A Guide to Live Chat for SaaS

Metric Marketing presents to you your go-to guide for understanding live chat, what chatbot options are available for your SaaS company, and how to get your chatbot functioning to optimize customer satisfaction. Let’s get started!

What Is Live Chat?

Live chat is a way for your customers to engage with your website to get their questions answered immediately, even if you yourself are not available to answer them. Also referred to as a chatbot, live chat is software that offers companies the option to converse with their customers via voice command or text.

You are probably already more familiar with live chat than you think. Chatbots are the bubble or icon that pops up on your screen when you enter a website that has a live chat feature. They usually say something along the lines of “How may I help you?” or “Hi, do you need whatever the business offers?”

Or maybe you asked Alexa what the weather is going to be like today. Yep, Alexa—the legend herself—is a chatbot! Other chatbots you might be familiar with are Apple iOS’s Siri, Android’s Google Assistant, and Microsoft’s Cortana. Chatbots are everywhere.

Chatbots are becoming increasingly more popular, and live chat for SaaS is no exception to that trend. In this article, we’ll lay out the reasons why chatbot for SaaS companies can help you with engagement, accessibility, and customer satisfaction. Because we’re focusing on SaaS specifically, here’s everything you need to know about chatbots, which applies to both SaaS live chat and just about everything else.

Why Should SaaS Companies Consider Live Chat?

As a software as a service company, you face a unique set of obstacles when it comes to creating your software marketing strategy. As a marketing company that specializes in B2B, B2C, and SaaS marketing services, Metric Marketing is well versed in the challenges you may experience while creating and implementing marketing tactics.

1. Your partners may also be your competition. If you are offering well-known software, then those manufacturers will have an already established online influence.
2. Making all of your services comprehensive. If you offer more than just one service, then you may run into some issues like having multiple marketing funnels that don’t always seem like they overlap with each other.
3. You may have new software. Possibly one of the most arduous tasks is to market a service that your target audience does not yet understand. It’s your job to create demand for your product—software that will better users’ business, personal life, or both.

These are real challenges, challenges that we, as a SaaS marketing company, are well aware of. But the good news is that through our experience, we also know how to approach these hurdles with confidence.

One tool that we have found especially helpful when implementing marketing strategies is live chat for SaaS. Chatbots are not only here for your customers’ convenience—although that is a definite perk—they are also here for your convenience! They can interact with your customers about the software that you sell whenever they have a question. This can happen at any time of day or night, even when you aren’t available or want to focus on other business objectives.

Additionally, when you invest in cross-channel chatbots, you gain an edge when learning how to use your differential advantage on social media.

Chatbots offer a number of luxuries to you as a company:

• They provide one-on-one interaction with the engaged customer. This individual attention makes the customers feel cared for.
• They build relationships between you and your customers; even if it’s just a short engagement, people feel more comfortable and confident with a business they can communicate with.
• You find which customers are qualified leads and which ones are not. As the conversation continues between the bot and the customer, you will be able to get actual metrics about how the conversation has proceeded, if the customer just needs a general question answered, or if they want to make a purchase. Knowing the context of the conversations will reveal your qualified leads.
• There are different types of live chat for SaaS. You choose one(s) that best fits your business goals. Every chatbot has a purpose, and that purpose can further customers toward your goals.

Connecting directly with customers when they have a question for your business opens the door towards a more trusting, reliable customer-company relationship. When a customer feels comfortable coming to you with their questions, you can work towards longevity with that customer, which is crucial for SaaS companies, especially since retaining subscriptions requires ongoing customer satisfaction.

ChatBots Available to Software Companies

There are two main types of chatbots:

• Artificial intelligence
• Embedded code

1. API Integration Chat Platforms

API integration, also known as machine learning bots, provides live chat that adapts to your company, learning as it continues to interact with customers. One huge advantage to this is that you can build this into apps and across channels. You have a direct line with your customers across their different devices, a huge perk of API integration.

API live chat for SaaS has versatility in its functionality. You can integrate it into your own website and app, making the backend functions highly efficient. You can also connect your internal and external modes of communication. The API becomes part of your platform, rather than a separate addition.

API integration chat platforms are more complicated than ready-to-go chat, yet provide seemingly limitless, customizable features that can and will establish deep customer relationships and retention.

2. Ready-to-Go Live Chat

For a simpler approach, there are plenty of options for already made chatbots. These bots are ready to go. They are often a string of code that you can just embed into your website…how cool is that?

