{"id":18414,"date":"2023-02-09T09:00:11","date_gmt":"2023-02-09T09:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/?p=18414"},"modified":"2024-11-06T11:20:01","modified_gmt":"2024-11-06T11:20:01","slug":"live-chat-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/live-chat-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"The ultimate guide to live chat support"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A great customer experience is about meeting people where they already are, and our comprehensive live chat guide is here to help you do just that.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over the years, we have consistently emphasized our core philosophy around customer messaging \u2013 send the right message, to the right person, at the right time, in the right place. And today, there\u2019s one channel where more potential customers are than anywhere else: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/live-chat\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">live chat<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Think about the way that you talk to people every day. You probably use iMessage and WhatsApp with family and friends, and spend more time chatting to colleagues on Slack than in person (especially these days). And because we talk to people via messaging all day, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/bridging-the-customer-expectation-gap\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">customers expect<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to be able to talk to businesses that way too.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Companies are realizing there\u2019s a better way to do business and have started to use live chat messaging to build long-lasting customer relationships across the spectrum of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/customer-support-software\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">support<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/customer-acquisition\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">sales<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/customer-engagement\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">marketing<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. What\u2019s more, they\u2019re seeing a tangible return on investment:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With live chat across sales, support, and marketing, Living Spaces <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/customers\/livingspaces\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">handles over 8k weekly conversations<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with an average first-response time of under a minute.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By using <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/live-chat\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">live chat software<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> instead of email and phone support, tado\u00b0 saw a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/customers\/tado\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">92% decrease in first-response time<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Using <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/customizable-bots\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Custom Bots<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to handle a 179% increase in inbound conversations, Guru manages <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/customers\/guru\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">900 monthly conversations with ease, while maintaining a CSAT score of 95%<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Through the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/messenger\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Intercom Messenger<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Qonto <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/customers\/qonto\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">reduced the median first-response time to just two minutes<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> while saving over 1000 hours of team time each quarter.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So how can your business adapt to this shift and start engaging customers at pivotal moments? The solution is simple: install live chat on your website and start having conversations with people right where they are.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With that in mind, we\u2019ve put together this comprehensive guide to help you understand how to make live chat work for you and your business.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"what-is-live-chat\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What is live chat?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Live chat is a messaging channel that lets existing and prospective customers talk to your company in real time via your website or app. By combining your live chat platform with other capabilities, such as automation and bots, you can give customers immediate responses to their queries, get important context about their use cases, and route more complex messages to the right teams. Ultimately, live chat helps companies form relationships with customers that are more personal and direct.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"pullquote-style-two\"><p>\u201cThe story of customer experience these days is synchronous\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>As Brian Halligan, co-founder of HubSpot, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/podcasts\/hubspot-brian-halligan-conversational-relationships\/\">told us<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople live in Slack, they live in the messenger. Email is on a very slow death march \u2013 it\u2019s still a very useful tool, but the modern worker doesn\u2019t enjoy that medium and doesn\u2019t want to communicate that way. The thing about email is it\u2019s asynchronous. I think that the story of customer experience these days is synchronous.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unfortunately, traditional live chat software is often still steeped in old-school ways of doing <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/defining-customer-support\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">customer support<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. In cases like these, customers are forced to adhere to a queue mentality where they\u2019re treated like a ticket number, not a human being. Not only that, but your team\u2019s time is taken up with answering simple, repetitive questions as quickly as possible, while more complicated or urgent queries are left waiting \u2013 despite having a higher priority.