One of the most important things for any online business is the quality of its customer support. No matter how good your product or service might be, there are bound to be errors, difficulties, or questions that your FAQ might not be covering. In these situations, when users and clients are confused or have some sort of a problem, their first instinct would be to contact you for help or additional information.
Now, offering things such as an email address, or a ticket system can do the trick, but it also requires patience on the users’ behalf. It can be a slow process, and the user usually needs help immediately. This is why it is better to offer live chat support, in addition to these other ways of making contact. Users will know that live chat is instant, and they will be encouraged to actually contact you and get your own advice, instead of turning to forums and advice from others who might not be capable of giving a proper one.
Luckily, there are many live chat providers which will let you use their software at a small price, and make your business as great as it can get. Today, we will help you pick one by suggesting our top picks.
What to look for in live chat providers?
As usual, when you are looking for a feature or software that is offered by numerous providers, it matters which one you decide to go along with. Not all of them are the same, and many things might differ. Pricing is definitely one of them. Another is what information the feature picks up from the user. In this age of hacking and online security issues, users may be reluctant to give off data that might be crucial for you helping them. Some live chat solutions will pick that data automatically, and even let you analyze it for bettering your business.
Next, you need to customize your live chat, so that it would not be too big or too small and annoying. Some providers let you do that yourself, as well. The type of messenger is also important, whether it will be a popup or an embedded chat. Support for multiple languages can also be a great feature to have, especially if your service will go international. Many more useful features can be found, but these are some of the top ones to pay attention to when choosing a service. Now, let’s get on to our list, as well as why we believe these options are the best ones for your business.
1. Provide Support
Get HereEditors’ choice 2020
tekcompareProvide Support is a very reliable, very powerful live support software for businesses of all types and sizes. It can be used for any of the most popular systems, including Windows, Mac, and as well as Linux. It allows you to do quite a lot, from real-time visitor monitoring to detailed customization of the chat itself.
With it, you can collect metadata from your visitors, which can then be used for analytics. The information that Provide Support can collect includes users’ location, OS, browser, referring URL, and alike. That way, your support team can gather all the necessary details without having to prolong the chat with the user, who might be suspicious of why such data is needed.
Provide Support can easily integrate with your business’ website, with not much technical knowledge necessary. All you need to do is add a bit of code to the site, and live assistance will be added, and ready for use. It also works well with WordPress, Joomla, Magento, Shopify, and more.
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Great Chat Icon Gallery
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Blocks selective IP addresses
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Collects metadata for analytics
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Allows you to pick a type of messenger
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It allows you to adjust the size of the chat box
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Does not allow you to check the time operators have spent online
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A bit complicated user interface with some features unnecessarily listed twice
2. JivoChat
Get HereNext, we have JivoChat, which is one of the best options if you look to harness user data and provide live chat option in web and phone mode alike. This is a great solution for businesses that wish to streamline customer communication and deliver the best possible experience to their users. A professional service like this will definitely motivate and inspire users to subscribe, purchase products, and keep reading the content offered by businesses and various websites.
It offers excellent features, like real-time visitor monitoring, hotkeys, chat logs, page view history, an unlimited opportunity to engage your customers and even monitor the performance of your own employees — a feature that was noticeably absent from our previous entry. Not only that, but it even features a ‘Sneak Peak’ options, which lets you see what the user is typing even if they do not send their message.
JivoChat’s design makes it the best option for mid-sized businesses, but it can be used by smaller and larger companies as well. It offers flexible prices, and it also has a free plan, although this one comes with limited features. You can also use its two-week free trial to test it out. Also, it can fit within any software infrastructure, and it is very easy to use.
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Highly customizable
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Has a Sneak Peak feature
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Supports and translates 20 different languages
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Allows you to monitor employees' performance
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Allows access to social media profiles and contact details of customers
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Limited integrations
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Improvable security features
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Lacks the support for Windows phones
3. PureChat
Get HereWhen it comes to PureChat, this is a solution with numerous features and options, which you can easily integrate into any website. It will let you have better, easier communication with your customers and visitors when they need it the most. Not only that, but it will allow you to gather information about their interests and activities on your site, such as the data regarding which page they are visiting at any moment.
Further, it will also let you monitor the chat at any time, and see your employees’ performance without the customer ever knowing about it. You can also easily block any IP address you wish, save the chats you want to keep, and more.
The software is extremely user-friendly and easy to set up, although in-depth integration might take some time. However, this is still one of the most affordable solutions currently on the market, and we highly advise checking it out.
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Easy to set up
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Allows you to log chats
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Allows an easy way to block IPs
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Among the most affordable solutions
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Lets you monitor employee's performance and activities
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Allows to gather information about users, including which pages they are viewing
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Deeper customization and thorough integration may take some time
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It contains some bugs which prevent the chat from opening sometimes
4. LiveChat Inc
Get HereThen, there is LiveChat, Inc. This is a chat and help desk application that will make a real difference when it comes to how your customers and website visitors experience your business and products. It is very easy to use, and it offers all kinds of excellent tools that will help you not only improve your relations with your clients, but also your sales and marketing, and even web analytics.
It features three main components — a web-based chat window, an operator application, as well as a web-based control panel. It is a provider that likely offers the greater number of tools in the sector, and you will definitely get value for your money. Some of the things it offers include ticketing, customer engagement, third-party integration, work scheduling, advanced reporting, file sharing, geo-tagging, chat surveys, and much more.
As mentioned, you can use it for real-time website traffic monitoring, efficiency analysis, receiving interaction reports, all kinds of statistics and alike. It is truly one of the best providers out there, and it certainly deserves its place on this list.
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Very intuitive
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Supports multiple languages
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Allows you to track visitors in real time
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Allows for multiple chats at the same time
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Allows you to analyze employees' performance
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The service has its own excellent customer support
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Lacks real-time language translations
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Email reporting performance can be a bit annoying
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The auto-correct feature could be a bit more intuitive
5. LiveAgent
Get HereFinally, we have LiveAgent, which is an award-winning helpdesk support platform which includes live chat, email support, integration with social media, and more. It offers numerous features like contact forms, file sharing, different statuses, POP3 accounts, gamification, and more.
This particular service is extremely user-friendly, and it was developed with that purpose in mind. It aims to be simple and understandable, even when it comes to first-time users. You can integrate it simply, without the need for excessive technical knowledge, and learn how to use it on the go. All interface elements are easily accessible and well-planned out.
All of this makes it suitable for pretty much every business, and it also allows you to set up a 24/7 support, which is included in every plan. Best of all — there is no need for you to pay for an extra license if you own more than one website.
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Features a mobile app
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Great built-in analytics model
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Offers numerous useful features
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Flexible test system and automation
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Interface is very simple and easy to use
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Chat settings are limited
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Not that great customization settings
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Not integrated with some of the most popular messengers
Summary
Live chat is a great way to provide customer support for your users, and there are many great solutions, some of which we have listed above. With live chat, you can quickly and easily get in touch with your users, and also collect information about them that can improve the quality of your service.
It is important to have a live chat and to have a great solution, at that. This will help you solve problems quicker and easier, and not only attract new users, but also keep the existing ones. Many businesses make a mistake of not using this great feature, and they often get criticized because of it. Learn from their mistakes, and pick the best service for you and your business today.