Written
by Rebecca White @Rebecca_White94
The
way we interact with people is changing, both in our personal and professional
lives. When we send text messages to friends and emails to colleagues, we
expect a quick reply. And whether we're instant messaging a co-worker or
chatting with customer support on our favorite website, we often get a response
instantly.
Wouldn't
it be great if your sales team could connect with prospects in a similar way?
No
matter which stage of the sales lifecycle they're in, 82% of consumers rate an
"immediate" response as important or very important if they have a
sales question. Live chat software allows salespeople to interact with website
visitors as they're exploring content or researching products.
Plus,
many live chat software options integrate with CRM databases where
contact data and transcripts can be aggregated. And, this information can be
used to convert prospects to customers and inform business decisions across
departments (i.e., sales, marketing, and customer success).
Could
your company benefit from live chat software? If so, here are some of the best
chat tools on the market, presented in no particular order.
Best Live Chat Software
1.
HubSpot Live Chat
2.
Intercom
3.
Acquire.io
4.
LiveChat
5.
Drift
6.
PureChat
7.
SnapEngage
8.
Olark
9.
Bold360
10.
LivePerson
11.
ZenDesk Chat
12.
ClickDesk
13.
Userlike
14.
Smartsupp
15.
Zoho Desk
16.
Chaport
17.
Freshchat
18.
Nextiva
19.
Chatra
20.
Tawk.to
21.
Help Crunch
Key Features: Collaborative and Customizable
This
chat tool lets you communicate with visitors quickly and easily. Because it's
tied so tightly to the HubSpot CRM, you'll know
exactly who you're chatting with and their history with your company. Having
that context before going into a chat makes it easier for your employees and
improves user experience.
With
user experience in mind, you can also quickly route inquiries to your customer
service team or your sales team, depending on who owns that relationship.
Incoming chats are managed in Conversations, a free,
shared inbox that your entire company can use to collaborate on incoming
messages. Deals, tickets, and more can be
spun up from live chats and transcripts are stored on the contact record in the
CRM.
Another
huge benefit of HubSpot Live Chat is that it works in tandem with automated
chatbots. For example, you can create targeted welcome messages that
automatically show up on different pages of your site, at different times.
Additionally,
HubSpot's live chat widget is completely customizable so it matches your site's
look and feel. You can adjust the color, the name of your chatbot, avatar
image, and placement on the page.
Price: Live
chat is included with the Free HubSpot CRM
2. Intercom
Key Features: Smart Routing and Lead Qualification
Intercom
created chat software specifically for sales. You can route leads to specific
sales people, continue messaging via email, and target contacts by their
browsing behavior. Plus, it integrates with software like Slack, Zoom, HubSpot,
and more.
With
chatbots and live chat combined, Intercom focuses on lead generation, customer
engagement, and customer support.
Its
best feature is its smart routing and lead qualification. Intercom uses
chatbots to automatically qualify leads 24/7, route them to sales reps, and
book demos when your team isn't online.
Additionally,
you can personalize content, introduce products, segment customers and trigger
outbound emails based on the web page your visitor is on and what they're
doing.
Intercom
also excels with smart automation and self-service. If a
customer is looking for support, they can click on the chat and search for
articles in the "Help Center" located directly in the chat. Not only
does this improve user experience, but it's also helps your agents spend more
time with customers who need more help.
This
is a great option for smaller companies that need their live chat strategy to
scale with them as they grow.
Price: $87/month
3. Acquire.io
Key Features: Screen Share and Smart Suggestions
Acquire
is a multi-channel messaging platform featuring co-browse and live chat. Bots help onboard
new customers and answer common questions quickly, live chat makes it easy to
deliver fast, personalized support, and profile management allows you to
escalate certain customer conversations.
Acquire
differs from other live chat software with its screen share options on desktop
and mobile. With "Co-Browsing," sales teams can improve prospect
conversations and reduce friction in the sales process.
Additionally,
you can use an automated or canned message to answer common questions. With
smart suggestions, Acquire's artificial intelligence will recognize specific
words and auto-suggest responses. This will send auto-replies to common
customer questions without involving your team.