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"pullquote-style-two\"><p>\u201cWith the right use of live chat tools, businesses can provide a more efficient and enjoyable experience for customers across the entire customer lifecycle\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thankfully, with the right use of live chat tools, businesses can provide a more <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/conversational-support-efficiency\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">efficient <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> enjoyable experience<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for customers across the entire customer lifecycle, from engaging prospects the first moment a visitor lands on your website to handling customer support issues long after a customer has signed up.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>1. What is live chat for marketing?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you think live chat is just for customer service, you\u2019re missing out. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/live-chat-for-marketing\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Live chat marketing<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> can play a key role in the lead generation machine. Forward-thinking companies are using live chat to implement engaging <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/customer-acquisition\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">conversational marketing<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on their websites.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here\u2019s the thing: your marketing team is spending huge resources driving people towards your website. But, once prospects arrive, they\u2019re likely not finding their way to a contact form or demo request. In fact, most of them will fail to convert and will leave empty-handed. The average conversion rate for your typical marketing stack isn\u2019t pretty. The conversion rate for things like forms, paid advertising, or mass emails <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.statista.com\/statistics\/1106672\/conversion-rate-by-industry\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">hovers around the 2-3% mark<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"pullquote-style-two\"><p>\u201cWithout a messaging tool to engage them, these prospects would likely vanish into thin air\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With live chat, the focus shifts from passively collecting a lead\u2019s contact info to proactively engaging people in conversation using <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/messages\">targeted outbound messages<\/a>. Instead of forcing people to complete static form fill submissions, go through an arduous marketing qualification process, and wait for follow-ups that might never come, live chat helps businesses engage with potential leads in real time, whether that\u2019s with human-to-human conversations or automated chatbot conversations targeted to spark their interest. Without a messaging tool to engage them, these prospects would likely vanish into thin air. Now, you get the opportunity to chat with them right on your website, at the exact time they\u2019re thinking about purchasing your product or service.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-25375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2056\/02\/Live-chat-for-customer-acquisition.gif\" alt=\"Live chat examples - using live chat for customer acquisition\" width=\"600\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Take <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.copper.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Copper<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, for example, a CRM made for Google Apps. At one point, they realized a majority of traffic, including traffic from paid sources, was leaving their site without starting a trial or requesting a demo. They were looking to increase engagement in their website and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/customers\/copper\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">hand over valuable, qualified leads<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to their sales team faster, and so, they started sending <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/messages\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">targeted messages<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to leads when they were live on their site.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe need to be able to engage with people in real-time as they\u2019re making decisions,\u201d said Thomas Hanna, Demand Generation Programs Manager at Copper. \u201cThe impact is that we have more leads that would have previously not signed up had their questions not been answered in a timely manner, all for minimal effort on our part.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One month later, they noticed a 13% increase in website conversion rate over forms and 19 new sales opportunities from inbound leads that could otherwise have been lost forever.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"inline-cta-quote\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/live-chat-for-marketing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">See also: Does live chat really work for marketing?<\/a><\/p>\n<h3><b>2. What is live chat for sales?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Today, customers have more choices than ever. This means that they\u2019re the ones who are in control of the sales process, and it\u2019s the businesses who are providing an immediate, on-demand selling experience that are winning.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For the businesses that are embracing <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/live-chat-sales-funnel\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">live chat for sales<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and creating helpful, authentic, and impactful selling experiences, the results speak for themselves. We analyzed an anonymous dataset of 20 million live chat messages sent through Intercom, and according to our data, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/why-live-chat\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">website visitors are 82% more likely to convert to customers<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> if they\u2019ve chatted with you first. What\u2019s more, their accounts are worth 13% more than those where the business didn\u2019t have a conversation before signing up.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Not only that, but this is another place where it makes sense to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/customizable-bots\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">augment your live chat with bots<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: our data shows that conversations with bots convert 36% better, likely because a bot can respond faster than humans for most repetitive tasks.