Most pre-made live chats have some sort of messaging platform with a design that you can—most of the time—customize to fit your brand colors and fonts. When it comes to design, make sure you get a live chat SaaS feature that allows you to incorporate your brand, ensuring design consistency throughout your pages.

Ready-to-go live chat allows you to have direct conversations with your customers, plus it provides an organizational means to track those conversations. If your employees are away, there are typically options to set pre-made responses to frequently asked questions—you can set the guidelines for your live chatbot. This is helpful for gaining qualified leads because it will channel customers with more in-depth questions to the experts in your company, saving those experts time.

Instead of focusing on all customer inquiries, your employees can focus on those individuals who have more “qualified questions” and thus are more likely to continue down your marketing funnel. These chatbots are best for companies that have high call volumes.

Of course, there are drawbacks to these types of live chat for SaaS companies. You are limited in your exchanges with customers. Because of their simplistic nature, they are also likely limited in terms of their additional features.

Which Live Chat Solution Is Right for My SaaS Company?

The live chat options for SaaS companies may seem endless, so how do you figure out which one is best for your company? The following are just a few of many, but they’re some of our favorite software that you can use for customer engagement and much more!

ZenDesk

ZenDesk Support Suite is a multi-channel live chat for SaaS that connects with your customers and is organized to benefit your team. ZenDesk allows you to chat with customers over any channel you choose, like a chatbot on your site, as well as Facebook Messenger, email, and other means of communication.

Having separate channels without this live chat option can begin to feel disorganized. ZenDesk compiles all information into a single comprehensive location. You can engage with your customers in a fast and personal way by adapting to the messaging channels they typically use.

ZenDesk Pros & Cons

Pros:

• Cross-channel organization
• Ability to create branches that direct messages to specific employees/teams
• Easy interactions
• Client history visibility
• Ability to adapt to any sized company

Cons:

• Can be confusing to begin using
• Has some limitations to posting content
• Is known to lag at times
• Has a history of lack of strong customer support

Intercom

Intercom is another communication platform that helps with customer relationships. This intuitive live chat for SaaS—and other industries—has everything you need to increase your engagement in easy-to-use ways for both you and your customers.

You can send your customers messages and reminders, email campaigns, and “transactional messages,” including notifying a customer that a subscription is ending, or that their package is being delivered!

Intercom Pros & Cons

Pros:

• Easy navigation
• Helpful resources for you (the customer)
• Mobile app feature
• Multilingual
• Highly-rated customer support
• Outbound marketing tools and features

Cons:

• Searching for past emails is not intuitive
• Can be pricey
• Having to upgrade for additional functions

Zoho Desk

This cloud-based platform is a great tool to manage your customer communication. One great feature of ZoHo Desk is that you can customize the platform for your business’s needs. You can also connect with your customers through a customer portal and create a quality workflow.

Zoho Desk Pros & Cons

Pros

• Relatively inexpensive
• Provides support and tutorials
• Customizable options
• User-friendly

Cons

• History of delays with new tickets
• Interface can be complicated
• Short trial period

LiveChat

LiveChat is a great team-friendly software. With easy setup—and a great education team—this live chat SaaS platform can be up and running in no time. Onboarding happens with ease.

LiveChat Pros & Cons

Pros:

• User reports for lead generation tracking
• Quick customer service that notifies you of issues
• Fast onboarding process
• User-friendly for heightened customer-engagement

Cons:

• History of (infrequent) glitches
• Inability to see a customer’s cart through LiveChat

Get Your Live Chat Functioning Today

Live chat for SaaS is a powerful tool that you can use to engage with customers, generate leads, and ultimately increase your ROI. If you have any questions regarding chatbots, would like assistance choosing the best live chat software for your SaaS company’s needs, or you simply have some general marketing inquiries, Metric Marketing is here to help!

As a digital marketing agency, we are knowledgeable about the different versions and software for live chat for SaaS. If you’d like support getting your live chat functioning, give us a call at (734) 404-8714 or fill out the online contact form on our website. We look forward to hearing from you!

Metric Marketing SaaS Case Study

Stoneridge Software and Metric Marketing just clicked when the two companies started working together. We were fully on board with their mission to bring the best solutions to their clients. Working together with Stoneridge, we established small business content marketing strategies, created paid ad campaigns, and shattered revenue goals.

Today, we proudly continue our work with Stoneridge. For more information, check out our SaaS marketing case study.