What is Live Chat?
Live chat software allows you to communicate directly with the representatives of a business, usually in support roles such as customer service or technical. A live chat system is an instant messaging tool for businesses that appears as a chat window on a website.
Some online chats require the user to initiate them. In other instances, the chat window may appear automatically. Live chat is now a standard feature of many businesses' SaaS infrastructures. They consider it a must-have element of customer communication software.
You can help your clients have a more positive customer experience by offering an immediate way to ask questions and follow up on information they found on your website. Your live chat service for business must always be staffed. This means that you should be aware of the demand for your kindness and avoid long wait times whenever possible.
Your contact center staff should also have access to the necessary knowledge or at least be able to find this knowledge quickly. Your live chat solution is a part of the website and contact center solutions. Your customers do not need to install software on their devices as they would for Telegram.
A website live chat application is usually displayed as a widget at the bottom-right corner. You may hear an alert sound if the live chat on a website is proactive. You can choose to have the sound or not. Click on the widget and type in your question.
Consumers can use the live chat in the same way as any other chat app. The consumer can use the chat as they would any other app. They can also type, attach documents (e.g., to ask about something in an invoice), or send files. If they choose, they can also include emojis or other symbols.
The operator can do a great deal more than chat:
- You can choose from a wide range of tools and dashboards.
- Customers can be tracked to determine what pages they visit and for how long.
- You can prepare a pre-prepared list to reduce response time.
- The customer can see the typing as it is being done.
- Live chat can be integrated into mobile platforms or apps, whether Android or iOS.
- The moderator has the power to ban abusive customers.
- You can also ask them for feedback in the chat.
- The chat history can be viewed by a user who has previously used the service or registered on the website. The business chat may be done from the mobile app if needed.
- Customers can have live chats integrated into mobile platforms or apps, such as Whatsapp Business Live Chat, Facebook Live Chat Support, and Google Business live chat.
Don't just think of your live chat application as a communication tool. This is also an excellent way to build a list of potential contacts for future marketing campaigns. Its primary purpose is to provide your customers with a direct communication channel, which improves their experience on your website and allows you to identify any problems. Live chat is a great way to increase customer satisfaction for ecommerce businesses.
How to Use Business Live Chat
Live chats are primarily used as an online customer support or technical assistance tool. The customers love and expect a near-instantaneous reply. They also like the concept of personalization. Live chat apps help create relationships and can result in customer conversions and retention. When integrating live chat as part of customer messaging software, you must decide whether or not to be proactive:
- Reactive: Waiting on the customer to ask a common question and related query in the chat box or start a conversation. Similar to the customer needing to go to an employee in a store and ask for help.
- Being Proactive: Starting the chat on your side or letting the customer know you're there to assist. It's like a salesperson approaching you at a store.
If you only react, it could lead to you losing sales. Chatting is not always the first thing a customer will do when they have a problem or question. They may be unable to find the answer on their own and leave your site. You have now lost the customer and possibly even a return customer. They may also have a wrong opinion of your website.
A proactive attitude in a shop is often considered annoying by many people. First, browse. In a digital environment, being assertive doesn't have to be intrusive. You can reduce your website's bounce rate by telling the client you will be there for them if needed.
Selective targeting is another potential benefit of being proactive. You can see if you have an overall view of the site's activity if customers spend more time on a particular page or browse expensive products. A chat could lead to an essential sale if this is the case.
Even though we've mentioned that customers like the instant answers option, there are times when your live chat service will be busy; this is inevitable in many instances. This often happens with popular sites or specific industries (such as banking).
It would help if you found ways to prevent this. If you don't respond to a client, they may leave. Automating your live chat is the best solution to this problem. Chatbots can be installed in customer messaging systems.
What is a Chat Bot?
Chatbots are automated agents that can greet customers, inform them when the service will be busy, and tell them where they stand in line. It can even give an estimate of the waiting time. Learn more about the chatbots we offer in this guide.
Benefits of Integrating Live Chat on Websites
Customers prefer to use live chat instead of social media, emails, or even telephone support. Live website chat benefits your business. It is not just a convenient and faster way for your clients to contact your team. Live chat is a great way to improve customer service and boost your agent's productivity and help you better understand your customers.
Customers Get Better Support With Live Chat
Live chat allows customers to contact you when they need help or have a question. It's much more convenient than emailing a customer service team. You never know when they'll respond. Live chat is more popular than any other type of customer support because of the speed of receiving help.