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"inline-cta-quote\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/resources\/guides\/live-chat-sales\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Check out <em>The Live Chat for Sales Starter Kit<\/em> to learn more.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-25369\" src=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2056\/02\/More-conversions-more-revenue.png\" alt=\"On average, website visitors who chat are 82% more likely to convert to customers and pay 13% more than those who don\u2019t. Source: Intercom data\" width=\"1700\" height=\"850\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2056\/02\/More-conversions-more-revenue.png 1700w, https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2056\/02\/More-conversions-more-revenue-300x150.png 300w, https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2056\/02\/More-conversions-more-revenue-700x350.png 700w, https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2056\/02\/More-conversions-more-revenue-768x384.png 768w, https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2056\/02\/More-conversions-more-revenue-1536x768.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2056\/02\/More-conversions-more-revenue-600x300.png 600w, https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2056\/02\/More-conversions-more-revenue-1400x700.png 1400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1700px) 100vw, 1700px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><b>3. What is live chat for customer support?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Traditionally, most businesses have seen <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/defining-customer-support\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">customer support<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as a cost center, not the value driver it actually is. As a result, they\u2019ve done everything in their power to lower those costs, relying on outdated support ticketing systems where <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/help-desk-metrics\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">help desk<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> management, not customer experience, is prioritized.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This type of support <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/conversational-support-definition\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">just isn\u2019t good enough<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> anymore. On the contrary, your customer support could be what makes or breaks a customer\u2019s decisions to work with you: according to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/info.microsoft.com\/ww-landing-global-state-of-customer-service.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Microsoft\u2019s Global State of Customer Service report<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, 90% of respondents said that customer service is an important factor in their choice of, and loyalty to, a brand, and 58% would sever their relationship with a business due to poor customer service.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"pullquote-style-two\"><p>\u201cCustomers don\u2019t want to be treated like a ticket, and they don\u2019t want to have to call a contact center, either. They want quick, effortless help in a way that makes them feel human\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Live chat is <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/live-chat-support\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the future of customer service<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and provides the kind of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/customer-support-software\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">conversational support experience<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that aligns with the needs of today\u2019s users. Customers don\u2019t want to be treated like a ticket, and they don\u2019t want to have to call a contact center, either. They want quick, effortless help in a way that makes them feel human.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But here\u2019s the good news: live chat isn\u2019t only better for customers, it\u2019s better for businesses too.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To test this hypothesis and measure the impact on our business, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/driving-revenue-real-time-support-improves-conversion\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">we ran a 16-week randomized split test<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. One group received support in under two minutes via a live chat session, the others did not. Those who received the fastest response times displayed starkly better outcomes:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They asked 18% more questions and got more answers in real-time from our support team.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They were 30% more likely to start a trial.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Overall, real-time support drove 15% incremental growth in new business revenue.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They were happier too \u2013 with a 15% higher NPS (Net Promoter Score). <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.retently.com\/blog\/saas-mrr-nps\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There\u2019s data<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> suggesting that the higher a customer\u2019s NPS, the higher their lifetime value.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The bottom line? It pays to make things easier for your customers.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"benefits-of-live-chat\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Benefits of live chat<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Across all of these use cases, it\u2019s clear that live chat can offer some serious advantages for both businesses and customers. Here are some of the top benefits you can expect from live chat support.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Ability to be responsive, personal, and engaging<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With live chat support, customers can have conversations with your business in real time. By using a mix of human support and always-on automated support, you can provide instant replies, in the right context, no matter when or where. