10 Best Online Chat Tools for Websites in 2024
Do you know the importance of online chat for small, medium and large companies?
Whether for customer service, customer relations or to boost sales, this is a very powerful tool that is gaining more and more space in brand strategies every day.
On today’s article, you’ll find out more about this type of solution and the benefits it presents.
Ready?
What is online chat for websites?
Online chat for websites (also known as live chat) is a tool through which you can chat in real time with your website visitors.
This type of solution can rely on a data storage system and the programming of automatic responses for simpler interactions,“pre-service” or screening, thus enabling scalable service between the company and its audience.
On some platforms, it is also possible to unify the brand’s service channels (website, Facebook Messenger, Instagram WhatsApp, etc.), centralizing demands and facilitating the organization of the process.
Online chat or chatbot?
You may be wondering: “Are online chat platforms and chatbots the same thing?” Not exactly.
While online chat works as a real-time conversation tool, a chatbot is a tool in which interactions with the user are programmed using artificial intelligence or through question and answer flows.
Leadster offers, for example, a chatbot focused on marketing and sales, while others – i.e. Zendesk’s – is an online chat focused on customer service. amples
Do you know the types of online chat tools?
There are different types of online chat tools: paid, free, with different technologies, rules and complexities…
We cover all these types in the post “Conversational marketing chatbot: how to use it and some case studies“
Here, we separate the chats according to the desired usage objectives:
Online service chat
Focused on providing information or answering questions about a product, service or process, customer service and support teams need to be able to answer a wide range of questions.
Online chat aimed at this type of audience takes into account their specificities and success metrics, such as response time, satisfaction rate, abandonment rate, NPS – among others.
This type of chat can also function as a type of automated FAQ, because it quickly delivers exactly the answer to the question the visitor has.
Generally, this type of online chat is located in the logged in area of the website.
How does online chat improve your SAC?
Have you, as a consumer, ever found yourself irritated when trying to find information on a brand’s website and simply not finding it?
Or even try to contact customer service and spend forever waiting on the line for a response?
An online customer service chat can help resolve this type of situation, as it automatically provides basic information, resolves common questions and allows the customer service team to assist the consumer with what they need in real time.
This makes service easier and the process becomes faster, which improves customer satisfaction.
Online sales chat
Aimed at commercial teams, this type of online chat aims to help generate qualified leads, understanding consumer habits and interests, in addition to raising relevant information in a much more natural and spontaneous way during the conversation.
It’s a way to quickly connect prospects to the sales team when they are browsing the website, engaged with the content.
Generally, this type of chat is located on the main, pricing and product pages.
10 Best Online Chat Tools for Websites
There are several online chat tool options available.
It is worth taking into account, when choosing, the functionalities and channels available, the number of agents that can be connected to the system, the possible integrations and the size of your company.
Here we have separated some of our recommendations and options that are quite popular on the market.
1. JivoChat
For those who need a chatbot focused on customer service and support, JivoChat may be the best option on this list.
Much sought after for websites and e-commerces, it can be used for Website, Blogs, WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and emails .
Oh and yes, you can count on support in Portuguese!
Let’s go to the plans:
- Basic – free;
- Professional – $19/operator/month;
- Enterprise – $30/operator/month.
You can try the professional plan for free for 14 days !
- Rating on Capterra: 4.5/5
- Rating on G2: 4.8/5
- Rating on B2B Stack: 4.3/5
2. LiveChat
If you have a large customer service flow, LiveChat could be an interesting option.
In addition to online chat, it offers features such as sending satisfaction surveys and productivity reports.
With it you will have support in Portuguese and you will even be able to integrate with your social networks.
Let’s go to the plans:
- Beginner – $20/agent/month;
- Team – $41/agent/month;
- Commercial – $59/agent/month;
- Enterprise – need to get in touch.
Attention: you can try it free for 14 days!
