Live chat services entered the business realm in 2002 with the launch of Live Chat.

Through this initiative, customers could speak with a company representative directly via the company website without making phone calls. Because it was widely believed to be excessive and expensive, it took a while to catch on with businesses. Still, customers were more used to calling or visiting the business to get their questions handled.

Our dependence on screen-based forms of communication like email and text messaging has increased as technology has advanced. Live chat services gained in popularity and use as more people started using immediate text messaging.

Due to the sudden outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), governments of various countries have imposed complete lockdowns. Consequently, businesses that sell their products through offline distribution channels have been closed temporarily. This, in turn, has increased the sales of food items and different products on e-commerce channels and escalated the demand for live chat software to provide 24X7 customer support and resolve their queries and issues. Other than this, on account of rapid urbanization, various small-medium enterprises (SMEs) are deploying cloud-based live chat software to provide enhanced user experience and expand their market reach.

The live chat software market is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 13% during the forecast period of 2020-2025. The major players in the live chat software market are Freshworks, Zendesk, Salesforce, NinjaChat, and Kayako. These players are focused on providing innovative and advanced live chat software solutions to their customers. Additionally, these players are also investing in research and development activities to develop new and innovative features for their live chat software solutions.

Benefits of Live Chat software:

1. Increased Customer Satisfaction: Live chat software allows you to provide prompt and efficient customer service, which can lead to increased customer satisfaction.

2. Increased Sales: By providing excellent customer service, you can increase sales and conversions.

3. Reduced Customer Support Costs: Live chat software can help you reduce customer support costs by handling customer queries and concerns quickly and efficiently.

4. Improved Customer Retention: By providing excellent customer service, you can improve customer retention and loyalty.

5. Increased Customer Engagement: Live chat software allows you to engage with your customers in a more personal and interactive way, which can lead to increased customer engagement.

List of top 10 Live Chat Software

NinjaChat

Engage your website visitors by integrating your live chat with multi-channel communication like text, Facebook, WhatsApp, and many more.
Create contacts automatically from website visitors and get up-to-date contact information that syncs across multiple accounts and devices

Features:

Multi-channel Support
Engage your website visitors by integrating your live chat with multi-channel communication like text, Facebook, WhatsApp, and many more.

Unlimited Departments
Create multiple departments for product inquiries, technical issues, or general discussions to ensure customer service efforts are in the manageable section.

UI Theming
Customize your text, colors, themes, and designs for the full-featured live chat service to save time and deliver a better customer service experience without the hassle.

Agent Dashboard
Manage your agent status, and information, and set up a simultaneous chat to address visitors’ queries at the same time to reduce customer wait time.

App Integration
Increase customer service quality by automating your CRM process, reducing issues, managing tasks to create complex workflows, and reducing human error for faster resolution.

Conversation History
Keep track of all the customer history that captures the text, timestamps, location, and files of each conversation in your chat for a quick resolution.

Advanced Reports
Monitor your customer support agents’ performance and export detailed chat reports to help your team perform better in connecting with customers for best-in-class customer service.

Zendesk Chat

Zendesk Chat is a live chat software that enables businesses to provide real-time support to their customers. It is a cloud-based solution that offers a number of features such as chatbots, flexibility to customize the chat widget, integration with third-party applications, and more.

Features: –

• It is a live chat software that enables businesses to provide real-time customer support.
• It is available on both the web and mobile, making it convenient for customers to get in touch with businesses no matter where they are.
• It offers a number of features that make it a powerful customer support tool, such as automatic translation, canned responses, and chatbots.
• It is highly customizable, allowing businesses to tailor the chat widget to their branding and customer support needs.
• It integrates with a number of third-party applications, making it easy to add live chat to an existing customer support infrastructure.

Pure Chat

Pure Chat is a live chat software that enables businesses to provide real-time support to their customers. It is a cloud-based solution that offers a number of features such as chatbots, flexibility to customize the chat widget, integration with third-party applications, and more

Features:-

• Pure Chat is a fast and lightweight chat application that is easy to use and install.
• It offers a variety of features that make it a great choice for businesses of all sizes, including group chat, file sharing, and integration with a variety of third-party applications.
• It is highly customizable, so businesses can tailor the chat application to their specific needs.
• It offers excellent customer support, so businesses can get help when they need it.
• It is a great choice for businesses that need a chat application that is easy to use, fast, and reliable.

Live Chat Inc

Live Chat Inc is a live chat software that enables businesses to provide real-time support to their customers. It is a cloud-based solution that offers a number of features such as chatbots, flexibility to customize the chat widget, integration with third-party applications, and more.

Features:

• Live Chat Inc provides an instant messaging service that lets you chat with friends and family in real-time
• It offers a variety of features including group chat, file sharing, voice and video calls, and more.
• It is available on a variety of platforms including iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac.
• It is a free service with no ads or subscription fees.
• It offers customer support via live chat, email, and telephone.