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And because the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/live-chat\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">best live chat support tools<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are underpinned by rich customer data, it also means that your reps (and bots) have a wealth of customer information at their digital fingertips.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This means that they can respond faster and deliver more personal, contextual support, drawing on customer conversation history and data to provide more efficient, engaging answers.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"pullquote-style-two\"><p>\u201cUsing the data from these conversations, you can build richer customer profiles, which allow you to provide better, more personalized support\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3><b>Learn more about your customers<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unlike channels like phone support, live chat is a written medium. This means that every time you receive a conversation through live chat, it can become part of a larger, searchable database of customer information. Using the data from these conversations, you can build richer customer profiles, which allow you to provide better, more personalized support. Live chat support also enables you to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/help\/en\/articles\/4612191-track-and-understand-the-topics-your-customers-chat-about\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">spot trends in customer conversations more easily<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, so you can understand what\u2019s top of mind for your customers and identify issues more quickly.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Create a unified customer experience<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Because you can use live chat across the entire customer journey, it\u2019s the perfect way to create a unified customer experience across marketing, sales, and support. By understanding who your customer is and where they are in their journey with your business, you can use targeted outreach to engage them at the right time \u2013 and avoid spamming them with irrelevant messages that aren\u2019t right for them.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"pullquote-style-two\"><p>\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s brought all of our teams together so we can create strong, consistent experiences for our customers\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For luxury e-commerce platform and retailer Rebag, Intercom empowered them to create a unified end-to-end experience with the customer at the forefront. \u201cIt\u2019s brought all of our teams together so we can create strong, consistent experiences for our customers,\u201d <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/customers\/rebag\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Geronimo Chala, Chief Consumer Officer at Rebag, told us<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>More efficient use of support resources<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As we\u2019ve seen, the right live chat support program will use a mix of human and automated support. This can unlock powerful efficiency gains for your business. By leveraging automation and chatbots, you can instantly resolve more simple queries, faster. And because your support reps aren\u2019t spending time replying to those easy questions, they\u2019re free to focus on the tricky or difficult conversations that require a human touch, such as complex technical issues or stressful billing problems. By using some simple live chat best practices, you can optimize your support resources to save time, money, and energy \u2013\u00a0while still providing excellent customer service.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"how-live-chat-works\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How live chat works<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You might still be wondering: how do live chats work? And are live chat conversations always with a real person?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The best live chat support uses a mix of human support and automated support, such as chatbots. This means that sometimes you\u2019re talking to a bot, and sometimes you\u2019re talking to a real person.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They both have their benefits. For simple queries that can be resolved quickly and easily (such as \u201cHas my order shipped?\u201d), chatbots can provide fast, efficient answers and allow customers to self-serve at any time of the day or night. For more complex or frustrating conversations (like \u201cWhy did I get this unexpected charge?\u201d), humans can provide deeper troubleshooting and offer much-needed empathy.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"pullquote-style-two\"><p>\u201cYou can route conversations from existing customers straight to your support team, while sending conversations from prospects to your sales team\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To make sure that the right types of messages go to the right places, you can use a bot to automatically route conversations to specific teams or people based on rules that you set. For example, you can route conversations from existing customers straight to your support team, while sending conversations from prospects to your sales team. All of this can be set up behind the scenes so it\u2019s frictionless for the customer, but saves your team valuable time sorting and assigning conversations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Want to learn more about how live chat works? <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/view-demos\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Check out our demos<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and see just how easy it is to set up and use live chat support.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"best-practices-for-live-chat\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Best practices for live chat<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Adopting the new playbook of live chat conversations doesn\u2019t come without its challenges. \u201cLive chat\u201d implies an almost instant response, and many businesses are concerned about managing the volume of messages that might come from adding live chat to their website.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For businesses who may get thousands or millions of people visiting their website every year, 1:1 conversations with every customer and prospect quickly becomes a daunting task (not to mention prohibitively expensive). But the good news is that you don\u2019t need to do that to be successful. Instead, it\u2019s about using live chat \u2013 as well as bots and automation \u2013 to help your team work more efficiently with the resources you have.