Two
unique elements of Acquire are the note and multilingual features. With the
chat notes, your team can privately leave critical information about
conversations for teammates to expedite resolution time. Lastly, Acquire will
automatically detect and translate your customer's language, so you can
converse in the language they understand.
Price: $300/month
4. LiveChat
Key Features: Message Sneak Peeks and Chatting on Multiple
Websites
LiveChat
will help you turn website visitors into qualified leads. For example, one of
its customers saw a 1,000% increase in
conversion rate for contacts who used the live chat compared to those who
didn't. Key features of LiveChat include chat transcripts and archives,
multilingual chat, and report creation.
You
can manage your team with ease by keeping track of your sales or customer
service team performance. The extended reports features include "chat
tags" which give you well-rounded data so you can make informed decisions.
A
few unique characteristics of LiveChat include message sneak peeks, ticket
forms, and chatting on multiple websites. Message sneak peeks allow your sales
reps to see what customers are typing before they send the message. This gives
them more time to develop a response or research an answer for prospects.
LiveChat
also offers ticket forms when employees are offline, so you don't lose those
prospects on your site. Additionally, each live chat begins with a custom,
pre-chat survey asking customers for their email, order ID, and any other
crucial information so reps have it from the get-go.
Price: $16/month
5. Drift
Key Features: VIP Targeting and Meetings
Drift
is a chat software that allows you to automate portions of the chat process.
Use the LeadBot to qualify
leads, help book meetings, and convert prospects faster.
Uniquely,
you can use highly-personalized messages targeted to specific accounts or
individuals, increasing engagement and responses. For instance, your sales reps
should be informed when a VIP account visits your website. When VIP target
accounts arrive, they'll be greeted with an automated, personalized message
from their account owner or sales rep. Then, your sales rep will get a
notification that one of their accounts is currently on your website.
How
will Drift know when your target accounts are on your website? By integrating
with HubSpot, Salesforce or Marketo, your list of accounts and contacts are
automatically tracked.
When
a VIP account arrives on your site, either your sales reps can book meetings or
the automated LeadBot can. It uses Drift Playbooks and routing to find the
ideal sales rep or account owner for your customer.
Price: Free
6. PureChat
Key Features: Comprehensive Free Plan and Chatting on Multiple
Websites
With
PureChat, you can get started for free with unlimited chats and historical chat
transcripts. It can be customized to fit your brand and allows canned responses
so you can quickly reply to visitors.
PureChat
is a great option because the free chat plan is comprehensive. It offers
unlimited chats and transcripts, advanced customization, integrations with your
CRM, chat alerts, canned responses, visitor information, and chat
notifications.
However,
its free plans don't include tracking or analytics. For advanced teams, the
Growth or Pro plans offer real-time analytics, visitor tracking, and
comprehensive account statistics and reports. Additionally, with paid plans you
get more operators and it can integrate with multiple websites.
Plus,
PureChat integrates with software like Google Analytics, HubSpot, Infusionsoft,
and Axosoft.
Price: Free
7. SnapEngage
Key Features: Omni-channel Chat Solution and HIPAA Compliance
SnapEngage
integrates with a variety of CRM databases and chats can be managed from many
channels (e.g., Facebook Messenger, WeChat, and Tweet-to-Chat via HootSuite). A
unique feature of SnapEngage is that it's HIPAA compliant, so it's secure for
medical businesses who handle patient information.
As
an omni-channel solution, your sales reps can engage with prospects right where
they are. The chat integrates with your CRM and offers custom workflow mapping,
creating an efficient, high-quality experience for your sales workflow.
Distinctly,
SnapEngage has implementation specialists who guide you through the setup
process and ensure your chat gets up and running quickly. Specialists will help
with account setup, integration and admin trainings, and optimize your chat
sales initiatives.
Additionally,
its chatbot can answer common questions and take visitor information, ensuring
you don't miss out on a sale.
