Live Chat Best Practices

For Sales & Customer Service

Live Chat Best Practices 

The Basics 

The first thing about live chat that you should consider is ease of use for your customers. You want your customers to be able to access and use your live chat feature easily. The purpose of offering live chat is to give your customers another opportunity to communicate with your company. You do not want to corrupt the opportunity by making it too difficult for your customers to utilize.  

Live Chat Best Practices ProTip #1: Make the Live Chat easy to find.  

The bottom right corner of the desktop has become the standard placement for live chat. Don’t stray from this if you are trying to make accessibility easy for your customers. Also keep in mind that when you place a live chat, it will most likely cover up any design behind it. Make sure your live chat is not covering vital information your customers will need.  

You should also place live chat on the help and or contact us pages. These pages are where your customers turn for live interaction with your team, and where they expect a live chat option to be if that is something you offer.  

Live Chat Best Practices ProTip #2: Call it Chat. 

If you name your live chat anything other than “chat,” you can confuse your customers. With very clear and concise labeling, your customers will know exactly what they are clicking on and what features they are using. If your customers are in a hurry, you do not want them guessing and wondering where your live chat feature is located.  

Live Chat Best Practices ProTip #3: Display your hours.  

A key feature in live chat is having someone available for your customers to speak to live. If you do not have someone on duty 24 hours a day, you will need to display your hours prominently. Your customers should know if they are going to receive a response from a live person right away before they send their message.  

If you do not have a person on staff 24 hours a day, make sure your customers know when to expect a response. Also, they will need a notification that their message was received. This information can come from an autoresponder.  

Live Chat Best Practices ProTip #4: Open a new tab. 

When customers click on the live chat link, it should open a new tab. This allows your customers to continue using your website while interacting with your customer service representatives. This also gives them freedom to look up pertinent information without the fear of dropping the connection. 

Live Chat Best Practices ProTip #5: Include live chat features. 

Typing indicators, read receipts, timestamps, attachments, and downloadable transcripts are all chat features that authenticate the user experience. All five of these features promote trust in your live chat by assuring your customers that someone is on the other end of the chat, and that person is responding to them. The last thing you want is for your customers to be frustrated by thinking they are talking to a bot. 

Ready to Chat? 

In-App Chat can help you add live chat to your website through SDKs and APIs. We make building your own solution easier than ever so that you can get your processes of the ground quickly. Your customers will love having the option to communicate with your representatives in real time through live chat on your website. Contact us today to get started!