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here are a few simple live chat best practices to help you <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/how-to-scale-live-chat-without-spending-a-fortune-or-driving-your-team-crazy\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">scale your live chat support<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and get the most for your team.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Offer help when it\u2019s really needed<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the best things about live chat is that you can be there exactly when and where your customer needs you. By using live chat support to provide customer service in context \u2013 such as on your website or in your product or app \u2013\u00a0you can resolve problems in the moment they\u2019re happening.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Combined with the almost-instant answers live chat can provide, this can help to unblock customers right there and then \u2013 leading to more productive and positive customer experiences.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Set customer expectations<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Just because you have live chat installed on your website doesn\u2019t mean you need to respond immediately. This will burn out your teams, and contrary to popular belief, conversations don\u2019t have to be immediate so long as clear expectations are set. Sure, in an ideal world, users might <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">prefer<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> an immediate response, but in many cases they understand that more complex queries take a little more time to resolve correctly.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The most important thing is to be direct and transparent. Above all, you need to accurately let them know when they will get a response. Live chat software like <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/live-chat\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Intercom<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> has a simple message responder to do this. This is just part of being considerate to your customers \u2013 don\u2019t just leave them hanging at the end of a conversation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And if you are trying to speed things up, remember that <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/custom-bots-for-support\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">using Custom Bots<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to resolve and triage issues can help you to improve your resolution time by 50%. In fact, the logistics platform <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/stuart.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Stuart<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> has managed to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/the-custom-bot-that-saved-stuart-over-2-5k-hours-per-week\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">reduce their response time to less than 30 seconds<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by using them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-28604 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/live-chat-guide-improve-response-time.png\" alt=\"live chat guide improve response time\" width=\"403\" height=\"687\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/live-chat-guide-improve-response-time.png 403w, https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/live-chat-guide-improve-response-time-176x300.png 176w, https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/live-chat-guide-improve-response-time-352x600.png 352w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 403px) 100vw, 403px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>Scale using chat automation<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Live chat in years gone by was often a crummy experience. In reality, this so-called \u201clive chat\u201d was much closer to email than a real-time conversation. Simply put, it was anything but live.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"pullquote-style-two\"><p>\u201cCompanies that automate support are 4x more likely to see CSAT improvements\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thanks to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/customer-service-chatbots\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">customer service chatbots<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and automation, most live chat tools give you the ability to have live, dynamic, conversations even when there\u2019s not somebody at the end of the messenger. For example, if you have a messenger like Intercom, you can set a<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/customizable-bots\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> customizable bot<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to automatically ask the visitor for their contact details so you can follow up.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Or you can take it a step further with <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/automated-answers\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Intercom\u2019s Resolution Bot<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, an intelligent chatbot that automatically and instantly resolves your customers\u2019 issues. Resolution Bot makes it easy to get customers what they need by proactively surfacing relevant answers based on what they\u2019re typing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Either way, companies that automate support are <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/customer-support-automation-trends\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">4x more likely<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to see CSAT improvements, so adding automation to your workflow is a surefire way to please your customers. Just remember to add automation thoughtfully. As Francis Brero, co-founder and CRO of MadKudu, the marketing operations platform that helps companies identify, qualify, and engage with their leads based on how likely they are to convert, recently put it,\u201cThe most challenging part is making sure the automation and the workflows we\u2019re building are actually helping the customer and making the journey frictionless, not adding friction.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/personal-automated-customer-support\/\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Psst\u2026here\u2019s how to ensure your automation stays personal at scale.