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To deliver instant replies and smooth experiences, businesses need to harness technology that facilitates real-time engagement and communication. Finding the best live chat software is the key to achieving this.
It has become a vital tool for businesses that creates direct access between the consumer and customer service agents for prompt resolution of issues and answers to questions.
In this blog post, we’ll explore the essentials of live chat software and its functionality and introduce you to some of the best live chat solutions available today.
What is live chat software?
A live chat software is a digital communication tool that enables customers to have real-time, back-and-forth conversations with support agents for immediate assistance.
It usually appears as a chat widget or pop-up on the bottom-right corner of a website, allowing users to initiate conversations with customer support and seek immediate assistance while browsing.
Live chat software is commonly used for customer support, sales, or general communication on websites or within applications.
How does live chat work?
Live chat facilitates instant support directly from a website or application. Live chat support icon appears as a small chat box or button, often labelled Chat Now or Help.
By clicking on this chat widget, a customer opens a chat window, types their message, and sends it.
This message is then relayed to the customer support team as a notification of the incoming chat, and an agent can respond to the customer in the same chat window.
This allows for a real-time, two-way conversation between the customer and the agent.
The best live chat solution may offer additional features, such as:
- Pre-chat forms: Forms collect customer information, like name and email, before the chat begins to contextualize the conversation and assist the agent in providing better support.
- Automated messages: An initial message informs customers of working hours or offers to take a message.
- Offline support: Allows customers to leave a message through the chat window in cases where live chat support isn’t available, so an agent can respond later via email.
List of best live chat software and apps
Selecting the best live chat software solution for your business can be challenging. We are providing an introduction to the best live chats for customer service to enable you to choose the one that best aligns with your specific business requirements.
1. BoldDesk
BoldDesk comes with omnichannel support and live chat software to ensure customers get real-time support.
You can integrate BoldDesk’s live chat widget into your business website or app with just one line of code. Then customize the chat interface it to your match your branding.
Customers and support agents can communicate directly with BoldDesk’s real-time chat support. What’s more, BoldDesk, being help desk software, allows agents to convert these live chat conversations into tickets when appropriate. This helps track and route leads and customers to suitable agents and quickly resolve more complex issues. No more customer issues going unanswered!
The cool part is that you can save chat transcripts and send them via email. That means both customers and agents can access their chat history and refer to it when interacting next time.
With BoldDesk’s live chat offline support, customers still get agents’ replies by email when they are no longer available on the chat. This feature ensures there is, at all times a 24/7 customer support.. Customers can still get responses and resolve their issues without being active on the chats.
BoldDesk goes a step further by offering delivery and read receipts. Both customers and agents get notifications when messages are successfully delivered, opened, and read.
Businesses can also see the exact pages customers visited on their website before they reached out for support via live chat. This feature helps them evaluate their browsing patterns so agents can personalize their customer service, and web teams can improve the website’s information and navigation where needed.
BoldDesk also offers an omnichannel inbox, enabling support teams to manage all support requests in a unified platform. You can integrate your live chat with various messaging apps like WhatsApp and Facebook for streamlined communication.
To top it off, BoldDesk’s mobile chat module allows you to offer support wherever and whenever you are.
Key features
- Unlimited messaging
- Customizable chat widgets
- Chat histories
- Save and email transcripts
- Chat receipts
- Offline messaging support
- Automated chat routing and assignment
- Collaboration tools
- Canned responses and file sharing
- Reporting and analytics
- Integration options
- Multilanguage support
- Omnichannel support
- Mobile chat support
- Advanced privacy and security
Pricing
BoldDesk offers unmatched pricing for plans, including live chat and other help desk software. Features vary by plan.
| Agent-Based Plans | Unlimited Agents Plans |
| Momentum: $25/agent/month | Pro: $1499/month |
| Enterprise: $39/agent/month | Business: Talk to Us |
Contact us to schedule a live demo and witness how BoldDesk’s live chat software can revitalize your customer engagement strategy. To experience BoldDesk’s capabilities, please sign up for a 15-day free trial.
2. Olark
Olark provides tools for real-time communication that make it easier for small and medium-sized businesses to connect with their customers.
Olark is an easy-to-use platform for engaging with website visitors.
- User-friendly interface
- Integrations
- Automated chat routing and distribution
- Real-time tracking
| PRICING | |
| Plan |
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Free trial: 14 days
3. Tidio
Tidio has a live chat software that allows e-commerce platforms and small businesses to talk to customers in real time.
It aims to provide businesses with tools for engaging customers and centrally managing messages across different channels.
