What is live chat?
Live chat consists of the words “live” (in real time) and “chat” (conversation) and means in a broad sense the digital communication into real time using a chat function. In the narrower sense, a live chat is instant messaging software that is usually implemented on the website of companies in order to interact with customers live.
In addition to the website, it is also possible to offer a live chat via SMS or via a mobile app, such as Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp. Live chat offers the opportunity to efficiently answer customer questions about products, services or the company itself, without customers having to download external software. The digital support channel is usually set up via a chat button on the side of the website and messages end up in a central inbox, where they are processed by support or sales teams.
Which live chat software providers are there?
A comparison of the best live chat software providers
There are a variety of providers on the market to choose from for implementing a live chat, which usually differ in terms of their functions and tariffs. In the following, we have therefore compiled an overview of some well-known live chat providers:
Explanations of the individual comparison criteria
server location: The server location, i.e. the place where data is collected, processed and stored, plays an important role in data protection and security. In order to be GDPR-compliant, a company must have its servers at least in the EU, but ideally in Germany.
Price (per month): Most providers charge the base rate for a plan per month per employee. There may also be costs for add-ons or integrations. However, many providers charge extra for AI, premium support, or additional channels, which can quickly increase the price.
AI Chatbots: As automated conversation agents, AI chatbots can communicate with customers independently without the need for human intervention. They can be trained with their own company data and support multilingualism, which can reduce support costs and relieve employees.
Omnichannel: This means the ability to manage customer inquiries via various communication channels, such as website chat, WhatsApp, Messenger and many more, in a central point of contact. This is particularly important as customers today expect to communicate on their preferred channel.
AI Co-Pilot: AI-powered assistance features that help support agents do their job are more important than ever to increase support productivity. Examples include auto summaries, intent recognition, text enhancements, and sentiment analysis.
Integrations: Typical connections to other business tools such as CRM systems, e-commerce platforms, marketing automation, help desk software are essential to be able to automatically exchange customer data between systems and avoid manual copying work.
Knowledgebase: This means the collection of help articles, FAQs and instructions so that knowledge can be used an unlimited number of times and customers have THE opportunity to help themselves. The AI-based search can access the content and thus provide dynamic suggestions tailored to the user request.
Video/screen share: Some tools offer the option to switch to a video call or share the screen during a chat. This is particularly advantageous for complex issues, such as product advice via video or troubleshooting.
Analytics: The analysis of the live chat and support teams using performance metrics demonstrates the value contribution of the live chat, i.e. the ROI, and visualizes trends and makes it easier to make decisions based on data. The most important KPIs include response (average time until the first response), resolution time (time until the problem is resolved) and the CSAT (customer satisfaction score), i.e. customer satisfaction after chat. Tools that offer real-time dashboards are therefore particularly beneficial.
Choosing the right live chat tool depends heavily on individual requirements within the company and strategic orientation. It is important to prioritize the criteria that are most important for the business model and customers. Test phases are suitable for this purpose to try out tools for the first time.
The best live chat software providers
Live chat with moinAI
The moinAI live chat integrates real-time communication directly on your website via a central widget and a cross-channel inbox that integrates messengers such as WhatsApp or Facebook. This enables personalized customer service through customizable forms and templates for quick answers. Features such as auto-translate and group assignments allow efficient team distribution. Key features of moinAI at a glance:
- Central inbox: All chats from website, WhatsApp, Facebook, etc. in one place.
- personalization: Customizable forms and quick response templates.
- Auto-translate: Reduce language barriers for international customers.
- Group assignment: Intelligent distribution to available agents.
- AI integration: Filter simple queries, direct complexes to the live team.
moinAI stores and processes 100% of data on servers within the European Union. The solution is complete GDPR-compliant and offers features such as anonymous data collection without the user's prior consent. moinAI live chat combines the strength of AI with human expertise for optimal customer service around the clock.
Zendesk
Zendesk is an American provider that has been on the market for customer management tools for a long time. Accordingly sophisticated and The functions and integrations are diverse of this software. However, this also means that the all-in-one solution has a certain level of complexity. Depending on which application the software is used for, it can also be quickly costly become.
LiveChat
Similar to Zendesk, the provider LiveChat has been on the customer communication market for a relatively long time. The software is easy to use and offers a variety of practical functions. Although LiveChat can 14 days free trial but is not available on a free plan.
HubSpot
HubSpot is a native live chat solution and seamlessly integrated with the CRM and marketing platform. The big advantage of this is that customer interactions flow automatically into CRM, and sales and support teams get a complete overview of the customer journey. The provider is particularly suitable for companies that already work in the HubSpot ecosystem.