<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-25370\" src=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2056\/02\/4x-more-likely-to-see-CSAT-improvements.png\" alt=\"Companies that automate support are 4x more likely to see CSAT improvements. Source: Intercom survey\" width=\"1700\" height=\"706\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2056\/02\/4x-more-likely-to-see-CSAT-improvements.png 1700w, https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2056\/02\/4x-more-likely-to-see-CSAT-improvements-300x125.png 300w, https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2056\/02\/4x-more-likely-to-see-CSAT-improvements-700x291.png 700w, https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2056\/02\/4x-more-likely-to-see-CSAT-improvements-768x319.png 768w, https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2056\/02\/4x-more-likely-to-see-CSAT-improvements-1536x638.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2056\/02\/4x-more-likely-to-see-CSAT-improvements-600x249.png 600w, https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2056\/02\/4x-more-likely-to-see-CSAT-improvements-1400x581.png 1400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1700px) 100vw, 1700px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>Use a mix of support types<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many businesses are concerned that installing a live chat messenger could \u201copen the floodgates\u201d and result in their teams dealing with low-level customer queries (\u201cHow do I change my password?\u201d or \u201cWhat are your pricing plans?\u201d) instead of impactful problems or questions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With the right customer service tool fuelling your live chat, you can manage queries at scale by using a mix of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/proactive-support\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">proactive<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/self-serve-support\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">self-serve<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/personal-human-support\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">human support<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. By anticipating customers\u2019 issues, using bots and automation to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/how-to-handle-frequently-asked-questions\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">answer repetitive questions automatically<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and saving your team\u2019s time and energy for high-ticket items that need a human touch, you can optimize your resources and get the most out of your live chat.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-24003\" src=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/CSF-Product-New.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1400\" height=\"700\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/CSF-Product-New.jpg 1400w, https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/CSF-Product-New-300x150.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/CSF-Product-New-700x350.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/CSF-Product-New-768x384.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/CSF-Product-New-600x300.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>As Gill Fisher, Former Head of Customer Experience &amp; Delivery at Smarty, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/customers\/smarty\">put it<\/a>: \u201cI think chat should just be there for those more complex queries. If there\u2019s something a customer can do really easily, why not utilize the bot; why not utilize the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/articles\">help center<\/a>?\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"11-best-live-chat-examples-for-2024\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">11 best live chat examples for 2024<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, how do you make live chat work for you? Below, we list some of the best live chat examples we\u2019ve seen. Use them as inspiration for your support, marketing, and sales teams to give your customers the conversational messaging experience that will set your business apart.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>1. Use live chat to engage new visitors straight away<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A welcome message on your homepage will actively encourage visitors to engage, so you can start more conversations. And when they do send a message, your support and sales teams can route them to the correct department. (To make it even easier, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/operator\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Intercom\u2019s customizable bots<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> can do this automatically by asking a small set of qualifying questions so that the visitor is ushered in the correct direction.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A few good lead-in statements here could be:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Welcome! Can I point you in the right direction?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hi! Let me know if you have any questions while you\u2019re looking around.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What brings you to our site?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>2. Use live chat to send targeted messages to high-value visitors<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When high-value visitors arrive from a specific destination, instead of sending the same one-size-fits-all message, you can increase engagement by automatically greeting them with a personalized live chat message. You can identify these prospects by integrating your live chat tool with an intelligence product such as <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/app-store\/?app_package_code=clearbit\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Clearbit<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For instance, if you get a website visitor that works in a company with a large number of employees, you could send them a message, like \u201cHey, I see you\u2019re interested in our enterprise security solution. Would you like to schedule a 15-minute call this week?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>3. Use live chat to reach out to frequent visitors<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If a visitor shows repeated visits <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> spends a significant amount of time on certain pages, you can safely assume they\u2019re interested in buying your product or looking to get in touch with someone in your business. Your message could simply offer to help with any questions they may have, or ask what brought them to the product page. For example, if you notice they\u2019ve been on your pricing page a lot, you could trigger a message that says, \u201cHi there! Do you have any questions about which of our plans would be the best fit?