Best Live Chat Software 2021
- Paolo Besabella
- October 25, 2021
Live chat software is a key element in helping your business improve customer satisfaction and skyrocket in revenue. In this review, we’ll walk you through what live chat software is, the benefits of using such software, and what to look out for when you’re selecting a live chat tool. Read on to see our top 5 software picks in 2021.
Long gone are the days of dialing a general customer service hotline and waiting forever to get an unsatisfying answer from a tired rep. Consumers these days are used to immediate responses, and if they can’t get satisfactory help from your company website right away, you can almost always expect them to write a negative review about your company.
To make sure customers are happy, many companies have opted to use live chat software. Ever been to a website and greeted by a live chat widget or a pop-up window at the bottom? That’s exactly what live chat software is. Through live chat software, visitors get to connect with a customer service agent, sales rep, or virtual assistant in real-time. This type of software can do many things: answer questions, promote products, connect customers with the right team, and ask for customer feedback. Most live chat tools are text-only, but some software also support audio or video call so that the rep can understand a customer’s concerns more concretely.
What's on This Page
Why use live chat software?
What are the advantages of using live chat software? Customer satisfaction is dependent on engagement and communication. Live chat may help with this if correctly used. The following are some of the benefits of live chat software that you should be aware of to increase your company’s performance.
What are the benefits of using live chat software?
Livechat software has many benefits for your business and customers. It’s important to remember that in a digital world, speed is king. Livechat gives your customers that speedy/instant response allowing you to covert them easily as opposed to the average service request via email which is 12 hours -this can end with losing customers! Here are some additional benefits of live chat:
- Increased sales and conversions
- Reduce Support costs
- Build trust with buyers’
- Gain a competitive advantage
- Increase average order value
- Satisfy your customer’s needs
Top 5 Rated Live Chat Software
Podium
Best for locally-focused businesses
Podium’s live chat software is great for customers that are on the go. Ever asked a question in a live chat window and forgotten about it? Podium makes sure this doesn’t happen by initiating a conversation via text instead. All you have to do to get started is place a few lines of code on your company website and you’re good to go! Let’s take a close look into Podium’s features:
Quick connection with customers
To start chatting with a rep on Podium’s live chat, customers first need to provide their name, phone number, and message. A sales or customer service rep will then text the customer to start answering questions, scheduling appointments, making payments, and closing deals, etc. This is a great way to gain customer data as well as to stay connected with customers offline. Bonus? Your company will feel like a friend to the customers since they can text you at any time, anywhere!
Get customer feedback via text
Podium makes getting customer feedback a piece of cake. You can ask customers to fill out a survey by sending a review link via text or ask them to rate their satisfaction with your service. Since you can see which of your team members has worked with this customer, it’d be easy to track interaction history and performance as well. In-depth reporting is also available.
Auto-responder
You can create canned responses to FAQs like business hours or store locations. If for whatever reason you can’t be there to respond to a customer in real-time, use Podium’s auto-response feature to start a conversation and capture the lead first.
You can also customize your widget so it belongs to your company’s branding!
180+ integrations
Podium can be integrated with 180+ different solutions, helping you automate tedious workflows and streamline processes between departments. If you don’t see your preferred integration platform, suggest new apps to be added.
Price
Custom pricing. Get in touch with Podium today to request a quote!
StackCompare.com
4.75 (Aggregate Score)
Trustradius.com
4.2 (34 user reviews)
G2.com
4.6 (1187 user reviews)
Pure Chat
Best for seamless integrations with other software
Pure Chat is what you’d normally expect a live chat software to look and do. Your customers can enter their questions into a chat window and your team members can then assist them with their needs. There are plenty of other features though:
Powerful visitor tracking tool
When a conversation starts, a lead is generated. The visitor tracking function on Pure Chat can monitor where the lead came from, how long they stayed on your site, how many times they’ve visited your site, and who they’ve talked to in the past. With these insights, you can provide a personalized experience at every point of a customer’s lifecycle.
