Imagine if you could have a tool on your website that enables you to connect with your potential and existing customers at lightning speed.

Imagine if this platform helped you link Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, email, phones, CRM, and other applications in one place.

Think about software that allows agents to double sales and makes your buyers happy and loyal to your brand.

Live chat software does just that. In this article, you’ll dig deeper into 11 apps that help your representatives delight visitors and triple conversions.

Let’s kick off with a definition.

What is live chat software?

Live chat software is a customer support platform that enables your business to interact with website visitors via chat windows or pop-up chats. Customers can have two-way conversations with your sales agents or support staff on their devices.

Customer service software for live chat provides instant messaging between representatives and visitors. For example, buyers can ask questions about your products or services and receive real-time feedback.

Who can use live chat apps? 

The following groups of people can find these tools handy:

• Sales agents or support staff can engage with potential customers at the speed of light.

• Customer service representatives can provide quick answers about products.

• Employees can generate leads.

• Administrative staff in education can connect with students.

• CEOs or owners can also message clients.

• Health professionals can respond to patients who want answers about medication.

Live chat for customer support integrates with other tools to offer you a centralized source of information. It can be part of CRM, messaging apps, chatbots, sales and help desk software, and e-commerce platforms.

Why is live chat software important for your small business?

Provides an instant messaging platform

One of the brilliant benefits of having a live chat app on your website is that you can message customers right away. Visitors can ask questions and get responses without delay. As a result, sales support staff can determine what buyers need and recommend products that suit them.

An online customer support chat can double your sales in the long term.

Addresses the customer’s pain points

Live chat software helps your business deal with visitors’ pain points since it’s more personalized than other channels. You can address their challenges head-on.

Offers a strong support system for workers, buyers, and prospects

Another great advantage of live chat software solutions is that they offer your staff, employees, and users 24/7 support. Each person can access the platform at a time that is convenient and comfortable for them. Because of this, engagement and satisfaction skyrocket.

Also, your small business can leverage customer service software in the ways below:

• A chatbot empowers users to discover their answers from the knowledge base, company resources, or FAQs. As a result, it promotes self-service.

• A customer can ask to talk to a live agent if they don’t get satisfactory responses.

• They can also drop a message for further support from your representatives.

• Conversations can continue as long as the chat window is open.

Widens your audience

Live chat empowers your marketing team to spread its wings in other international markets faster and cheaper. You can expand your audience and tap into new business opportunities.

Offers robust insights and analytics

Want to sharpen your marketing strategy so that it triples revenue? You must have the correct data at your fingertips. You can amass relevant customer data thanks to chat analytics and insights.

You can use the information to do the following:

1. Customer data helps you determine the best promotions for your audience. For example, is it short videos, paid ads, and email marketing?

2. Data analytics enable you to decide on the perfect campaigns for your product or service. Can you use SEO, content marketing, and social media marketing?

3. Also, statistics shape the type of content you must create for every stage of the customer journey. Must you focus on long-form content or webinars, for example?

All in all, live chat metrics allow your business to understand your customers. As a result, you can double your sales by crafting the right message that resonates with your audience.

Automates routine activities

Sales agents can waste a lot of time and reduce their productivity by performing routine tasks. They can miss out on golden opportunities to chat with customers since they get bogged down by repetitive activities. For these reasons, your business can lose sales.

But there’s wonderful news….

Customer support software can help your reps automate notifications, assign tickets, and update fields. In this way, they can zoom in on what matters most: attending to clients and selling.

Live chat key performance indicators (KPIs)

• Customer satisfaction score: This metric shows whether or not your customer is satisfied with your service.

• Number of chats: The number of chats your business has received indicates whether you’re on track to meet your goals.

• Sales conversion rates: This KIP measures how well your agents convert potential customers into buyers.

• First contact resolution: How much time does it take representatives to respond to customer queries?

• Queue time: It’s a metric that shows how long visitors wait in line before they receive help. Long delays can lower customer satisfaction.

• Agent utilization rate: It helps you measure the amount of time customer support spends on live chats. You can see whether they’re efficient or not.

• Average handle time: This KPI indicates how long each agent takes to respond to visitors.

Live chat software: Top essential features of a great tool

What are the common features of live chat software? Here are some features you need to consider when selecting a live chat tool.