Customer Acquisition And Onboarding Are Easier With Live Chat
Live chat can be a powerful tool to engage with new and prospective customers and to give them the assurance they need to purchase your products or use your site. Forrester says that consumers who chat with you are more likely than others to buy your product. Being available can build trust even if customers do not need immediate assistance.
Your Agents Can Build Relationships With Your Customers Through Live Chat
Agents can adjust their style to suit the customer by observing his tone of voice and emotion. Agents can build rapport quickly by matching a customer's style or changing formality. The messaging apps are a better way than the traditional channels to show off your agent's personality.
If You Offer Live Chat, Customers Will Be Less Likely To Repeat Their Purchases
Nobody wants to be asked to repeat the problem they are having. Customers expect agents to have their information, including product and support histories. Agents can also review other information they may have at their disposal.
It may be possible to see the screen the customer is viewing or notes about previous customer service interactions. Some tools allow agents to send screenshots and links to customers during a live chat to clarify everything.
Your Customer Service Team Will Be More Productive With Live Chat
The use of live chat can also improve the efficiency of your customer support agents. Chat allows a user to handle multiple tasks at the same time. If they are answering quick questions and don't need much research, handling five simultaneously is possible.
Because features and chat handling differ for each software, choose one that best suits your team and workflow. Live website chat software that allows you to handle chats, email, and all other support channels in one application. This will let your agents focus on one task and complete their work.
You Can Provide Support 24/7 With Live Chat
Live chat support is available anytime, even 24/7, if it benefits your business. Your customers won't have much reason to be upset if their queries are unanswered. Suppose you don't have enough staff to run a chat around the clock. In that case, your other self-service options, like your knowledge base with content on your product, are available anytime.
If you don't offer chat, ensure your customers can easily find the support documents. Many people want to do things themselves but aren't sure where to find information. Your customers will be cared for no matter what time of day or night they need support.
Customer Engagement Increases With Live Chat
You'll see an increase in interactions when you offer live chat. This growth may come from customers switching to chat over email/phone support. However, some will also be users who discovered the conversation and realized they could get help without giving up or ditching the product.
Increased customer engagement allows you to create a positive impression on your customers and give them a reason for staying. Set up the chat tool to display agent photos and names (if you can) and use a conversational style.
You Can Gain An Advantage Over The Competition By Using Live Chat
You can earn your rivals' business if they don't provide live chat or low-quality service. If you had to choose between two similar products in a rush, would you call customer service to ask questions, or would you prefer to use the company's website? The majority of people prefer to chat with a company than to call them. More than half of customers like to talk rather than call for support.
Live Chat Helps In Product Decision-Making
The data you collect when providing customer service via chat can be a significant benefit. Depending on the live chat software you use, you should be able to organize and tag conversations to make them easier to review.
You can help your customer service team, as well as your marketing and product teams, by putting in the effort to review and sort your chats. As a starting point, create a list of tags that all agents can use and ask them to tag their chats. Tags can identify issues such as feature requests, bugs and question types. You can identify areas in your product where you may want to update it or provide more documentation for your customers.
Effectiveness of Live Chat
Does live chat make sense to integrate into your site? Does it work? Both questions have a clear YES. It is enough to randomly browse some areas to determine how many companies have implemented this service. From small local businesses to large corporations, all have live chat apps as part of customer service.
You can save money using live chat support instead of traditional phone calls. According to research, opting for live support over conventional phone calls could save you between 17 and 30 per cent.
With phones, an agent can only handle one chat at a given time. However, well-trained and experienced agents can manage multiple chat conversations with live chat. For many companies, the possibility of increased revenues can make a difference. Live chats for business have been proven to boost conversion rates between three and five times. Sometimes, your ROI may increase by as much as 600%.
The primary benefits you expect to achieve by integrating live chat into your website are:
- Conversion rates have increased.
- Sales figures that are better.
- Targeted sales.
- Increased ROI.
- Improved customer relationship management.
- Customer journey enhanced.
- Customer satisfaction levels increase.
How to Implement Live Chat for Your Business
You've analyzed your current website and the way you communicate with customers. And you have determined that a live-chat app will help you improve. You're going to choose one of them and register. No, not quite yet. Do not rush to commit to the long term. It could cost you a lot of money to sign a contract for a long time and then discover that the software is unsuitable for your company.
