Creating a website for your business is one of the ways to let your customers learn about your services and even interact with you online. It gives you an opportunity to inform your website visitors about your products and services and even make sales online. However, what if you went a little bit further with this? A customer might be interested in one of your products but they might need to get more information or ask a question about the product. There are several ways through which they can do that, maybe through the contact us section on your website where you have a contact form or maybe if you have a phone number on the website, they could call you. But how long will it take you before you reply to the email? What if you are on another call? There are chances that the customer might look the other way and get the product from someone else.
This is something that can be easily solved by using a live chat plugin. If you offer your customers a way to get a quick response by asking a question through a live chat feature, they will most likely be delighted and will definitely buy from you since they will have all their questions answered. A live chat option helps give answers to a customer’s specific questions about your products and services. You can even use this feature to start a conversation with a website visitor and maybe guide them through what they are looking for. This way, you will end up making more sales compared to if you did not have the live chat feature. There are several plugins that can help you achieve this. In this article, we are going to discuss the ten best plugins that you can use to set up a live chat on your WordPress website.
Awesome Live Chat
Awesome Live Chat plugin is one of the most popular plugins that can be used to set up a live chat feature on your WordPress website. It has been designed with good technologies all round such as less and coffee script to ensure a smooth development with high Object Oriented Programming PHP structure. This plugin ensures that everything is run from within your WordPress website, meaning that you will not need to subscribe to any other third party services for the same task. The plugin comes with an amazing chat experience and allows you to answer customer queries within seconds, meaning that there are no delays between when the message is sent and when it gets to you.
To make sure that you do not lose your clients when they move over to other tabs while still in a conversation with you, the chat interface moves over to the other tabs as well. This makes sure that you have an opportunity to make sure that clients are satisfied with your answers. The plugin is fully responsive and will easily adapt to the screen sizes of your clients – whether on a mobile device, a tablet or a desktop computer. If you are worried about chatting with multiple clients at the same time, this plugin has got you covered. It allows you to add as many operators as you want, to make sure that no client will be left unattended. You can even add departments to make sure that clients are talking to the relevant department that handles what they want to talk about. Some other notable features with this plugin include the ability of clients to send themselves a transcript of the conversation, an option that allows you to know the countries of origin of your clients and an amazing user dashboard.
Pros
- Visitors can send offline messages that you can respond to later in case they start a conversation outside office hours.
- You can add as many operators as you want to make sure that all clients are attended to.
- At $ 25, this plugin is relatively affordable compared to others that can cost as much as three times its price.
- It can be used with non WordPress websites.
Cons
- You need to notify the plugin developers if you have CDN or cache plugins since they conflict with this plugin.
- There is no support for iframe embed from version 1.2.7 as this feature is out of the scope of WordPress.
Simple Simon Live Chat WordPress Plugin
Simple Simon is an amazing live chat WordPress plugin that has been built to make the experience of instant communication with your clients an amazing one. This plugin will basically help you save a lot of money in making callbacks and easily convince clients to buy your goods or services. You will not need to have any special web development skills to use this plugin. It is very easy to use, easy to configure and easy to set up. With this plugin, you do not have to worry about the times you will be offline. This is because when you are offline or a client sends you a message outside office hours, you will get it as a message the moment you get back online and then respond to it.
It comes set up with a notification system that gives a beep on your computer when there is a new message. If you are having multiple clients chatting with you at the same time, you have the option of setting up multiple operators to help you with chatting with the clients. This plugin is also fully customizable – you can change several things among them the theme’s skin, the chat name, the positioning of the chat module to top right, top left, bottom left and bottom right. This is an amazing plugin that will give you exactly what you want and give you an amazing way of communicating with your clients.
Pros
- It is simple to setup and use.
- It has a relatively competitive price.
- It comes with a detailed documentation to help you through the set up process.
Cons
- There have been complains about the slow response with the customer support.
- Some users have complained about the limited customization options with this plugin.
WPGroupChat – Live Group Chat WordPress Plugin
WPGroup Chat is a live chat WordPress plugin that works in a different way compared to other live chat WordPress plugins. It allows your website visitors to chat in a group. Website visitors can join a group chat by entering their name and email address that is automatically synced to your autoresponder. The plugin comes with up to seventeen popular autoresponder provers integrated with it. WPGroup Chat is fully responsive, making sure that your users will have an amazing user experience on all devices that they use to join the chat. The plugin is also fully customizable, allowing you to customize it to match your requirements. It is also very easy to set up and use. You will not need to be a web developer to add this plugin to your WordPress website.
The plugin allows you to add multiple operators to make sure that in a situation where multiple clients are talking to you, they will not have to wait in a long queue before someone responds to them. There is also an online, away and offline modes that you can use to control what your clients see. If you are offline, then they can still send you messages that you will still answer when you get back online. To make the chat experience even better, the plugin comes with a file upload option where your clients can upload screenshots, pictures among other files to emphasize on what they are talking about.
