For many website holders, the ability to keep in contact with a visitor is an important part of introducing the features they can offer or promoting them thanks to the reputation of quick and active responsiveness. That is why, when picking up the live chat service, you need to pay attention to several crucial features that may help you in improving the customer’s experience, making them want to come back again in case of any need.
Which features to look at when choosing a service for live chat
- Chat transferring. In case of need, it allows you to create several teams by their specialization and notify them accordingly when the problem arises. Such a strategy can create a network of free omnichannel help that will adapt to any situation.
- Profile leads. The possibility to enter the necessary information beforehand can be quite helpful, as it is shown to the chat agent and can be instantly passed to the corresponding team. It may also improve the existing future mistakes, making the holistic customer experience platform oriented for people.
- In-built chat transcripts. One of the most essential features that can help in leading the conversation thanks to the prepared scenarios of topic development.
- Notifications. The quick responses to any client’s question will leave a positive impression and create a positive image about customer service, attracting them more effectively.
- Canned responses. Such a feature, when setting the live chat trigger, will greet the client automatically, indicating the presence of the possibility to chat in case of any arising questions. A strategy of such kind can be also known as proactive chat.
- Referrer tracker. The ability to see from which source the customer has entered the website may be really helpful in defining the target audience and building the promotional campaign for the proper platforms.
- File transferring. Though it is rather an uncommon option, in some cases receiving the file from a client with the representation of a problematic issue may be of great help for passing the response to the responsible team.
- Real-time communication. Together with additional pre-requested information, customer service can determine the possibility of success in working with a client.
- Customization feature. If during the website creation the developer’s team can customize the chatbot according to the overall style, then it will not look out of place, leaving a negative impression on the visitor.
Usually, it is not necessary to search for services including all of the above features, as it depends on the website specifics, whether there should be an option to trigger chat or not, for instance. That is why, when picking the live chat service, be ready to organize the priorities for working with customers and make your choice accordingly.
The best live chat software options for B2B experience
When targeting the audience, you should take into consideration, whether it is connected to introducing the services to common people or rather oriented at other businesses, as the overall approach to them can be somewhat different. They may vary in design approach, ability to create the omnichannel blog for inner communication between different teams, adaptation features to fit different devices, integration of CRM or similar services for keeping up with business tasks, and many more.
Gathering all related chats at one place
For some cases, when the business is being developed not only through the website, but also social networks simultaneously, there arises a need of connecting them to one place, so as not to miss the opportunity of attracting more potential clients or spend more for hiring personnel placed on each platform for communication purposes. For that reason, you should look for a live chat service allowing you to receive at one place the messages received from Facebook messenger, WhatsApp, chat link, website pop-up, a free live chat plugin for WordPress, mobile app, and so on. The principles of their working remain the same for each client coming from any platform – the chat agent looks at information preview, then determines the type of issue, whether it is technical or product-related, and passes the conversation to the responsible team that will effectively resolve the questions. There can also be reversed scenarios for interaction, when the clients are being concentrated in social networks – for example, the Whats
App me plugin redirects the user from the live chat system to the communication through the application. Such options are more suitable for long-term discussions, as the native live chat software prefers to clean the conversations after closing the website tab or when a certain period passes.
How to select the best live chat software
The truly suitable system of live chat, as it was mentioned, first and foremost depends on the specific requests of the holder. But some of the criteria are essential for any kind of business, so they should not be ignored when making the choice for software with which you are going to work. So, it is recommended to pay some attention to such instruments offered by the service:
- Interactivity – the possibility to create the smart triggers for specific scenarios of customer’s experience on the website will help to automatically call for the function of live chat that will appear at, probably, the most important moment of choice for the client or the moment of struggle with processing the form of, for example, cart order.
- Analytics – tracking the information allowed by the customer and its processing into thematic infographics can make the conclusions about the most common page for using the live chat feature, target audience using the services of the website, list, and frequency of calling for different teams, experience rating after communication and many more useful parameters.
- Customizability – the visual impression from the website in general and how you customize chat windows can make a lasting memory, so there should also be paid some attention to its correlation to an overall image of the design. Current mechanics of live chat software can introduce the ability to change the chat box’s color according to a certain page, adapt bubbles to the lines present in the website design, or many more.
- Organization – not only on the outside but inside the platform, too, there should be comfortable access to all useful features that may be needed by the chat agent responsible for the correlated task. In case such an option is absent, the right moment of communicating with customers may be easily lost, causing the downfall of rating.
Not only the chat software is involved when making a choice, you should also consider some of the criteria related to the company itself that will also determine the actual needs for the current situation:
- price you are ready to pay – as the expenses for live chat may be rather costly, it is better to set a certain budget which is going to be spent solely for the software. You can consider the platforms that offer pricing according to the flow of clients, which may be the best choice for the starting point, so the price tag will remain bearable;
- size of your company – depending on the scale, the list of crucial features will change, so there may be an urge to change the subscription plan or connected software in general. For example, for starters it is a must to have an easily navigated system with CRM integration, medium business requires more data collection and omnichannel options for rearranging the people responsible for communication according to needs, and large companies have to pay attention to security measures with appearing of more specific data collected;
- type of business – the products offered for sale also determine whether you really need a feature of live chat communication to resolve the issue as quickly as possible or rather can afford some time to wait to respond with highly accurate information.
The main benefits of having a live chat feature
When installing the live chat software, you should consider their advantages on your rating growth that can appear after their effective implication. By using the features of live chat, the customer will gain a positive support experience that will inspire them to use your services more, gain more details without having to repeat them over, as the supporting information will introduce the context, be available to ask questions at any time without any fear of being rejected and many more. As for the company benefits, the live chat will boost the productivity of the customer support team, increase the percentage of customer engagement in improving the service, gather analytics on product decisions, and become more successful on the market thanks to active interactions with the client base.
With all the information introduced, you will be able to make your choice on the live chat software that will effectively correspond to all your requirements for the current state of business. There is no universal option that will be suitable for everyone, so you should choose wisely from the presented software. But, after taking into consideration the features you feel you may need for successful customer support and the type of company, the live chat support will successfully complete the tasks introduced by the clients and raise the interaction level, which will later bring fruitful results allowing you to become a worthy competitor in your market segment.