- Rating on Capterra: 4.6/5
- Rating on G2: 4.5/5
- No review on B2B Stack
3. Zendesk
Get access to a personalized sales funnel, integration with telephone support systems and hundreds of response models to explore!
Zendesk’s online chat is one of the most popular and complete options on the market.
Its plans are separated into plans for service chat and sales chat, check it out:
See the reviews on the main platforms:
- Rating on Capterra: 4.4/5
- Rating on G2: 4.3/5
- Rating on B2B Stack: 4.7/5
4. LiveAgent
With LiveAgent you can manage conversations with your customers across different channels, such as chat, email, telephone and social networks.
Other than that, online chat offers features such as chatbots, integration with social networks and much more!
Let’s go to the plans:
- Free – free;
- Small – $9/attendant/month;
- Medium – $29/attendant/month;
- Large – $49/attendant/month.
- Entrerprise – $69/attendant/month.
Bonus: you can still try it for free for up to 30 days.
- Rating on Capterra: 4.7/5
- Rating on G2: 4.5/5
- Rating on B2B Stack: 5/5
5. Tidio
Tidio’s online chat offers a user-friendly interface and advanced features such as customizable chatbots and real-time conversation analytics.
You can also easily integrate the tool with others, such as Facebook Messenger and Slack.
Check out the plans:
- Free;
- Starter – $29/month;
- Growth – $59/month;
- Tidio+ – from $398/month.
You even have the possibility to try it for free!
- Rating on Capterra: 4.7/5
- Rating on G2: 4.7/5
- No review on B2B Stack.
6. Freshchat
Freshchat allows you to manage conversations with your customers across different channels, such as chat, email, phone and social networks, all on a single platform.
Furthermore, it offers advanced features, such as chatbots, conversation analysis and more.
In addition to the 21-day free trial, you can choose between the following plans:
- Free – free;
- Gorwth – $19/agent/month;
- Pro – $49/agent/month;
- Enterprise – $79/agent/month.
See your reviews:
- Rating on Capterra: 4.5/5
- Rating on G2: 4.4/5
- Rating on B2B Stack: 4.8/5
7. Podium
Podium is a reputation management and customer interaction platform that offers online chat with support in Portuguese.
From there, you can coordinate conversations with your customers across different channels, such as chat, email, telephone and social media.
Let’s go to the plans:
- Essentials – $249/month;
- Standard – $409/month;
- Professional – $599/month.
You can also try it free for 14 days!
- Rating on Capterra: 4.3/5
- Rating on G2: 4.6/5
- No review on B2B Stack.
8. Intercom
Intercom is a complete customer service platform that includes online chat, email, phone and social media.
Its features include: workflow automation, ticket management, integration with different channels and performance analysis.
Additionally, Intercom allows users to personalize chat with their brand and offers unique features like personalized automated responses and lead management.
For micro businesses you have the Starter plan for $74/month . The other plans (Support, Engage and Convert) within the “most companies” group require contact to find out the prices.
- Rating on Capterra: 4.5/5
- Rating on G2: 4.4/5
- Rating on B2B Stack: 4.5/5
9. 3CX
The 3CX online chat platform, in addition to offering support in Portuguese and managing conversations across different channels, has the advantage of features such as video conferencing and IP telephony.
Your plans start from:
- Free – free;
- SMB – $175;
- Professional – $145;
- Enterprise – $180.
See your reviews:
- Rating on Capterra: 4.5/5
- Rating on G2: 4.4/5
- No review on B2B Stack.
10. REVE Chat
Last but not least, we have REVE Chat.
The tool offers a variety of features such as live chat, chatbot support, chat queue management, integrations with other business tools, and data analytics.
With an intuitive and easy-to-use interface, you can customize the appearance of the chat, in addition to support in Portuguese.
Let’s look at the monthly plan prices (when contracting for 1 year you get 10% off and 2 years, 20%):
- Standard – $13.5/agent/month;
- Advanced – $22.5/agent/month;
- Enterpreise – $45/agent/month.
