How to choose the best live chat software for your business

Instantly answer customer questions online with Pure Chat

Do a search for “best live chat software” and you’ll see there’s no shortage of contenders out there. Everyone claims their product or service is the best in the business. So how can you know what tool is right for you which live chat reviews you can trust? Since every business is different, there’s no “one size fits all” live chat solution for everyone. There are, however, a few things to look for when making your decision. Let’s take a closer look.




Brandable Chat Boxes

You’ve worked hard on creating a seamless brand experience for your customers. So why leave it to chance when some live chat window pops up that looks nothing like your brand? Many live chat software providers are more focused on promoting their business than helping yours grow, so look for live chat software that lets you easily brand the chat boxes to match your site’s look and feel.


Always-On Functionality

It’s after hours. Is your live chat still generating leads for you? If not, it should be. Nothing deters a potential customer more than the message “live chat unavailable” when they have a question. It’s unfortunate, but they’ll often assume that if you’re not available when they have a question, why should doing business with your company be any different? That’s why it’s best to look for a live chat solution that provides always-on functionality – so that even if the live chat program isn’t staffed, you’re still collecting and responding to customer inquiries sent after hours.


Seamless Backend Reporting

The best live chat program is only as good as its backend. What use is it if your staff is always searching for customer inquiries or having trouble managing multiple chats? The best live chat services have a backend administration that’s intuitive and user friendly, for both the user and the operator. Even if you’re the team leader, you can easily see reports that show who your top performing chat agents are – a great way to incentivize helping others and keeping customers happy.



Mobile Responsiveness and Compatibility

Today’s live chat software has to be where the customer is. If not, they’re missing out. And that means being available on today’s most used mobile devices. Oftentimes, a live chat app will be developed for an Android or Apple device, and simply ported over to the other. This means that the chat app isn’t designed to take advantage of the functionality and features that its non-native platform has.


Imagine trying to use an live chat app on an Apple iPad or iPhone that wasn’t originally designed to work on those devices. Cumbersome right? You bet it is. And if the customer has trouble using your live chat program, they’ll think much the same of your product or service – slow, buggy, difficult to use and frustrating. Not exactly words you want to have associated with your business, are they?

That’s why you should look for a live chat solution that’s not only made to work on multiple devices – it has been built on them. In the case of Pure Chat, we developed native apps individually for Apple iOS products (iPhone, iPad) and Android devices. So no matter what device you prefer, you can always connect with your customers and they can always connect with you.



Plays Well with Other Platforms

In addition to working well with mobile, it’s vital that any live chat software you choose work well on other platforms. These days, people run their websites on a variety of content management and e-commerce systems, including Wordpress, Shopify, and Weebly.


Finding a dedicated live chat system that works with all of these can be a tall order to fill, but the best live chat programs have stepped up to the plate to offer maximum compatibility in just a few lines of code that you can easily cut and paste into your preferred platform – no programming necessary!



Pricing That’s Fair

Perhaps the most restrictive feature of even the best live chat solutions on the market today is the pricing. Imagine you’ve found the perfect system that meets all of these needs – except they charge you an outrageous monthly fee and per user fee for every operator you have. Or they let you have live chat, but don’t let you keep your chat history – so if you need to go back and reference a previous chat, you’re out of luck. How is that fair?


When evaluating a live chat provider, don’t base your decision solely on price. Ask yourself, “what value am I really getting from this in exchange for my money?” Look at the number of users you get, how many chats you can have per month, whether or not you can integrate it with any of your existing systems (like Zapier or Google Analytics) and how many users you can have staffing it.

And even if your choice works for your business today, you’ve got to anticipate future growth. Will the live chat program you choose now still be there for you in a year or more? Will it scale to accommodate your growth or will it hold you back?


The Best Solution Is…

The good news is that Pure Chat has all of the integrations you need, along with the freedom, flexibility and fairness you demand from a live chat program. With easy setup, complete brandability, simple, straightforward pricing and compatibility with multiple platforms and devices, helping customers has never been easier or more intuitive.

Added features like proactive chat triggers, team-based chats, SSL security and much more, it has never been easier to connect with customers.


Sign up for our free service today to try out our live chat app with a native iOS and Android apps, so you can chat on the go. It’s the seamless, full-featured, free live chat that works with your business, and keeps growing as you grow.

What people are saying about Pure Chat...

We're always on the go! Over 50% of the conversations with people on our website are done from the Pure Chat mobile app. It's incredibly helpful.

Mike Mendoza
CMO - Oh! Juice Co.

Pure Chat makes talking to customers so much easier. You do get more sales when you talk to your customers. The dashboard is really user friendly and you can customize the chat box exactly how you want.

Jamie Fuller, Elevate Gaming

Pure Chat has been a fantastic tool in our lead gen efforts. On multiple occasions we’ve been able to capture leads that wouldn’t have filled out a form on our website. We’ve closed $10K deals in a matter of days off Pure Chat.

Preston Smith - Dir. of marketing, SixthDivision

I am blown away by the number of new customers we have acquired using Pure Chat and I believe it is due to its straight forward and modern interface.

Damon Didier
Director of Marketing - the HASCO Medical