Why Most Websites Should Have Live Chat

Live chat could be holding a lot of untapped potential for your business. In today’s mobile-focused and fast-paced world, customers expect to have questions answered and get help immediately. 

While the days of calling a business on the phone and asking them about their services aren’t gone, there’s certainly a shift toward simpler, quicker methods such as messaging and live chat. In fact, “79% of consumers prefer live chats because they offer instant responses,” according to an article from 99firms.

Because customer service is such an integral part of any business, live chat not only benefits your customer service department, but also your sales and marketing departments, too. Why? When a potential customer has a question or wants to talk about a specific product, they’re much more likely to turn to the company that offers the ease of live chat and turn into a qualified lead.

So now that you have proof that customers are using live chat and actually expect instant communication, you’re probably wondering how companies actually pull it off.

How Do Companies Use Live Chat?

In a recent article from SuperOffice, they’ve projected that “live chat is expected to grow by as much as 87% in the next 12-18 months.” But as more and more businesses are turning to live chat to better connect with customers and increase leads, one question is lurking in the backs of everyone’s mind: How do companies have the time to monitor live chat?

If this is a concern for you, there’s no question as to why. Your small marketing crew is maxed out and so are the rest of your employees, so who could possibly monitor and respond to live chats?

In-House Monitoring

One option is that you can prioritize live chat as an important lead-generating tool for your business and find the time among your current resources to manage it in house. Some businesses see this as the best way to manage live chat because then the customer is able to connect directly with someone at the company. 

Third Party Monitoring

However, some businesses simply do not have the extra time or resources to manage their own live chat, and they turn to a marketing agency for help. That’s where we come in! Agencies like ours are able to integrate live chat onto your site and monitor it for you. The monitoring usually consists of coming up with some predetermined responses to common questions so we are able to respond more quickly. Any responses we do not feel comfortable answering or that we may need help answering can be routed through the appropriate person on your team.

The Best Live Chat Software Available

We’ve compiled some of the best live chat software available down below to give you a good bank to choose from. Some of these tools we use for our own website or for our clients’ websites, and some are tools we’ve just heard are good. Take a look!

Remember: A clunky and hard-to-use chat platform is almost just as bad as not having chat at all. So choose your platform wisely!

• LiveChat
• Intercom
• Tawk.to
• Zendesk

• Olark
• LivePerson
• SnapEngage
• PureChat

Get Started with Live Chat on Your Website

Are you ready to jump on the bandwagon and integrate live chat onto your website? We monitor live chat for a number of our clients across a range of industries and would be happy to help you, too! Contact us to let us know you’re interested.

Sources: SuperOffice, 99firms