8. Zendesk
Zendesk, a well-known company in the customer service industry, provides various sales and support features to brands. Users can access Zendesk’s chat feature as part of its comprehensive service package, which consists of self-service capabilities, tools for agent collaboration, and smart routing for all conversations.
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- In-depth analytics and reporting
- Plenty of integrations with leading tools and services
- Collaboration features for agents
- Intelligent routing and automation
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- It can have a slightly larger learning curve than some alternatives
Top Live Chat Features
Zendesk offers a unified agent workspace that simplifies the process of engaging with customers across various preferred channels. With over 1,000 pre-built integrations with popular tools, you can locate your customers effortlessly. Additionally, intelligent routing rules ensure immediate connection between suitable agents and customers.
With Zendesk’s user-friendly interface, you can access a consolidated perspective of your customers, enabling you to monitor past discussions, gather CRM data, and analyze patterns. Additionally, it empowers you to develop chatbots that aid agents with round-the-clock question responses.
Users have the ability to personalize their branding by customizing their live chat and bot experience, which involves uploading logos and making color adjustments. Additionally, the Zendesk API enables users to enhance their live chat’s intelligence. With the inclusion of advanced analytics and reporting, customer service efficiency will greatly improve.
9. FreshWorks
FreshWorks, a market leader in customer service, provides a wide range of service and support tools, including website chats. The FreshChat messaging service, which is also known as “FreshChat”, is highly popular among numerous major companies, including Klarna. This service offers a comprehensive conversational messaging app.
Features that offer the best live chat experience.
FreshWorks allows for seamless distribution of customer conversations between human agents and chatbots, thereby reducing the burden on your team. It offers a user-friendly bot builder, making it suitable for individuals with limited coding expertise who wish to utilize AI capabilities. Furthermore, the bots can automatically gather information and prioritize customers before directing them to the appropriate department.
FreshWorks will provide a unified backend environment for your employees, where various messenger and text-based conversations can be combined. This will facilitate productivity and keep support teams well-informed. Notably, there are integrations available for popular tools such as iMessage, Facebook, and WhatsApp.
By having access to real-time tracking and customer behavior analysis on your website, you can take the initiative to offer assistance to clients at appropriate times. Additionally, integration with a unified messaging API can further improve your FreshWorks experience.
Benefits
- Powerful backend environment for aligned conversations
- Live chat and chatbot functionality in one
- Tracking and analytics for customer insights
- Unified messaging API
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- A slight learning curve to leveraging all the features
10. SmartSupp
Smartsupp, which is both convenient and affordable, offers businesses the ability to monitor and capture user sessions on a website, as well as communicate with customers. Additionally, you have the option to incorporate Google Analytics for gaining a more comprehensive understanding of your customer’s experience and adjusting your CX strategy accordingly.
Top Live Chat Features
SmartSupp, promoted as an “online shopping assistant,” integrates various functionalities to empower service teams and enhance customer experiences. This solution encompasses live chat, chatbots, and recording, which grant behind-the-scenes visibility into browsing activities.
By automatically connecting with visitors who spend a certain duration on your website, you increase the likelihood of making sales. Additionally, your team members can conveniently access a unified inbox, enabling them to easily monitor conversations from various channels simultaneously.
SmartSupp’s greatest advantage lies in its capability to offer detailed insights into customer acquisition and attrition. It enables you to access comprehensive information about customer purchasing patterns, while seamlessly integrating with an extensive range of popular platforms.
Advantages
- Customer journey recording and insights
- Live chat and chatbot functionality
- Convenient customizations for your chat widget
- Excellent back-end environment
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- Primarily intended for European companies
More Live Chat Software
Gorgias
Gorgias offers a centralized platform that effectively manages customer chat, social media interactions, texting, and other functions. Through this software, both live chat and automated chat bots can be deployed seamlessly, thanks to a powerful automation builder and a wide range of integrations available.
If you are looking for a software that can centralize customer communications and is exceptional in live chat features, then Gorgias is the ideal choice. With Gorgias, you can manage email, social media, phone calls, and text messages, while also handling both live chat and chatbots, all from a single dashboard.
First, let’s focus on Gorgias’ live chat capabilities, although every aspect of the software is strong.