See your reviews:
- Rating on Capterra: 4.4/5
- Rating on G2: 4.4/5
- No review on B2B Stack.
10 Free online chat options for websites
Of the nine online chat options for websites that we listed above, only five of them have the option of a free plan, in addition to the paid versions.
They are:
- JivoChat;
- LiveAgent;
- Tidio;
- Freshchat;
- 3CX.
To give you even more options to choose from, I’ve selected other free online chats here, check them out:
What are the advantages and disadvantages of online chat for websites?
Do you want to know even more advantages, but also understand the disadvantages of this tool?
So check it out:
Advantages of online chat
Here I have separated the three main advantages that online chat for a website can provide your company. 👇
Facilitates relationships with customers
Online chat improves relationships with consumers, as it is agile, delivers personalized service and more fluid dialogue between brand and consumer.
Ensures rapid exchange of information
With real-time feedback and personalization of interactions adapted to consumer needs, dialogue becomes simple and agile.
The customer resolves queries quickly and can proceed with what they want.
As the tool is consumer-centric, it is able to deliver what the visitor wants, in the simplest and fastest way possible.
Speeds up the commercial process
By offering fast, easy and personalized service, the company gains relevant information throughout the entire contact or interaction.
With an online chat, you capture data about your lead and start qualifying this contact from the beginning of the interaction.
You thus generate deeper knowledge about consumers, as you collect a much greater volume of information.
And this information will be like gold for your sales team.
Disadvantages of online chat
Like everything in life, online chat for websites also has its disadvantages, which must be taken into account when making a decision.
Let’s talk about them:
The first step is usually the visitor’s
Unlike a marketing and sales chatbot, an online chat focuses on a passive approach , always waiting for the user to reach out to them.
This type of strategy ends up wasting a lot of contacts, as it doesn’t attract the visitor’s attention and doesn’t really try to understand what the potential customer is looking for , in addition to not personalizing the experience.
Investment in hiring, training or outsourcing
Online chat for websites does not have optimized or automated service, it requires a human being behind it and that is why it can end up being more expensive than a chatbot, for example.
In addition to hiring a team or outsourcing the process , you also need to invest in training, an additional expense.
More immature and less qualified leads
As your leads arrive to speak to salespeople, several will be disqualified, as they have not undergone any qualification.
The consequence is more work for the sales team , which will need to qualify each lead manually.
What are the main features that an online chat should have?
A good online chat should ideally have the following features:
- Possibility of configuring different conversations, scripts and interactions;
- Capture and storage of data and conversation history;
- Lead segmentation and qualification;
- Distribution or direction of service to the team;
- Dashboard with results and main metrics;
- Integration with other service, marketing and sales platforms .
Script examples for online chat
The conversations and scripts for your online chat interactions will depend a lot on the context, the objective, what the consumer expects…
But, to help you create this type of message, we’ve brought you some examples:
Sales Scripts
In the case of online chats used for sales, in addition to attracting the visitor’s attention, the objective is to capture their data and understand their qualifications to be sent to the sales team or not.
See the example of a sales script focused on the value proposition:
“Hello, [CUSTOMER NAME]!We saw that you requested more information about our product/service, right?
Our [TALK ABOUT PRODUCT OR SERVICE].
I can send you some materials about our products/services, what do you think?
Can you send me your name, email and telephone number so we can keep in touch?”
Relationship scripts
Chats can be used for relationships.
Therefore, in addition to capturing data to create this relationship in other channels (such as email and WhatsApp, for example), you can, through interaction, provide content, materials and tips relevant to the subject that the consumer is interested in.
Check out an example below that strengthens the relationship, seeking to schedule a meeting:
“Hi [customer name], so glad you got in touch with us!
To get to know each other better, I’m going to ask you some questions, okay?
[Ask contact and more specific questions to get to know you better, such as your occupation, size of the company (if applicable), what your pain is, etc.)”
