Best Chatbot Software
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PRODUCTS
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BUYER'S GUIDE
Buyer's Guide
By Ishani Vats, Market Analyst at SelectHub
As much as you’d like to be, you can’t always be there for your customers. Sometimes they’re contacting you after hours, or urgent tasks pull you away. Luckily, innovations like chatbot software can fill the gaps.
Though chatbots can’t completely replace live chat with real agents, recent developments in AI, like natural language processing (NLP), make chatbots better able to emulate human speech and understand your customers’ needs. It’s no wonder they’re predicted to become the primary customer support channel for roughly 25% of organizations by 2027.
Curious to know how chatbot software could help your customer support? Read on to find out!
Executive Summary
- Chatbot software is a digital assistant that uses artificial intelligence, machine learning and natural language processing to carry out virtual interactions with humans.
- It responds to basic questions about your business, gives preset answers to FAQs and provides information about products and services in a conversational tone.
- Ask potential vendors questions about the software before purchasing a solution.
What Is Chatbot Software?
Chatbot software is a computer program that handles online conversations with humans via text or voice messaging. While you can’t always predict what customers will contact you for, many ask similar questions, like “Where’s my order?” or “What’s your return policy?” Chatbots quickly handle these frequently asked questions, freeing up agents’ time, and can also route customers to live agents if more help is needed.
In a 2021 State of Chatbots survey report, 54% of respondents said they would prefer to use a chatbot immediately instead of waiting for a live agent. In the same report, 69% of respondents said that if a chatbot could resolve an issue more quickly, they would often or always use it.
Just like real agents, bots can be trained and improved. Chatbots can learn to understand various languages and conversational nuances using Natural Language Processing (NLP) and sentiment analysis.
You can also integrate them with your CRM platform to take advantage of their machine learning capabilities, allowing them to record and analyze customer interactions, and tailor answers based on previous conversations.
Let’s go over some of the ways chatbot software can benefit your business.
Primary Benefits
1. Better Feedbac
You can configure the bot to request a feedback message after conversations end, and customers can quickly rate their experience or redirect to another page to leave a detailed response. You can use their answers to review and improve services.
2. Improved Communication
Chatbots send automated answers and collect customer data to create personalized responses. Customers get instant solutions to their queries without having to wait. If the bot isn’t able to answer the query, it transfers the chat to a human agent so customers can get a quick resolution, increasing satisfaction.
3. Branding
Chatbots are a digital point of contact for your website visitors. In addition to answering questions and resolving queries, bots promote products and services, offer recommendations and target specific users. As a result, your website receives more visitors, and visitors are more likely to spend a longer time exploring your business and make repeat purchases.
Key Features & Functionality
Customization | Data collected by Deloitte Insights showed that the volume of interactions handled by conversational agents increased by as much as 250% in 2020 across multiple industries. Customizing your chatbot allows you to stay up to date with competition and serve your customers’ specific needs. You can include responses to all types of questions and configure it to provide personalized answers to customers. Collects user data like name, age and nature of query to understand customer psychology and provide solutions based on specific demands. |
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Multilingual Support | Customers from all corners of the world visit your website, and they need to be able to communicate with your bot without language barriers. Before starting the conversation, customers can choose their preferred option from multiple languages. You can customize responses in several languages to create a consistent experience. |
Security | Since chatbots involve information-sharing, it’s vital to have a foolproof security infrastructure to protect user data. End-to-end encrypted chats, GDPR compliance, two-factor authentication and human verification are tools that protect confidential user data against malware, cyber-attacks and hackers. |
Omnichannel Support | In the 2021 State of CX report, CX leaders said chatbots are 46% effective in meeting customer expectations by channel. Deploy a single chatbot across social media channels like Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp. Allow customers to connect with your business from multiple platforms while you receive all communication in a unified inbox. |
Third-party Integrations | Integrate with third-party channels like Google Sheets, Slack, Mailchimp and WhatsApp to broaden your reach. |
Software Comparison Strategy
Now that we’ve covered the basics of chatbot software, let’s discuss the process of finding the right solution.