Easy customization

Consider live chat software that you can personalize to fit your brand identity and provide a visual experience for your visitor. It must enable you to promote your business through the following:

• Colors

• Fonts

• Chat banners

• Designs and styles

• Personalized language

Self-hosted vs. cloud-based

Self-hosted applications are software you purchase, install, and maintain in your company’s tech system. However, a cloud-based platform operates via subscription from a third party. Most companies prefer third-party-hosted apps.

Security

Robust customer support software must protect your data against cyber threats.

Mobile support

Research shows nearly 60% of searchers on Google use their mobile devices. Because of this, live chat software must be available on Android and iOS.

Easy onboarding

Is it easy to learn how to use the software? A great live chat app should be simple for your staff to master within a short time.

11 Best small business live chat software

1. LiveChat

LiveChat is one of the best customer support platforms that empower you to connect with your visitors in the blink of an eye. It’s a potent messaging tool for customer service and online sales.

You can use the software to showcase your products while chatting. Also, you can generate and qualify leads through its AI automation and custom forms.

The app has powerful analytic tools to help monitor your sales. You can integrate it with other third-party platforms since it has over 200 integrations. As a result, you can gain insights into your buyers’ behaviors all at once.

Key Features

• Easy customization

• Integration

• Product display capabilities

• Custom forms

• AI automation

• Chatbots

• Human support ( live agents)

• Multi-channel messaging

• Knowledge base

Users: Small businesses, e-Commerce stores, large businesses

Available: Android, iOS, and Web

Price: Starts at $24 per user per month, Free trial and subscription

2. Zoho Desk

Zoho Desk is another brilliant help desk customer app that enables you to engage with visitors and monitor tickets. Also, the live chat platform helps you respond to customer needs at the speed of sound. For example, you can resolve product defects, make requests, or offer suggestions on the platform.

Also, the tool’s ticket management system comes with automation capabilities. This allows your sales team to automate routine tasks so that they can zero in on the customer.

You can use its in-depth KPIs to enhance the customer experience, determine staff training needs, and double conversions. It’s an ideal tool for outsourced marketing agencies that handle multiple clients.

Key Features

• Self-service portals with FAQs

• Reports and dashboards for analytics

• Integrations with third parties

• Automation

• Chatbots

• Ticket management system

Users: Freelancers, startups, small businesses, and enterprises

Available: Android, iOS, and Web

Pricing: Starts at $270 per user per month, Free trial, and subscription

3. Freshworks

Freshworks offers a live chat customer service app called Freshchat. It enables users to create topics according to pricing and billing, a demo, customer feedback, and support. For example, visitors can choose a demo if they’re ready to buy or support if they need extra help.

Also, Freshchat allows you to provide customers with self-service via FAQs. The live chat platform features a tool called IntelliAssign that helps representatives refer visitors to product or service experts.

Agents can also use the app’s co-browsing feature to interact with visitors through live calls, screen sharing, and audio chats.

Key Features

• Topic segmentation

• Self-service via FAQs

• Direct messaging with specialists

• Co-browsing

• Integrations

• Real-time dashboard

• Helpdesk report

• Team performance report

• Labels report

Users: Small businesses

Available: Android, iOS, and Web

Pricing: Starts at $ 18 per user per month, Free trial, and subscription

4. Chatbot

Chatbot is customer service software that helps businesses communicate with customers without a dedicated support team. It’s an AI-powered tool that responds to visitors’ questions in real-time. It has personalized greetings to engage with users, makes product recommendations, and creates and qualifies leads.

Also, the application works well with LiveChat.

Key Features

• Automated responses

• Integrations

• Customizable: users can design their chatbots through the visual builder

• Call schedule templates

• Help desk tickets

• Team collaboration

Users: Small businesses and large organizations

Available: Android, iOS, and Web

Pricing: Starts at $ 65 per user per month, Free trial, and subscription

5. Smartsupp

Smartsupp is another intelligent customer support software that combines chatbots, live chat, and videos on one platform. Agents can use its live chat to connect with potential buyers, solve their problems, and triple sales. Also, the chatbot automates replies to customers’ questions by offering instant messaging.

Representatives can also improve engagement through video calls. They can integrate the app with Facebook Messenger to speed up communication.