Service scripts
One of the main uses of online chat is to provide customer service in advance, so that feedback is quicker, the reason for contact can be identified and redirected to the right professional or service sector.
Let’s look at the example below of an online chat script focused on overcoming objections to prepare you for assistance:
“Hello, [CLIENT NAME]*!We appreciate your contact.How can I help you today?
If you have more subjective questions:I’m sorry, but we are not the right department to help you with this issue.Do you mind if I transfer the call to the responsible department?
In case of simpler doubts: You can access the material [DIRECT TO PAGE OR SUPPORT MATERIAL] to resolve your doubt
Can I help with anything else?”
Common questions about online chat for websites
We are getting to the end of our article on online chat for websites, so we couldn’t leave out the main questions on this subject.
Let’s go!
How to set up a team that serves via online chat?
There are several chat tools on the market today.
Many of them, such as online chat, are not limited to machine-consumer interaction, making it possible to direct leads to human assistance at any time during the interaction.
Thus, you connect your agents or salespeople to the system and they receive conversations with all recorded history, to continue the service or commercial approach.
Some tips for building your customer service team:
- Balance supply and demand. If you have few agents, but a lot of demand coming through your online chat, study alternatives to resolve recurring questions (creating an FAQ, training or video tutorials, for example), or consider increasing your team. Leaving customers waiting too long can have a negative impact on your metrics and your brand’s reputation.
- Track service metrics. Keep an eye on indicators such as response time, sales cycle length, Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT), Customer Effort Score (CES), First Call Resolution (FCR), Average Waiting Time (TME ), Abandonment rate, among others. Monitor these metrics individually (per agent) and also overall. They are essential to the success of your strategy.
- Create different service profiles. Sometimes, an attendant can spend the whole day resolving simple queries, when there is, at the end of the queue, an urgent demand that can really impact your business. Therefore, it is important to create different profiles or ways of prioritizing assistance, so that urgent issues are dealt with quickly.
What is the average response time for an online chat?
When online chat is not automatic, response time can vary greatly depending on the time of the message and the availability of the team providing the service.
In the consumer services market, for example, the time it takes for a first response
to reach a customer is almost 6 hours.
In the corporate services sector (B2B), this wait drops to 2.1 hours.
In any case, what the consumer expects, when they send a message to an online chat, is to receive a response as quickly as possible.
Therefore, always make your opening hours clearly visible (including weekends and holidays) and, if necessary, schedule an automatic response to speed up service. 🔎
How do I put an online chat on my website?
This answer varies greatly depending on the type of online chat your brand chooses.
If you choose to put your chat on platforms like WordPress, Wix, Shopify, Magento, you usually just activate a plugin .
Now, if you don’t have the option to activate via the plugin, you will need to install via code .
Is it worth using chat platforms for your website?
If you use a static form or just a WhatsApp button, online chat for a website may be a better alternative, but it may still not be the ideal tool .
After all, you will still need a team to serve, qualify and segment leads, generating double spending.
Furthermore, you may miss several opportunities by not investing in a personalized and eye-catching experience – and even have a longer sales cycle, as many processes will be manual.
In some cases, when the company does not have a large team at its disposal or wants to reduce human support and obtain a better ROI from the tool, a chatbot may be a more viable option than online chat.
The marketing and sales chatbot is a tool that automates and optimizes the process , offering a personalized experience, instant responses and even qualification and intelligent distribution .
With that in mind, below we have outlined a step-by-step guide to an alternative to online chat for websites. 👇
Create your sales chatbot now with Leadster
Do you want to understand how a chatbot works in practice and create a version for your website in a few minutes?
With Leadster’s Conversational Marketing platform , in addition to these features, you can also increase your lead generation by 3x, integrate with WhatsApp and the main marketing and sales tools.
After creating your account and activating the chatbot, you will have 14 days to explore the tool for free. Create your account now !