Pros
- It allows a group chat where you can chat with multiple clients at the same time.
- It allows uploading files to be send through the chat system.
- It is very easy to use and set up.
Cons
- This plugin is not as flexible as many others users would like it to be. You cannot easily set up the pages where the chat can be seen or change the chat size.
iLive – Intelligent WordPress Live Chat Support Plugin
iLive is an intelligent live chat WordPress plugin that will work on all WordPress websites to handle customer support and sales through the live chat system. This plugin comes with an automatic chat search and suggestion as well as an automatic chat reply and greetings that you will not find in many other plugins. With this plugin, all the common questions and answers will be saved in a database. In each client request, the auto search system will suggest the matching question and answer to the operator. The operator will just need to click on the matching question to answer client request. This will reduce the time operators use responding to common questions and only respond to new questions improving the rate at which your company makes sales.
If you have a busy company getting many chat requests from clients, then you have the option of setting up any number of operators who will respond to the incoming chat requests and make sure that your clients do not wait for long before they get their answers. Furthermore, each of the operators can talk to multiple customers at the same time and even transfer a chat to another chat or department. This tells you that you can create departments and assign them to different operators. When a chat request comes in from a customer, they are assigned to any operator who is not busy or the one that has a few number of chat request in the queue. This is all done by the plugin for you.
Pros
- The plugin is fully responsive and adapts to your website’s styling.
- It comes with a chat system control meaning that your clients will not loose the chat or chat history when they open new tabs.
- It’s license costs $ 10 which is relatively cheap with its amazing features.
Cons
- There have been complains about the customer support response time where some users have even said that the developers do not respond at all.
- It does not work in a multisite situation.
WordPress 1-2-1 Live Chat Plugin
WordPress 1-2-1 is a live chat WordPress plugin that allows you to add a one to one live chat on your WordPress website. It is very easy to download, install and set up. You can do this all on your own even if you are not a web developer. It also comes with a detailed documentation that gives you a step by step guide on how to install, setup and use the plugin. The live chat will appear on all of your website’s pages, with the client having an option of closing to close the chat. Even if they navigate to other pages or open new tabs, they will not lose the chat history, not unless they close it themselves.
This plugin allows you to set the chat system to either online or offline. If you are offline or it is outside working hours, the clients will send their questions as messages that you will get when you are back online. When a message comes in, the plugin has a notification feature that gives a sound on your computer. This is important since it means you will rarely miss a conversation. The plugin is very customizable. You can change a number of things such as the chat skin and chat name. It also allows you to set up multiple operators so that your clients will never spend a lot of time waiting for a response.
Pros
- It is fully responsive and customizable.
- It is very easy to set up and use.
- You get an unlimited use of the plugin with one license.
Cons
- Although it has some great features, it is quite expensive compared to other plugins which are cheaper with more features.
WP Flat Visual Chat – Live Chat & Remote View for WordPress
WP Flat Visual Chat is a live chat WordPress plugin that gives you a two-way desktop remote viewer for your WordPress website. This is a special plugin in that it allows you to use live view with your chat system. To get started with this plugin, all you need to do is to simply upload, activate and set it up through your WordPress dashboard. This plugin gives you multiple advanced features that make the process of interacting with your clients a very interesting one. You will get a new element on your sidebar that allows you to manage your chat logs with intuitive and simple chat logs and filters. This plugin comes with a special feature – a unique remote desktop viewer – that is built right into the live chat. With this feature, you can select an item or element that you would like to share and then engage in a visual two-way chat with the clients.
The plugin is also fully customizable with some beautiful customization features that will enhance your chat experience. It even allows you to modify your text (including the client’s text) to match the style of your brand with no coding at all. You can also add as many operators as you want and even transfer chat requests from one operator to another, with no problem at all. WP Flat Visual chat has been coded using Real Time AJAX chat and industry best practice coding to make sure that there is no bloating to slow your site down. With the range of options and features to help you customize your chat to meet your design needs, this is a plugin that will answer all your questions when it comes to live chat with clients.
Pros
- The remote desktop viewer makes this plugin one of the best because of the sharing capabilities it brings along with it.
- It is capable of initiating a chat with a potential client.
- You can share files with the clients using this plugin.
Cons
- The plugin is quite expensive for beginners.
- A good number of users have reported bugs when using this plugin with their websites.
- Their customer support takes quite some time before responding to questions.
