Live chat software

Live chat software, in simple words, is advanced Instant messenger software like yahoo messenger, Google talk or MSN messenger with a difference that it can be incorporated in to any web site and also is bundled with pertinent accessories. Once incorporated, this software will help the webmasters, live support executives and / or outsourced chat operators to track the web site visitors in real-time and they can invite the visitors for online chat like how the real sales person approaching the customer in a physical store for help. If the visitor accepts the chat invitation, then the visitor and chat operators can have a live chat session.

Likewise, visitors can also call for the help using chat icons on the e-commerce websites for pre-sales queries. Once the visitor requests for the chat, chat operators will get the notification and sound alerts about chat request. After the chat request is accepted, visitors can ask any questions online.

How live chat software works

Online chat software is a bundle of services that will enable a communication channel between the website’s visitors and site owners or moderators in real-time. Normally, It consists of three major modules, strıp chat namely, Operator console or chat application, Chat server and chat window. Chat Software providers will provide a small HTML code after the sign-up and site owners has to integrate this code in their web pages for enabling live support service.

If any one visits the live support software integrated website, the embedded script will post the new visitor data to the online chat server and in turn, server will pass the new visitor information to the live operators. After receiving the new visitor data from the server, operator console application play the sound to alert the operators about new visitors. Operator console will also display information like city, state and country, key words they used in search engine to reach the site, previous visitor history if any and chat messages if any. This information will help the operator to understand the importance of the visitor

Benefits for live chat software

The traditional way of providing customer service using telephones or emails has gotten a facelift. With the help of chat systems, business owners can now give their customers the option of getting the level of customer service that they deserve through chat system. Below are the benefits of having chat software over the conventional methods.

• Know your web sites visitors in real-time
• Help the web site visitor at their point of need
• Rapidly Resolve Pre-sales inquiries:
• Increase your operator efficiency and Productivity
• Increase your sales volume
• Decrease your operating costs
• Increased Customer Satisfaction & brand loyalty

What are all the businesses those can use live chat software?

Support Chat software can be utilized with great efficiency literally by any business which has the web and online facility. It can be used in the following business or industry for their sales and customer support. Chat software is ideal solution for real estate agents, realtors and appraisers to handle the house purchase queries and follow-up. Web hosting companies, web designers, Financial brokers, E-commerce websites, Exporters, Software companies, Online game websites, Insurance companies, banking and almost all the business which deal the customers via websites.

Factors to be considered before buying live chat software

• Check the age of online chat providers. The older ones will have more features and it will be bug free chat software.
• Check whether they are offering real 24×7 hours support. Because, lot of new providers may cover only one time zone.
• Check whether it is easy to integrate in any websites, blogs etc.
• Hosted live chat service is better than Installable version
• Check whether the chat windows are customizable, so that it can be matched to the look and feel of any website.
• Make sure that the software supports all the major browsers.
• To increase the customer’s live chat support experience, there are a few basic features that you need to look for. Like, canned messages, Chat forward, Push HTML pages, multi-operator chat conference.
• Installable operator console is better than browse- based operator console. Because browse- based software will fetch the entire page data from the server every time and that will delay the chatting process.
• Check the price of live chat services, Ideal price is 20 to 30 US$ per operator licenses. Make a comparison of the rates, and check on the additional setup fees, if any.
• Post chat survey is great feature for getting customer feedbacks after the chat and this will help the support management to train and improve the customer support systems.

According to the recent customer survey, 82% of survey respondents said, a chat session positively influenced their attitude about that business. And 68% were more likely to purchase from the retailer again. What’s more, 75% of the respondents said they are more likely to visit the web site again and 65% said they received better service than they did on the phone. 52% purchased more because of the chat support.