Live Chat

What is Live Chat?

What Is Live Chat?

Live Chat Helps You:

  • Increase conversion rate
  • Boost customer engagement
  • Improve product decisions
  • Reduce costs
  • Strengthen customer relationships

Increase conversion rate

Drive more conversions by proactively engaging with customers and guiding them through their purchasing journey. Businesses with live support options make more sales than those without them. These systems also provide accessible communication with prospects while offering detailed information.

  • Live chat agents can upsell or cross-sell products to increase average order values.
  • Capture visitor information and generate leads in real time.
  • Exceptional customer support through live chat fosters customer loyalty and repeat purchases.

Live chat provides immediate customer assistance without lengthy waits for email or phone responses. It addresses customer concerns that may lead to cart abandonment.

Boost customer engagement

Initiate conversations, offer assistance and engage website visitors in relevant discussions anytime, anywhere. This proactive approach helps capture visitor attention, encourage interaction and build connections.

Start interactive sessions with prospects and help them proceed with their purchase or service. Active conversations also allow you to gather relevant information about the customer.

Improve product decisions

Gather relevant data from chat histories to share across marketing, product and support teams. Support product decision-making by sorting, organizing or storing conversations for review.

Tag chats based on question type or topic, including feature and support requests, bug reports and product-related queries. Tags allow agents to identify areas that need updating or supporting documentation quickly.

  • Through live chat tools, customers can ask product or feature-related questions.
  • Live chat offers a direct channel for customers to share feature requests or suggest improvements for existing products.
  • Live chat conversations can provide valuable information about customer experiences with competing products.
  • These tools also serve as a platform to conduct product tests or gather prototype feedback.

Reduce costs

Implementing live chat as a customer support channel typically involves lower operational expenses than other support options.

Unlike phone support, live chat eliminates costs associated with toll-free phone lines, long-distance charges and extensive call center infrastructure.

  • Live chat support deflects customer queries and reduces incoming phone call volume.
  • Integration with self-service resources like knowledge bases or FAQs allows customers to find relevant self-help materials during chat sessions.
  • Gathering valuable prospect data can initiate follow-up marketing activities at a lower cost than traditional lead-generation methods.
  • Analyzing chat volumes, peak hours, popular queries, and customer feedback help identify patterns and optimization areas.

You can optimize websites by personalizing web pages, providing quality product images and enhancing product descriptions.

Strengthen customer relationships

Proactively engage with customers during their online journey. Trigger proactive chat invitations based on specific user behavior, like spending time on a particular webpage or attempting to exit the website.

Allow your agents to build cordial customer rapport by adjusting their tone and sentiment.
Most customers expect agents to know details like product information and chat history. They can use these tools to refer to chat histories without asking repetitive questions.

Live Chat vs. In-App Messaging

Live chat is an integral part of digital communication among online businesses. Despite its existence since the 1970s, its popularity is growing as time progresses. One reason for this shift in favor is due to digitization.

With technological advancements, organizations are attempting to improve their online presence by offering 24/7 service via instant messaging platforms, i.e., live chat software.

  • Live chat provides an active online medium between customers and businesses to communicate efficiently.
  • These tools let human agents or AI chatbots interact with customers in real time. Visitors can text customer service at any time with support or product-related queries.
  • They offer more than just customer service. These solutions make it no surprise that the global live chat market is projected to reach a value of $1.4 billion by 2030.

In-app messaging is asynchronous. It allows users to communicate in real time or offline. You can simply drop a message and return later to check for responses.

It’s more conversational and connects users during live events, on-demand services, online marketplaces and social communities.

Both digital communication methods are useful for customer service. While live chat provides solutions like instant messaging, immediate response and real-time insights, in-app messaging acts as targeted notifications for active app users.

Why Do You Need Live Chat?

Think of a time you visited a website for the first time. Were you ready to buy a product or use the company’s service instantly? Most likely, you weren’t.

Many first-time consumers visit websites for reasons other than making a purchase or using services. As marketers, you’re responsible for considering how customers feel about your website experience.

