Adding Live Chat to Your Website

If you’ve ever waited too long on hold, or sent an email that went ignored, you know how frustrating it is to have your questions go unanswered. Live chat, a real-time instant messaging–type service conducted through your website, connects you and your staff with your customers, helping them to get a response quickly—and hopefully securing a sale as an end result. Before deciding on a live chat option, there are several important factors to consider:

Do you have the need for it?

If your website has low traffic, adding live chat may be unnecessary and go unused. Many live chat software programs offer analytics, which give you the ability to see where users are coming to your site from, where they’re located geographically, and what they’re looking at in real time.

Do you have the staff for it?

Most live chat options don’t come with their own operators, which means you’ll have to train a member your team on how to answer the questions that come in. Make sure their spelling, grammar, and typing speed is up to scratch.

Do you have the space for it?

While some live chat software is hosted in the cloud, some software requires hosting on your own servers.