Freshchat
The software company Freshdesk runs under the umbrella of Freshworks and offers a help desk system which is used by over 40,000 customers from various industries, such as services, real estate, insurance or healthcare. The tool enables a Multi-channel communication via email, phone, web, chat and social media.
Drift
Drift positions itself as Conversational marketing platform with a clear focus on B2B sales and account-based marketing. Using AI, website visitors are qualified, meetings are automatically booked and high-value leads are forwarded directly to sales teams. With $2,500 per month, however, Drift is primarily aimed at larger B2B companies.
Crisp
The platform unites Live chat, chatbots, knowledge base, shared inbox, and CRM in one tool. This makes it ideal for teams that want to communicate professionally without high costs. It is an all-in-one customer communication platform with a particular focus on startups and SMEs and GDPR compliance.
How does live chat work?
Chat Button
Live chat technologies take the form of a small Window or widgets that appear on the website or in the messaging app and can use to open a conversation with company employees. As a rule, the design of the button corresponds to the corporate identity of the company, i.e. the logo, colors and animations are adjusted accordingly.
Conversations in real time
If customers click on the chat window, they can choose their respective Enter text freely - just as if you were to message someone on WhatsApp. In this way, users can describe their personal concerns in detail and individually.
Automatic Redirection
Depending on the type of live chat, it may also be possible to switch from a written conversation to a telephone or video call. For example, if the customer's request is too complex and time-consuming to discuss via chat, switching to a more direct real-time conversation, whether by telephone or video call, is a good idea to find a solution more quickly.
File Transfer
Many live chats not only offer the opportunity to formulate texts, but also files to attach. This can be helpful, for example, to explain a request in more detail or to support it with a document. For example, if the request involves a payment, the corresponding invoice can be sent.
History Logging
The history logging function is very helpful in analyzing which challenges users are confronted with and how often. In this case, the The course of a conversation stored between employee and customer so that they can be accessed later. Based on this information, both the live chat itself and the company's products or services can be constantly improved.
Knowledge Base
Many live chats offer the function of a knowledge base that stores a large number of important assets. The service staff who manage the live chat can access this knowledge database and provide customers with the information for their individual situation Play out suitable documents.
Ticket Creation
Live chats usually also have the option to create tickets. This function can be helpful, for example, if a service employee is already employed and a new inquiry to a colleague forward would like to.
What is the difference between live chat and chatbot?
Live chats and chatbots are both digital communication channels to answer customer inquiries in real time using a chat function. Although both have strong similarities, they are fundamentally different in how they work and what they are used for:
The human component
Probably the biggest difference between live chat and chatbot is that there is a real employee behind a live chat, while a chatbot is pure technology that is based either on predefined rules or on artificial intelligence is based. As a result:
Live chat = human agents answer in real time
Chatbot = AI or rule-based software answers automatically
Answer the questions in terms of time and content
The (non-) human component has a significant effect on the way customer inquiries are answered. A live chat is able to provide a very personalized care because a real person takes over the service. Although a chatbot can also respond individually to a request, it is and remains a machine that has no intention of replacing a service employee.
On the other hand, the chatbot therefore has the ability to multiple requests at the same time to process and is available 24/7, which reduces the overall burden on customer service. A live chat cannot offer this flexibility: employees can only answer one request at a time and are generally unavailable on public holidays and weekends. In the event that customer service should be staffed 24/7 with employees, this means that high expenses must be spent. In contrast, the chatbot does not represent such a high financial investment.
Preparation and Implementation
While the chatbot as artificial intelligence must first be trained for a while, the live chat can be used after a small training In principle, the service employees go live immediately. Both chatbot and live chat can be using fewer lines of code Very quick and easy to implement.
Data Collection
As a company, it is important to talk to its customers and utilize these conversations in a structured way. A complex process that can only be carried out by people with difficulty. The most important information from a conversation must be extracted and saved. A perfect task for a chatbot. With every conversation, a chatbot collects important data and knows how to link it directly to each other.
Customer Appreciation
Customers want quick and personal advice and an answer to their request. Both channels can meet these needs. For quick advice in live chat, appropriate resources must be provided, but these are in any case personal. For personal advice via chatbot, very good preparatory work must be done. Interfaces must be connected and the chatbot's conversational design must be well thought out.
