Nine out of ten customers prefer live chat support. Yet seven out of nine find the chat experience frustrating. That gap isn’t about the technology—it’s about choosing the right tool and implementing it correctly.
This guide walks you through comparing top chat platforms, installing your chosen solution, and configuring it to convert visitors rather than just add another widget to your site.
Why Live Chat Matters for Your Bottom Line
Live chat delivers 48% higher revenue per chat hour compared to other support channels. For e-commerce and service businesses, that translates directly to revenue. Businesses using chat see 40% better conversion rates than those without and 82% customer satisfaction rates. They engage customers immediately when help matters most.
But implementation determines success. A poorly configured chat frustrates customers more than having no chat at all. That’s why technical setup is only half the work—the other half is configuration that serves your business model and customer needs.
Comparing Top Live Chat Platforms
Here’s how the leading platforms stack up for US e-commerce, retail, and service businesses.
LiveChat
LiveChat starts at $20 per agent per month (billed annually) or $24 monthly, with a 14-day free trial. It offers 200+ integrations, advanced conversation routing, comprehensive bot capabilities, and receives “excellent” ratings for performance and load time in WordPress environments. The platform is particularly strong if you need extensive third-party integrations or complex routing rules. Costs scale quickly with team size, though, and advanced AI features carry additional fees.
Crisp
Crisp starts at $25/month and combines helpdesk functionality with bots and multi-channel support in one platform. It’s built for team collaboration, offering a built-in helpdesk, multi-channel inbox, team collaboration tools, and a chatbot builder. The trade-off is that it’s less specialized for e-commerce compared to competitors focused specifically on that vertical.
Tidio
Tidio offers a free plan (50 conversations/month, 10 operators), with paid plans starting at $29/month for 100 conversations, $59/month for 1,000 conversations, and $398/month for Tidio+. It includes AI bots, e-commerce platform integrations, multi-channel support, and advanced analytics, all with an “excellent” performance rating. The free plan includes live chat, ticketing, and social media integrations, though it carries Tidio branding that only removes at the Growth Plan level. Higher tiers can become expensive for startups, despite flexible scaling options.
Brevo Conversations
Brevo offers a free forever plan for 1 user, with paid plans starting at $15/month per seat for chatbots, group chats, and social media integrations. It provides typing insights, shopping cart visibility for support agents, agent grouping, mobile apps (iOS/Android), and native e-commerce integrations. The platform is particularly attractive if you’re already using Brevo for email marketing. Analytics are more basic compared to specialized chat tools, though.
Askly: AI-Powered with Multilingual Support
Askly combines AI automation with human support, starting at €49/month (~$53), with a 14-day free trial and no development work required. It handles up to 60% of repetitive questions through AI while learning from your team’s actual responses. Real-time translation across 100+ languages eliminates the need to hire multilingual staff. The platform unifies website, Facebook, and Instagram messages into one inbox, offers abandonment detection with personalized offers, maintains full conversation history for returning customers, and includes team collaboration tools like conversation assignment, internal notes, and tags. Setup takes about two minutes, and built-in analytics measure AI versus human performance.
The unique advantage: Unlike other platforms where AI is an add-on feature, Askly’s AI trains itself on your actual customer conversations. As your team answers questions, the AI observes patterns and learns to handle similar inquiries—creating a customer experience that continuously improves over time. The trade-off is a smaller app ecosystem compared to more established platforms like LiveChat.
Step-by-Step: Installing Live Chat on Your Website
The installation process follows similar patterns across platforms, but the specifics matter.
Create Your Account
Visit your chosen platform and sign up. Most offer free trials (typically 14 days), require no credit card upfront, and activate accounts instantly. Have your support team manager create the account—they’ll control user permissions and team settings from day one.
Get Your Chat Installation Code
After signup, you’ll receive a chat widget code (a JavaScript snippet). Here’s where to find it in popular platforms:
- LiveChat: Dashboard → Installation → Get chat code
- Tidio: Settings → Channels → Live Chat → Installation
- Brevo: Conversations → Settings → Installation
- Askly: Settings → General → Chat script
The code typically looks like this:
<script> (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start': new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0], j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src= 'https://www.chat-platform.com/widget.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f); })(window,document,'script','dataLayer','YOUR-ID');</script>Add Code to Your Website
Place the code in your website’s <head> section for optimal performance. Where you place it determines when the chat loads and how quickly it becomes available to visitors.
Shopify Installation
Navigate to Online Store → Themes → Actions → Edit code. Open theme.liquid, paste the code before </head>, then save. The chat will appear across your entire store once saved.
