Crisp has plenty of functionality to help you add multichannel customer support to your business. As such, implementing Crisp into your business needs lots of smaller processes to create the whole. Our post will run through implementing Crisp for your WordPress website!
The post “Setting Up Crisp Helpdesk: A Step-By-Step Guide” first appeared on WP Mayor.
Adding live chat functionality to your WordPress website is easy and quite beneficial. Live chat has evolved considerably in recent years by incorporating powerful communication and automation features similar to popular AI chatbots. Whether you’re looking to boost sales conversions or integrate AI into your customer service process, using a live chat plugin or software on your WordPress site can be crucial to success. In this guide, we’ll show you the benefits of live chat, walk through how to add live chat to your website and look at the options available with live chat and WordPress.
Many rewards come with using live chat functionality on your website. Here are a few examples of what they can allow you to do:
Interact With Your Customers in Real-time – As the name implies, live chat takes place in real-time. Therefore, you can meet the needs of customers and visitors to your website as they come to your site. Your storefront may have set hours, and your phone line limited hours, but you can serve your customers at any time when they interact with your live chat.
Provide High-Quality 24/7 Support to Visitors to Your Website – If someone lands on your website after hours, your live chat can still service them. You can give your customers the help they need without getting out of bed through AI and automated responses.
Increase Conversions and Add Leads to Your Sales Funnel – Many live chat plugins allow you to add forms and collect information about customers who use the chat. To nurture later, you can retarget and add these customers’ information to your CRM, mailing list, or sales funnel.
Powerful AI Features for Various Automated Solutions – With the advancement of AI, some live chat solutions provide much deeper functionality and can help you create automated human-like conversations for a better customer experience.
I’m sure you get to experience other benefits of live chat first-hand once you add it to your site. On that note, let’s get to it!
Now that we’ve seen some of the benefits of live chat let’s look at how we can bring this feature to your WordPress website.
If you’re unsure which platform to use, check out our list of the best live chat plugins. There, you’ll find several plugins that could meet your specific needs. We’ll use the Tidio platform for this walkthrough, as it has a good mixture of features, support, and positive reviews.
We must create an account before we add our Tidio live chat to our website. Visit Tidio and create your account by entering your email, website, and password.
Once you have created and verified your account, you’ll see the Tidio dashboard.
Now, we’ll move to our WordPress site to install and connect our Tidio account to our website.
To install the Tidio plugin, hover over the Plugins menu item. Then, click Add New. Search Tidio in the plugin search field. Click Install Now next to the Tidio card.
Afterward, click Activate to complete the installation of the plugin.
Now that our plugin is installed, we can connect our website to our Tidio account.
Notice we have a new menu item just for accessing our Tidio settings.
From your WordPress menu, click Tidio. Then, click on the Login link under the signup form.
Enter your Tidio account credentials and click Login.
Once logged into your account, you can start your chat widget’s customization process.
To begin, you’ll need to create a new project in Tidio. Click on the Create One text link and give your new project a name.
After creating and naming your new project, you’ll have the opportunity to customize your chat widget.
You can assign a name to your chat agent and choose a solid or gradient color scheme. Additionally, you can set your chat language and upload a custom avatar to your chat widget.
Now, click on the blue Continue button. You’ll now be faced with a short questionnaire. This will help Tidio know how to personalize your experience as you maneuver through the platform.
Select the focus, add the number of agents, select your industry, and finally, the number of inquiries your site gets. Next, you’ll want to set up your welcome message. You can customize your message to say something that is on brand with your website by clicking the Customize this message text link.
After setting your welcome message, click on the blue Install Widget button.
You’ll be redirected to your WordPress website once you click the Install Widget button.
As with WordPress, testing the new feature you’ve added to your website is a good practice. To do this, navigate to your homepage and see if the Tidio chat widget appears on your homepage.
Try sending yourself a message to see what that process looks like for your guests.
Now that we know our chat is installed and working on our WordPress website let’s look at some advanced settings and features we can implement with Tidio.
With your new live chat installed, responding to visitors on your site is very simple. As you log in to your Tidio dashboard, you’ll see the mailbox icon in the top right. This is where you can see visitors on your site in real-time and respond to their messages. You can also see your chats on social networks should you connect them to your Tidio account.