Real-time analytics
Pure Chat’s reporting is in real-time so you get the most updated customer data.
Transfer files in chat
You can create canned responses for your FAQs. Past chat history is available in transcripts for reference. Additionally, Pure Chat windows support file transfers so your customers can send screenshots or files of any kind. And of course, you can use their editor to customize your widget to align with your company branding.
1,000+ integrations
Pure Chat has direct integration with popular marketing and CRM products such as Google Analytics and HubSpot. For more integrations, use Zapier to connect with over 1,000 other apps.
Price
Paid plans start from $39 per month. The Pro Plan option starts at $79 per month and allows you to place a widget on multiple websites as well as employ up to 10 operators. 30-day free trials are available.
StackCompare.com
4.63 (Aggregate Score)
Trustradius.com
4.5 (6 user reviews)
G2.com
4.4 (199 user reviews)
LiveChat
Best for predicting customer behavior and omnichannel messaging
LiveChat is a powerful customer service platform that has helped 30,000+ businesses attend to their customers’ needs. LiveChat combines questions, chats, customer data, and analytics in live chats so you can easily provide personalized help. The automation ability also helps with streamlining workflows and making sales happen faster. Let’s look at LiveChat’s powerful features:
Omnichannel messaging for maximum reach
LiveChat helps you reach the most customers possible through omnichannel messaging. Through the LiveChat app, you can send and reply to your customers’ messages on Facebook Messenger, SMS, and Apple Business Chat — platforms that your customers are most active on. (Hint: Your messages’ open rate can skyrocket just by being at the right places!)
Custom reporting
Custom you’re reporting with insights such as chat volume, average chat duration, and agents’ response time. You can also see a list of customers that are currently on your website so you can proactively jump in when you think they may need help.
Predict your customers’ questions
Canned response creation is only the beginning of LiveChat’s response capabilities. On top of that, you can see what your customers are typing in real-time so you can prepare your answer right away. LiveChat can also extract keywords then route the inquiries to the right team. To boost sales, you can insert product cards into your
200+ integrations
LiveChat can be integrated with over 200 tools across fields such as email marketing, CRM, analytics, help desk, translation, video calls — to name a few — to help you help your customers in every way.
Price
Paid plans start from $16 per month per agent. 14-day free trials available.
StackCompare.com
4.0 (Aggregate Score)
Trustradius.com
4.4 (115 user reviews)
G2.com
4.5 (691 user reviews)
Olark
Best for humanizing live chat for small businesses
With Olark, you can get in touch with customers before a conversation starts to increase efficiency and make sales happen faster. It is straightforward to set up and operate — a perfect option for small businesses that have limited experience with this kind of tool! Let’s take a deeper dive into Olark’s features:
Helpful question form
Olark excels in making your chat experience efficient and human. You can capture and understand your leads better by having them fill out a customizable form with their personal details and questions so your agents can jump into a conversation knowing exactly what your customers need. This can help you gather important data such as customer preferences and demographics as well.
Conversation tags for easy categorization
Olark’s real-time reporting gives you insights into metrics such as chat volume, response time, satisfaction ratings, and agent activity. You can also opt-in to receive regular email reports to monitor usage trends and your team’s performance. Additionally, you can use conversation tags to categorize your customers’ questions so you can see what type of concerns come up the most often.
Friendly widget customization
Like many other tools, you can create canned responses for your FAQs. Once Olark detects the nature of your customer’s question, it’ll automatically route the inquiry to the right team. When it comes to widget customization, Olark is one of the best. You can change the colors, position, and shape of the chat boxes, as well as add welcome text and an agent photo into the chat window. It’s all about being memorable and personable!
30+ integrations
Olark currently supports 30+ integrations with popular tools like HubSpot, Salesforce, Zapier, MailChimp, and Shopify. If you can’t find the integration you’re looking for, you can build your own using Webhooks or JavaScript API.