Price: $16/month
8. Olark
Key Features: Customizable Forms and Powerful Add-Ons
Olark
helps you customize your chat messages by
seeing which page the contact has viewed, and pulling up past conversations if
they chatted before. Add the chat tool to specific pages and it can
automatically send a targeted chat message based on the page the visitor is
viewing. Plus, it integrates with popular business software and
platforms including HubSpot, Google Analytics, and Salesforce.
Additionally,
Olark collects information from visitors before a chat begins, providing your
sales reps with the context needed to have a productive conversation. You can
customize the information gathered during pre-chat as well, from name, email,
team size, product preferences, or customer problem.
If
you're managing a larger team, Olark can distribute chats, monitor team
performance, and create shortcuts for a shared database of canned responses.
Although
Olark is affordable, they also offer a la carte items that you can add to your
plan with flexible subscriptions. These can quickly add up and inflate the
overall cost. Named "Power Ups," these add-ons include visitor
screen-sharing, live chat translation, and visitor insights.
With
visitor insights, you can score leads, prioritize chats, and personalize your
sales approach with information gathered from public social media pages and
company websites.
Price: $17/month
9. Bold360
Key Features: Artificial Intelligence Centered and Self-Service
Options
Bold360
is another chat provider that integrates A.I. in its chat processes. Plus, you
can increase customer acquisition with
personalized engagement.
This
software focuses on tightly integrating artificial intelligence and live-agent
software for a simple, customer engagement solution. The goal is to provide
employees all the information they need to help customers get immediate and
personalized results.
Bold360
offers several live chat solutions including conversation artificial
intelligence, live chat, proactive AI, and omni-channel engagement. With
artificial intelligence, your self-service chatbots are personalized and
easy-to-use.
Additionally,
Bold360 identifies where optimizations are needed and opportunities to improve
customer outcomes.
Price: Variable
10. LivePerson
Key Features: Multichannel Messaging and Artificial Intelligence
Powered Conversations
This
chat software helps you reach prospects through channels like SMS, WhatsApp,
and Facebook Messenger. It also offers a tool called BotStudio that
simplifies bot creation with pre-built templates. With AI-powered
conversations, consumers can easily buy products and get answers to questions
in their preferred messaging channel.
According
to LivePerson, nearly 70% of consumer inquiries can be automated. With its live
chat, you can build, manage, and optimize chatbots that are scalable for your
business.
LivePerson
also offers industry-specific chatbot templates that are easy to implement and
customize. Then, when a prospect uses your chat, they'll trigger the bot
responses for a seamless conversation.
Additionally,
your sales reps can answer questions, give advice, and help prospects
understand their options before making a purchase. Live chat can expedite the
process and get prospects through the sales cycle faster.
Price: Variable
11. Zendesk Chat
Key Features: Robust Chat Analytics and Shortcuts
Formerly
known as Zopim, Zendesk Chat is a customizable chat tool that integrates
directly with Zendesk and other popular software. And, it offers robust chat analytics to
help sales teams identify issues and evaluate agent performance.
Zendesk
has features including automated triggers, pre-chat and offline forms,
chatbots, chat routing, tags, shortcuts, and analytics.
With
automated triggers, you can send targeted and behavior-based messages to
prospects. For example, if someone is on your pricing page, they're further
along in the buyer's journey. An automated chat can then appear and help them
in their decision-making process. During offline hours you can use pre-chat and
offline forms to ensure these customers can still contact you while you're
away.
Your
reps can use Zendesk as their one stop shop for conversations, since you can
link multiple profiles from Facebook, Twitter, and LINE (a new communication
app), funneling all conversations to one location.
Additionally,
with analytics, you can track your chat volume, monitor rep productivity, and
analyze metrics to anticipate customer needs. Plus,
you can measure how often your customers convert using metrics like
"making a purchase" or "leaving feedback."
Zendesk
can integrate with any CMS including HubSpot, WordPress, Drupal, Wix, and
Squarespace.
Price: Free
12. ClickDesk
Key Features: Video and Voice Chat Software
A
unique feature of ClickDesk is that it also includes voice and video chat.
