Hi Andrew,

Do you know of any good, cheap Live Chat software for small businesses?

I run an online shop (part time, more like a hobby for me) and currently working on improving conversion rates. Would Live Chat help me achieve that? And is it a good idea at all if I can’t be “online” all day long due to other commitments?

Thanks so much!

Tracey, Devon

Hi Tracey,

Thanks for your question.

Live Chat is definitely something you want to add to your online shop, even if you’re not “online” all day long. We all know that people LOVE to deal with people (and not robots, auto-responders or corporations)! And that’s exactly what Live Chat does – it adds personal touch and boosts your credibility. And it’s not only about support!

Live Chat also shows that this is a real website, real business which again boosts your credibility, this is especially important for “cautious type shoppers”, who are always worried about credit card scams etc.

Finally, modern Live Chat software solutions offer visitor monitoring where you can see exactly how many people are “on your website” at any given time, what they’re doing (pages they visit), where are they coming from (country/city) and how they found you (Google/other website etc.). This data alone is PRICELESS!

Sure, you can see statistics in Google Analytics but it’s not in real time, so in a word – YES, you should add Live Chat to your website as it can not only improve your customer service work but help analyse visitor behaviour and make more money at the end of the day.

As for the fact that you can’t be online during work hours, there are 2 ways to go:

1. Simply log on when you are in front of your computer and log off when you’re leaving. In essence you’ll be offering Live Chat but only at times you’re available, nothing wrong with that. Just don’t write you offer 8-5 online support, that’s all.

2. Log on in the morning and log off at evening. This will create an illusion that you offer Live Chat all day long. But what happens when you’re away from your PC? Good Live Chat solutions offer an e-mail feature so you can set it up in a way that if you do not answer chat, say for 10 seconds, message comes up saying: All operators are busy at the moment, please leave a message and we’ll get back to you ASAP!

Remember, only very few people will actually use chat option BUT if it says ONLINE all day long, it boosts your credibility all day long (even if you’re not taking “calls”). Hope that makes sense?

Now, as far as Live Chat software goes – here are 2 solutions I currently use:

1. Provide Support – in my opinion, best Live Chat software out there! At just $99 a year for a one operator licence it offers exceptional value! It looks great, it offers all the features you need, it works flawlessly AND  it’s highly customizable (your own chat screens, headers, logos etc.).

Also, as it’s a hosted solution, it’s very easy to install and use. All you have to do is download a small piece of software (or you can only use online version without downloading and installing anything) and include HTML/Java piece of code on your website.

This is my favourite Live Chat software and I use it on all my e-commerce shops.

2. Live!Zilla – we should always have a choice, right? That’s why Live!Zilla is a perfect Live Chat solution for people who are a bit more experienced and will have no probs creating a data base and using a FTP client. Live!Zilla is a freeware so it’s totally FREE to use.

Yes, it’s not as fancy as Provide Support for example but it’s FREE and you get all the main features. Installation will be somehow difficult as it took me few hours to get it working as you have to install the actual software on your website before you can set up accounts and use it.

Currently I use Live!Zilla for my info product markets and it’s working fine. There are few glitches here and there but hey – it’s totally free to use (un-limited operators) so I’m overall happy with it!

Thanks,
Andrew

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