WordPress Installation
Install a header/footer plugin like WPCode or Insert Headers and Footers. Paste the code in the header section and save changes. Alternatively, most chat platforms offer WordPress plugins that handle code placement automatically—simply install and activate.
Wix Installation
Go to Settings → Custom Code, click ”+ Add Custom Code,” paste your code, select “Load code on each new page,” choose “Head” as placement, apply to all pages, and save.
Squarespace Installation
Navigate to Settings → Advanced → Code Injection, paste code in the Header section, and save.
Custom Websites
Give the code to your developer to add to your site’s global header template. This ensures the chat loads on every page without requiring manual addition to individual pages.
Verify Installation
After adding the code, visit your website in a new incognito or private browser window. Check if the chat widget appears (usually in the bottom right corner). Test sending a message to ensure it reaches your dashboard correctly. If the chat doesn’t appear, check your browser console for JavaScript errors. Clear your cache and hard refresh (Ctrl+Shift+R on Windows, Cmd+Shift+R on Mac).
Configuring Your Chat for Maximum Impact
Installation is just the beginning. Configuration determines whether your chat converts visitors and supports customers effectively.
Customize Appearance and Branding
Navigate to your platform’s design settings (usually Settings → Chat Design or Appearance). Set your primary color to match your website’s main brand color. Choose a text color that ensures readable contrast. Position the widget in the bottom right for most sites, but test bottom left for RTL languages or specific page layouts.
Upload your company logo to the chat header. Keep it square or horizontal format, under 200KB for fast loading, and use PNG format with transparent background for professional presentation.
Write a compelling greeting that sets the tone. Instead of generic “Hello! How can we help?” try context-specific messages. For e-commerce: “Hi! Need help finding the perfect [product]? I’m here 👋” For services: “Questions about [service]? Let’s find you the right solution!” For SaaS: “Stuck on something? I can help you get unblocked fast 🚀“
Set Operating Hours
Be transparent about when customers can expect human responses. Navigate to Settings → Operating Hours, set your support team’s availability, and configure an “offline” message like: “Our team is offline but we’ll reply within 4 hours. Or, describe your question and our AI assistant can help now!” This transparency matters because customers who know when to expect replies report significantly higher satisfaction than those left wondering.
Create FAQ and Quick Replies
Most platforms let you add an FAQ directly in the chat menu. Focus on the questions that generate the most support volume: shipping times and costs, return policies, product availability, account and password issues, and pricing and payment methods. With Askly, you can create FAQs and use the built-in translation feature to auto-translate them into multiple languages, then edit for accuracy per language.
Set up quick replies (canned responses) for common scenarios: greeting new visitors, asking for order numbers, requesting shipping addresses, and escalating to specialists. These templates save your team 30-60 seconds per conversation—that compounds quickly across hundreds of daily chats.
Configure Proactive Chat Triggers
Don’t wait for visitors to initiate contact. Set up triggers that start conversations at key moments. On cart pages after 30+ seconds: “See you’re checking out our [product]. Any questions before you buy?” On pricing pages after 45+ seconds: “Comparing plans? I can help you find the best fit.” On exit intent for product pages: “Wait! Have a quick question about [product]?” For return visitors with no purchase: “Welcome back! Can I help you with [previously viewed item]?”
Don’t trigger on every page load. Visitors need time to browse before being interrupted. Test starting at 30-45 seconds on high-intent pages only. Triggering too early or too frequently creates the frustrating experience that drives seven out of nine customers away.
Set Up Team Routing and Permissions
As you scale, you’ll need multiple team members answering chats. Navigate to Settings → Team Members, click “Add new,” enter their email, and set role permissions (Admin, Agent, Viewer). Team members receive an access link and can log in immediately.
Configure routing rules based on your team structure. Round-robin distributes chats evenly across available agents. Skills-based routing directs conversations by language, product expertise, or issue type. Load-based routing assigns to agents with the fewest active chats, preventing burnout while maintaining response times.
Enable conversation assignment so agents can assign chats to specialists or take over conversations during handoffs. This prevents customers from repeating information—a major pain point that damages satisfaction scores.
Advanced Configuration: AI and Automation
Modern chat platforms separate from basic widgets through AI and automation capabilities.
Setting Up AI Assistance
If your platform offers AI, configure it to handle routine questions intelligently. With Askly’s AI Assistant, the AI learns as your team answers questions. Your team handles all inquiries initially, the AI observes responses to similar questions, and when confidence is high the AI suggests responses for approval. Over time, AI autonomously handles proven question types without human intervention.
Other platforms require manual training: upload FAQ content, define intents and entities, create conversation flows, and test then refine responses based on real customer interactions.