Visitors can even initiate a chat from
interactive maps. And, pre-chat surveys help you gather valuable contact
information.
With
video and voice chat, your sales reps can close deals faster by quickly jumping
on exploratory calls and conducting product demos. Your reps can be on
simultaneous chats, and even collaborate on a three-way conference with reps
and visitors.
ClickDesk
is a great option for sales teams because you can transfer chats to other
agents. For example, if a visitor is speaking to a sales rep that specializes
in partner relationships as opposed to individual customers, they can transfer
the conversation if needed.
Additionally,
ClickDesk offers daily and weekly chat statistics, so you can track how many
chats were missed while offline, how much coverage your live chat is offering,
and the average duration and length of chats in a given time period. Analyzing
your chat statistics will give you insight for improved performance.
ClickDesk
also offers personalized greetings, unlimited websites, and a translation
feature in over 90 languages.
Price: Free
13. Userlike
Key Features: Operator Routing and Scalability
Userlike
helps salespeople create personalized conversations and allows contacts to
provide feedback on service and features. When a person provides their email
address, the chat tool turns this anonymous data into contacts with a smart profile.
Additionally,
website visitors can choose which department they want to talk to (sales or
service) and what skills they want in a chat representative. For example, if
you own a music store, someone could choose a sales rep with experience
teaching guitar. If a visitor has been to your site before and has chatted with
someone they like, Userlike will favor that sales rep and assign the chat to
them. These personalized options allow visitors to get connected to the best
representative quickly.
Although,
no matter how smart the chat routing is, a conversation may still need to be
manually forwarded. Userlike still offers that option with transcripts
included, so prospects won't have to repeat their problems.
Userlike
also offers screen share options where sales reps can chat with multiple
prospects at once. Plus, it integrates with CRMs including HubSpot, Slack,
Salesforce, Squarepsace, and Mailchimp.
Price: Free
14. Smartsupp
Key Features: Video Recording
A
unique feature of Smartsupp is its live chat with video recording. It
integrates with platforms like WordPress and Shopify and you can track the
impact of your chat conversations with Google Analytics.
With
the live video recording, sales reps can see the movement of each visitor on
your website, giving them a better understanding of customer behavior and
friction points in the sales process.
Although
there's a free plan, the paid plans provide more robust features including
unlimited shortcuts, more customization options, automated messages, chat
transfer, and detailed analytics.
With
automated messages you can engage with visitors at the right moment and create
personalized messages specific to your business.
Price: Free
15. Zoho Desk
Key Features: Customizable and Automated Responses
Zoho
Desk is a live chat software that helps automate the easier parts of customer
conversation. Although, Zoho Desk is typically used for customer service, the
live chat software can still make your sales reps lives easier.
For
example, you can set assignment rules for each channel, so reps work more
efficiently and customer interactions are seamless. Plus, it automates the
slower parts of the process, including gathering contact information and
responding to common questions with canned responses.
Additionally,
Zoho Desk offers feedback forms within the chat widget, allowing prospects to
let you know if they've found the responses helpful or not. Gaining this
insight can help you improve the sales process and remove friction at all
points of contact.
Price: $12/month
16. Chaport
Key Features: Multichannel and Group Chats
Chaport
can help your sales team generate leads, reduce cart abandonment, and build
brand loyalty.
With
this live chat software, you can collect visitor emails and connect with
customers whenever you need to. And, if you aren't the right person to talk to,
you can forward the message to a colleague or start a group chat. You won't
miss a sales opportunity.
Plus,
you can send personalized greetings and auto-invitations based on specific
rules. For example, if a customer is on the checkout page, you can send an
automated message to help them make the purchase.
Additionally,
your sales reps can answer questions from all communication channels in one
place. You can connect with customers on Facebook, live chat, or Telegram in
the Chaport dashboard.
Chaport
can integrate with your CRM or any app, including Facebook, HubSpot, Slack,
Salesforce, Mailchimp, and Google Suite.
Price: Free
17. Freshchat
Key Features: Multichannel and Priority Inbox
Freshchat
is a live chat software providing conversational, proactive, and automated
one-on-one messaging to improve your sales performance.
