How to use HubSpot Live Chat [Free] for Real-Time Customer Support

Picture this: You own a project management software business, and a potential customer visits your website. They want to know how your software works with their existing tools and makes teamwork better. They email you, but you don't reply quickly, and unfortunately, you lose that potential customer. This is where a live chat feature can help.

Live chat is a small chat box on your website that invites customers to ask questions. A real person from your support team can quickly help the customer, making them happy and increasing the chances of making a sale.

This quick interaction can be the deciding factor in whether a customer buys from you or leaves your site. To boost sales on your website, we recommend using the HubSpot Live Chat tool. It can be added to your site, allowing you to chat with website visitors in real-time and increase customer engagement.

What is HubSpot Live Chat [Free Software]?

HubSpot Free Live Chat software allows businesses to engage with their website visitors in real-time through instant messaging. It's like having a virtual chat window on your website where customers can ask questions, seek assistance, or get information instantly.

You can personalize the appearance of the HubSpot Live chat window to match your brand. This includes changing colours, adding a logo, and adjusting the chat widget's position on your website.

Additionally, HubSpot Live Chat allows you to integrate chatbots, which are automated assistants that can answer common queries, provide information, and assist visitors even when your support team is not available.

It's not just about chatting, though. HubSpot Live Chat lets you keep an eye on who's visiting your website in real-time. It's a tool that helps you understand what your customers are interested in, so you can offer them the right help at the right time.

If you're away from your computer, no worries! HubSpot Live Chat has a mobile app, making it easy to stay connected and help customers even when you're on the move.

Whether it's saving time with quick responses, keeping records of all your chats, or checking how well your sales team is doing, HubSpot Live Chat is a friendly assistant that every business needs to make customer interactions smooth, personal, and enjoyable.

How to add Live Chat to your Website?

Setting up a live chat on your website is easy! Just follow these simple steps:

Before you create a live chat, connect a chat channel to your conversation inbox. This is where you customize your team's availability and the widget's appearance. Go to inbox settings and click Connect a Channel. You can choose from options like team email, forms, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Calling.

Note: If your website is not hosted by HubSpot, make sure to add the HubSpot tracking code to external pages.

Once you have the channel connected, you can start setting up a live chat by following the steps below. 

1. Log in to your HubSpot Account.

2. Go to the Conversations menu and click on Chatflows.

3. In the top right corner, find the Create Chatflow button and click on it.

4. Choose the chat channel where you want to add the chatflow (e.g., website or Facebook Messenger). I'll go with the website channel for this example.

5. Customize your Chat Window: 

Now, you'll see four display customization options:

• Style your chat - Create a branded chat experience by choosing a colour that matches your brand guide.

• Chatflow: Create a chatflow with a chat heading. From the dropdown menu, choose to display specific users and teams, contact owner or any custom name and avatar. Craft a welcome message and decide if it should pop open. 

• Set up availability: Decide when you want to be available for conversations based on user availability, working hours, or 24/7.

• Preview and publish: Take a look at how your chat will appear, and when satisfied, click publish.

6. Customize your Chatflow: To customize your Live Chat widget, hover over the recently created chatflow and click Edit.

You'll see four customization tabs – Build, Target, Display, and Options. These tabs allow you to fine-tune the live chat experience to meet your specific needs.

I. Build

Let's delve into the Build customization tab for your live chat:

Welcome Message:

• Customize the message visitors see in the chat box when they land on your website.
• Expand the welcome message section and create a personalized greeting. This sets the tone for the conversation and makes visitors feel welcome.

Knowledge Base Search:

• For Service Hub Pro users, enable the knowledge base search feature in your chatbox.
• This allows visitors to search your knowledge base directly within the chat, helping them find solutions to their queries without leaving the conversation.

Automatically Assign Conversations:

• Expand this section to efficiently manage incoming queries or customer messages.
• Turn on the toggle switch to automatically assign queries to specific team members. This ensures a prompt and organized response to customer inquiries.

Email Capture:

• Enhance your communication strategy by capturing visitors' email addresses.
• From the dropdown menu, choose when to prompt visitors for their email – either immediately after the first message is sent or if no team member responds within a minute. This feature helps you build a contact list for follow-ups and future engagement.

By customizing these "Build" options, you're not only creating a welcoming environment for your website visitors but also optimizing the efficiency of your live chat system to better serve and engage with your audience.

II. Target

Next, you want to determine where your chat widget should appear and who should see it. Follow these steps:

Choose Target Pages: Decide where the chat widget should appear. You have two options:

• Specific Website URL: Set the pages where visitors can view the chat widget. This ensures the chat is available on relevant pages.
• Query Parameter: Allow the chat widget to appear based on a specific query parameter. This offers flexibility in showing the chat on pages relevant to the visitor's search.

