Best Live Chat & Chatbot Software for Channel Variety

If you've found yourself here, chances are you're grappling with the multitude of live chat and chatbot software options, unsure of which providers offer the largest channel variety to communicate with your customers where they prefer it.

As authorities in tech solutions, we've burrowed into mountains of data and surfaced with lucid insights to help guide your quest.

What Makes the Best Live Chat Software for Channel Variety?

Understanding what makes the best live chat and chatbot software for channel variety involves more than just knowing their functions; it also involves being fully aware of what businesses truly use.

Each channel's usage varies, playing a unique role depending on the context. We've created a breakdown based on our research and extensive data analysis that will lay bare the fundamental channels we considered for our ranking.

In the following sections, we will discuss each channel's significance in the scope of live chat and chatbot software and when they matter most to your business. This information should help you determine which channels can work optimally for your situation and which ones could be less important when choosing a software solution.

Website Chat

Visiting a website and finding the ability to engage in real-time conversation right on the page can be a sigh of relief for many customers. After all, this is the main channel when we talk about live chat and chatbot software. A chat window is an almost instantly responsive channel. It is integrated directly into business websites, ready to assist visitors at any time. Strong software will offer productive website chat features that allow you to interact with customers in the most efficient way possible.

Consider the scenario where a customer is browsing your website for the first time. They're slightly lost, but then notice the small, supportive pop-up in the corner inviting them to ask questions. Their satisfaction when they receive an instant answer without switching tabs or apps is sure to be noticeable.

Email

One of the earliest communication channels, email, remains a reliable business ally. Representatives can manage, track, and reply to all customer queries effectively without actually opening an inbox but can simply open their chat window for them. Often integrated into a ticketing system, it ensures that not a single query slips through the cracks.

Email provides a unique balance between formality and professionalism, making it as crucial today as it was decades ago. Plus, it provides both you and your customer with an easily accessible record of the exchanged correspondence. Naturally, you wouldn't want this email to get lost in a crowded inbox. You'd want it properly logged and tracked until resolved.

Instagram

Instagram isn't just for posting pictures of exotic food or adorable pets anymore. It's turned into a valid and popular channel for businesses to connect with their customers, especially those from younger generations.

Integrating your live chat and chatbot software with Instagram can make you more accessible to your customers. It allows you to engage with them on a platform they're already comfortable and familiar with.

The beauty of this channel is in its simplicity. No complex procedures are required. Just good old chatting about questions, concerns, or general queries related to the product or service. This can greatly boost customer trust and engagement.

Facebook

Here's an eye-opener, Statista reports that Facebook still has over 3 billion monthly active users. Now, imagine a chunk of that vast audience being your potential customers.

Enabling live chat and chatbots on Facebook could open your business to a sea of opportunity. The Messenger app is widely used, and if customers can contact you directly through it, it also makes you more accessible and offers people convenience.

Twitter

Twitter's power as a business channel lies in its quick and short interactions. If you're a business that values immediate feedback and staying up-to-date with trends, then harnessing the benefits offered by this platform might be worth your while.

Most businesses tend to overlook Twitter's potential as a chat-based customer service platform. They often focus primarily on its promotional aspects. But engaging in live conversations with customers via Twitter DMs can help handle issues promptly and maintain open communication lines.

WhatsApp

WhatsApp channel connectivity is about leveraging the comfort and familiarity of an app already used daily by a vast number of people. It allows real-time text, voice, and even video conversations, which can feel more personal to the customer.

Integrating your live chat and chatbots with this platform enables you to reach out to customers across the globe. All without traditional communication barriers like international dialing codes or exorbitant costs. Customers can instantly share their concerns and expect quick responses on a channel they love to text through.

Since most use WhatsApp for their daily communication via smartphone, it is one of the most accessible and natural channels for users.

Telegram

Although not quite as mainstream as its counterparts, Telegram is a rapidly growing channel. By integrating with Telegram, you're offering your clients a private and secure communication line, similar to the other apps we talked about.

Both you and your customers can benefit from the channel's encryption policy that protects all chats, ensuring data privacy on another level, which has made many users primarily use Telegram and therefore allows you to tap into another large portion of your audience.

Web Forms

Web forms are a staple feature of customer service. We've seen them for years, and they continue to thrive in the realm of customer service. When integrated with a live chat system, they can capture more customer details right from the start of the conversation.

Web forms allow potential customers to share details about their requirements or problems even when your representatives are unavailable for immediate assistance. These inquiries are then converted into emails or tickets in your software system, which you can track until resolution.

This channel is not offered by many platforms but can be a great way to swap your email contact form with one that is integrated into your live chat and chatbot software to receive and reply to all requests from one interface instead of handling emails from your inbox separately.

Whether it's registration, downloading resources, subscribing to newsletters, or leaving feedback, web forms are a versatile option to tailor to your specific needs.

Help Center

"A help center? Isn't that just a compilation of FAQs?" you might ask. And yet, it's so much more than that. It's a one-stop solution station where customers can independently find answers to their common issues without reaching out for assistance.

A help center that is integrated with your live chat and chatbot software can be extremely powerful. Let me explain why.

You can not only collect frequently asked questions but also answer them extremely precisely, including images, videos, etc., and structure them by categories. But more, you can also give users the possibility to get directly to the questions and answers via a search bar and can additionally benefit from SEO advantages, as your questions will be listed in search engines.

That’s not all. Here is the highlight.

If your live chat and chatbot software offers an integrated help center, you can automatically or manually refer to questions and answers in the help center when a user asks a question that matches their intention. In combination with AI chatbots, the whole thing can even go so far that the AI can learn from your help center resources, and instead of referring to the resources, it can rephrase them and answer the user without them having to look at the question and answer on another page.

Giving users an answer inside the chat window gives the conversation a more personal touch since you're not suggesting "hey, look here yourself" by sending them a link.

10 Best Live Chat & Chatbot Software for Channel Variety

How to Choose a Live Chat & Chatbot Software with Great Channel Variety?

To find the best live chat and chatbot software for your channels, look inward at your consumer base and what your business is really using. A deep understanding of your customers interaction patterns can reveal helpful insights. Are they more comfortable drafting detailed emails or sending quick messages? On which social media platforms do they hang out most often? The answers to these simple questions will give you an idea of where your focus should lie.

On the other hand, you can also check which channels you are already using and immediately leverage them with software that supports these channels.

Next, evaluate how each software option scales with your business's forecasted growth. What serves you well today might fall short as you grow and expand, causing unnecessary headaches down the line. Peek at our overall Best Picks for live chat and chatbot software for a comprehensive view of top-rated products in this niche. Or give our Comparison Tool a try for a side-by-side view of their features and benefits. If you have no idea where to look, use our Finder Tool to provide you with a personalized recommendation. All of these tools will get you prepared to make the right decision for your business.

Lastly, don't forget to consider the comfort and efficiency of your support team. A live chat and chatbot software that poses steep learning curves for your representatives can result in a loss of productivity. Choose a platform that is not only user-friendly for your customers but also for those on the other side - yourself and the support team. The best tip here is to test several tools on your shortlist and then decide.

Regardless of the route you take, taking your time to analyze and test various options that seem like a good fit for you will only bring more clarity and help you pick the right solution.