Tidio comes packed with templates that you can use to increase sales, generate leads, and solve your customers’ problems via live chat. To access these templates, click on the robot icon from the left-hand menu. Here, you can customize your automated responses for a smoother WordPress live chat experience for your customers.
You can access more complex features and settings of Tidio by clicking the gear icon at the bottom of the left-hand menu. Your frequently asked questions can be answered with custom canned responses. Under the General heading, click on the Canned Responses menu link. This is where you can edit and add new preset answers to your customers frequently asked questions. Here, you can refine your live chat process by having a library of premade responses that can solve your users’ questions on the fly.
Notifications can also be customized when using Tidio. You can choose how you’d like to be notified when a visitor lands on your website (email or web notification), and you can also determine what actions trigger notifications and the web notification sound.
AI chatbots can help make customer service a breeze, and Tidio is on the front lines of adding AI to the WordPress live chat sphere. With a Tidio+ plan, you can implement their AI chatbot Lyro, which can help you create innovative chat experiences for visitors to your website.
Further customization options for your widget are also available within Tidio’s advanced settings. Change your widget’s screen position, appearance, and more. Additionally, you can add custom branding to your widget, like your brand’s colors and logo, to mesh your chat widget with your WordPress website’s theme.
While your live chat allows for 24/7 contact with your customers, you may want to set hours of operation for your chat widget. Tidio enables you to customize your operating hours individually for each day of the week. Additionally, you can customize your away message or attach a lead form that appears when a visitor encounters your site after hours.
That’s it. Now, your site is equipped with live chat!
Tidio is a solid WordPress live chat plugin. However, you may need a different set of features that it may not cover. Here are some other WordPress live chat plugins and solutions that may be a better fit for your needs:
For more, check out the best live chat software options out there.
Live chat adds a powerful interactive feature to your WordPress website. Giving your customers a way to connect with you anytime is a great way to nurture client relationships and increase conversions. With the power of AI, the options are endless in the many ways you can customize your WordPress live chat process. Tidio is a great option to power live chat on your WordPress website. From AI to customizable automated messages, easy widget styling, and email marketing tools, Tidio is a solid choice to bring live chat to your WordPress website. Live chat functionality has come a long way. Now, you have a large selection of live chat tools that you can bring to your website. Have you added live chat to your website? What platform did you use? Let us know in the comments section below!
The post How to Add Live Chat to Your WordPress Website in 2023 appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.
Giving exceptional support on a website has never been more crucial. As more websites become transactional, your visitors need more help to make the decisions you want them to make. That’s where live chat software can make all difference. In this post, we’ve compiled a list of the best live chat software solutions that cater to various business needs. Whether you’re a startup, small business, or large enterprise, discover the perfect live chat tools to elevate your customer support game and keep your visitors returning for more.
13 website chat platforms that can help you manage growing support demand and improve your brand through support.
LiveChat is a Poland-based live chat and help desk solution that allows businesses to communicate with customers in real time. It is the flagship product, but the same company also develops HelpDesk, KnowledgeBase, and Chatbot (one of the top AI chatbots).
Best For:
Companies that could see themselves using the whole ecosystem of tools, from live chat and AI chatbots to a helpdesk and knowledgebase. These integrated tools can make larger eCommerce and SaaS operations more efficient while improving customer experience (CX). eCommerce stores stand to benefit from reduced churn and better retention rates.
Pricing: Plans starting for as little as $24/mo
HubSpot is a leading CRM platform for helping businesses grow. It is known for being one of the best platforms for marketing automation, with a suite of tools for managing sales, support, and more. But did you know it also offers a live chat solution?
HubSpot’s live chat is a tool that allows businesses to connect with website visitors in real time. It can answer questions, provide support, and generate leads. HubSpot’s live chat is easy to use and integrates with other HubSpot products, such as HubSpot CRM and marketing automation tools.
HubSpot’s seamless integration with its own CRM makes it an ideal solution for businesses already using HubSpot’s suite of tools. The CRM integration allows for better tracking of customer interactions and improved customer support.