Price
Paid plans start from $19 per month per agent. 14-day trials available.
StackCompare.com
4.38 (Aggregate Score)
Trustradius.com
4.3 (32 user reviews)
G2.com
4.3 (214 user reviews)
Zendesk Chat
Best for holistic help desk experience
Zendesk is probably the biggest brand name out there when it comes to help desk software. Live chat is only one solution within Zendesk, but it’s a powerful tool trusted by 200,000+ businesses worldwide to provide solutions for sales, support, and customer engagement. Let’s take a look at its features:
Reach out before anyone else
Zendesk’s live chat is smart. It can reach out to customers proactively even before they land on your site. And once they’re on your site, Zendesk will analyze past customer behavior to send them automated messages. With Zendesk, you can connect with customers via email, social media, and phone when they’re away from your site.
Past chat history available
Zendesk offers live reporting on key metrics such as customer satisfaction and agent performance so you can quickly tailor your response to customer needs. Past chat history is also available for reference.
Add your business logo to the widget
You can create canned responses for a chatbot to answer FAQs when you’re away or want to focus your time on something else. During your chat, you can send files as well as ask customers to rate their chat experiences. You can also customize your chat widget by adding a business logo.
200+ integrations
Zendesk can be integrated with over 200 apps including popular platforms such as WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, and Shopify. You can also make your live chats smarter using a JavaScript API.
Price
Paid plans start from $19 per month per agent. Free trial available.
StackCompare.com
4.5 (Aggregate Score)
Trustradius.com
4.2 (59 user reviews)
G2.com
4.2 (2663 user reviews)
Our Rating Process
Since live chat software can benefit your company greatly, let’s look at some important criteria that you should consider when selecting a tool.
When someone visits your website, it’s likely that they’re interested in purchasing your product or service. If the live chat software can connect visitors to a sales rep, then it’s important to measure how effective the software is in bringing sales to the company.
Much more than just a chat tool, live chat software can provide important insights into customer behavior and agent performance. These insights include support response time, customer satisfaction, reason for website visits, and overall support performance.
There are probably a handful of questions that your website visitors always ask. For these FAQs, can you create canned responses? Does the software allow you to customize the live chat widget so it aligns with your company’s branding?
Since live chat software is the gateway to important customer insights, it should be integrated with other apps so that the insights can be shared with different departments. For example, if a live chat tool converted a website visitor into a potential buyer, then this visitor’s information should be shared with the CRM software.
Product Features
Podium
- Text Updates
- Auto-Responses
- 180+ Integrations
Pure Chat
- Real-time analytics
- Free Trial
- 1000+ Integrations
LiveChat
- Custom reporting
- Predictive responses
- 200+ Integrations
Olark
- Conversion tags
- Widget customization
- 30+ Integrations
Alternative Options
Similar Services
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes and no. Sometimes, you’ll indeed be chatting with a real person — most likely a customer service or sales rep. When that’s the case, you’ll normally be greeted by someone with a photo or a name. For more frequently asked questions, however, companies usually have canned responses so that their chatbots can handle those questions adequately and efficiently. Chatbots are usually at work when an agent is out of office.
There are quite a few benefits to using live chat software: to capture potential buyers, to keep leads warm by connecting with them in real-time, to answer their questions so they remain loyal to your product or service, and to help close deals faster. Companies have been shown to generate much more sales after using live chat software.
If you’re interested in a particular product, just go to their website and either buy a plan, watch a demo, or request a quote. There are plenty of live chat tools out there for you to choose from!
Live chat software works exactly the way it sounds — you can chat with a company in real-time through a chat window or on other instant messaging platforms. Usually, live chat tools appear as a widget or chat window on your company website, and users can type their messages there. Your customer support rep or sales rep will then get a ping on the backend and can reply to customers’ messages from the software. These tools can also capture customer data and feedback, helping you improve your team, products, and services over time.
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