Set Target based on Visitor's Identity or Behavior:

• Gain more control over who sees your chatflow by adding rules based on visitor identity or behavior.
• You can apply rules based on various criteria. Some of these criteria are:
  • Browser language: Tailor your chat based on the visitor's browser language.
  • CTA clicked: Display the chat based on specific calls-to-action clicked by the visitor.
  • Page visited: Choose pages where the chat should be visible.
• You can add more filter groups for granular control over when and where the chat appears.

Save and move to Display:

• Once you've set your targeting preferences and rules, click save.
• Move on to the next customization tab, "Display," to further refine the appearance of your live chat widget.

By defining the target pages and setting rules based on visitor identity or behavior, you ensure that the live chat is placed strategically, enhancing the user experience and engagement on your website.

III. Display

Now, let's tailor the appearance of your live chat widget:

Choose Chat Avatar:

• Expand this option to customize the chat heading and overall appearance.
• Add an avatar or logo to personalize the chat window.
• Specify a name to display as the heading, making the conversation more personalized.

Chat Display Behavior: Customize how the chatflow appears to your visitors by selecting from the below options:

• Pop open the welcome message as a prompt:
  • Make the welcome message pop up immediately, catching the visitor's attention.
• Only show the chat launcher:
  • Display the chat launcher without immediately showing the welcome message, allowing visitors to initiate the conversation.
• Show the welcome message, then pop open the chat widget when trigger is met:
  • Combine the two options for a dynamic chatflow appearance. Show the welcome message first, and then open the chat widget based on a specific trigger.

Decide when the widget should appear: Further, customize the widget's display by choosing when it should appear:

• On exit intent: Display the chat widget when the visitor is about to exit the website, providing an opportunity for engagement.

• Time on the page in seconds: Set a specific time threshold. The chat widget will appear after the visitor spends a designated amount of time on the page.
  
  
• Percentage of the page scrolled: Trigger the chat widget based on how much of the page the visitor has scrolled.

Now that you've configured the display options, it's time to move on to the last customization tab, Options.

IV. Options

In this tab, you can fine-tune language preferences and control data privacy and consent:

Select Language: Choose or change the language for your live chat widget, ensuring a seamless and localized experience for your visitors.

Control Data Privacy and Consents: Request various consents from visitors:

• Consent to collect chat cookies: Seek permission to collect cookies for chat functionality.
• Consent to process data: Request approval for processing data gathered through the chat.
• Consent to communicate: Ask for permission to communicate with the visitor.

Post-Chat Feedback:

• Utilize the HubSpot Live Chat widget to collect valuable post-chat feedback.
• Create a Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) feedback survey that visitors can fill out after their query is resolved.
• Analyze the survey responses to understand visitor behavior, formulate strategies, and optimize your web pages for improved conversions.

Live Chat Best Practices 

Using HubSpot Live Chat effectively involves following some best practices to ensure a positive and engaging experience for your website visitors. Here are 11 best practices for HubSpot Live Chat:

• Customize your Chat Widget: Personalize the appearance of your chat widget to match your brand. 

• Enable Chat Notifications: Ensure that your team receives timely notifications for incoming chat messages. This helps in providing quick responses and enhances the overall responsiveness of your customer support.

• Implement Chatbots for Automation: Integrate chatbots to handle common queries and automate certain tasks. This ensures that visitors receive instant assistance, even outside regular working hours.

• Set Operating Hours: Clearly define and communicate your live chat operating hours. If your team is not available 24/7, let visitors know when they can expect a response. 

• Use Proactive Chat: Implement proactive chat to initiate conversations with visitors based on specific criteria, such as time spent on a page or the number of visits. This can lead to increased customer engagement.

• Create Saved Responses: Develop a set of saved responses for commonly asked questions. This helps in providing quick and consistent answers, saving time for both your team and customers.

• Integrate with HubSpot CRM: Leverage the power of integration with HubSpot CRM to consolidate customer interactions. This ensures that chat data is seamlessly stored within your CRM.

• Utilize Chat Transcripts: Regularly review chat transcripts to understand customer queries, feedback, and frequently asked questions. This insight can guide improvements in your products, services, or website content.

• Monitor Performance Metrics: Keep an eye on performance metrics provided by HubSpot Live Chat, such as response times, chat volume, and customer satisfaction. Use this data to continuously optimize your live chat strategy.

• Encourage Visitor Feedback: Customer feedback can provide valuable insights into areas for improvement and help in refining your live chat practices. Continue reading to explore how to analyze your live chat customer feedback.

By following these best practices, you can make the most of HubSpot Live Chat to enhance customer engagement, provide efficient support, and build positive relationships with your website visitors.  

Keep reading to explore how to integrate Live Chat with your CRM and analyze customer feedback from Live Chat interactions.

