+30% of customers expect live chat for customer support on a business’s website.
Yet, less than 20% of companies offer it.
Live chat is a sales tool, too:
- Conversions increase by up to 45% when live chat is on a website.
- Boosts website engagement rates by 3x on average.
- Consumers are 63% more likely to return to your site.
So what’s stopping you?
When your customers want to get in touch or have a question, more reach for chat than email or phone because chat is 1-on-1, convenient and real-time.
More and more, customers expect to be able to go to a business’s website and start chatting from a website chat widget should they need to be in touch with a business.
So let’s dive in on some of the best chat tools for you, for your customers and for your website user experience.
Facebook Chat (Free)
Traditionally businesses can choose to use a Facebook chat widget on their website or use a general native web chat. And when deciding which is the best app for live chat, there are pros and cons to consider for both.
With a Facebook chat widget, customer support conversations happen in the Facebook chat app.
Benefits to both businesses and customers who choose to use the Facebook live chat option:
- Conversations are persistent: Both customers and businesses can continue a conversation in Messenger at any time
- Facebook Messenger default customer data: Facebook Messenger provides businesses with contact info like name, location, language and more
- Allows for remarketing: Businesses can create an ad remarketing audience from Facebook Messenger contracts
While it is a win that it is all within one app for you (Facebook Messenger), it can impact your website loading speed if not implemented correctly.
Remember to take advantage of the chatbot provided by Facebook – very powerful for when you are away or need to funnel chatters.
There are multiple ways to add Facebook chat to your site, but we will let Facebook tell you how: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/1524587524402327
Crisp Chat (Free & Paid)
One of the faster loading chat widgets out there, Crisp Chat has it’s own app you can use to chat with your potential customers. The free plan works well and their chatbot builder comes with a visual editor so you can create workflows through their no-code builder.
Regularly nominated as one of the best live chat software, Crisp is much more than a chat for your website. Using their paid features, you can turn it into a CRM, Integrated knowledge base, and even connect the Crisp Live Chat to social networks like Messenger or Instagram.
While you need to signup to Crisp to have the chat widget, they do have very help information on setting it up on your website: https://help.crisp.chat/en/article/how-to-add-the-crisp-chatbox-code-to-my-website-10wcj3l/
Tawk.To (Free)
With a super easy setup and the app to go with it, tawk.to is our third recommended chat option. It allows for a heap of customisation, the option to hire chat assistants, and it is the #1 most widely used Live Chat software in the world (So it says on their website).
With Tawk.to you can see which pages your visitors are on in real time, know how often they visit your site and view their entire customer journey. You can provide quick and consistent responses every time with a built-in Knowledge Base and handy shortcuts (canned messages).
Signup to Tawk.to and within minutes have your chat on your site. They also have very help information on setting it up on your website: https://help.tawk.to/article/adding-a-widget-to-your-website
