Chatbot or online chat tools for websites

Providing your users and customers with the attention they need is crucial both to convince them to make a purchase and to build customer loyalty. To do this, there must be a conversational marketing strategy. This consists of a set of techniques that allow your company to establish direct communication, leading to sales opportunities. One of the ways in which you can establish a conversation with your customers is through the use of chatbots or online chats. We tell you what they are and present you with some tools so that you can implement them on your website.

what is a chatbot?

To understand what an online chat, also known as a chatbot, is and how it works, it is essential to clarify the concept of bot. A bot is an artificial intelligence software responsible for carrying out certain tasks. Having clarified this term, we can define a chatbot as an assistant integrated into a website that communicates with its users. To do this, it uses real-time text messages with which the customer can interact, generating a kind of dialogue.

It is common to make the chatbot an animated virtual being, humanising it so that the experience is as personal as possible. The optimum is that the user's communication with these tools is as similar as possible to what would be a direct interaction with your brand.

Normally, its main use is to resolve doubts that the user has had about the products or services offered. As it is an automatic artificial intelligence tool, no physical person has to answer. Therefore, it helps to lighten the workload of your team, especially the customer service department, and implies a reduction in costs. In addition, its instantaneousness and availability are part of its appeal, since it answers without waiting and is available throughout the day. Thus, the user benefits from shortening the time in their communication with your company and improves the perception they have of it.

10 chatbot tools for websites

Given the popularity that chatbots have gained, there is already a wide catalogue of online chat tools from which you can choose the one that best suits your company's strategy and the types of customers you want to communicate with. We bring you ten of them:

1. Centribal

   The Centribal Platform is suitable for the needs of all types of companies. It is a conversational software that allows the creation and management of online chats in an easy way. In addition, one of its advantages is that it allows you to deploy the chatbot also on other platforms such as Facebook Messenger, Telegram or WhatsApp. It has a very complete free version that covers from the creation and training of the chatbot to its implementation on your website.

2. Pure Chat

   This tool manages unlimited conversations through a central dashboard. It is optimal for sales and marketing teams, as its online chats are specialised in pre-sales and support modalities. As in the previous case, the free version of Pure Chat is also attractive enough, but you can resort to its paid plans if your company needs more specific functions.

3. HubSpot

   The HubSpot chatbots generator is also an ideal tool to implement them on your website without requiring coding knowledge. Something that characterises it is that it humanises conversations with your users or customers by making them customisable. Part of this customisation is based on using the history of previous interactions with each of your contacts. It automates the most common doubts and problems among your customers to offer them quick answers. It offers you templates that fit the purpose of the online chat you are looking to create, although you can also create it from scratch.

4. live Chat

   What characterises Live Chat is its ability to centralise all the communication that takes place within your website, making it ideal for companies that receive a high volume of traffic. It also has tools for administration and analysis as well as personalisation. Although it offers a 30-day free trial, it requires you to subscribe to one of its plans.

5. zendesk

   Zendesk stands out for its simplicity when it comes to installation and for the naturalness with which it integrates into different media, from voice to chat and also including social networks. Another of its advantages is advanced customisation and real-time monitoring or tracking of sales or conversions. Its free version is very complete, so it may be enough to take your first steps in the creation of chatbots, but it also offers plans for teams. It is a valid tool for all types of companies, whether they are large or small.

6. azure Bot Service

   Given its simplicity and intuitive nature, Azure Bot Service is a good option if it is your first time creating an online chat. However, its simplicity does not affect the results, which are very complete. For example, it allows you to implement your bot in popular channels so that you can reach your customers through their preferred channel. This tool, owned by Microsoft, has a pay-per-use model where you pay exclusively for what you use beyond the monthly free amounts. In addition, it also offers 25 services that remain free of charge.

7. drift

   Drift is also a conversational marketing platform designed to help you save time while increasing your conversions. One of its most striking features is that it allows you to segment your potential customers within your own website and without the need for forms. Given its prices, which span two ranges depending on the degree of customisation you require, this tool is more suited to large and medium-sized businesses.

8. userlike

   The main feature of this platform is that it is geared towards implementation on Wordpress sites. However, it integrates naturally with other platforms. It has the ability to generate analytics reports that will allow you to gather information about your performance and optimise conversations with your customers. Userlike 's free option works for one user and has some limitations, but you can also take advantage of their paid plans.

10. comm100

    This is a multi-channel tool for marketing, customer service and sales teams. It allows you to run multiple online chat campaigns in parallel. Comm100 provides you with analytics or tracking options to keep track of the information collected about your users and the conversions achieved. The free version lasts for 15 days, after which you can subscribe to their various paid plans.

11. tawk

    Also notable for its easy and fast usability, especially effective for customer service work. Another curiosity about Tawk is the wide availability in terms of languages and emojis. It is a chatbot tool whose free service is indefinite, but you can access specific functions and get rid of advertising on your page for a very affordable price.

These are just some of the chatbot tools available to you, choose the one that best suits your needs and improve your conversational marketing strategy by implementing online chats on your website.