What is live chat software, and how do you choose one?
Six short guides about website chat that are useful before Greet exists and whichever tool you end up using. Greet is not built yet; the answers here are about the category and about Greet as designed.
not shipped · wave 36 guidesuseful before Greet shipsno sign-up needed
Product design preview · Greet has not shipped. All features, screens and prices are proposals.
Greet has not shipped yet.
Greet is not available yet. These guides are about live chat in general, and about Greet as designed.
Understand it
Live chat, in plain words.
Three guides for anyone deciding whether their website needs a chat at all.
Live chat in plain words
Strip away the category and there is one idea underneath.
It is a conversation on your website. A visitor types a question into a small window on the page, and your business answers in that window while they are still there.
It is not email and not a contact form. The point is that the reply arrives while the visitor still cares about the answer, which is usually within a minute or two.
Today it is a mix of software and people. An assistant answers the repeat questions; a person answers the rest. The quality of a tool is in how it splits the two.
The record matters as much as the chat. A conversation that leaves no record helps one visitor once. One that lands in your customer record helps the next person who talks to them.
How does live chat software work?
Four moving parts, whichever tool you choose.
A snippet on your website. A few lines of code load the chat window on every page, or the tool is built into your website builder.
An inbox for your team. Messages arrive in a shared inbox, with who is waiting and for how long.
Rules and an assistant. Opening hours, who gets which conversation, and an assistant that answers from your articles or saved replies.
A place the conversation goes. A transcript, a lead in your CRM, a ticket for follow-up. This is the part tools differ on most.
Why use live chat software at all
Because a visitor with a question is already halfway to calling you.
Questions arrive at the wrong hour. Evenings and weekends are when people read websites; chat lets them ask then.
A form feels like a wait. A chat feels like an answer, even when the answer is "a person will call you at 9".
You learn what your website does not say. Every repeated question is a sentence missing from your pages.
Answering once in writing scales. A good article answers the same question for everyone who asks next.
Choose and use it
Choosing one, and using it well.
Three guides for the decision itself, and for the first month after it.
How to choose live chat software
Five questions to ask any vendor, including us.
Where does the assistant get its answers? From your own articles, or from general knowledge? Only the first is safe to put in front of customers.
What happens when it does not know? It should say so and offer a person, not guess.
Where does a lead go? Into the record your team works in, or into an export someone has to remember?
How is it priced as you grow? Per agent, per conversation or per business. Work out the price at the team size you will have next year.
Can you leave? Ask how transcripts are exported before you start, not after.
What business needs live chat software
Not every business. These are the signs that yours does.
People ask the same questions by phone or email every week.
Visitors arrive outside your opening hours.
The next step is a booking, a visit or a quote, which a conversation can start.
Nobody can watch the inbox all day, so slow replies are already costing you enquiries.
If none of these is true, a clear contact page may be enough. That is a fine answer.
How to use live chat software for lead generation
Without turning the chat into a form.
Answer first, ask second. A visitor who gets an answer gives their details more willingly than one who is asked for them up front.
Ask only what the next step needs: name, need and how to reach them. Everything else can wait for the call.
Say what happens next. "Someone will call you tomorrow before 10" is a promise; "we will be in touch" is not.
File it where your team works. A lead that lands in your CRM gets called; a lead that lands in an email folder gets forgotten.
Greet, as designed
Setting up Greet, in four steps.
When Greet opens, this is the proposed setup. Most of the time goes into the first step.
Write or import the articles Celia may answer from, in Care.
Switch Greet on in Site, or paste one snippet into any other website.
Choose your opening hours, who gets which conversations, and the topics Celia must always hand over.
Connect Book if visitors should be able to book, and Relate so every lead is filed.
Questions
Quick ones.
What is the best live chat software?＋
The one that answers correctly or not at all, gets a person in quickly, and files what it learns where your team works. Which tool that is depends on your size and the tools you already use; the compare pages set Greet next to the ones people search for.
Is live chat the same as a chatbot?＋
No. Live chat is a conversation with your business; a chatbot is one way of answering in it. Greet uses an assistant for the repeat questions and a person for the rest.
Do I need to be online all the time?＋
No. Outside your hours, a good tool says when a person will reply and takes details. Greet is designed to do that, and to answer what your articles already cover.
How long does setup take?＋
For most tools the snippet takes minutes and the articles take longer. Greet is designed the same way: the answers are only as good as what you have written.
Will Greet make things up?＋
No. It answers from your own content and says when it cannot; a person is one tap away.
Can Greet capture leads?＋
Yes. Name, need and contact go straight into Relate as a new conversation.
Be told when Greet opens.
Greet is in the third wave, after Care. Leave your name and you will hear before the announcement, with the final plans and prices.