Try out different options and find the one that best meets your needs. Consider it the same thing as purchasing new shoes. Try on several pairs until you find one that fits, or you may buy the first pair you try!
Spend some time creating a list of your needs, wants, and concerns and discuss the options with your sales or marketing team before signing up for free trials or packages. Make a list of providers that offer the features and functionalities you want. Last, make an order and decide which providers offer a free trial or forever free packages.
Some Interesting Statistics of Live Chat
Live Chat Is Expected To Be Used By 85% Of Companies In 2025
Web chat Has existed for some time, but only recently has it gained popularity. Digitalization is one of the main drivers behind this growth. Many companies have introduced tools that automate operations and increase efficiency.
Due to the increasing demands of customers, businesses must also adapt. The customer is more comfortable with messaging platforms today. According to research, 79% of respondents prefer live chat because it provides instant access to support.
Quickly Responding To An Inquiry Is Very Important To 90% Of The Customers
Data reveal that 60% of the customers who contact customer service prefer to receive a response or assistance within 10 minutes. According to the survey respondents, 82% consider that the same priority is given when contacting the sales team or marketing department.
Live Chat Is Only Preferred By 35% Of Companies
Only 35% of business owners think online chat customer service is important. Only 35% of owners of businesses believe that online chat customer service would be a good idea.
Most companies are overstaffing contact centers, as they believe customers prefer to communicate via phone. A further 14% believe that customers prefer to use email for communication, and 9% think the same about social media.
Thus it becomes an important aspect in order to generate customer loyalty via digital channels of chat feature with sophisticated chat experience, which also inspired by social media platforms with customer support teams to solve complex issues and simple customer issues via customer service tools is a common feature which reciprocates with a quick answer to customer expectations or in better words it can be termed as a customer engagement platform.
About 63% Of Those Who Spend $250 To $500 Per Month Online Will Likely Purchase Products From Businesses That Offer Live Chat
Also, they are more loyal. Data show that 51% of people will likely buy from the same company again if it has a live chat. Comparatively, only 38% are likely to make their first online purchase from websites with live chat. In response, 79% report that this feature positively impacts their revenue, sales and customer relationships.
Shoppers Aged 18 To 49 Will Likely Choose Live Chat As Their Preferred Service
It is estimated that 36.5% (or 18-29-year-old women) have at least used the app once. A further 37.5% between the ages of 30 and 39 have also used it frequently. In 2022, however, only 55% of mobile and 62% of desktop sites will use it.
Chatter Engagement On The Desktop Is 1,7%, Whereas, On Mobile, It's Only 1.4%
Mobile chatters will buy 14% more than desktop users on average. In addition, desktop users are more engaged with the web chat service. However, mobile conversations are more than 6.1 times more likely to convert than mobile non-chatters.
On Average, 51.68% Of All Chat Requests In 2022 Originated On Mobile Devices
According to data, there has been a 7.9% increase in the last year. We are talking over 23,000,000 chats to give you a better picture. The trend is to use mobile devices more often for live chats (or generally).
Mobile users were most likely to use live chat for recreational or consumer services. In 2018, the first group recorded 72% of mobile users, while the second had about 70%. The transport industry had the lowest percentage (23%).
Bottom line
Live chat is a feature that every business should have. Data show the adoption rate is increasing. You should adopt this feature if you don't want to be left behind. In addition, as many businesses shift to an online-only mode of operation, the customer's expectations also rise. To achieve business goals and improve customer relationships, support must always be constant and available.
Live chat is a must-have for any online business that values personalized service. It is evident that live chat support improves customer service and benefits your business. Happy customers are those who use your services again and again. A business that offers live chat service to customers in customer service platforms and improves customer interactions, allowing customers instant feedback and providing exceptional customer service, which helps to increase customer retention helps.
As a business, you can increase your conversion rate, get an impressive ROI, and grow your client base by spreading the word about your excellent customer service. Integrating a live chat application into your messaging system is easy, but selecting the right provider may be more challenging. It is essential to take the real-time and research all providers thoroughly. Read customer reviews if they are available. The right decision will have a significant impact on your company's profits.
Find out how Arion ERP, the best live chat software for websites, can help you create a more positive experience for customers and agents with contact center solutions.