Chatfuel

Chatfuel is a live chat software that enables businesses to provide real-time support to their customers. It is a cloud-based solution that offers a number of features such as chatbots, flexibility to customize the chat widget, integration with third-party applications, and more.

Features:

• Ease of Use: Chatfuel is very easy to use. You don’t need any coding skills to create a chatbot with Chatfuel.
• Rich Media Support: Chatfuel allows you to add rich media (images, videos, and audio) to your chatbot. This makes your chatbot more engaging and interactive.
• AI Support: Chatfuel has built-in AI features that help you create a more intelligent chatbot. For example, you can use Chatfuel’s AI to automatically answer FAQs.
• Integrations: Chatfuel integrates with a number of popular platforms, including Facebook Messenger, Slack, and Telegram. This makes it easy to use Chatfuel with your existing tools and platforms.
• Pricing: Chatfuel is very affordable. There is a free plan available, as well as paid plans that start at just $15 per month.

Drift

Drift is a live chat software that enables businesses to provide real-time support to their customers. It is a cloud-based solution that offers a number of features such as chatbots, flexibility to customize the chat widget, integration with third-party applications, and more.

Features:

• Easy to use: The interface is clean and simple, making it easy to get started with Drift.
• Powerful chatbot builder: Drift’s chatbot builder is powerful and flexible, allowing you to create chatbots that can handle a variety of tasks.
• Natural language processing: Drift’s NLP capabilities allow it to understand customer queries and provide relevant responses.
• Integrations: Drift integrates with a variety of popular business tools, making it easy to use in your existing workflow.
• Excellent customer support: Drift’s customer support is responsive and helpful, making it easy to get help when you need it.

HubSpot

HubSpot is a live chat software that enables businesses to provide real-time support to their customers. It is a cloud-based solution that offers a number of features such as chatbots, flexibility to customize the chat widget, integration with third-party applications, and more.

Features:

• HubSpot’s chat feature allows you to quickly and easily connect with prospects and customers.
• It allows you to create transcripts of your chats, so you can review them later.
• It allows you to create canned responses, so you can quickly respond to commonly asked questions.
• It allows you to forward chats to other team members, so they can help resolve issues.
• It allows you to create chatbots, so you can automate some of your customer service tasks.

Smartsupp

Smartsupp is a live chat software that enables businesses to provide real-time support to their customers. It is a cloud-based solution that offers a number of features such as chatbots, flexibility to customize the chat widget, integration with third-party applications, and more.

Features:

• It is a live chat software that allows you to communicate with your website visitors in real-time.
• With Smartsuppchat, you can offer live chat support, answer customer queries and resolve issues instantly.
• It also allows you to collect customer feedback and generate leads.
• The software is easy to use and comes with a range of features that make it a powerful live chat solution.
• It is an affordable live chat software that offers a free trial.

Freshchat

Freshchat is a live chat software that enables businesses to provide real-time support to their customers. It is a cloud-based solution that offers a number of features such as chatbots, flexibility to customize the chat widget, integration with third-party applications, and more.

Features:

• Freshchat is a powerful and easy-to-use customer engagement software that helps businesses increase their customer satisfaction scores.
• It provides businesses with a rich set of features that helps them increase customer engagement and satisfaction.
• It includes a powerful and easy-to-use chat interface, rich media support, real-time messaging, and more.
• Freshchat’s rich media support helps businesses increase customer engagement by allowing them to send and receive photos, videos, and other rich media content.
• It’s real-time messaging helps businesses keep their customers updated on the latest customer service issues and product updates.

Acquire

Acquire is a live chat software that enables businesses to provide real-time support to their customers. It is a cloud-based solution that offers a number of features such as chatbots, flexibility to customize the chat widget, integration with third-party applications, and more.

Features:

• Chat feature helps you to communicate with your friends and family easily.
• You can easily share photos, videos, and other files with your contacts.
• Chat feature provides end-to-end encryption for your privacy.
• You can easily create group chats and add people to them.
• You can customize your chat experience by changing your chat theme and notification settings.

What’s Next?

Businesses would be able to more easily manage their customer support and customer engagement in one location if various support apps were included in a suite. This would make it easier to monitor the progress and outcomes as well as the success of the support campaign as a whole.

Having a variety of business suites, such as those for sales, human resources, customer support, marketing, and other departments, will help you get the most out of your technology investments and make sure that your company is operating as efficiently and successfully by using 500apps.

Conclusion

When choosing LiveChat software, it is important to consider your specific needs and requirements. Some LiveChat software options offer more features and functionality than others. Some are more user-friendly than others. And some may be more affordable than others. Ultimately, the best LiveChat software for you is NinjaChat from 500apps which engages your website, and visitors.