Live chat is effective throughout the customer journey; it increases early-stage sales development, post-sales customer support and marketing awareness.

These tools serve as incredible support structures for multiple reasons: reducing bounce rates, lowering cart abandonment rates, capturing visitor information and more.

Around 86.11% of the world’s population own smartphones; while they may use them for various reasons, they also interact with businesses online. And with a massive decrease in in-store foot traffic, most organizations are looking to reinvent their marketing and sales strategies.

Live chat software can increase website conversions, demo requests and gather relevant information. As companies accelerate their shift toward online business at warp speed, they offer effective ways to communicate with customers online.

FAQs

How does live chat software work?

Businesses integrate live chat software into their websites by adding code provided by the software provider. The company adds this code to the website’s HTML or integrates via a plugin or extension for popular content management systems (CMS) like WordPress.

Once integrated, the software provides a user interface (UI) that allows businesses to manage live chat interactions. Businesses can access this UI through a web-based dashboard or dedicated application.

Can a live chat tool integrate with other modules or systems?

Live chat tools can integrate with CRM systems to synchronize customer data and chat transcripts. This integration allows businesses to track and manage customer interactions, view chat history within the CRM and ensure a seamless customer experience across different touchpoints.

Live chat tools can also integrate with help desk and ticketing systems, eCommerce platforms, analytics and reporting tools, collaboration and team communication tools, and more.

What are some live chat systems I can use?

You’ll find various software options for implementing live chat conversations on websites. Some popular tools include LiveChat, Intercom, Freshdesk Messaging, Drift, Tidio and tawk.to.

These are a few live chat tool examples, and each has its own features, pricing models and integration options.

When choosing live chat software, it’s important to consider factors like your business requirements, budget, scalability, ease of use and integration capabilities.

What are the requirements for live chat?

Below are certain requirements you’ll need to consider before setting up live chat on your website.

  • Website or web application: You’ll need a functioning website to integrate the software. This application could be a website built with HTML/CSS, a CMS like WordPress or an eCommerce platform.
  • Live chat software: Research different options and compare features, pricing, scalability and integration capabilities that suit your needs.
  • Internet connectivity: You’ll require a stable and reliable internet connection for your website visitors and live chat agents to deliver uninterrupted communication.
  • Compatible web browser: Ensure your website visitors and agents use a compatible browser for the best experience.
  • Chat agents or support team: You’ll need chat agents or a support team who can handle live chat interactions with website visitors.
  • Integration requirements: Check if the software you choose provides out-of-the-box integrations or offers APIs for custom additions.
  • Customization options: Determine if you require customization options for the live chat widget’s appearance, branding or chat flow.
  • Privacy and data protection: Understand and comply with privacy regulations and data protection laws applicable to your region.
  • Ongoing support and management: Allocate resources to regularly review chat transcripts, analyze performance metrics, train agents and address technical issues.
  • Documentation and training: Familiarize yourself and your chat agents with the software documentation, user guides and training materials.

How do I select a live chat system?

Your selection criteria require careful consideration of your business-specific needs.

Conduct research to identify live chat software providers that align with your requirements. Our free requirements checklist can serve as a guide during the evaluation process. You can use this checklist to assess how certain features align with your needs.

Create a comparison matrix to objectively compare the features, pricing, integrations, support and other relevant factors of the shortlisted solutions. This strategy will help you evaluate each option side-by-side and make an informed decision.

For more details, you can contact [email protected] or call 855-850-3850.

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Live Chat articles are written and edited by:

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Content Manager

As SelectHub’s Content Manager, Zachary Totah leads a team of more than 35 writers and editors in their quest to provide content that helps software buyers find the right system for their company.

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Hunter Lowe

Content Editor and Senior Market Analyst

Hunter Lowe is a Content Editor and Senior Market Analyst at SelectHub. He writes content for Construction, Inventory, Warehouse, and Supply Chain Management.

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Sylvia Marak

Technical Content Writer

Sylvia D. Marak is a technical content writer at SelectHub. Her areas of expertise include business intelligence and big data analytics.

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