Start by analyzing your business’ needs. What’s your budget? What kind of questions do your customers ask? How many visitors does your website get? Talking to business stakeholders can also help clarify your requirements and challenges, scalability needs, staff tech literacy and key objectives.
Next, compare top market solutions. Which software offers the most features? Which one has the most competitive pricing? You can also read online reviews, talk to current users and industry experts, and talk to potential vendors about their products to help make an informed decision.
Cost & Pricing Considerations
The cost of chatbot software differs based on factors like your requirements, budget, business type and size, number of users and customer volume. Some other aspects that affect cost are:
- Installation
- Deployment channels
- Servicing and maintenance
- Subscription
- Support
Do you want to set up a marketing campaign? Do you need a landing page? Are you planning to scale your business? Depending on the functionality and enhancements you need, the cost may change. Be sure to talk with your vendor to get more transparency on pricing.
The Most Popular Chatbot Software
Picking out the best chatbot software for your business can be overwhelming. To help narrow down your search, our analysts compiled a list of the top three chatbot software options for you to consider.
LiveChat
LiveChat is a centralized customer service platform that allows you to manage all user interactions in one place. Add the chat widget to your website to engage online visitors, send personalized greetings and canned responses, record customer details, close sales and automatically assign support requests to the right teams.
It offers third-party integration with popular applications like Mailchimp, Google Analytics and WhatsApp Business.
Add tags to your responses to give context and differentiate cases. Source
LiveAgent
LiveAgent is a multi-channel live chat and help desk software that offers a conversational customer service platform. You can access all your messages from a universal inbox, create contact groups for customers and ticket threads for chats, and store all user information in one place using a built-in CRM tool.
Access all messages from a centralized place to streamline communication.
Freshdesk
Freshdesk is a customer service solution that offers omnichannel support, including options for chatbot messaging, a call center and a comprehensive helpdesk. You can categorize and assign tickets to agents, collaborate with team members, automate repetitive tasks and embed a customizable widget on your website to help customers.
It offers third-party integrations with popular platforms like WhatsApp, Slack and Shopify.
Get a detailed overview of your resolution time, SLA metrics, and more with in-depth reports. Source
Questions To Ask
To get a sense of what your business needs, ask yourself the following questions:
- Why do I want to implement a chatbot?
- What is my budget?
- Do I have any industry-specific requirements?
- What is my average customer count?
- Do I plan to scale my business?
Learn more about the vendor and the software using the following questions:
- Does the software automatically back up data?
- Can you provide customer recommendations?
- Do you offer 24/7 support?
- How do you protect user data?
- Do you provide staff training?
In Conclusion
While it can’t totally replace a human touch, chatbot software is an excellent way to make sure your customers always get their concerns addressed. It’s a useful addition to a robust customer support team, filling in gaps when your agents are unavailable and helping customers get what they need more quickly.
It’s challenging to start the process of exploring software options, but we’re here to help. Get started today with our comparison report, which provides comprehensive insights into top live chat software leaders, and see what the right chatbot software can do for your customers.
Product Comparisons
Products found for Chatbot Software
Podium
Podium is an interaction management software that enables businesses to boost communication with customers, leads and teams. It includes messaging, listing management, reporting, customer sentiments and more. It enables online review management by combining customer interactions and online reviews from several websites (including Google, Facebook and Tripsor) into a single dashboard. Customizable surveys and follow-up options allow teams to gather real-time feedback across all touchpoints and initiate a two-way conversation for quick issue resolution. Users can streamline customer conversations by accessing remote connections and collaborating on leads from one inbox. SMS campaigns help teams foster better customer relationships and gain insights by delivering personalized content to segmented groups. Organizations can leverage the integrated Google Analytics module to gauge website performance and analyze customer interactions. It offers automated and smart responses to initiate leads and answer FAQs. It enhances business exposure to significant websites when searching for local SEOs. It is available on desktop, Android and iOS devices and serves industries like auto, entertainment, healthcare and more.