Set confidence thresholds that determine when AI should respond versus escalate to humans. At high confidence (>90%), AI responds automatically. At medium confidence (70-90%), AI suggests responses for agent approval. At low confidence (<70%), trigger immediate human handoff. These thresholds prevent the frustrating experiences where AI confidently delivers wrong answers or refuses to escalate obviously complex issues.
Configure seamless handoffs so AI-to-human transitions remain invisible to customers. The best implementations—like Askly’s—route conversations to your team based on complexity, sentiment, and topic without customers noticing the shift. This balance between AI and human support is critical because customers scoring below 7 on satisfaction are significantly more likely to churn, and poor AI handoffs are a major cause.
Implementing Multilingual Support
Seventy-five percent of the world’s population doesn’t speak English, and 72.4% of customers prefer purchasing from websites in their native language. Most platforms handle this through one of two approaches: hire multilingual agents (traditional, expensive, hard to scale) or use real-time translation.
Modern platforms like Askly offer automatic translation where the chat opens in the visitor’s browser language, the customer types in their language, the agent sees a translated message in their language, the agent replies in their language, and the customer sees the translation in their language. The result: one agent can support 25+ languages without hiring a multilingual team. Punktid reported cutting their support budget by 75% using this approach.
Integrating Chat with Your Business Tools
Live chat shouldn’t be an island. Connect it to your existing systems for maximum effectiveness.
CRM Integration
Sync chat conversations with Salesforce or HubSpot to auto-create leads from chat, Pipedrive to track chat-sourced deals, or Zendesk to convert chats to support tickets. This ensures your sales and support teams see the full customer context—no one asks the customer to repeat information that was shared in a previous conversation.
E-commerce Platform Integration
Connect with Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, or Magento to view customer order history during chats, see cart contents in real-time, issue discount codes directly in chat, and process refunds without leaving the conversation. When a customer asks about order status, your agent sees their recent orders in the chat interface and provides updates immediately—no need to ask for an order number and switch systems to look it up.
Email Integration
Forward support emails into your chat platform to centralize all customer communication, maintain conversation history across channels, and apply the same routing and automation rules. Many platforms now support email forwarding. Contact their support team to configure forwarding rules and ensure emails route correctly.
Social Media Integration
Unify Facebook and Instagram messages into one dashboard. With platforms like Askly, you link Facebook Messenger and Instagram DM accounts, reply to all messages from one dashboard, apply AI automation across all channels, and maintain conversation history regardless of which channel the customer used. Customers don’t care which channel they messaged you on—they expect you to remember their previous conversation. A unified inbox makes that possible.
Mobile Access: Supporting Customers from Anywhere
Your support team won’t always be at their desks. Ensure your chosen platform offers mobile apps for iOS and Android with push notifications for new chats, full conversation access, quick replies and canned responses, and team collaboration features. Download your platform’s app and log in with the same credentials you use on desktop. Most teams report handling 30-40% of chats via mobile, especially outside standard business hours when customers often have the most urgent questions.
Measuring Success: Chat Analytics That Matter
Once your chat is live, track metrics that reveal both customer experience and business impact.
Customer-Facing Metrics
First Response Time (FRT) measures how fast you first reply. The benchmark for chat is under 2 minutes; for email it’s under 4 hours. MediaMarkt reduced FRT from 8 hours to 2 hours after implementing proper chat workflow, increasing customer satisfaction by 15%.
Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) asks “How satisfied were you with this conversation?” after each chat. Target ≥80%. Review low-scoring chats weekly to identify patterns—are specific agents struggling, or are certain question types creating friction?
Net Promoter Score (NPS) asks “How likely are you to recommend us to a friend?” on a 0-10 scale. Above +50 is excellent, 0 to +50 is good, and below 0 needs immediate improvement. Learn more about interpreting NPS scores and what counts as good for your industry.
Operational Metrics
Chat Volume by Channel tracks where customers reach out: website chat, Facebook Messenger, Instagram DM, or email. Allocate resources to channels with highest volume and conversion rates. If Instagram DMs are growing but unstaffed, you’re missing opportunities.
Automation Rate shows what percentage of inquiries AI handles without human intervention. Initial target should be 30-40%; mature implementations reach 50-60%. Askly reports some clients achieving 60% automation while maintaining satisfaction. The key is proper AI training and knowing when to escalate to humans—automation for automation’s sake damages experience.
Average Handle Time (AHT) reveals how long each conversation takes. Track by agent to identify training needs. Compare AI-handled versus human-handled times. Don’t over-optimize this metric—rushing conversations hurts CSAT and damages the very relationships chat is meant to build.
Business Impact Metrics
Conversion Rate Uplift compares visitors who chat versus those who don’t. Properly implemented chat typically lifts conversion 20-40%. If you’re not seeing uplift, review your proactive triggers—you may be interrupting rather than helping.
