Looking to add live chat functionality to a WordPress website? Then read on, as we’re looking at some of the best free live chat plugins available for WordPress and usage guide & tutorial.
Customers with queries or complaints used to visit a store directly. But when the telephone was invented, customers could call businesses. Although this was an innovation, people quickly grew tired of the problems it created with receiving customer service.
Next came the internet. Email and social media made it so agents could address more concerns at once. Making response times quicker, but apparently not quick enough. Both email and social media have their downsides when it comes to managing customer service issues.
The latest attempt to promptly resolve customer questions and issues is a live chat that brings together the best of the telephone and internet-enabled worlds.
Live chat has been around since the late 1980s. When Quantum Link created On-Line Messages (OLM) for the Commodore 64, paving the way for instant messaging. Q-Link later became known as AOL—a company name you’re probably better acquainted with.
Many think of live chat as another way for customers to reach a seller. Still, since other mediums are available for customer service support, I haven’t given much thought to its implementation. Truly, this is a mistake, as live chat WordPress guide & tutorial helps increase customer satisfaction, increasing sales.
Why Live Chats?
Many see live chat as another technology to master and implement and an additional budgeting/staffing concern. Those who think this way ignore the many benefits of setting up a live chat on WordPress.
First, live chat is convenient for customers. They don’t have to exit the website to create inquiries; if they have questions, help is just a click away. 51% of consumers say they like chat because they can multitask and shop online at work.
Live chat support agents can multitask and allow the company to cut costs by not hiring as many agents as needed when operating a call center.
Live chat improves the customer service experience by offering timely responses. A study found that 93% of businesses don’t follow the “5-minute rule”. Just 7% of companies respond to inquiries made in 5 minutes or less!
This is noteworthy because just a 5-minute delay in response results in a 400% decrease in the odds of qualifying that person as a lead. In the same survey, the one thing held in common between the 7% of companies who promptly respond to inquiries is that they use chat.
Good customer service leads to sales, with 38% of customers saying they purchased a chat session. An eMarketer study also found that 63% of customers return to websites that have a live chat WordPress guide & tutorial.
Most importantly, online customers prefer this method of customer support. 92% of customers feel more satisfied with live chat than other customer service communication mediums, including voice, email, web forms, or social media.
Provide Best Customer Experience
When customers visit your website, they need quick help and guidance. According to PwC, friendly and competent help is one of the most important aspects of customer experience. An effective way to provide a better customer experience while saving time and answering objections is to add live chat WordPress guide & tutorial support to your website.
Most free WordPress live chat plugins allow multiple conversations to increase customer satisfaction.
Additionally, these plugins enable real-time problem resolution, making it easier to deliver solutions to the right customers when they are needed.
Gain the Trust and Loyalty of Consumers
According to Oracle, 90% of customers say live chat gives them confidence knowing they are getting real-time help.
Essentially, having live chat support on your WordPress site increases customer confidence in your brand. When visitors have a live chat experience on your website, they are more likely to return and make a purchase.
With personalized chat, quick replies, and helpful responses you provide, you can earn the trust of your website visitors and gain a competitive edge in your industry.
The bottom line is that using live chat on WordPress isn’t complicated or costly. Here are some of the best plugins to set up a live chat on WordPress:
Live Chat WordPress Plugins
LiveChat
LiveChat, as straightforward as its name, takes a no-nonsense approach to business. It is the industry leader in live chat support software. It offers a free plugin that lets website owners communicate with their website visitors even while on the go, as you don’t have to be logged into the WordPress dashboard to use the tool. The LiveChat application allows you or your chat operators to access LiveChat from laptops, tablets, or mobile.
LiveChat has a feature that allows chat agents to send chat invitations to users based on specific criteria, like how many pages they’ve visited or how long they’ve spent on a site. Other features include real-time monitoring, file sharing, and a built-in ticketing system that provides 24/7 support to customers. The latter-mentioned feature makes it so that even if you’re offline, your website’s visitors can still contact you for help.
