8 apps for a better customer experience on your online store

The problem with online shopping is that potential customers feel disconnected because there is no one who can answer their questions in real time. Imagine walking into a gift shop to look for something to give to a friend for their upcoming birthday. You have no clue what to look for and you look around just to find that there isn't anyone there to help you. That is exactly how it feels like. Solution? You can install an online chat system (also known as live chat) to your online store to provide customers immediate access to help. Here are 8 of them that you can use to provide a better experience for your customers.

Tawk.to

Tawk.to is a complete solution to start conversations with your website visitors. A great thing about it is that it is completely FREE! It even has lots of features such a widget customization, chat history, multiple agents, departments, one account for multiple sites, multilanguage and user management. If your business is still at an early stage and every cent matters, then tawk.to is a great option to have live chat service at no cost. But since it is free, there are some limitations such as in depth business analytics.

Bontact

Bontact goes beyond the your usual website live chat. With Bontact’s multi-channel features, your customers can choose their preferred channel and keep the conversation moving between channels, on the move. This helps you provide a much better customer experience. Visitors can choose between live chat, text messages, phone call, or email. Bontact offers different pricing plangs depending on your business needs. They also have free plan.

Modern

Use a messaging app that everyone is familiar with, Facebook Messenger! With Modern app, you can incorporate messenger to your storefront. Visitors can chat with you via their Facebook account. A great thing about this app is that you can continue the conversation even after they have left your site. Therefore, increasing the conversion rate. They also offer automation features using smart bots to help your customers through their journey.

Zopim

One of the thing that makes Zopim special is their free plan. You can try out their services risk free for as long as you want. Of course, there are also paid plans for when you need to have more than 1 chat agents and more customizations. Another great thing about Zopim is their analytics features which allows you to closely monitor your chat agent’s performances and also track conversion rates of your chat service.

Intercom

Live chat gets really interesting with Intercom. People do not like to deal with robots and that is where Intercom comes in. They allow you to have more human to human conversations by displaying profile photos of your team members that are talking to them. Your online store visitors will feel like they are in a physical store talking to an actual representative. But not all visitors like to talk to a rep right as they step into your storefront. You can set targeted messages that triggers base on the visitor’s behavior on your site.

Drift

Businesses that are using Drift are able to start conversations with anywhere between 7 and 20 percent of their website visitors, and that means once you get people to your site you can keep them there. What makes Drift different from the rest? Drift has a simple and clean interface and it is really easy to use so you can focus on the conversation rather than how to use the live chat feature. They are also new to market which means they will provide a better service for you as the live chat operator.

Smooch.io

When it comes to cross-channel messaging, Smooch really beats the rest. You can get distribution across channels and talk to customers over social messaging apps like WeChat and Facebook Messenger, SMS, or web chat without additional development time. Conversations  are also automatically sync everywhere. Not only can you do cross-channel messaging but you can also integrate with business tools that you already use, like Slack. Smooch can be a bit technical and I recommend it for more technically advanced businesses.

elevio

Rather than rely on traditional streams like email, FAQs systems or support portals, elevio allows website owners to show contextual-based tips to their visitors to help the out where and when they need it. The widget is also seamless across devices which doesn’t get in the way of your visitors on trying to make a purchase.