This article focuses on customer service software for foreign trade sites. As for domestic sites and apps, I'll have a chance to deal with them later. Isn't it better to simply hang up a corporate WeChat? If you want something complicated, then choose according to the functions you value most.
Domestic sites choose domestic systems. For foreign sites, it's the same reason. For foreign sites, it's best to choose foreign ones (except Alibaba, Amazon, etc., which have no choice)
What live chat software are there? What kind of market is this?
Let's first give a software definition, otherwise it's like talking to a chicken and a duck.
Here's an overview. Who says foreign countries don't compete? They're just as competitive. The horizontal axis is the evaluation score. The more to the right, the higher the praise. The vertical axis is the market share. The more people score on the upper side.
My eyesight is not good, so I used the source code search to find the location of the livechat used by the company. [I finally experienced the disadvantage of long bar logos. They are at a disadvantage in this kind of comparison chart. They are not clear after zooming in.]
Use the filter to see what software big companies are using. A lot of free software is filtered out (they have limited functions and big companies will not use them at all).
(This data only represents the data collected on this website, so just take a look. There will be water and survivor bias. Cheap and free ones are used by more people and may get more reviews. Now you know how to use this table.)
That trend does not support cross-filtering, so I won’t take a screenshot here. You can try this if you are looking for new software.
Choose with your eyes closed. The website has given the answer. From free to paid, just choose one.
Okay, it's enough for beginer to see this.
The following is suspected of promotion. Don’t read it if you mind.
Livechat usage experience
Some usage experience of the customer service software used by my own e-commerce website. It can be used as some reference points for choosing software.
We use livechat at home. It is in the middle range in the above chart. It can go up and down. Some people use it in large enterprises, and some people use it in small enterprises. Just like building blocks, different packages and modules need to be paid separately.
Imitation and plagiarism is the easiest way to get started. This is how we got into the pit.
How did our company choose this livechat software. At the beginning, it was still outside the door, and there were not so many research tools available. It was just because the software used by our competitors was better than ours, so we changed to it. Fortunately, the price of this software is within our acceptable range, and the functions are sufficient (if you know a little bit of technology, you can take advantage of it and turn paid functions into free functions).
After using it for a few years, I feel that this software is really good, stable, continuously updated, and can better meet the needs of business development. No matter what platform is used, it can be connected with it. I think the money is worth it. Plagiarism is really good.
It is easy to get into the pit, but difficult to get out of the pit.
Most software related to data will have such problems. Once the data is accumulated, customer service chat records belong to this category, and it is not easy to change it.
I really want to complain about a certain domestic cloud. Their servers and cloud computers were very cheap at first, which led people into the trap, and then the price always increased. There were discounts for new purchases, but nothing for renewals, which was a headache. If you don't agree with the renewal, you have to take the risk of migration. If you don't agree with the renewal price, you have to spend time reinstalling various environments and software. He will eat you.\
There is a 14-day full-featured free trial and a 10% discount for the first payment.
Fortunately, the pricing of this livechat has not increased, which is quite conscientious.
Therefore, when choosing software related to root data, it is best to check the price changes of this software in previous years and whether the renewal price is often increased for no reason.
Whether data fusion and performance evaluation are needed
If your company has a certain scale, or the boss is picky and pays attention to standardization. Livechat software that provides rich API interfaces is a must. This can connect various management systems such as CRM and ERP.
It is necessary to leave enough room for expansion in the software. The reasons are as above. It is easy to get into the pit, but difficult to get out of the pit. But this software cannot meet the business needs and must be replaced. Losing data is a headache.
Fortunately, this livechat is still very open. As long as you want to toss, most of the data can be obtained. I used its API to get the wool (turn the paid function into free) in that article, just to prove that its interface is indeed simple and easy to learn. The other article is the real wool.
Provide enough rich interface display methods
How to perfectly integrate customer service plug-ins with websites or other systems has never been perfect. Because websites and apps are all kinds of strange and varied.
What should I do if the upper left corner, upper right corner, lower left corner, lower right corner, and pop-up floating layers are all occupied in the picture below? What if I need to add a text link in the web page and click the link to initiate a chat?
It is very important to have a flexible chat window display method. The cheap ones we used before did not have rich functions, and the js code could only display a floating layer like a big plaster.
Customized links can only open its independent chat page (and it opens a new page to go to the third-party domain, which is equivalent to leaving the current website)
Look at the help document of livechat again, it is advanced and standardized, and its chat interface can be completely controlled by custom code. Click link A to expand the chat interface, and click button B to close the interface.