Key features
- Customization options
- AI assist features
- Integration with popular platforms
- Automated responses
| PRICING | |
| Free Plan |
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| Paid Plan |
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Free trial: 7 days
4. Chatra
Chatra is live chat software for websites. It monitors visitors in real time and facilitates group chat even when you are offline.
It enables businesses to answer customers’ questions, solve problems, and assist customers in making purchases.
Key features
- Offline messaging
- Customization options
- Integrations
- Analytics and reporting
| PRICING | |
| Free Plan |
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| Paid Plan |
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Free trial: 10 days
5. Userlike
Userlike is one of the best live chat software solutions with customizable chat widgets and smooth integrations. Businesses can interact with visitors on their websites in real time, providing immediate communication.
Userlike lets companies adapt chat features according to their unique requirements and workflows.
Key features
- Customizable branding
- Integration options
- Automated chat routing
- Customer feedback
| PRICING | |
| Free Plan |
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| Paid Plan |
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Free trial: 14 days
6. Chaport
Chaport is a simple live chat software with features like chat routing and proactive messaging that enable businesses to communicate with their website visitors in real time.
This solution is suitable for small to medium-sized enterprises who are looking for easy-to-implement live chat software.
Key features
- User-friendly interface
- Automation capabilities
- Reporting
- Multilingual support
| PRICING | |
| Free Plan |
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| Paid Plan |
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Free trial: 14 days
7. LiveChat
LiveChat provides a customer service platform that enables immediate connection with clients to resolve their inquiries.
It allows for instant communication between businesses and customers, thereby enhancing customer support and interaction on websites.
Key features
- Customization
- Automated chat routing
- Advanced reporting
- Integration
| PRICING | |
| Plan |
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Free trial: 14 days
8. Acquire
Acquire is a platform that allows businesses to engage with their audience through multiple channels for customer support.
Acquire offers a thorough set of tools like live chat software, video calls, and co-browsing for real-time interactions.
Key features
- Co-browsing and screen-sharing
- Automated canned responses
- Multilingual capabilities
- Reporting
| PRICING | |
| Plan |
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Free trial: Contact sales
9. Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk, which is part of the Zoho suite, has live chat software that aims to minimize wait times and facilitate real-time assistance.
The live chat software has an AI-powered assistant that can answer basic questions using your knowledge base.
Key features
- Customization options
- Automation
- Integration capabilities
- Reporting
| PRICING | |
| Plan |
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Free trial: 15 days
10. LiveAgent
LiveAgent is a multipurpose live chat software for communicating across various channels. It combines live chat software, ticketing, and automation in a single platform for customer support and tracking of issues.
With its real-time chat function, businesses can chat live with customers on their websites.
Key features
- Personalized chat invitation
- Visitor activity tracking
- Integrations with popular tools
- Automated chat distribution
| PRICING | |
| Plan |
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Free trial: 14 days
11. SendPulse
SendPulse’s live chat software comes with a bunch of other features like chatbot integration, a built-in CRM, or a mobile app that helps manage your conversations on the go.
SendPulse offers a chatbot builder that integrates with ChatGPT and works with Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, and Viber.
Key features
- Intuitive drag-and-drop builder
- Customizable live chat window
- Single dashboard for multiple messengers
- Deals are automatically created in CRM (customer action triggered)
| PRICING | |
| Plan |
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Free trial: 7 days
12. HubSpot
HubSpot has one of the best live chat solutions as an integral part of its all-in-one marketing, sales, and customer service platform.
The live chat software facilitates communication by letting businesses interact with customers immediately.
Key features
- Customization
- Chat history for easy record-keeping
- Integrations with Slack and HubSpot CRM
- Agent performance monitoring
| PRICING | |
| Free Plan |
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| Paid Plan |
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Free trial: 14 days
13. Zendesk
Zendesk‘s live chat software is an essential component of its customer service platform, allowing businesses to communicate with customers.
It can be integrated with other support tools and offers a user-friendly interface for engaging with website visitors in real time.
Key features
- Integrations
- Customization options
- AI and intelligent responses
- Reporting
| PRICING | |
| Plan |
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Free trial: 30 days
14. Intercom
Intercom is a help desk tool that offers live chat as one of its core features. It allows businesses to send customized messages based on customer information.
Intercom also provides reporting tools so businesses can track the outcomes of their live chat interactions.
Key features
- Automated responses
- Integration options
- Reporting and analytics
- Team performance monitoring
| PRICING | |
| Plan |
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Free trial: 14 days
Features of live chat tools
Businesses should consider the following key features when choosing a live chat solution.
Real-time messaging
This is the core feature of live chat tools. It allows for instant communication between customers and customer support representatives. Customers can send messages, ask questions, and receive responses immediately.