Best For:
Businesses already using HubSpot for CRM should look no further for basic live chat—though it does leave much to be desired in conversational AI. Those looking for a live chat solution and a CRM integration can solve two problems with one unified platform.
Pricing: Free live chat solution with paid CRM plans starting at $20/mo
Tidio is a live chat tool and AI chatbot that helps businesses turn passive visitors into active buyers. It’s a user-friendly live chat widget with impressive AI chatbot abilities.
Tidio is a user-friendly live chat solution with an impressive array of chatbot functionalities that cater to businesses of all sizes. The visual chatbot builder allows for easy customization of basic chatbots to suit specific business needs. Tidio+ comes with conversational AI (but at a much higher monthly price tag).
Best For:
Great for any business. They have plans that support any scale of business. Tidio can grow with you and provide you with the tools you need.
Pricing: Free, with paid plans starting at $20 per month
LiveAgent is a live customer chat software that helps businesses provide customer service to users and visitors. It is easy to use and can be customized to fit the needs of any business.
LiveAgent’s universal inbox feature simplifies customer support by consolidating communications from various channels into one centralized location. This makes it easy for support agents to manage and respond to customer inquiries no matter how they come in.
Best For:
LiveAgent is for businesses that rely on a scaled and effective customer support operation. Large support teams handling complex queries over multiple channels can rely on LiveAgent.
Pricing: Free plan available, and business plans starting at $12/mo per agent
Zendesk Chat is a live chat software solution that helps businesses provide 24/7 customer support. It is easy to set up and use and scales seamlessly with businesses of any size. People love it for its robust and scalable live chat solution with AI-powered chatbots and advanced analytics. Plus, Zendesk is a go-to provider for anything “customer support.”
Zendesk Chat is a robust and scalable solution that is especially beneficial for larger enterprises seeking advanced chatbot capabilities. AI-powered chatbots enable businesses to provide efficient and personalized customer support. It offers a variety of tools, including proactive chat, canned responses, offline forms, customizable branding, and integration abilities.
Best For:
Large enterprises seeking a live chat solution with advanced chatbot features and scalable functionality.
Pricing: Plans start at $49/mo per agent
Zoho Desk Live Chat is a customer service tool that allows your chat support team to work on support tickets and chats efficiently. You probably know Zoho from its very popular CRM and dozens of connected tools, but it offers even more. Note that live chat is only available in their “Enterprise” plan, but smaller businesses stand to benefit from the standard plan’s help center, email ticketing, and social media connections.
Best For:
Zoho Desk’s customer service and support approach is appropriate for different scaling needs. The lowest-priced plans omit reasonable things and focus on async communication channels. The higher plans assume more people-power and allow access to tools like live chat and telephone support. If you are a smaller business looking only for live chat, look at Olark (next up).
Pricing: Live chat plans start at $50/mo, but there are cheaper plans
Olark is a small but loved live chat software that helps businesses service their customers quickly. With Olark, you can chat with visitors on your website in real time, answer their questions, and so much more.
It enables you to organize the data you’ve collected from your users within Olark or your preferred CRM. It also has a WordPress plugin.
Best For:
Small to medium-sized teams seeking a no-nonsense, easy-to-use live chat solution for engaging with their customers.
Pricing: $29/mo per agent
Social Intents is a live chat solution for businesses using Microsoft Teams, Slack, Zoom, and Webex. It helps companies interact with customers using a familiar collaborative tool that employees already know how to use.
Best For:
Social Intents is a versatile live chat solution built for social teams. It’s not quite as feature-rich as customer support-oriented chat solutions, which makes Social Intents stand out. Colleges, government organizations, and clubs can use Social Intents to create a natural channel for communication with their members.
Pricing: Plans start at $49/mo
Tawk.to is a free live chat tool with one of the most attractive pricing models on the market. It offers unlimited messaging, ticketing, and agent seats and includes iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac OSX apps for free. They are also expanding into CRM, chat payments, and phone support.
Tawk.to is an affordable, feature-rich live chat software ideal for small businesses and startups. The 100% free pricing structure makes it accessible to companies of all sizes, while the customizable chat widget ensures a seamless user experience.
Best For:
Small businesses and startups seeking a cost-effective live chat solution with all the features.