Even after expanding the chat window, what information is prompted can be customized.
This is the flexibility provided by paid software. The small screen is very valuable, which is extremely important for mobile interactive design.
Tell support staff to use the "active message" function frequently
One of the reasons for choosing this software is that when we browse the competitor's website, we find that as long as we read a few more pages, a chat window will pop up, and a customer service will take the initiative to greet me, and the messages are all kinds of things.
This is amazing, because it doesn't pop up on every page, when to greet, what to greet, there is no pattern. I am very curious, what's going on. In theory, there should be rules. When my buddy used Baidu Aifanfan, he also configured a similar function, but later because it popped up endlessly and affected the experience, he simply turned it off.
After using this backend, I realized that proactive chat can be initiated automatically or by customer service staff. The backend provides visitor records (whether it is an old customer, how many times it has visited, time and place, which pages it has viewed, and which page it is viewing now, all of which are displayed.) Customer service staff can select visitors and take the initiative.
The vision and speech of high-level customer service and low-level customer service are completely different. Taking the initiative provides them with an opportunity to show themselves.
Aren’t you shy and don’t talk to me? I will take the initiative to find you, and I will take the initiative to find you in a very humane way. It’s great to have this proactive message function.
Don’t close the message form, never
We used to think that with this online chat software (even if the customer service is not online, you can still initiate a chat and leave a message), there is no need for a message form.
Because the functions are repeated and the customer’s consultation information belongs to different modules, it is very troublesome for customer service to reply. You have to check the website backend, the online chat software backend, and the email, which is easy to miss, and it may also be assigned to different customer service. Not only that, it is also troublesome to define conversion goals.
So we cut off those seemingly similar things. The website only retains an online chat function.
As a result, the result was a failure.
There are a lot of stubborn visitors who don't talk when they see chat, but they are willing to leave a message when they see the cold message box of send message and send inquiry.
Is it so unreasonable? Later we figured it out, people just like non-instant communication. (In an article introducing chat customer service software, the form is more important, I think it is very conscientious.)
For example, a company's purchasing staff browses the web casually, and finds a certain product useful when they encounter a work-related web page, but he is on vacation now and doesn't want to put too much energy into work. Leaving a message is more appropriate than chatting.
For another example, the visitor is a foreigner who doesn't speak English very well, such as me. Instant online chat is difficult for me, while replying emails and returning support tickets will be easier.
Therefore, the message form is still very important. Don't think that you can turn off this function just because you have online customer service.
Then the question is, how to solve the inconveniences mentioned above. This livechat should have been thought of a long time ago. It also has a form function, which can make various forms. This needs to be paid separately, and I haven't experienced it yet.
If you want to unify and manage easily, just pay and use their services. If you want to save money, you can also use the ones that come with the website. This needs to be handled according to your own needs.
In short, don't close the form, don't close the form, at least for overseas sites.
Ai auxiliary function
Ai is a big trend. For sites with few visitors, it can be used as a translation assistant, etc. to improve the efficiency of customer service. For sites with many visitors, it can directly act as an online customer service and provide 7X24 hours of uninterrupted service. With AI assistance, you can pre-filter the chats, filter out those visitors who are making friends, looking for jobs, and spamming, and hand over the real customers to the customer service.
Of course, if there are enough standard answers and common questions, AI can play a greater role. You can even let it actively initiate targeted conversations based on the visit behavior of each visitor.
There is still a lot of room for imagination for this thing. Whether it can be used well depends entirely on your own conditions.
As a high-end online customer service software that can go up and down, livechat also provides AI and chatbot functions (the one circled in the evaluation above, charged separately). Whether it has this function is a matter of the software. Whether you can afford it or not is my business. It is said that his AI is also very powerful. I don't know which big company he cooperated with. If I use it in the future, I will post it again.
Foreigners like to use this set. One price per person, a little cheaper than the official website.
Foreign trade partners who need to experience livechat can try it. Maybe using this software will take the conversion rate to a higher level. Enough words, finished, I wish you a prosperous business.
- What live chat software are there? What kind of market is this?
- Livechat usage experience
- Imitation and plagiarism is the easiest way to get started. This is how we got into the pit.
- It is easy to get into the pit, but difficult to get out of the pit.
- Whether data fusion and performance evaluation are needed
- Provide enough rich interface display methods
- Tell support staff to use the "active message" function frequently
- Don’t close the message form, never
- Ai auxiliary function
