What is Live Chat Software? A Complete Guide

Today’s customers expect quick and efficient solutions to their queries. Traditional methods like phone calls and emails don’t always make the cut – this is where live chat software comes into play. Live chat offers a seamless way for customers to engage with businesses without the hassle of waiting.

Our research finds that 77% of customers expect to interact with someone immediately when they contact a company. And since 88% of customers say good service makes them more likely to buy again, it’s critical that companies rise to the occasion.

Live chat software provides a chat box or pop-up window that appears on the screen, allowing customers to start a conversation instantly with a service rep. It’s a dynamic tool that all businesses should adopt as a part of their customer service strategy, as it allows them to communicate with customers in real-time directly through their websites or mobile apps.

Let's explore what live chat software is, why it's essential for modern businesses, and how implementing it can significantly enhance your customer service experience.

Live chat software provides a chat box or pop-up window that appears on the screen, allowing customers to start a conversation instantly with a service rep.

It’s a dynamic tool that all businesses should adopt as a part of their customer service strategy, as it allows them to communicate with customers in real-time directly through their websites or mobile apps.

The significance of live chat software lies in its ability to provide assistance to customers at the exact moment they need it, whether it’s first thing in the morning or long after working hours.

Customers often express frustration over long wait times, and live chat effectively addresses this by reducing delays and enhancing the overall service experience. This immediacy not only boosts customer satisfaction, but also plays a crucial role in a business’s channel strategy.

Live chat software is considered to be part of the modern contact center. While traditional call centers focus on helping customers over the phone, today’s contact centers offer support with a range of channels, including self-service channels like help centers and chatbots and digital channels such as live chat, SMS, and email.

Live chat functions through a simple yet effective interface, typically located at the corner of a website or app. This feature invites users to initiate an interaction, connecting them instantly with service reps who are equipped to resolve issues and answer questions right on the spot.

Live chat software comes with myriad benefits that can help businesses meet customers’ rising expectations. Some of these include:

Improved Service Rep Productivity: Live chat software helps service reps to handle multiple conversations at once, unlike phone or email support that limits them to one interaction at a time.

Reduced Operational Costs: By enabling service reps to manage several chats concurrently, live chat software reduces cost-to-serve and increases operational efficiency. Integrating autonomous agents further reduces the load on service reps, allowing them to concentrate on more complex issues.

Increased Customer Satisfaction: The quick response times and 24/7 availability make live chat a preferred option for many customers. It also facilitates personalized interactions, as service reps can access previous chat histories and customer data to tailor the conversation, enhancing the customer’s experience and loyalty.

Live chat software is typically broken into two categories: standalone live chat software and customer relationship management (CRM) software with live chat.

Standalone live chat software includes platforms that focus solely on live chat. However, they run the risk of creating data silos if businesses don’t take the time to integrate them with other communication channels.

On the other hand, CRM systems offer live chat as part of a large suite of tools for managing customer interactions and data across service, sales, marketing, and commerce.

Selecting the right live chat software starts with understanding your business needs and goals.

From there, identify the features and capabilities you need to meet your goals – like omni-channel support and CRM integration. Prioritize an all-in-one platform rather than a siloed solution. And to get the most out of your live chat software, consider how it also integrates with the rest of your contact center ecosystem to streamline operations.

Salesforce offers an example of a comprehensive platform that gives businesses a 360-degree view of customers. Here’s how:

• Unified Customer View: With Salesforce, you can create a 360-degree view of your customer by integrating conversation history across all channels with data across every touchpoint from service, sales, marketing, and commerce. This enables your organization to personalize every interaction while also delivering seamless, connected experiences to better serve customers and realize business outcomes.
• Platform Scalability and Extensibility: Salesforce’s scalable and extensible platform grows with your business and evolving customer needs. It’s fast to implement and easy to customize with out-of-the-box capabilities, low code/no code tools, and modular components.
• Automation: Salesforce's automation capabilities support scale as business needs change and get more complex. For example, Flow is a powerful declarative "clicks, not code" tool for building multi-step process automation that helps to maximize productivity and reduce manual effort. Businesses can also build automated solutions faster with reusable building blocks that can extend across any app and legacy system.
• AI: Salesforce's AI solutions offer predictive, generative, and autonomous AI capabilities powered by your trusted CRM data. By integrating AI directly into the flow of work, organizations can boost service rep productivity and elevate customer experiences.

Live chat software is an essential tool for businesses aiming to provide exceptional customer service. Its ability to offer real-time, personalized interactions makes it a valuable component of modern customer service strategies.