If you’re in need of live chat software that effectively links your live agents to customers, this platform is the perfect solution. The Gorgias live chat widget, which can be easily incorporated into your websites, allows for up to three prompt response choices. If a visitor to the site selects one of those, they will be directed to the appropriate representative assigned to handle that specific topic of conversation.
Furthermore, by unlocking automations as an add-on to any Gorgias plan, you have the ability to establish rules for your live chat widget. This enables you to further refine the routing of conversations, such as ensuring that initial prospect inquiries are directed to one sales representative while qualified leads are directed to another.
Gorgias’ visual logic editor makes it effortless to set them up, offering a user-friendly interface that can be easily learned by newcomers and still provides extensive customization options.
Salesforce
Utilize the reliable Salesforce platform for delivering top-notch live chat solutions to cater to your customers’ needs. Implement tailored live chat options on your website and applications. Enable customers to find answers to common issues independently or connect with the appropriate agent promptly.
With some of the best live chat solutions available, Salesforce is a comprehensive customer relationship management (CRM) platform.
Allow your customers to initiate a chat dialogue on your website or app, enabling chatbots to address frequently asked questions or guide customers to the right representative.
Setting up chatbots for various purposes can be achieved simply by pointing and clicking. To understand the simplicity of creating bots, try a Salesforce demo today.
Salesforce surpasses expectations by integrating live chat with your CRM data. At the forefront, customers engage with chatbots powered by natural language processing to effortlessly guide them towards relevant resources.
Bots are capable of directing customers to the appropriate agent by extracting crucial details about their inquiry, if the individual prefers to communicate with a human.
Salesforce automatically presents agents with relevant information in real-time from customer histories, past cases, and related documentation.
You can enable all of this without using code, allowing you to make changes to a flow or test an idea without needing to contact Salesforce.
As expected, Salesforce is considerably pricier compared to independent live chat software. The live chat capabilities are included in Salesforce Service Cloud, which is one of the various versions of Salesforce CRM software.
HubSpot Live Chat
With its powerful free-forever CRM software, HubSpot provides live chat that includes features such as chatbots, customized branding, personalized welcome messages, scheduling of meetings, predefined responses, numerous integrations, and additional functionalities. Obtain all the necessary tools to empower your team and optimize the efficiency of live chat operations.
HubSpot Live Chat software is included in its free CRM, positioning HubSpot as one of the most recognized and respected brands in the marketing industry.
You can utilize this live chat software for free even if you are not currently using HubSpot.
If your business is not yet ready to spend a significant amount of money on a live chat solution, this is a great choice. You can test it out without any risk and determine if it is suitable for your business.
Despite being free, you can have peace of mind knowing that the HubSpot tool remains powerful and easy to use.
It continues to offer all the essential features such as a personalized live chat widget designed for your website, specific welcome messages, customer routing guidelines, and integrated meeting scheduling.
Visitors interacting with your website are given a professional impression with the availability of live chat and chatbot feature.
Integrating with your CRM or utilizing HubSpot’s CRM solution allows you to make the live chat experience personalized for repeat visitors by leveraging the information you already possess. By doing so, you ensure that all customer interactions feel authentic, customized, and aligned with your brand.
Keeping track of your chat inbox is effortless. All conversations are consolidated in a universal inbox containing enriched data, ensuring rapid access to all necessary information by any representative.
LiveAgent
No worries if you’re on a limited budget – LiveAgent provides a complete helpdesk solution that includes ticketing, inquiry management, a quick chat widget, and live chat support all within a single platform. Additionally, they offer a free plan that is inclusive and will never expire, while their paid plans begin at the affordable price of $15.
With LiveAgent, you can have access to a complete customer support solution, which incorporates a fully inclusive live chat widget. The widget seamlessly integrates with your support documentation to provide unparalleled automated customer support round the clock.
It is labeled as “the market’s quickest live chat,” converting your live chat channel into a support center that operates 24/7 without requiring breaks, vacations, or additional compensation for working overtime.
LiveAgent’s chat software is built around automation, offering numerous options to streamline chat routing, address frequently asked questions, segment your audience, create personalized chat flows, and recommend relevant support articles. This allows your agents to dedicate more time to tackling significant issues that truly necessitate human intervention.