Pipedrive
Pipedrive supports sales professionals in managing every phase of the sales process, from lead generation to customer contact. Forecasting enables sales reps to close more deals, and visual pipelines clarify what stage a lead is in and what action is required. Users can simplify and streamline tasks with automation and AI capabilities. It offers integrations and an open API, so companies can plug in third-party apps to further extend its capabilities.
Nextiva
Nextiva allows users to combine customer service and internal business with VoIP phones, analytics and AI all located in a single platform creating a user-friendly, simplified experience. Accessible from anywhere, at any time, it includes video chat, email and message modules for communicating within the business and with customers. It’s equally suitable for small, medium and large companies.Analytics track sales pipelines, allowing for in-depth insights on how customers interact with the business and what they want and need. Keep customers satisfied with automated switching to direct them to the correct person to help with any questions they may have.
Brazen
Brazen is a self-serve, virtual career fair and hiring event platform that hosts networking events, webinars, interviews and more, especially geared towards colleges and universities. The third-generation interface delivers an easy-to-use, reliable space for users to administer fun and accessible events for potential employees.
ChatBot
ChatBot is a customer service management platform that offers features like machine learning, multimedia support, data security, reporting, widgets and more. Its drag-and-drop visual builder allows users to create chatbots from customizable templates for bookings, eCommerce, recruitment and sales. Built-in natural language processing (NLP) technology analyzes human speech and generates personalized responses. Businesses can develop, release and manage virtual assistants across websites, social media and messaging apps. It integrates with third-party providers such as WordPress, Zapier and Facebook.
Drift
Drift is a cloud-based conversational marketing platform that helps businesses acquire customers and streamline sales processes. It generates leads through customizable campaigns, intelligent reports and real-time engagement with website visitors. It offers AI chatbots, offline and mobile access, geo-tagging, conversation histories and more.
Intercom
Intercom is a conversational platform that personalizes messaging throughout the customer journey using customer, company and behavioral data. It offers chatbots, marketing campaigns, self-service functions, proactive tours and more. Collaborative inboxes, reporting and automated workflows help users interact with customers across all channels. It integrates with out-of-the-box modules to automate actions and sync data and allows users to build their setups based on business needs. Businesses can see who uses their products and communicate with customers via targeted, behavior-driven emails and in-app messages.
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign provides cloud-based marketing services, with robust capabilities ranging from automation and reporting to lead scoring and contact segmentation. It’s ideal for businesses of any size, as it offers a flexible, device-agnostic deployment model. It also functions as a marketing-oriented CRM with different integrations and exporting options to assist sales. It provides machine learning that can be used on data including phone calls, emails and sales. Machine learning enables predicting win probability and using predictive sending. Customers can also take advantage of a consultant directory with certified consultants from different countries.
Bitrix24
Bitrix24 facilitates the execution of the customer journey. It supplies organizations with tools for marketing, sales and customer service activities such as lead generation, marketing automation, campaign management and call center support.It comes with a free edition for companies with less advanced needs or a smaller budget. Deployment is available in the cloud and on-premise. It’s suitable for smaller businesses as well as enterprises with up to 50,000 employees.
LiveChat
LiveChat is a customer service chat app that allows companies of all sizes to more easily connect with website visitors and supports the efforts of sales departments as well. It offers capabilities for complete communication and measurement via chat, agent monitoring, ticketing, e-commerce, engagement and reporting. It can be deployed across multiple websites and used on mobile, desktop and web-enabled devices.
Birdeye
Birdeye is a marketing and reputation management platform that helps businesses be discovered by new customers. It allows users to monitor, organize, respond to and track reviews and convert feedback into actionable insights. Users can leverage the built-in Natural Language Processing (NLP) engine to understand customer sentiment, analyze trends, assess competitor reviews, and compare and measure performance. It also includes open APIs, a unified communications inbox and a customizable CRM.
LivePerson
LivePerson is a cloud-based conversational platform that helps businesses improve customer relationships through real-time, intelligent engagement. Brands can use the omnichannel workspace to engage with customers at scale. It also helps benchmark, track and optimize sales, marketing and customer service KPIs. It’s accessible from desktops and iOS or Android devices, simplifying collaboration across distributed workforces.
