The majority of customers prefer having some kind of support during the buying process. Even after going through the product description, reviews, and FAQs, they may still have lingering uncertainties. It would be delightful to have a store representative available to assist with the purchase, being someone you can turn to repeatedly until you are confident in your decision.
The best live chat plugins can provide you with a competitive advantage. These plugins effectively act as a sales assistant or customer support person, addressing all customer inquiries and remaining accessible at all times. Instead of being an anonymous website, your store becomes personified as a salesperson or store owner capable of engaging in conversations with visitors and turning them into valuable customers.
Here are a few of the good live chat plugins, ranging from simple and free options to comprehensive premium ones.
15 Best Live Chat Plugins & WP Ticketing Support
1. Support Board
Support Board is an excellent method to incorporate a real-time chat feature into your WordPress site. Equipped with features that enable the integration of human agents through Slack and AI-driven chatbots via Dialogflow, this chat plugin offers an array of functions that aid in handling queries from visitors. By installing the Support Board WordPress Chat plugin, you can promptly enhance the user experience for site visitors, allowing you and your support agents (or bots) to promptly commence work within minutes.
2. ThriveDesk
Chatbots are an excellent way to prevent customers or new website visitors from feeling neglected. Nevertheless, there is a wide range of choices available. If you are searching for a live chat option that seamlessly integrates with your website and helpdesk system to enhance communication with visitors and boost customer satisfaction through swift support, ThriveDesk is worth considering as an all in one solution.
Adding ThriveDesk’s chat box to your site becomes effortless thanks to the plugin. You have the flexibility to customize the branding (colors, logo, and welcome message) according to your site’s needs. Furthermore, ThriveDesk offers various widgets to enhance the functionality of your chat box. These include live chat, a contact form, a knowledgebase search, and integrations with specific apps like WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, Envato, Autonami CRM, Slack, and more.
3. WP-Chatbot by MobileMonkey
Are you a fan of Facebook Messenger? With WP-Chatbot, you can effortlessly integrate a Facebook Messenger chat widget into your website. Regardless of your personal opinion, over 1.3 billion individuals utilize Facebook Messenger.
What makes WP-Chatbot a good choice? In simple terms, it offers a convenient method to incorporate a 24/7 live chat on your WordPress website. By effortlessly integrating with your Facebook Business page, WP-Chatbot allows you to quickly grow your followers and engage with your audience. The best part is that, since it operates through Facebook Messenger, you can chat with customers whenever you want, without the need to gather phone numbers or emails for future communication. However, if desired, this feature can be set up with a premium plan.
4. WSChat – WordPress Live Chat
Enhance your website with a user-friendly chatbox popup powered by WSChat, an efficient AI-supported live chat. This plugin is lightweight, ensuring optimal performance on all devices, including mobile.
WSChat WordPress Live Chat is packed with features to handle queries from site visitors, and getting started is a breeze. Once installed, create your personalized pre-chat form, incorporating mandatory details, and customize the appearance of your chatbox widget with the available color choices. Additionally, you have the flexibility to add an endless number of agents and activate agent alerts, ensuring they receive immediate notifications when a visitor initiates a chat.
5. 3CX Live Chat Support
If you want to chat with multiple customers at the same time, consider using 3CX Live Chat. Both the user and the visitor will find the interface easy to use. You can edit all the fields in this box and move the box around the screen as desired. When live chat is disabled, the offline messages can be saved.
6. Awesome Support
Awesome Support is a reliable help desk for WordPress. It is designed to work seamlessly with any WordPress theme, whether it is a free or premium one. All the features of the plugin are automatically activated upon installation, allowing you to quickly set up customer support by opening the Help Desk.
In the frontend, visitors have the ability to submit their complaints as tickets which can then be monitored by the Customer service team in the backend. Tags can be used to distinguish previous tickets. Prior to submitting a ticket, customers may be asked to acknowledge the Terms and Conditions.
7. Userlike
Ensure that your live chat is both manageable for you and user-friendly for site visitors by using Userlike. This free plugin seamlessly integrates with the Userlike platform, enabling you to offer excellent support to site visitors through your website, Facebook Messenger, and/or Telegram. By ensuring that your live chat is helpful and convenient, you increase the likelihood of converting visitors into customers.
8. Brosix Live Chat
Whether you specialize in web design, WordPress maintenance, healthcare, IT, finance, or operate an e-commerce site on WordPress, Brosix is an excellent choice for enhancing customer support. This plugin can be effortlessly and swiftly installed, enabling your team to conveniently log in and provide assistance.
9. Zendesk Live Chat
An effective plugin known as Zendesk Live Chat enables real-time customer interaction to assist them in making purchases. To utilize this plugin, you must first sign up for a Zendesk account and connect it with the plugin. As a result, a message box will appear in the lower right corner of your screen. Visitors can initiate conversations with you immediately, and in case you are unavailable, they can also send an email. This plugin is compatible with all popular web browsers and provides a hassle-free method for integrating live chat on your website.
