Efficient and responsive customer support is essential for businesses that want to grow successfully and in the right direction. We’re used to customers reaching out to companies via phone, email, or, more recently, social media. However, there’s also a way to allow your employees to answer customer queries more comprehensively without dealing with a crowded inbox or always busy phone lines. The answer lies in a customer chat plugin for your company website.

Different Online Chat Options

When you first start looking into customer chat options, you’ll notice the three most common ways to add a chat feature for your website:

1. A Basic Chatbot

The simplest option out of the three involves the so-called basic chatbot. This type of chatbot operates based on a pre-configured set of rules. The users’ questions and answers will further guide the chatbot’s responses. An excellent example of this chat option is the Chatfuel chatbot service.

2. An AI Chatbot

Unlike the basic chatbot, AI chatbots utilize machine learning to understand user input and provide a more comprehensive output. However, to utilize machine learning properly, a company would have to invest in the right software and hardware necessary to support it. An excellent example of this particular chat option is the IBM Watson Chatbot.

It’s also possible to integrate your bot-based chat software with your social media messaging. The most significant benefit of chatbots is that they can provide quick answers to customer queries 24/7. But this doesn’t mean that you should ignore the third online chat option; quite the contrary.

3. Live Chat

Live chat support is the most frequently used online chat option. Essentially, a real person is responsible for answering users’ questions via live chat – not a bot.

According to a LiveChat benchmark study, an average business dealt with approximately 2746 chats per month in the last 12 months.  

Benefits of Adding a Customer Chat Plugin to Your WordPress Website

WordPress is the leading content management system for many modern business websites. And the benefits of adding a chat plugin to your WordPress website are numerous.

Ease and Simplicity

WordPress makes it easy to add any plugin to a website, including chat plugins. Not only are the plugins functional and readily available, but they can also be further customized to match a website’s style perfectly. 

Versatility

Regardless of what industry you’re operating in, you can be 100% sure that there’s a useful chat plugin for your niche. What’s more, it’s possible to program your chat feature so that it shows up on specific pages on your website.

Measurable Effectiveness

Using a chat plugin also allows you to keep track of and measure chat data. In turn, this feature is handy for boosting customer support even more.

Security

It’s crucial that your customers can trust you with their information. That’s why the best chat plugins provide adequate chat encryption, thus improving overall security and privacy.

Advantageous Competitiveness

Utilizing the chat plugin for your business can give you a much-needed advantage over your competition. Furthermore, it’s possible to link your chat with existing PPC and SEO campaigns to boost conversions. 

Responsiveness

It’s no secret that the majority of online traffic originates from mobile devices. This is why WordPress allows you to create a fully responsive website, together with responsive chat plugins that function across different mobile devices.

How to Add a Customer Chat Plugin to Your WordPress Website Step-by-Step

Thanks to the plugin feature that WordPress supports, adding a customer chat plugin to your website is easier than ever. You don’t need any coding knowledge to do this properly. All you have to do is log into your WordPress account and follow your dashboard’s next steps. We’ll use Chatfuel’s chatbot plugin as an example.

Automatic installation method:

• Go to Plugins and click on the Add New option.
• Type the name of your plugin, for example, “Chatfuel Customer Chat.”
• You’ll see the “Chatfuel Customer Chat plugin by Chatfuel & Master of Code.”
• Click on the Install Now button next to it.
• Once the installation is completed, click on the Activate Plugin button.

Manual installation method:

• Start by downloading the plugin on your computer.
• Extract the “chatfuel-customer-chat” folder.
• Open your FTP software.
• With the software, upload the “chatfuel-customer-chat” folder to the “wp-content/plugins” folder located in your WordPress directory.
• Once that’s done, open your WordPress dashboard.
• Go to Plugins and look up “Chatfuel Customer Chat” in your list of installed plugins.
• Click Activate to activate this plugin.

In case you encounter some trouble with your plugin, make sure your WordPress website has an HTTPS server. Also, it’s vital to whitelist your website’s domain when configuring your chat plugin. If the plugin still doesn’t work, don’t hesitate to contact the plugin’s customer support.

Why Install a Customer Chat Plugin on Your WordPress Website?

In Drift’s 2020 State of Conversational Marketing study, it was revealed that 33% of US customers only tend to use a chat feature on a website to interact with a business. Providing an online chat tool for customers means that the companies can effectively:

• Boost customer loyalty and satisfaction
• Grow their sales
• Save money and time while handling customer queries
• Increase customer engagement
• Control and direct customer interactions better

In closing

Conversational customer service is the future of customer support. Soon enough, it will be a factor that makes or breaks a business. In that sense, adding a customer chat plugin to your business website shouldn’t be treated as just another chore but as a business-boosting strategy. 

Thanks to the intuitive nature of WordPress CMS, installing a chat plugin has never been easier and less time-consuming. However, keep in mind that chatbots are a fantastic tool for helping take the load off of your customer support agents rather than a complete solution on their own. Relying on chatbot technology and human-to-human live chat interactions for more complex queries is the best way to go.