Here is a summary of the comparison as a table:
legend: ✅ Yes, ❌ No, ⚪ Restricted/partly
Basically, it can be said that live chats and chatbots both have their advantages and disadvantages and complement each other very well in many ways. Successful companies therefore rely on a intelligent hybrid approach, where AI chatbots handle the crowd and human agents focus on high-quality, complex interactions. This transfer from machine to human is called Human Takeover. In this way, customer expectations can be met in many ways: The chatbot processes inquiries quickly and efficiently and the live chat offers the personal component.
Live chat benefits
Using a live chat as a communication channel can offer numerous advantages. First and foremost, the tool has a positive effect on customer service and support, but also in marketing and sales, far-reaching optimizations can be achieved.
Faster customer support
The fact that customers do not have to wait several hours on hold but can answer their questions directly in a personal chat with the company is a clear advantage of live chat. Requests are processed faster than by phone or email, so that efficiency overall customer service is being increased.
Higher conversion rates
In contrast to email or telephone customer service, customer service is via live chat directly on the website instead of. Visitors to the website will be in their Customer journey accompanied by live chat, which, for example, has a positive effect on Lead generation can have an impact. For example, a user may be more willing to leave contact details in the chat than to fill out a separate form on the website.
Better customer loyalty
By making direct contact with company employees, users get in touch with a personal and individual customer service guaranteed. This can be both the customer loyalty as well as increase customer loyalty, as the company appears more approachable and familiar.
Higher customer satisfaction
Because of rapidity, in which customer inquiries can be answered thanks to live chat, customer satisfaction is also increased. The chatbot is met with a lot of approval, especially among younger generations who have grown up using the “chat” means of communication and therefore have the habit of chatting both privately (e.g. via WhatsApp) and in a professional context (e.g. via Slack).
Live chat disadvantages
Even though the benefits usually outweigh the benefits, implementing a live chat can also have one or the other disadvantage.
High personnel costs and high costs
In order to be able to answer all customer inquiries quickly and satisfactorily, the corresponding personnel be provided. This in turn requires certain financial investments ahead, which not every company can afford. An alternative at this point is a chatbot that works completely independently as soon as it is integrated. AI-based chatbots mostly train themselves: The longer they are in use, the more they learn and the better they work.
No multitasking or scalability
How do you say: “I only have two hands.” Customer service employees have only limited capacities and cannot answer an unlimited number of requests at the same time. In order to be able to offer both personal advice and a multi-tasking function, it would be conceivable to introduce a combination of live chat and chatbot.
The need for rapid response
When users contact a live chat, is the Expectation, response within a very short time on the questions to receive, very high. If the live chat agents do not have the capacity to answer all concerns immediately, customers can quickly become frustrated and dissatisfied. To prevent such a situation from occurring, the use of a chatbot would also be a practical solution here. This could answer the frequently asked, rather simple questions so that live chat agents can focus on more complex topics. The chatbot can also process all inquiries that are outside customer service working hours.
Live chat etiquette
Tips for live chat customer service
In order for the implementation of the live chat to be a complete success, there are a few aspects that must be considered. Here are a few advices for using live chats in customer service:
Transparency
It is very important to be honest with customers, and possible Waiting times to communicate openly. If the availability times of the live chat are estimated incorrectly or inaccurately, this can quickly lead to frustration on the customer side. It is at least as important to make it transparent whether it is a live chat with human contact or a chatbot. Users have different expectations of the two channels - in order to avoid irritation, it should therefore be made very clear whether it is a human or a machine.
Employee Training
The more intensively live chat agents are prepared to work with live chat, the better. Not only should the technical Hard Skills are taken into account, but also the communicative Soft Skills. For example, live chat employees should make sure to adapt the tone of voice and language design to the corporate identity.
Message templates
An efficient way to save time when responding to customer inquiries is to use Response templates. Certain questions come up again and again, so it makes sense to have a uniform standard answer ready. This can of course be individually adapted by the service team if it does not fit a specific application.
Routing
If the visitor is to be redirected to the chat, care must be taken to smooth processes to produce. Otherwise, you run the risk of losing users along the way.
Correct spelling and grammar
Another important aspect is the topic of spelling and grammar. Live chat users only perceive the chat as reputable and confidence-inspiring if the language is correct and error-free. Implementing a language tool, for example, is a good idea for this purpose.
Conclusion
Over the years, the live chat has become a practical and efficient tool developed that facilitates customer communication and processes routine inquiries efficiently. Companies use the features of live caats to solve customer challenges in real time and thus increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. However, as the service volume at many companies is very high and the live chat is often overloaded, it is recommended that to connect with an AI-based chatbot. All information about how the Chatbot communication channel works, benefits and uses can be found in our ultimate chatbot guide. However, live chat remains essential, especially for complex, empathic interactions.
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