How to integrate Live Chat with your CRM?

Integrating live chat with your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system can significantly enhance your customer interactions and streamline your data management.

To integrate Live Chat, first, ensure that your CRM system supports live chat integration or look for third-party plugins that are compatible with both your CRM and live chat software.

Choose a live chat platform that offers integration options with your CRM. Popular live chat tools, such as HubSpot, Zendesk, or Salesforce, often have built-in CRM integrations. HubSpot Live Chat tool integrates directly with your CRM ensuring effortless customer interactions. 

Take advantage of specific features within HubSpot CRM that complement live chat integration, such as lead scoring, deals, and customer timelines. This enhances your ability to manage customer relationships effectively.

Analyze your Live Chat Customer Feedback

Collecting and analyzing customer feedback from HubSpot Live Chat is crucial for improving your customer support and overall user experience. Here's a brief guide on how to seek and analyze customer feedback.

Seek Customer Feedback

• Implement post-chat surveys within HubSpot Live Chat. After a chat session, ask customers to provide feedback by using a simple feedback survey. This can include questions about the helpfulness of the support received and suggestions for improvement.
• Proactively seek feedback by integrating feedback requests into your chat interactions. Politely ask customers for their thoughts on the support received during the conversation.
• Send follow-up emails to customers after their chat interactions. Include a link to a feedback form or survey, allowing them to share their thoughts at their convenience

Analyze Customer Feedback

• Consolidate the collected feedback data into a centralized location for analysis.
• Identify recurring issues or positive aspects mentioned by multiple customers. This helps in understanding the overall sentiment and areas that may need improvement.
• Categorize feedback into different aspects, such as response time, clarity of information, and friendliness of the support.
• Share customer feedback insights with your live chat support team. Create a collaborative environment where team members can learn from customer experiences and work together to enhance customer satisfaction.
• Integrate customer feedback data with HubSpot CRM to create a comprehensive view of customer interactions. This integration allows you to align feedback with specific customer profiles and tailor your support accordingly.

By seeking and analyzing customer feedback in HubSpot Live Chat, you can gain valuable insights into your customers' experiences, identify areas for improvement, and enhance the quality of your live chat support.

What are the benefits of Live Chat?

Discover the incredible benefits of adding a HubSpot Live Chat widget to your website. 

• Instant Communication: HubSpot Live Chat lets you talk to customers in real-time, providing quick and immediate support.

• Increased Engagement: Customers are more likely to engage with your website when they can get instant help through live chat.

• Customer Satisfaction: Resolving issues promptly leads to happier customers, boosting overall satisfaction with your brand.

• Lead Generation: Capture potential leads by initiating conversations with website visitors, turning them into potential customers.

• User-Friendly: Easy to use for both your team and customers, making communication simple and effective.

• Personalized Support: Provide tailored assistance based on customer needs, creating a more personalized experience.

• Analytics and Insights: Gain valuable insights into customer interactions, allowing you to refine your support strategies.

• Multi-Channel Integration: HubSpot Live Chat seamlessly integrates with other HubSpot tools, streamlining your customer support and marketing efforts.

• Time Efficiency: Solve customer queries efficiently, saving both your team's time and the customer's time.

• Enhanced Conversion Rates: Addressing customer concerns in real-time increases the chances of turning potential leads into actual customers.

Difference between Live Chat & a Chatbot

Live chat and chatbots are two distinct tools used in customer communication, each offering unique advantages in the realm of customer support and engagement.

Live Chat

Live chat involves real-time communication between a customer and a human representative. It's a direct, person-to-person interaction where customers can ask questions, seek assistance, or get information, and a live support agent responds in real-time.

Live chat is used for immediate and personalized customer support. 

Chatbot

Chatbots, on the other hand, are automated systems designed to simulate conversations with users. They operate based on predefined rules or artificial intelligence algorithms.

Chatbots can handle routine queries, provide information, and even perform specific tasks without human intervention. They are available 24/7 and can manage a large volume of queries simultaneously.

Before we wrap up, we trust that our guide has assisted you in effortlessly adding HubSpot Live Chat to your website, following the most effective methods.

Do you find the HubSpot Live Chat setup smooth or challenging?

HubSpot Live Chat stands out as a valuable tool for businesses seeking to enhance their customer engagement and support strategies. It adds a dynamic element to the customer interaction process, enabling businesses to create a more responsive and customer-centric approach.  

With its real-time communication capabilities, seamless integration with the HubSpot platform, and user-friendly interface, the Live Chat feature empowers organizations to initiate chat conversations with their website visitors instantly.

Now, let us know which features or parts of HubSpot Live Chat you think are the most helpful for your business. Drop your thoughts in the comments!

If you find any challenges while adding HubSpot live chat to your website, feel free to contact us for assistance.