Pricing: Free with professional services starting at $1/hr
Botsify is an AI live chat solution that aims to help you reduce your work so you can focus on growing a business. It works perfectly with WordPress via an official Botsify plugin or a JavaScript snippet you can manually add to your website.
Botsify’s AI-driven chatbots are designed to provide efficient and personalized customer support. And because it works so well with other popular platforms, it is easy for businesses to use Botsify in their existing workflow.
Best For:
Businesses that seek an AI-driven live chat solution with powerful chatbot capabilities and seamless integrations. Agencies love using Botsify because of the Whitelabel abilities and the dedicated teams for chatbot development.
Pricing: Plans start at $49/mo for the DIYers
Intercom is a business messaging platform that helps companies connect with their customers across multiple channels, including website live chat. Intercom’s live chat service is easy to use and customizable, so you can create a chat experience that fits your specific needs. It’s what we use here at ET!
Intercom’s targeted messaging feature enables businesses to deliver personalized and relevant communication to their customers. Custom chatbots and real-time insights help companies to provide an efficient and seamless customer support experience.
Best For:
Businesses seeking an all-in-one customer messaging service with advanced chatbot abilities and powerful integrations. We started using Intercom quite a while ago, which helped our business. Watch this 2017 clip where Mitch Skolnik discussed how we first implemented Intercom. If you are interested in it, check out our introduction to Intercom.
Pricing: Plans start at $74/mo
LivePerson is a conversational AI platform that offers live chat, chatbots, and (soon) voice AI solutions to help businesses automate customer support and eCommerce chat sales. The service provides a unified workspace for agents and supervisors to manage all conversations, and it offers a variety of tools to improve customer engagement and agent performance.
LivePerson’s AI-powered conversational commerce platform is designed to enhance customer experience and drive sales. Omnichannel support allows businesses to connect with customers on their choice channels, while advanced analytics provide valuable insights to optimize the customer experience.
Best For:
Enterprise companies looking to enhance customer experience and drive sales through an AI-powered conversational commerce platform.
Pricing: Contact LivePerson for pricing details
Podium Webchat is a text-based live chat tool allowing you to connect with visitors in real-time. With Podium, you can answer questions, schedule appointments, and close deals with real, friendly interactions that are quick and convenient. It’s a unified messaging platform for businesses designed to simplify communication and improve online reputation.
Podium is a unified messaging service that simplifies communication and improves local businesses’ online reputation. It has centralized messaging and various communication channels, such as webchat and texting, to help companies to engage with customers more effectively.
Best For:
Businesses seeking a proven messaging platform to streamline communication and improve online reputation.
Pricing: Starting at $289/mo for 1000 contacts and 3 team members
Here is a more detailed comparison of live chat and conversational AI:
Live Chat
Conversational AI
| Ranking | Product | Starting Price | Free Option | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🥇 | LiveChat | $24/mo | No | Visit |
| 🥈 | HubSpot Live Chat | Free | Yes | Visit |
| :🥉 | Tidio | Free | Yes | Visit |
| 4 | LiveAgent | Free | Yes | Visit |
| 5 | Zendesk Chat | $49/mo | No | Visit |
| 6 | Zoho Desk | $50/mo | No | Visit |
| 7 | Olark | $29/mo | No | Visit |
| 8 | Social Intents | $49/mo | No | Visit |
| 9 | Tawk.to | Free | Yes | Visit |
| 10 | Botsify | $49/mo | No | Visit |
| 11 | Intercom | $74/mo | No | Visit |
| 12 | LivePerson | Custom | No | Visit |
| 13 | Podium | $249/mo | No | Visit |
LiveChat.com is the best all-purpose live chat software at a small business price point. It has great tools and sister products supporting almost any business as they grow. Whether you only want live chat or want to look into bots and a help desk, it has you covered. If you are looking for a live chat solution that integrates with a more robust suite of tools for managing your business and customers online, Hubspot Live Chat is a great choice. For those who want live chat with impressive AI, Tidio will provide a great user experience for customers.
If you want something a little more advanced, look at the best AI chatbots on the market today.
Featured Image by semprong / shutterstock.com
The post 13 Best Live Chat Software in 2023 (Free and Paid) appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.