Customer experience & satisfaction is number one priority of any business. Connecting with customers is very important via vocal, written and in-person communication. A major challenge with online commerce or any service offering is that many customers wants someone who can answer their inquiries instantly with accuracy. This is where Live support feature comes very handy to your website as it gives a very valuable option to customers so they can connect with you in real-time.
Think of live support service on your website as a medium providing both sales and support to customers. It helps you generate leads, convert visits into inquiries and retain existing customers by providing them extra ordinary service. In addition to phone, email, and video customer support channels, live support is an awesome apparatus for online client support that can prompt more satisfied clients. Following are the main advantages which you get from live support.
- Improve Conversion
- Customer Loyalty
- Improve Customer Service
- Reduce unnecessary Cost
- Competitive Advantage
There are several Live chat tools available in the market. Some of them are free, some are open source and some paid. Herein we present some leading live support providers which are popular, reliable and feature rich for your website.
1. Zopim
Founded: By Royston Tay in 2008
Zopim is a live chat solution for companies who sell online, particularly because it has a free version for trial or when you only have one person speaking to customers.
Features:
- Visitor visualization
- Real time visitor info
- Email chat transcript
- Multi-device support
- Visitor monitoring
- Customizable greetings
- Developer ready API
Pricing: Free to $44 per user per month for the premium version
2. WebsiteAlive
Founded: In 2004 at the campus of the University of Texas in Austin
Website alive is forward thinking online chat supporter dedicated to an innovative and unique experience for business and consumers.
Features:
- Chat transcripts
- Engage customer instantly
- Visitor tracking
- Invitation Pop-ups
- Chat collaboration
- Communication records
- Call Routing
- Multiple chat lines
- Call transfers
Pricing: Basic pack of $50/month, with 2 licences included
3.LiveChat Inc
Founded: In 2002 Developed by LIVECHAT Software
LiveChat Inc. is one of the simple chat module with more stable and feature-rich live chat solutions, that provides several chats and receive a notification whenever a customer wants to chat.
Features:
- Efficient Customer Service
- Keep track of your performance
- Real-time website traffic monitoring
- Highly secured
- Easy to get feedback
- Easily integrate (Facebook, Salesforce, Mailchimp and so on)
- Ease of customization
Pricing: Basic package of $16/month
4. Livezilla
Founded: in June 2009
Livezilla focuses on many types of software, but mainly the type that helps to connect with customers in a new way. In spite of helpdesk platform, for interacting with your customers they built specifically a very appealing live chat platform. It’s priced incredibly well, and packs some great features.
Features:
- Real-time Visitors Monitoring
- Support Multi Website
- Multi-Language Support
- Full SSL Support
- Bidirectional Translation Services
- Instant Call-back Service
- Easy Installation and Integration
- Generate Statistics and Report
Pricing: Free (for one Operator)
5. Zoho Chat:
Founded: In November 2010
Zoho Chat provides an interesting Shoutbox feature which lets your website’s customers chat amongst each other while on your site. The special feature of Zoho is that it provides mobile access in which when you leave the office and still want to see what your customers are asking. This is very simple, but effective.
Features:
- Multiple IM Platforms
- Chat with Groups
- Easy Embed of Chat Boxes
- Search Chat History
- Refreshing UI
- Free Sign Up
Pricing: Free, but the basic accounts start at $19 per user per month
In the end, if you are not using live support in your online website you are missing some valuable sales opportunities. Live support is a very valuable tool for sales and customer support because it ultimately changes dynamic of how customer interact with service or company, it is very helpful to replace your complex service process with simple and effective solution. Hire web developers and implement a live support feature to provide real time customer sales and support.