Kayako
Kayako is a fully integrated, cloud-based customer service platform that helps simplify customer interactions. Agents can offer 24/7 support through various communication platforms, including email, Facebook and Twitter, and in multiple languages. It also offers self-service options, a visual timeline of customer interactions, integrations and more.
Rocket Chat
Rocket.Chat is an all-in-one open-source communication platform that centralizes collaboration and support to boost team productivity. Its omnichannel interface allows users to embed real-time chat widgets into any website or mobile app to derive more value from team chats and provide better customer service. It allows self-managed or cloud-based workspace adaptation, customization and unlimited integration, and centralizes data for stakeholders and teams. It is available on Windows, Linux, macOS, Android and iOS devices, and supports CCPA, HIPAA, LGDP and GDPR compliance.
Olark
Olark is a cloud-based messaging platform that provides seamless interactions between businesses and customers. It offers real-time channels to communicate with customers and generate leads while improving customer support. It prioritizes chats that need follow-up and forwards them to the CRM. It provides instant screen sharing for agents to assist website visitors. It also offers modules to upload files, images and videos for immediate support. It supports over 100 languages.
LiveHelpNow
LiveHelpNow provides omnichannel support solutions to make customer interactions smooth and convenient for agents. It offers real-time customer service communications over email, Facebook messenger, live chat and SMS. Customers can benefit from its self-help knowledge base. Other notable attributes include ticketing support, instant language translation, analytics and reporting, tracking and more.
HappyFox
HappyFox is a ticket management and customer support software that integrates with the user's website and email accounts to collate customer requests. It helps agents organize, track and respond more effectively. They can also assign emails to appropriate persons. The ticketing lets agents solve customers' issues productively while streamlining the customer support workflow. It also has a built-in knowledge base, end-user support portal and community forum.
UJET
UJET is a cloud-based, AI-powered platform that consolidates and optimizes customer support for sales and marketing. Its major offerings include predictive, contextual communications routing, a conversational AI-based virtual agent, specialized bots and smooth integrations with CRM, WFM and QM.
LiveAgent
LiveAgent is an online communication platform that supports personalized, multilingual customer service. It provides in-suite and standalone offerings for live chat, online self-service portals, ticket management, change and license management, and more. It offers all-in-one helpdesk support by combining all communication channels, including email, live chat, phone calls and social media, in a single company inbox. LiveAgent offers additional services through third-party companies to provide CRM, including sales and marketing automation. Users can analyze helpdesk performance and generate multiple reports to reward high-performing support agents and track customer satisfaction.
Comm100
Comm100 is a live chat solution that offers real-time, personalized customer engagement. It supports multilingual services with a flexible ticketing and messaging system, automated chatbots, a self-serve knowledge base and security measures for data protection. The product connects via third-party integrations such as CRMs, eCommerce, social media and website content management channels with a systematic API. Live chat lets users engage with customers in real time using text, routing, audio, video, co-browsing, file transfer, auto-translation and more. Reports help evaluate team performance, chat expertise and overall service efficiency.
Genesys Cloud
Genesys Cloud is a consolidated, cloud-based contact center solution. It allows employees to field inbound and outbound communications, predict potential customer issues and collaborate efficiently using chat, voice, video and search functions.
EngageBay
EngageBay is a customer relationship management platform that helps businesses engage and convert leads, acquire customers and nurture existing relationships. Key features include SMS marketing, automation, web analytics and live chat.
Inbenta
Inbenta is a promising software tool that ranks 23 among all Chatbot Software according to our research analysts and 11 crowd-sourced reviews from 1 source. Inbenta is most fitting for enterprises with hundreds or thousands of employees. Inbenta can be deployed in the cloud and is accessible from a fewer number of platforms including Windows devices.
Call Center Studio
Call Center Studio is a well-known software application that ranks 142 among all Call Center Software according to our research analysts and 48 crowd-sourced reviews from 1 source. Call Center Studio is most applicable for any business. Call Center Studio can be deployed in the cloud.
Call SelectHub for a free 15-minute selection analysis: 1-855-850-3850
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