You have the freedom to personalize the widget to your liking, including selecting preferred colors, setting a unique welcome message, establishing custom rules, monitoring user activity on your website, and initiating conversations at the opportune moment.
With LiveAgent’s live chat feature, customers or leads facing complex issues can utilize basic video chat to screen share, engage in face-to-face conversations, and receive personalized assistance that is most suitable for their specific situation.
Your representatives can proactively identify a resolution even before the person on the opposite end sends their message by utilizing the live text preview feature that allows them to monitor the user’s typing.
However, the most advantageous aspect is that it seamlessly works with LiveAgent’s ticketing and customer support solution without the need for additional APIs or developers. It is a plug-and-play feature that is ready to be used straight away, taking less than a minute to install the live chat widget on your website.
If you are in search of an all-inclusive customer support solution, LiveAgent is the perfect choice. Take advantage of the 14-day trial period to test it out, experiment with the widget builder, and familiarize yourself with its functionality.
Podium Webchat
Free live chat widget that is completely customizable, allowing you to communicate via text with customers and visitors even when they are no longer at their computer. It offers an autoresponder, pre-written responses, the ability to modify the widget to your liking, integration with your CRM system, support for multiple locations, and comprehensive reporting.
Podium acknowledges that chat widgets cannot match the conversion and communication capabilities of traditional texting from your mobile phone.
Why not provide the capability for both your prospects or customers and your employees to use SMS for all purposes, such as sales conversations, client support, or arranging appointments or meetings, regardless of their motivations for utilizing live chat software?
Podium’s Webchat widget consists of a single screen, where site visitors can see a customized icon and a form for entering their name, mobile number, and introductory message.
Once visitors click on “Send,” your team will receive the information, enabling a member to reply via text. Additionally, visitors will be able to view the number from which your representative will send the text, providing them with knowledge regarding the source of your response.
Getting started with the widget is incredibly easy. Just add a code snippet to your website, modify your button, avatar, greeting, and after-hours message, connect it with your CRM, and you’re ready to begin.
If you have ever faced a pressing issue that required immediate attention, you understand the anxiety of engaging in phone tag or waiting for responses due to the limited availability of your provider.
Alternatively, you are well aware of the frustration that comes from losing a potential customer or sale due to the lack of immediacy and convenience offered by other contact methods on your website, in comparison to texting.
Your team can always assist your customers, whether they are in the office or only have their mobile devices, by using Podium. This feature enhances the quality of your support or sales endeavors.
Your enhanced ability to resolve problems quickly with the help of Podium on the support or scheduling side will greatly contribute to generating favorable customer reviews. Furthermore, you can conveniently share a review link in the chat and guide customers in real-time towards leaving a highly positive review after assisting them in resolving their concerns.
Building your collection of glowing customer reviews is quick and effortless.
Sendinblue
Do you have a desire to expand your email list but unsure of the first steps to take? Sendinblue can be your ultimate companion, offering a combination of email marketing, customer relationship management, and live chat tools within a single platform. You can access a free plan indefinitely, while paid plans begin at $25 per month.
Included in the service is live chat, text messaging, and landing pages, making Sendinblue a comprehensive email marketing engine.
This live chat platform enables efficient conversation management and business expansion via email. Cold emailing, which is outdated, has largely lost its effectiveness as a marketing tactic. Autoresponders have adapted to this trend and are safeguarding users against spam.
Sendinblue helps you effectively use email and chat messaging to convert visitors into loyal customers, while standing out from the competition.
Rely on their live chat widget for welcoming and engaging with website visitors, subsequently collecting their contact information. This will result in adding pre-interested subscribers to your email list.
Subsequently, create impactful messages using Sendinblue’s drag-and-drop builder (which also permits the creation of transactional emails) and subsequently dispatch them to your newly acquired contacts. Additionally, as they have voluntarily subscribed to your marketing initiatives during their live chat discussion, you can be assured that your emails will reach their mailbox.
Having a live chat widget on your website, which offers excellent customer support, enhances your customers’ receptiveness to future email communications, reinforcing the fact that email remains the most effective in terms of ROI.