Quack Chat Live Help Support System for WordPress
Quack Chat is a live chat WordPress plugin that integrates easily to your WordPress website providing an easy way to interface and talk to your clients. It comes with an automatic placement button and very easy plugin controls that make it very easy to use. All you need to do is simply activate the plugin. The live chat button automatically shows up on the client side with the online or offline status for your clients to initiate a chat with you. When a client request for a chat, you will get a notification through email or text instantly. There is also an audible notification system when there is a new message. This is important in making sure that you do not miss a chat with one of your clients. Other notable features with this plugin include auto-scrolling chat window, chat session history, customizable automatic greeting, autofocus message box, one-sided HTML support (admin can send HTML, user cannot), online or offline mode with away message, floating chat window that hovers on top of your WordPress website among others. This is a plugin that will get you more than what you want.
Pros
- It comes with a session memory in case the clients accidentally closes the chat.
- It supports text messages and email notification system when a client is ready to chat.
- It comes with an automatic live chat placement.
Cons
- It only supports nine wireless carriers for text messaging.
- It is very expensive, especially for beginners and startups.
Facebook Chat for WordPress
Facebook Chat is a live chat WordPress plugin that allows you to set up a Facebook page chat box on your WordPress website. This allows users to chat with you through your Facebook page inbox right on your website. This allows you to offer support, keep contact with your customers, turn visitors into your customers, and chat with them anytime to increase sales and build trust. With this plugin, you will not need to worry about chat history or session memory limits. This is because Facebook stores all your chat history going back in the years. This is important since you can easily identify returning clients while the clients can refer back to the chat history in case they forget what they were advised to do to solve the problem they had.
Just like Facebook, this plugin allows you to chat with multiple people at the same time. You can even create a group and add your customers where you can all have a group conversation. The plugin is very easy to install and set up. All you need to do is just activate the plugin, then add your Facebook fan page URL to get started. It is also fully customizable, meaning that you can customize almost all the elements of the plugin to match your requirements. You will even get a chance to have more likes on your Facebook page since this plugin displays a like button within the chat.
Pros
- There is a chance of promoting your Facebook page as well. Clients who visit your website and initiate a chat can like your Facebook page where you constantly market your products.
- You do not have to worry about session memory limits or chat history as this works the same way with Facebook.
- The customer support is always responsive when needed.
Cons
- You must have a Facebook page to use this plugin.
- It is quite expensive given that it takes most of its features from Facebook.
- It has been quite long since the last time the plugin was updated.
WordPress Chat Room, Group Chat Plugin
WordPress Chat Room is a live chat WordPress plugin that employs the use of a group chat. It works with all WordPress websites and uses BuddyPress for a group chat with all users being able to chat in a chatroom. They can even go ahead and chat privately with each other and with the operators from your side. The BuddyPress group allows you to add new members and control them – you can remove any member, suspend and add new members. The plugin allows you to have a multiples group and private chat at a time. You can also add multiple operators to help you when you are busy with many clients. In case either you or your client want to share a file, video or an image, then this plugin will do this seamlessly. This will make it very easy for both you and your clients to understand each other.
The plugin has been designed to make sure that you never miss a chat. This is enhanced by its three-way notification system with a sound alert, browser tab text and color change. Other notable features with this plugin include a responsive design with a sliding sidebar control, up to eighty smiley icons, an online and offline option, a member search option, translation ready and multisite capability.
Pros
- You get an unlimited group and private chat options.
- With its notification system, you can rarely miss a chat request.
- It is very easy to setup and use.
Cons
- Buddypress is required for group chat
- Users must be logged in to chat
- jQuery 1.7 or newer is required.
- It is quite expensive for startups.
Live Chat Unlimited
LiveChat Unlimited is one of the most popular live chat WordPress plugins in use today. It comes with some unlimited features that will make the chat experience very good to a point that it will reflect in the sales you are making. With a single license purchase, you can install it on unlimited domains and have full access to all its features. The plugin is so powerful that you can have as many users as you want to chat with at the same time and being handled by different operators. This tells you that you can set up a number of operators to help you with the work. The plugin is very lightweight. It works in iframe to make sure that it will not have any effect on your page performance. Your widget will load itself once your page is fully loaded. Other features with this plugin include multi-lingual support with WPML and Polylang plugins, a very clean code, email and sound notifications when there is a chat request, SSL support to make sure that all your messages and the client messages are encrypted and GDRP compliance among others. This plugin will give you a different user experience and make it very easy to communicate with your clients.
Pros
- The plugin does not store any private information from your client side into any real time database.
- All chat transmissions are sent through Google Clouds which is certified under major privacy and security standards.
- After the one off payment for the plugin there are no other costs such as monthly fees or other pricing plans.
Cons
- It only supports WordPress 4.7 or newer version.
- Only works with PHP 5.4 or newer version.
- It is quite expensive compared to other plugins that have similar features.
Conclusion
Most of these plugins have the same standard feature – ensuring that you can have constant communication with all your clients at any given time. They only differ in the extra features that they come with. This list will help you decide which plugin best fits your needs, from private chats, group chats, multiple chats at a time, file sharing, multiple operators and departments to different levels of notification and offline/online modes. You can be assured of increasing sales with one of these plugins and meeting your targets.