Freshchat
is largely focused on conversions and reaching the right prospects at the right
time. It offers triggered messages which encourage completing a purchase, email
campaigns which drive action after they've engaged with your brand, and
chatbots that qualify leads.
Additionally,
reps can gain insight into prospects including their navigation path, behavior
on your site, and the language they speak. This will create more natural
conversations that will resonate with your customer base.
Two
great features are the omni-channel and
priority inbox capabilities. With omni-channel chat, you can talk to your
prospects from any channel in one place. Plus, you can filter messages based on
the response time and priority inboxing will help your reps manage their
workflow.
Price: Free
18. Nextiva
Key Features: Collaborative, Internal Chat
Nextiva
is a cloud-based communication company that offers telephone and technology
services, including live chat.
Its
key features include shortcuts, availability (setting business hours and an
offline form for after hours), and unlimited chat history to reference
conversations and improve user experience.
Additionally,
Nextiva offers an internal chat. Sales reps can collaborate on certain cases,
increasing efficiency and close rates. Also, your team can send broadcast
messages to their groups or teams regarding a prospect. Uniquely, this live
chat software is a collaborative technology.
Lastly,
Nextiva offers detailed reports, so managers can review chat transcripts,
monitor rep performance, and track website visitors.
Price: $20/month
19. Chatra
Key Features: Group Chat and Automated Messages
Chatra
offers a live chat software so your reps can answer questions, alleviate
concerns, and build relationships with prospects. During a chat, sales reps
can cross-sell, upsell, and
increase the amount of deals closed.
Features
include group chats, read receipts, automated messages, and multilingual chat
options. With group chat, your sales reps can speak with multiple decision
makers and include other representatives or managers if needed. This avoids the
delay of emailing people individually and setting up separate meetings.
Plus,
with automated messages, you can target customers on the checkout page to avoid
abandoned carts. This helps sales reps reduce friction at every touch point.
Price: Free
20. Tawk.to
Key Features: Video and Voice Chat and Screen Sharing
Tawk.to
is a completely free live chat software. It offers common features including
automated messaging, widget customizations, reporting, multilingual chat,
shortcuts, and integrations. It integrates with sites like Wordpress, Joomla,
and Magento.
With
features like group chat, sales reps can speak with all decision makers and
other reps if needed. Plus, they can jump on a quick video chat and share their
screen, moving the sales process further along. Overall, this can increase
efficiency and speed in your sales process.
Additionally,
Tawk.to offers detailed reporting, including engagement tracking and
sentiment analysis which designates live chat interactions into positive
or negative. Also, with an unlimited history of chats and chat tags, you can
filter chats to see chat volume and response time.
Two
features to keep an eye on are in-chat payments and automated translation.
These are in the beta phase, but may become a fully integrated feature soon.
Price: Free
21. Help Crunch
Key Features: Chat Transcripts and Rating
Help
Crunch is a live chat software that will help sales reps pre-qualify leads by
automatically collecting contact information and messages. The software is
gathering leads for your reps 24/7, so they can spend more time having
productive conversations.
Help
Crunch can track user behavior, save responses, gather live visitor profiles
(including behavioral data), and keep chat transcripts as well.
Chat
transcripts can provide data on the best ways to communicate with prospects via
chat. Just like your sales team would sit down and listen to great and
not-so-great sales calls, your team can also accomplish that with
transcripts.
Your
reps and managers can analyze what works and what doesn't. Then, you can create
saved responses, which are canned responses, designed to save your reps time
with answers to common questions.
Additionally,
you can automatically send a chat rating to visitors after closing a
conversation which will provide insight into what works for your chat.
Price: $15/month
Live
chat software allows salespeople to engage with website visitors in real-time,
answer their questions, and hopefully move them to the next stage of the sales process. To learn
more, check out the ultimate guide to using live chat
software in sales next.
Editor's
note: This post was originally published on February 15, 2019 and has been
updated for comprehensiveness.
Originally published Oct
15, 2019 8:29:00 PM, updated October 16 2019
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