Real-time messaging tools include:
- Live typing
- Automatic responses
- Live translating
- Automated conversation solving
Collaboration tools
These are features within the live chat platform that allow internal communication among customer support or sales teams to work together.
They allow agents to discuss customer inquiries, share information, and collaborate on resolving issues when needed.
These tools include:
- Group chats
- Tags
- Private notes
- File sharing
- Private messaging
Chat widgets
Chat widgets are the interface for live chats that integrate into a company’s website or mobile app interface.
They serve as an immediate touchpoint for visitors to ask questions, seek support, or engage with the business without navigating away from the page they are on.
These widgets typically appear as a small icon or chat bubble in the corner of the screen and, when activated, expand into a chat interface where users can interact with a representative or an automated chatbot.
Reports and analytics
Reporting tools provide businesses with valuable insights on their overall performance. For live chat software, reporting and analytics tools can be used to generate data on key customer service performance indicators (KPIs) such as:
- Chat duration
- Response times
- Number of chats
- Customer satisfaction scores
- Chat-to-conversion rate
By evaluating these reports and analytics, businesses can assess and improve the effectiveness of their customer service, identify areas for improvement, and make informed business decisions.
Chatbots
Chatbots are AI-driven programs that chat live online with a customer whenever support agents are away or occupied.
They simulate human conversations, independently handle repetitive and common inquiries, and pass on more complicated requests to support agents. This helps businesses improve productivity and scale more efficiently.
Canned responses
These are prewritten messages that customer support agents use to respond quickly to common issues or frequently asked questions. Canned responses save time, ensure consistency and improve knowledge sharing for new support agents.
Teams can create a library of predefined messages.
Integration
Integration features in live chat tools allow seamless connectivity with other business software platforms and systems.
Data synchronization across all platforms guarantees a single view of every customer interaction, thus increasing workflow efficiency and productivity.
Live chats are commonly integrated with the following:
- Customer relationship management (CRM) software
- Help desk solutions
- Social media platforms
- E-commerce platforms
Queue management
This feature operates as a virtual waiting list that organizes chat requests based on predefined rules, such as first-come, first-served or priority levels, allowing customer service representatives to address issues in an orderly manner.
Effective queue management provides customers with estimated wait times and the option to schedule a chat session if immediate support isn’t available.
Chat transcripts
Agents can track customer conversations with chat transcripts for consistent, personalized support.
This archival tool enhances agent performance through quick access to past conversations, enabling knowledgeable responses as well as efficient issue resolution.
It also serves as a valuable reference point for quality assurance and ongoing relationship management with clients.
Advantages of integrating a live chat application
Modern consumers tend to have a low tolerance for delays and may abandon a transaction when an issue arises, and support is not readily available.
Integrating a live chat button within your website offers a convenient way for customers to seek help without having to switch apps.
Following are some other benefits of integrating live chat applications.
Increases efficiency
Using a live chat app allows customer service representatives to engage in several chat conversations at once, which is impossible with traditional communication like phone calls.
As a result, more customer queries can be addressed in less time, improving the overall efficiency of the customer service process.
Improves profits
A live chat lets you keep your customer service team smaller for longer, as one representative can handle multiple chats simultaneously. Offering online assistance lowers the rate of cart abandonment.
Younger customers are increasingly more comfortable with online means of communication and expect quick answers. Live chat gives them that. This increases sales and revenue for a company.
Builds long-term relationships
By providing prompt assistance, live chat can help establish lasting connections with customers. When customers know they can get efficient help instantly, they will want to come back.
The repeat business leads to an increased customer lifetime value. Moreover, the knowledge gained from chat records can be utilized to shape future interactions, reinforcing these relationships even more.
Helps improve the quality of customer service
By leveraging on reporting and analytics tools, businesses can obtain data on important metrics such as agent performance, customer satisfaction scores, feedback, and engagement rates.
These insights show the areas that need improvement allowing leads and managers to discover possible ideas for growth and development.
Offers multichannel support
The inclusion of live chat provides customers with an additional communication channel. It can be embedded within websites and other existing channels like social media and apps to let clients choose their preferred method of communication.
Integrate the best live chat software today for instant customer communication!
Successful businesses understand that immediate, smooth communication could be the factor that sets them apart from their rivals.
Through enhancing engagement, satisfaction, and improving agent productivity, live chat has emerged as an indispensable element for enterprises.
Find the best live chat tool that suits your business needs and budget, and watch your customer relationships flourish.
Stay tuned and utilize our amazing top-grade BoldDesk live chat software with the latest features in the market!
We hope that you found our blog post helpful. Please share your insights and experiences with different live chat software in the comments section.
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