Cost Per Resolution reveals what each conversation costs. Formula: Total support cost divided by number of resolutions. AI automation handling 55% of inquiries can reduce cost per resolution from $8 to $4.50, saving $180,000 annually for a mid-sized e-commerce business.
Revenue Attribution tracks sales influenced by chat conversations: direct purchases during or after chat, increased average order value, and recovered abandoned carts. One client reported: “Helps to close deals. First proof was 1000€ additional sale already during Askly free trial.”
Common Implementation Mistakes to Avoid
Learn from others’ errors before making them yourself.
No clear escalation path occurs when AI doesn’t know when to hand off to humans, frustrating customers who get stuck in loops. Configure confidence thresholds and test extensively before going live. Run pilot conversations with your team acting as customers to expose edge cases.
Ignoring mobile optimization happens when the chat widget covers critical CTAs on mobile devices—ironically blocking the very actions you’re trying to drive. Test on multiple devices and adjust positioning or minimize timing for mobile visitors.
Over-automation pushes AI to handle everything, but quality suffers and customers feel unheard. Reserve complex, emotional, or high-value conversations for human agents. Balance AI and human support based on customer needs, not just cost savings. Research shows 53% of customer issues are resolved in first interactions via multilingual live chat when the right mix of AI and human support is deployed.
No offline strategy makes chat available 24/7, but no one monitors it outside business hours—leading to frustrated customers staring at unanswered messages. Either configure AI to handle after-hours with clear expectations (“Our team will reply within 4 hours”) or disable chat outside operating hours with an email form as fallback.
Forgetting about returning customers forces people to repeat their information every time they chat. Ensure conversation history is saved and visible to agents. When customers return, acknowledge previous interactions: “I see you contacted us about [issue] last week. Is this related?” That recognition builds the loyalty that makes retention 5-25 times cheaper than acquisition.
Getting Started: Your First 30 Days
Here’s a realistic roadmap for implementation.
Week 1: Setup and Testing
Day 1-2: Choose platform and create account. Day 3-4: Install code and verify on all devices. Day 5-7: Configure appearance, greetings, and operating hours.
Week 2: Content and Automation
Day 8-10: Build FAQ and quick replies library. Day 11-12: Set up proactive triggers. Day 13-14: Train initial AI responses if applicable.
Week 3: Team Onboarding
Day 15-17: Add team members and configure routing. Day 18-19: Train team on platform features. Day 20-21: Soft launch to test with real customers.
Week 4: Optimization
Day 22-24: Review first conversations and CSAT scores. Day 25-27: Refine AI training and quick replies based on real usage patterns. Day 28-30: Set up integrations and analytics tracking.
Start with a 14-day free trial to test before committing to annual plans. Use this time to validate that the platform fits your team’s workflow and actually improves customer experience—not just adds another tool to manage.
Scaling Your Chat Support
As conversation volume grows, scale intelligently rather than reactively.
Monitor your average response time. If it consistently exceeds 3 minutes, consider adding team members, increasing AI automation, or adjusting operating hours. Most platforms have conversation or user limits—upgrade when you’re regularly hitting 80% of your plan limits to avoid service disruptions mid-conversation.
Compare costs carefully. Tidio’s Growth Plan ($59/month) offers 1,000 conversations and removes branding. Compare that to hiring even a part-time agent—chat automation almost always delivers better ROI while handling volume spikes that would overwhelm a small team.
As you scale, segment by product expertise (route electronics questions to tech specialists), language (assign Spanish speakers to Spanish chats or use real-time translation), customer value (VIP customers get priority routing to senior agents), and issue complexity (simple questions go to junior agents; complex issues to specialists). This segmentation ensures the right conversations reach the right people without overwhelming any single team member.
Making Chat Your Competitive Advantage
Adding chat to your website isn’t just about answering questions faster—it’s about creating touchpoints in the customer journey that build loyalty and drive revenue. Research shows companies with well-optimized customer touchpoints see significantly higher retention than those with fragmented experiences. Chat is often the highest-impact touchpoint you can implement because it meets customers exactly when they need help.
The businesses winning with chat aren’t just installing a widget. They’re building a digital customer experience transformation where AI handles routine work, humans handle complexity, and every conversation makes both smarter. That’s the model that reduces support costs by 30-50% while increasing customer satisfaction—because you’re not choosing between efficiency and experience. You’re delivering both.
Ready to add chat support to your website? Try Askly free for 14 days—no credit card required, 2-minute setup, and you’ll see why businesses report up to 60% time savings while maintaining the human touch that keeps customers coming back.