10. WordPress Live Chat Complete
The WordPress Live Chat Plugin allows you to easily incorporate a chat box by installing this open source premium plugin. It gives you the ability to personalize the chat box, create your own operators, and keep track of chat logs. Additionally, it enables multiple agents to assist a single user if desired.
11. Acobot Web Assistant Free AI Chatbot
Acobot presents itself as a chatbot plugin designed for WordPress, enabling prompt assistance to website visitors, regardless of the absence of your customer service team. Its installation and configuration are hassle-free. Offering a vast selection of avatars, variously designed chat widgets (to match your site), and customizable color options, Acobot proves to be an excellent choice for a chatbot solution.
12. WP Support Plus Responsive Ticket System
The WP Support Plus Responsive Ticket System is effective in handling the ticket management needs of various support areas such as companies, real estate or service desks, appointment recruitment systems, technical support systems, and similar support areas. It is capable of effectively managing tickets for large organizations.
13. WP Flat Visual Chat
WP Flat Visual Chat is an excellent choice if you are in need of a straightforward chat plugin with a sleek material design. With this delightful plugin, you can promptly install it and begin using it immediately. It offers color customization options and a user-friendly interface that seamlessly integrates with your WordPress installation.
14. Tidio Live Chat
Tidio Live Chat is specially made for WordPress and seamlessly integrates with it. It offers a free trial for 7 days, allowing immediate use without any login or registration requirements. Upon the completion of the trial period, users have the option to upgrade to the premium version or continue with the free version. With an impressive rating of 4.9 stars, this widely-used plugin is an excellent tool to incorporate live chat functionality into your website.
15. Uber Chat – Ultimate Live Chat
If you’re searching for a chat plugin that offers numerous options, Uber Chat is the perfect choice. It is promoted as the ultimate live chat WordPress plugin, and it definitely lives up to its reputation.
BONUS: The benefits of having live chat software on your website
1. It reduces friction for customers in search of support
Envision the following scenarios:
In scenario one, if you require assistance from customer support, you opt to dial the 1-800 number. However, upon connecting, you have to navigate through a series of prompts to reach the appropriate department. After a considerable wait, you eventually reach an agent. Regrettably, the agent is unable to assist you, and you are placed on hold briefly before being transferred to another department.
In scenario two, if you require assistance from customer support, you opt to utilize the live chat feature on the company’s website. After providing a concise explanation of your issue, you interact with a chatbot by answering a series of queries. Since the chatbot is unable to address your problem, it transfers you to a live agent who promptly resolves your issue.
As a customer, which scenario would you prefer? Most likely, you would choose scenario two. Naturally, you cannot entirely eliminate human interaction from your customer support experience – it is essential to always offer your customers the choice to communicate with someone. However, ultimately, a combination of a chatbot and live chat can effectively handle numerous customer inquiries.
As a result, customers experience less friction, increasing their satisfaction and overall happiness.
2. It reduces business costs
Implementing live chat software in your business yields the advantage of significantly minimizing customer service expenses.
If you use live chat software for your business, you can reduce the number of agents you need to hire as one agent can manage multiple chats instead of handling only one phone call at a time.
Live chat software can also help reduce costs associated with phone calls, such as toll-free and international number charges that accumulate over time.
3. It reduces barriers to entry for support and sales teams
Not only does the implementation of live chat software enhance workflows for your customer support team, but it also has the potential to streamline the sales process.
Although chatbots and self-service automations are commonly associated with providing support for simple customer inquiries, it’s important to note that your sales representatives can utilize live chat software to proactively engage with potential customers exploring your website.
This implies increased conversions for your sales team and reduced customer inquiries for your support team!
4. It reduces drop-offs during the purchase process
Having a smooth checkout process should be one of your top priorities if you operate an ecommerce shop or any business that enables customers to make purchases directly from your website.
How can live chat software be utilized to minimize drop-offs, which occur when customers abandon their carts during the purchase process? While browsing your website, customers may have inquiries such as, “Is there free shipping?” or “Will I receive a discount for purchasing multiple products?”
If they need to contact you to have their question answered, it may seem like a hassle or too much work. Currently, the main goal is to minimize difficulties. This is where live chat software comes in handy—customers who are ready to make a purchase but have inquiries can simply click on your chatbot or live chat icon and promptly receive the necessary answers.
Common live chat mistakes to avoid
As you begin with a live chat solution, avoid doing the following things.
1. Not synchronizing the availability of chat to the availability of agents
Ensure that you synchronize the implementation of a live chat solution on your website with the availability of your agents, as this crucial step is often overlooked by many individuals.
If a person opens the chat box hoping to communicate with a real agent but receives an automated response from a chatbot instead, it leads to a subpar digital customer experience.