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"pullquote-style-one\">\n<blockquote class=\"pullquote-style-two\"><p>\u201cBy using live chat to encourage customers to complete their order, you can increase sales by as much as 3x what they could have been\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h3>4. Use live chat to encourage visitors to complete a task<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Almost <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bigcommerce.com\/blog\/abandoned-carts\/#why-cart-abandonment-should-be-a-top-priority-for-online-retailers\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">70% of online shopping carts are abandoned<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> before the customer completes a sale. It may not be possible to persuade all cart-abandoners to go through checkout \u2013 some customers may have never had the intention to purchase in the first place. But by using live chat to encourage them to complete their order, you can increase sales by as much as <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shopify.com\/blog\/12522201-13-amazing-abandoned-cart-emails-and-what-you-can-learn-from-them\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">3x what they could have been<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>5. Use live chat to increase agent productivity<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On the power of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/customers\/vend\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">live chat and messenger-based support<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Jack Harrison-Sherlock, Senior Continuous Improvement Lead at <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vendhq.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Vend<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, says, \u201cEmail can be a really unproductive channel for support, with a lot of time lost amongst teammates sharing tickets, trying to gather information, and context shifting between each reply. With chat, there\u2019s ownership from beginning to end, which is not only a better experience for us, but also for our customers.\u201d They\u2019ve been able to decrease the response time, increase their contacts per agent, and maintain a CSAT score of over 90%.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-25376\" src=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2056\/02\/Live-chat-example-Vend.png\" alt=\"Live chat example - Vend\" width=\"747\" height=\"844\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2056\/02\/Live-chat-example-Vend.png 747w, https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2056\/02\/Live-chat-example-Vend-266x300.png 266w, https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2056\/02\/Live-chat-example-Vend-620x700.png 620w, https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2056\/02\/Live-chat-example-Vend-531x600.png 531w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 747px) 100vw, 747px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><b>6. Use live chat to create a unified customer experience<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Living Spaces <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/customers\/livingspaces\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">uses Intercom across sales, support, and marketing<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to provide consistency across the entire customer lifecycle \u2013 and improve team efficiency. \u201cOur sales, support, and e-commerce teams are now on a single platform, greatly improving our overall customer experience and team efficiency,\u201d says Pete Franco, VP of E-Commerce at <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.livingspaces.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Living Spaces<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. And because they use a tool that\u2019s more than just live chat, they can also get valuable insights that allows the team to provide a more tailored experience.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-25372\" src=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2056\/02\/Living-Spaces-GIF.gif\" alt=\"Live chat example from Living Spaces\" width=\"448\" height=\"840\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><b>7. Use live chat as part of your omnichannel strategy<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Make sure your live chat solution integrates with the other tools and channels that you use, so you can support customers where they are and provide a better customer experience. For example, with <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/announcing-intercoms-whatsapp-integration\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">our WhatsApp integration<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, you can integrate with one of the world\u2019s most popular communications platforms to provide efficient, personalized support, making it even more convenient for customers to get it touch.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>8. Use live chat to be more personal \u2013 and personable<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.getguru.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Guru<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> wanted to use live chat to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/customers\/guru\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">deliver a personal, conversational experience<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that conveyed their company value of not taking itself too seriously. With Intercom, customers can see the names and profile pictures of the people they\u2019re talking to, and the team can express themselves with playful gifs and emojis, allowing them to build long lasting customer relationships. \u201cIntercom is our direct lifeline to our customers,\u201d says June Zhang, Technical Support Manager at Guru. \u201cIt has allowed us to holistically understand our customers and proactively connect with them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"pullquote-style-four\"><p><strong>Pro tip:<\/strong> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To emoji or not to emoji? <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/podcasts\/writing-coach-leslie-oflahavan-on-customer-messaging\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to writing coach Leslie O\u2019Flahavan<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, there are a few rules: \u201cIf emoji are part of our marketing brand, they should be part of our customer service brand,\u201d she says. \u201cWe don\u2019t want the customer to have an upbeat, playful experience when we\u2019re marketing to them and a drab, bureaucratic experience when they need help.\u201d But when you\u2019re solving a customer\u2019s problem in writing? \u201cThe emoji must never carry content. It\u2019s just embellishment. It looks fun, but it doesn\u2019t replace words.