Key Features

• Dashboard with detailed KPIs

• Automated messages

• Video recordings

• Team chats and routing

• Chatbots

• E-commerce platform integrations

• File sharing

• Audio and visual notifications

Users: Small businesses, e-commerce, large businesses

Available: Android, iOS, and Web

Price: Starts at $19,50 per month per user, Free trial, and subscription

6. Zendesk

Zendesk's live chat application allows users to connect with visitors on mobile devices, the web, and social media tools. Customer support staff can handle conversations on the same platform and offer clients 24/7 help with chatbots. Also, they can use the app’s statistics to understand their buyers better.

Users can also personalize the software to suit their brand identity; it’s possible to customize the logo and chat window.

Key Features

• Chatbot integrations (you can build your own)

• Customization

• Canned responses

• Dashboard for KPIs

• Security through user-authentication

• Online form

• CRM

• Self-service

• Chat queue management and routing

Users: Small businesses and large organizations

Available: Android, iOS, and Web

Pricing: Starts at $ 19 per user per month, Free trial, and subscription

7. Tidio

Tidio is one of the most popular live chat software programs that allows reps to interact in real-time with website visitors. They can respond to questions and suggest products to increase sales. Also, customer support staff can save time by automating chats with AI.

They can see where the visitors are browsing the company’s website. Users can integrate Tidio with other applications, including e-commerce, CRM, and Messenger.

Key Features

• Mobile app

• Canned responses

• Viewed pages

• Live typing

• Integrations

• Dashboard

Users: Small businesses and large organizations

Available: Android, iOS, and Web

Pricing: Starts at $ 15,83 per user per month, Free trial, and subscription

8. Podium

Podium is a text-based customer service platform that operates from your website and lets you communicate with visitors. Since it’s text-based, the live chat software changes online conversations into text threads. And this continues even after the visitor has left your channel.

Also, the app enables you to generate leads by collecting email addresses and phone numbers. Sales agents can use its dashboard to monitor the number of leads created. The tool is also handy for digital marketing agencies and freelancers.

Key Features

• Lead generation

• Dashboard

• Text-based app

• Response automation

• Knowledge base (FAQs)

• Integrations

Users: Local Small businesses

Available: Android, iOS, and Web

Pricing: Starts at $ 289 up to 3 users per month, Free trial, and subscription

9. Nextiva

Nextiva is a live chat platform that blends team messaging, email, and phone into one easy-to-use help desk tool. This allows customer service staff to follow and respond to conversations faster. Also, they can see visitors' phone and email details in a single app.

You can also improve the customer experience by integrating the software with your preferred CRM. With its ticketing system, you can assign tasks to team members and set reminders.

Key Features

• Integrations

• Ticket management

• Call Pop for service calls ( shows you the caller’s details)

• Cross-team collaboration

• CRM integration

• Automated surveys, emails, and messages.

• Instant customer insights

Users: Small businesses and large organizations

Available: Android, iOS, and Web

Pricing: Starts at $ 21 per user per month, Free trial, and subscription

10. JivoChat

JivoChat is a chatbot that works alongside live operators and allows them to interact with visitors on your website. Also, the app’s automation equips agents with rapid and prompt answers. Customers can contact your business in a way that’s comfortable for them since you can integrate other communication channels.

Sales managers can view the entire sales funnel to observe each rep’s performance and the pipeline’s health status. Also, the live chat tool enables clients to provide feedback on their experience with your company's service.

Key Features

• CRM, Messenger, and WhatsApp integrations

• Saved dialogues

• Live operators

• Lead generation and statistics

• Mobile capabilities

• Dashboard for analytics

• Chatbot

Users: Small businesses and large organizations

Available: Android, iOS, and Web

Pricing: Starts at $ 19 per user per month, Free trial, and subscription

11. Pure Chat

Pure Chat is live chat software ideal for the sales and marketing sectors. It empowers the salesforce to engage with potential customers as they browse the website. Also, the customer support platform offers reps real-time analytics so that they can understand traffic trends and craft the right messages.

Installing and using the application is pretty straightforward because of its less complicated onboarding process.

Key Features

• Integrations

• Customization

• Easy onboarding

• 30-day money guarantee

• Chat notifications

• Canned responses

• Visitor tracking

Users: Small businesses and large organizations

Available: Android, iOS, and Web

Pricing: Starts at $ 49 per user per month, Free trial, and subscription

Expand Your audience and Tap into New Business Opportunities with Live Chat Software

Live chat apps are examples of small business software that help customer support staff connect with website visitors in real-time. They have essential features that allow your business to automate responses, create a help center with answers to questions, and suggest products. 

Also, the software integrates with other platforms to create a seamless experience for your customers.