Introduction

In an increasingly crowded and international marketplace, businesses operating online constantly need to find ways to grow customer engagement and improve the overall customer experience. One of the tools that many companies use to interact with their customers and prospects is webchat widgets. In this article, we take a brief look into the world of chat widgets, exploring what they are, their benefits, their drawbacks, and some useful tips on how to add one to your company's website.

What are webchat and webchat widgets?

The term webchat refers to an instant messaging system that allows website visitors to interact with a company instantly. A webchat widget, on the other hand, is a tool or application that enables webchat functionality on a website. It can be manned by live agents, chatbots, or a combination of both, depending on your business requirements and customer preferences.

The advantages of adding webchat to your company site

Lead capture

A webchat widget can be a powerful lead-generation tool. By engaging with visitors instantly, you can capture their information, store it, and qualify them as potential leads, allowing for targeted follow-ups on different marketing channels in the future.

Customer service

With webchat, your business can provide instant and personalized customer support. It means customers can have their questions answered promptly, leading to increased satisfaction and loyalty.

Integration with CRM

Webchat widgets can integrate with your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. This will enable you to provide a more personalized service by accessing information about past interactions, purchase history, and preferences during webchat conversations. This can lead to more effective interactions as it’s possible to get to the point much quicker without having to repeat previous conversations.

Multi-lingual capabilities

In a region like the middle east where people from all over the world come to live and work, the ability to handle queries in multiple languages (and alphabets) is a real advantage. A well-designed chat widget can include the ability for the website visitor to choose their preferred language at the start of any interaction so that they can be helped in the language that they are most comfortable using.

Call-center traffic management

Webchat widgets help ease the pressure on call-center staff by efficiently handling frequently asked questions (FAQs). By automating responses to common queries, you can reduce call volume, allowing your staff to focus on more complex customer needs.

Things to consider

Staffing requirements

Whether you choose to use a chatbot or not, running a webchat widget will almost certainly require dedicated staff to handle incoming chats. This means additional personnel or reallocating existing resources to manage the chat functionality effectively.

Peak times and queues

During periods of high website traffic or peak times, webchat queues may form, resulting in longer waiting times for customers. This can lead to frustration and potentially impact customer satisfaction.

Chatbot setup complexity

If you choose to incorporate a chatbot into your webchat widget, it will require significant setup and configuration. Chatbots need to be configured, trained, programmed with relevant information, and regularly updated to provide accurate and helpful responses. Although there are tools that can take a lot of the strain, like drag-and-drop chatbot builders, they still need care and attention to get the right result for your business.

Continuous improvement

Implementing webchat is not a one-time effort. Ongoing monitoring, maintenance, and optimization are essential to ensure the widget delivers the desired results and provides a good user experience. By keeping a close eye on performance, you can identify common issues being brought up, see bottlenecks in the process, and rectify them before small issues become bigger problems.

Finding the optimal approach

The best results with webchat and webchat widgets often come from finding the right balance between the use of chatbots and live agents. If chatbots can handle routine queries, provide immediate responses, and help the user perform some common tasks, this can free up live agents to deal with more complex queries where one-to-one service is required. Getting the balance right is the key to improving customer satisfaction.

Web chat widgets have the potential to really enhance customer engagement, lead generation, and the quality of customer service on your company website. Remember, the key lies in constantly monitoring and refining your web chat strategy to meet evolving customer expectations and business needs.

To speak to Unifonic about choosing the best web chat widget for your company’s website, contact us.