In addition, their live chat option can be effortlessly installed within a matter of seconds, enabling you to initiate conversations with visitors on your website.
Without spending any money, you can seamlessly combine live chat with numerous email marketing features to meet your customers in their preferred mode of communication.
Social Intents
Are you in search of an improved method to handle your live chat inquiries? Social Intents allows you to effortlessly merge your live chat widget with your Slack or Microsoft Teams channels, guaranteeing that your representatives never overlook a chance to stimulate a sale or assist a customer with an unresolved matter.
Decentralized communication can be quite a hassle. At times, it feels like a significant portion of our day is spent managing various email inboxes, team chat, PM software notifications, and other messaging platforms.
Social Intents is the live chat tool that will alleviate some of that frustration for you.
The reason for this is that Social Intents was designed with Slack and Microsoft Teams, the two most popular team messaging platforms, in consideration. With Social Intents, your team can directly engage in conversations with customers and website visitors using these software.
After registering, connecting Social Intents to Slack or MS Teams is incredibly simple. All you need to do is click once on Social Intents’ homepage, embed the code for its live chat widget on your website or landing page, and you’re good to go.
Your team can achieve unmatched response times with just two simple steps.
To ensure that representatives do not miss anything, it is possible to personalize the channel to which chat notifications and requests are sent.
No need to be concerned about website compatibility. As mentioned, Social Intents only needs a straightforward code injection to appear on the majority of websites. Alternatively, if you utilize WordPress, Wix, Shopify, or BigCommerce, simply obtain and install the free plugin for your specific website platform.
While Social Intents excels in seamlessly integrating with Slack and MS Teams, it also offers impressive live chat features and doesn’t compromise in that aspect.
It is possible to establish personalized regulations for the availability of live chat, timers that activate notifications for visitors on the website, pre-written and automatic responses, as well as comprehensive reporting.
Additionally, by being able to engage in conversations through Slack and Teams, your representatives have the convenience to promptly address inquiries from their mobile devices.
How to Choose the Best Live Chat Software?
After conducting an extensive evaluation of the top live chat choices, we determined that all vendors provide similar features and packages. Their starter packages include basic live chat capabilities and integration options, while their upgrade packages offer additional features.
When selecting a live chat option for your website, you should consider three factors: cost, integration options, and additional features, as we were unable to locate a vendor offering a distinctive feature not found in other live chat providers.
The cost of live chat software is provided in the table below, featuring a range of monthly subscription fees starting at $15 and going up to $49.
The cost typically varies based on the number of agents desired, as well as additional features, analytics history, and integration options.
Instead of blindly choosing the least expensive option, carefully review the pricing pages of each vendor to identify the software that provides the features you truly require. Make the most of their trial period to evaluate the software on your website before making a commitment to a paid subscription.
Integration options are offered by the majority of live chat services, enabling users to view all their messages in a single dashboard. If you intend to provide further support options to your visitors via WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger, ensure that your selected provider has this capability.
Additional features: Chatbots allow you to automate some of your responses so that you don’t have to answer the same questions over and over again manually. If this is something that it’s important for your business, make sure that you choose a live chat software that offers chatbot support.
Methodology for Choosing the Best Live Chat Software
When shopping around and evaluating live chat solutions, it is important to consider specific factors.
In order for you to evaluate these features according to your personal preferences, we provide a more elaborate explanation of them below.
Chatbot vs. Live Chat
It is essential to comprehend the distinctions between utilizing a chatbot or live chat functionality when embarking on your search for live chat software.
Alter the structure and wording of the following passage while preserving its original sense: Automated conversational agents, commonly known as chatbots, are computer programs designed to simulate human conversation through text or voice interactions. They are utilized for a variety of purposes, such as customer support, information retrieval, and entertainment.
Once set up and tailored to your brand, chatbots streamline and automate your communication.
Using chatbots enables you to create the illusion of a larger workforce compared to the actual number of employees you have.
With chatbots, you can provide unlimited personalized interactions on a large scale, allowing customers to access your website at any hour and receive detailed answers to their questions without being constrained by regular business hours.
Now is the moment to enhance your business with chatbot integration, enabling constant sales even without any human interaction, effectively selling your products online.