LiveChat integrates with third-party software solutions such as Zendesk, Google Analytics, popular CRM Hubspot, Salesforce, and social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.
But the use of LiveChat isn’t. Basic plans start at $20/month/agent when billed annually.
3CX Free Live Chat WordPress Plugins
WP Live Chats Support is geared towards businesses looking for a cost-effective solution for a live chat on WordPress.
It comes in 6 pre-defined chat box themes, with the ability to drag and drop the chat anywhere on your page. The ability to have unlimited simultaneous conversations, offline message storage, Google Analytics integration, no advertising or links, and ban visitors from chatting with you based on their IP address.
The plugin is technically free. But you can upgrade to their Premium version for a one-time payment of $39.95 for a one-site license. Premium features include unlimited live-chat agents. Predefined responses, customer satisfaction rating, and the ability to add agent photos to the live chat window.
Tidio – Live Chat, Chatbots & Email Integration Free Plugins
The Tidio Live Chats plugin is the most accessible live chat plugin to set up—activate it, and you’re ready to go! It comes in 3 different designs, and you can adjust the color scheme to suit your company’s branding.
Tidio offers a dedicated app for mobile and desktop devices where you can manage your chats. As well as an integrated widget that supports over 140 languages.
If you aren’t available online, visitors can send you questions via email. Moreover, you will be able to contact them back via email as well. Furthermore, Tidio Chat integrates with Zendesk, GetResponse, SalesForce, and MailChimp.
Tidio offers a free plan that supports one agent and one open chat. The premium plan starts at $15/month for 3 operators, with the ability to add additional operators at $26/month/person. Alternatively, you can choose a $15/month plan for every 5000 unique site visitors.
Facebook Chat Plugin – Live Chat Plugin for WordPress
Communicate with customers on your website through Messenger-enabled chat. Chat plugin is a chat widget managed by Meta Business that enables live chat on your website.
Whether using a computer or mobile phone, website visitors can always send you a message by clicking the small messenger chat bubble in the lower right corner of the website.
Setup Live Chats on WordPress
Chats are a must for many websites today. So, especially e-commerce sites where people often have questions before completing purchases. So this improves the customer service experience by offering timely responses, which can positively affect the business: increasing brand .loyalty and sales.
Using plugins, it’s easy to set up on WordPress. The only other thing you have to worry about is making sure that your live chats are staffed by customer service agents ready to handle customer service inquiries!
Honorable Mention Outdated Plugins:
Zendesk Free Live Chat WordPress Plugins
Coming from the top customer service platform, Zendesk Chat (formerly known as Zopim) is one of the leading live chat services and is easy to add to WordPress via the free plugin.
Besides being one of the most popular customer service tool providers, Zendesk has the most stylish live chatbox interface on this list of plugins that enable live chat on WordPress, with customizable layouts and themes.
ZenDesk Chat also offers chat triggers (which open chat boxes when visitors stay on a page for a certain amount of time or visit a certain number of pages), a mobile-optimized widget, and an advanced analytics dashboard.
There is a free Zendesk Chat plan available, but it only allows for one agent to handle chats. You can only chat with customers one at a time. This may be ideal for you if you’re the sole owner and operator of your website (and business). For everyone else, premium pricing for Zendesk Chat starts at $14/agent/month.
Olark Live Chat WordPress Plugins Free
Olark is one of the best live chat solutions on the market, and you can set it up on your WordPress site using a widget (add the snippet of code to your child’s theme) or the Olark for WP plugin.
Olark’s features are robust and include the following:
- Chat reports
- CRM and help desk integration with many popular software solutions, including Salesforce, Zendesk, and Groove
- Ability to sort operators into teams according to function (like sales or support)
- Ability to search chat history—each chat conversation box gets a detailed breakdown of the customer’s activity on your website. After the conversation is made, customers can leave ratings.
- White label feature
- Ability to see what’s in the customer’s shopping cart
Olark’s pricing is straightforward, starting at $17/agent/month.
