What’s in a Chat Widget?

Who wants to make a phone call?

Nowadays, it’s far more common for people to want to communicate via email or chat than to physically speak to another person. Weird, we know, but true! On top of this, relying on instant and constant communication with customers via direct calls is practically impossible these days. Live chats are an essential, quick, and cost-effective way to keep a constant channel open for customers to solve their problems. Neat, right? 

But what are the features of a good chat widget? And why do you need one? If you think implementing chat widgets for your SaaS is difficult, don’t worry! We’re here to explain everything, including 

• What is a Chat Widget?
• Features of a Good Chat Widget
• Why do you need a Chat Widget?
• Best Tools to Use for Chat Widgets
• Chat Widgets in SaaS

Ready? Let’s go!

What is a Chat Widget? 

A chat widget is a small pop-up window that stays on your website, ready to be used by customers that have questions, without having to make a single phone call. They usually welcome them and offer help if needed. Having a chat widget lets you give direct answers that will lead customers to the right content faster, and take work off your team’s shoulders: you can save on resources by redirecting customers to the right worker that will for sure have the answer. 

Having a chat widget as part of your online product or website will ultimately lead to higher customer engagement and growth, avoiding the inevitable (and dreaded) churn when new users don’t know how to navigate your product or have unresolved issues. All these things work together to improve your customers’ support experience and will, in the end, increase your profits. 

Now that you understand what a chat widget is and what it can do for you, let’s see what are the features of a good chat widget. 

Features of a Good Chat Widget

A good chat widget should be, above all, user-friendly. Its placement should be non-invasive but also functional. Is it easily visible? Can your users use it comfortably? Your users’ questions need to be answered in a direct way, and as fast as possible, so they can get what they came looking for instead of deciding to leave.

Let’s see what the main features are of a good chat widget:

1. Automation

The best chat widgets allow you to automate flows. This means creating automated messages that answer the most commonly asked questions. As a result, your team saves precious time and can focus on other important aspects of customer support. 

2. Clean interface

A simple interface makes your chat widget easier to use for your team. Having a clear process for creating tickets, assigning them to the best-suited operator, tagging and filtering chats (like specific answers and topics, so they are easier to find), or filtering by importance and urgency, will help your team save precious time and avoid simple mistakes. This will ultimately lead to a better customer experience overall. 

3. User-friendliness

Your chat widget should be user-friendly – it’s why you’re implementing it on your website, to help your customers. So make it easy to follow, quick and functional. 

4. Analytics

Thanks to chat widgets you’ll be able to get insights on various fronts: 

• Statistics on the number of chats and queries resolved
• How long it takes your team to answer a customer
• The most commonly asked questions 

All the above will help you make informed decisions on the productivity of your team and what the most common pain points are for your customers. 

5. Customization

Makes it fun! Even though chat widgets serve a customer-oriented and time-saving purpose, it doesn’t mean they can’t be pleasing to the eye. You can pick fonts, buttons, colors, where it goes on your site… It should mold to your own brand style and catch your customers’ eyes. 

6. Integrations

It’s super important that your chat widget can integrate with your existing systems, like your helpdesk, knowledge base, CRM solution, and more. This will keep all your conversations in one place (think of email, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp) and make it easier for your teams to access all the relevant information they’ll need to answer your customers’ questions.  

If you’re still thinking “does my business really need a chat widget?”, read on to discover the kick-ass ways it can transform your customer support strategy!

Why do you need a Chat Widget?

Grabbing the interest of potential customers is not easy, and doing so quickly is not only beneficial but crucial. If you’re not able to provide what your customers want fast enough, there’s a good chance they’ll leave in seconds. 

That’s why chat widgets are so important for businesses. They allow you to answer whatever questions your customers have, solve their issues and direct them to the right products, cutting wait times and long phone calls. 

Here are some other major impacts of incorporating a chat widget into your product or website: 

• Increase your sales: 79% of businesses confirm that chat widgets increased their sales, revenue, and customer loyalty
• Keep customers happy: 38% of consumers say they are more likely to buy from a company if they have live chat support
• Boost conversion rates: chat widgets reach out to people, making the product more engaging by offering instant responses. This means customers are more likely to stay using it
• Improve customer experience: customers will find your product easier to use and will feel taken care of when their questions are answered quickly 
• Help marketing automation: thanks to chat widgets, you’ll learn valuable data about them which will make marketing automation much easier
• Collect customer feedback and data: having a direct channel of communication with your customers means learning what their pain points are, so you can fix them

And now for the hard question… What are the best tools to use for chat widgets? 

Best Tools to Use for Chat Widgets

If you’re interested in improving your customer experience and automating your customer support, let’s see what are the best tools to use for chat widgets:  

There are many types of chat widgets, so make sure you’re choosing one that fulfills your needs the most. After all, you know what your customers want and how to give them the help they’re looking for!

Chat Widgets in SaaS

Incorporating a chat widget in your website is, even if it doesn’t look like it, a huge step to increasing your customer satisfaction and success. It’s a cost-effective and quick way of keeping a constant communication channel open between your team and customers in need of answers. Adding a chat widget will affect your sales, increase conversion rates, help your marketing automation, and better your customers’ experience with your product. 

But, most importantly, your customers will be happy not having to wait hours for an answer, or having to make boring phone calls to fix their issues. There are all types of chat widgets, so choose wisely the one that adapts the best to your needs, and watch it fulfill your customer support dreams! 

Ready to implement a chat widget on your website? Book a demo to learn more about FROGED’s chat widget and what it can do for your business!