Ecommerce faces a significant challenge with cart abandonment. Implementing chatbots enables the provision of incentives to customers, preventing them from reaching the checkout or leaving the page.
By providing free shipping, offering exclusive promotions via your chatbot, and addressing common product-related queries, you can not only keep your customers engaged, but also assist them in ensuring that their purchase is the most optimal choice.
Even after the purchase is made, chatbots can provide assistance. They empower customers to track their orders and simplify the return process. This eliminates the necessity of waiting on hold or emailing customer support.
Chat live.
Incorporating live chat is the ideal solution for small business owners with limited support staff who aspire to enhance their online availability for visitors.
What sets live chat apart from chatbots is the presence of a real person who can answer your visitors’ inquiries. The advantage of live chat lies in the discussions with your visitors, which can reveal further information to drive the growth of your business.
An example of this is Pure Chat, which is specifically designed for small business owners who have a small team of support staff. It has a live chat feature that provides you with immediate sales support information.
Even with a reduced salesforce, you can enhance your profitability by utilizing comprehensive customer information.
If you’re experiencing higher call volumes than desired, utilizing live chat can help reduce response times and boost efficiency since agents can handle multiple conversations simultaneously.
Searchable Transcripts
In the world of business, having a good reputation is crucial. A single negative review can linger and result in substantial loss of new income, amounting to hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars.
Envision opening Facebook and coming across a comprehensive post highlighting how your business fails to heed its customers’ concerns, and how a particular customer engaged with three separate agents, none of whom were aware of their problem.
What impact will that have on your brand in terms of collateral damage and how much will it undermine the trust of your existing customers?
Furthermore, potential customers will witness it and promptly develop doubts about engaging in transactions with your company.
The issue is resolved with the aid of searchable transcripts which ensure that all information from customer interactions in your chat is saved and easily accessible with just a few clicks. Extract valuable data from these interactions and search for past chats to establish a reference point from a prior conversation.
Your agents will have a greater understanding of the major issues your customers encounter, enabling them to promptly address them without the need for customers to continually reiterate their concerns.
Having searchable transcripts can confirm the requirements and desires of multiple customers, which in turn aids marketing endeavors. Moreover, it simplifies the process of record-keeping and reporting.
To continuously enhance your sales and support processes, acquire a live chat tool like Olark that offers transcripts.
Conversation Management
Conversation management is one of the most beneficial features offered by chatbots.
By utilizing automation tools, you have the capability to automatically direct customers to the appropriate team and sort website visitors according to the specialized expertise of team members.
This aids in producing leads and ensures the appropriate client connects with the suitable agent to assist them accurately from the start.
Chatbots are also useful in handling conversations during pre-sale marketing by avoiding potential sales inquiries from being ignored due to extended wait periods. Deploying a sales bot as the initial point of contact for your website visitors can significantly diminish response time and establish a connection with customers prior to them considering leaving your site.
Your sales chatbot has the capability to arrange promotions offered by your business, respond to frequently asked questions regarding the product, and actively relay information to enhance the efficiency of your live chat agent in finalizing a sale.
Whether you utilize ecommerce platforms or have a sales team readily available for support, it is crucial to prioritize conversation management. By customizing your messages according to web pages, you can enhance customer satisfaction and encourage them to stay engaged in the chat until your sales team agent is prepared to finalize the transaction.
Branding
Many business owners are extremely fond of the feature of custom branding for their chatbot and live chat software, which has gained significant popularity.
However, caution is advised as live chat widget customization and custom branding for your website should not be confused as they have different meanings.
Branding involves integrating the colors and logo of your business website into the chatbox on your website, whereas advanced live widget customization provides various additional features, excluding the option of adding logo images or implementing custom color schemes to align with your website design.
Including a chatbot or live chat in any business without considering branding is foolish because branding holds a crucial position in the forefront of any business.
Certain live chat platforms cater to businesses that prioritize easy setup and user-friendliness for their live chats, whereas others offer more extensive features.
If you need an effortless method to personalize your live chat encounters, take into account the suggestions provided in this inventory, as they each provide tailor-made solutions for incorporating your live chat with chatbots.