2. Not synchronizing the context of the website with the live chat
It would be perfect if your customers are already aware of what they are able to do, as well as what they are unable to do, through the live chat feature on your website.
If your website’s FAQ page or Contact Us page claims that your live chat agents are capable of assisting individuals in applying for a credit card, requesting a credit limit increase, and other similar tasks, then it is essential for your customer service team to be adequately prepared to perform these actions without any difficulties.
By integrating your live chat tool with your contact center software and CRM, you can consolidate all customer data and previous interactions in one place. This eliminates the need for agents to constantly switch between various applications and search through multiple sources of information to assist customers, making it an important factor to consider.
One such solution that achieves this is Dialpad Ai Contact Center. It not only allows agents to handle various tasks such as phone calls, live chat messages, social media messages, and more, all from one platform, but it also features integrations with popular CRMs like Salesforce and HubSpot, streamlining the consolidation of all information in a user-friendly interface.
3. Not paying attention to the UI
Ensure that you consider the user interface (UI) of your live chat tool. Similar to the UI of your website or mobile app, it is important to create an intuitive and user-friendly chat experience for your customers and prospects.
Ensure that the live chat feature is easily accessible, avoiding any concealment or placement at the lower section of your Contact Us page.
The chat box is commonly located at the bottom right of a website, and people are accustomed to it being there. Customers should be able to open the live chat widget by clicking on it, and it may be beneficial to highlight the chat window more prominently on product pages or cart checkout pages. This is particularly important if there is a high number of customers abandoning their purchase at these stages, as they likely have important questions or concerns that need to be addressed beforehand.
4. Implementing live chat as an island
Customers and patients do not limit their contact to only between 9 am and 5 pm on weekdays in various sectors. In industries such as utilities and healthcare, contact centers frequently receive inquiries from customers and patients round the clock.
If you aim to offer round-the-clock customer support, it is essential to employ agents available 24/7, as live chat software alone cannot accomplish this task.
However, you can enhance your live chat tool by incorporating chatbots and self-service options in order to achieve the same level of coverage.
For effective customer assistance, it is crucial for your help desk or customer support team to offer a range of options, such as live chat, that function smoothly in order to redirect basic inquiries to self-service alternatives. This enables your agents to concentrate on handling more intricate assignments.
Keep in mind that the main objective is to take initiative and discover methods to allow your agents to concentrate on the requests that genuinely require human assistance.
4 signs your business might need live chat software
It is not necessary for every business to have a live chat solution. We would not claim that every company should spend money on this software as that would be dishonest. However, regardless of whether you are overseeing a small business or a multinational corporation, there are certain indicators that suggest it may be appropriate to consider using live chat software if you have not done so already.
1. Customers are abandoning calls and/or carts
If you can address this issue, it will be an easy way to boost conversion rates and increase sales for your business. Uncertain about a purchase, simply browsing, or unable to find the necessary information about a product, customers tend to abandon carts.
If prospects are hesitant to complete their payment for any reason, a chatbot or live chat software can assist in providing answers or encouraging them to proceed.
2. Your contact center team is overwhelmed
If you have observed your customer service team members facing difficulties in handling the high number of phone calls, it indicates an excellent chance for you to expand your communication channels by incorporating live chat software.
It is important to note that these channels also consist of self-service alternatives such as chatbot.
In addition to alleviating the burden for agents who are on the phones, this also assists you in offering a superior customer experience through the reduction of hold times.
3. Lots of people are opening a “contact us” form but not submitting it
Customers may opt for email instead of engaging in long conversations and enduring hold times if the only available means of contacting customer support are phone or email. However, it should be noted that email can sometimes be more complex than it appears.
To begin with, customers might encounter a complex form that requires them to provide personal information and decline to proceed, saying “No thanks.” Additionally, numerous individuals have faced the unpleasant situation of completing a form only to wait for days or even weeks without any response, potentially discouraging them from using that means of communication again. (What is unjust is that this frequently occurs regardless of whether they had a similar experience with a different company and you are not at fault.)
If you are monitoring your website statistics, make sure to check if visitors are opening or clicking on your “contact us” form but ultimately not following through with a submission. If this is the case, it indicates that the user experience is generating excessive obstacles, therefore considering the implementation of live chat software would be advisable. This alternative is less intimidating for customers or potential customers who wish to make contact, and it may even provide them with quicker responses.
4. You, as a business, are experimenting with a digital strategy
Nowadays, businesses cannot rely solely on phone agents anymore as customers and prospects are utilizing a greater range of communication channels to connect with brands. These channels encompass social media platforms such as WhatsApp, SMS texting, and other digital mediums like Apple Business Chat.
If it is certain that your customers only contact you via phone, then you can ignore this for now. However, if your customer base is already engaging with these channels and sending you messages on social media, it is advisable to be proactive and start exploring live chat software.