\u201d The more you know! \ud83d\udca1<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3><b>9. Use live chat to get more context on customer queries<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With a customer communications platform underpinning your live chat, you can <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/app-store\/?category=data-and-enrichment\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">integrate with the other data and enrichment tools<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in your tech stack to get deeper insights \u2013 and leverage these insights for more effective messaging. Using apps such as <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/app-store\/?app_package_code=clearbit&amp;category=data-and-enrichment\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Clearbit<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/app-store\/?app_package_code=madkudu-4ih3&amp;category=data-and-enrichment\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Madkudu<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, you can quickly gather information on potential customers, identify high-value leads, and send more targeted messages.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>10. Use live chat to engage proactively with customers<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By helping your customers before they even know they need it, you can reduce the number of inbound queries your support team would typically receive. And more, you\u2019re not only giving your customers a better experience by <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/tactics-to-stay-ahead-of-the-curve-with-proactive-support\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">anticipating problems<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, but you also free up your team\u2019s time.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"pullquote-style-two\"><p>\u201c\u2018By proactively targeting specific customers who are affected when issues come up, we\u2019re able to let them know we\u2019re already on it and how they can stay updated\u2019 &#8211; Christian Parker, TrueCommerce\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Take TrueCommerce, an integrated commerce solutions platform. Any time a customer was affected by, say, a temporary outage, they would send them targeted outbound messages to let them know they were working on a fix. \u201cBy proactively targeting specific customers who are affected when issues come up, we\u2019re able to let them know we\u2019re already on it and how they can stay updated. In doing this, we\u2019ve seen a reduction of almost 80% in the contact rate for temporary issues,\u201d <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/customers\/truecommerce\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">says Christian Parker, Director of Managed Services at TrueCommerce<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>11. Use live chat to manage support resources more efficiently<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Using the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/customers\/pantheon\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">right live chat tool<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> has not only improved <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/pantheon.io\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pantheon\u2019s<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> first response time to under two minutes; it\u2019s also given them valuable data that has helped them to optimize team efficiency. \u201cIntercom gives us insights into busy and slow hours which help determine our staffing decisions,\u201d says Shak Hossain, Pantheon\u2019s Head of Support. \u201cWe can see week over week where our busiest hours are to finetune hours across our global team to ensure we have enough coverage at all times.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"live-chat-is-the-norm-not-the-exception\">Live chat is the norm, not the exception<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The old way of communicating with customers is broken.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The explosion of smartphones, messaging, artificial intelligence, and other groundbreaking technologies have led to a new set of expectations for buyers. People want to talk to businesses on their own terms and via their preferred medium.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thanks to live chat, businesses can now deliver this experience at scale. Whether it\u2019s through 1:1 human conversations, or automated with the help of a chatbot, live chat is now the de facto way to engage customers and prospects when they\u2019re at their most interested \u2013 in real-time, as soon as they land on your website.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No ticket numbers. No call back forms. Just the best experience possible for each and every visitor.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p><a name=\"faq\"><\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2 id=\"faqs-about-live-chat-examples\">FAQs about live chat examples<\/h2>\n<div class=\"accordion\">\n<h3 class=\"accordion-header\">How does live chat work?<\/h3>\n<p>Live chat involves placing a small chat icon on certain pages (or every page) that customers can click on to open a chat window and speak to a team member or bot. This allows you to provide helpful information, capture information, engage users, or direct visitors towards certain resources when they need them.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"accordion-header\">Do customers like live chat?<\/h3>\n<p>Yes! Nowadays, most people expect to be able to communicate with companies via live chat. Using live chat alongside automation and bots can help to reduce first-response times, resolve customer issues more quickly, and provide a more personalized and efficient customer experience.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"accordion-header\">What are the benefits of live chat?<\/h3>\n<p>With live chat, your business can interact with customers instantly without the wait times and lag associated with filing a support ticket or sending an email. This allows you to develop more conversational relationships with your customers \u2013 and these faster response times result in happier customers, improved customer loyalty, and more conversions.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"accordion-header\">What&#8217;s the best live chat?<\/h3>\n<p>We may be biased, but we love Intercom \u2013 and we think you will too. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/view-demos\">Watch a demo to learn more.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Learn how your business can benefit from live chat, and how to use it in engaging, personal ways to fuel your sales, marketing, and support 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