How to Add Free Live Chat to Your WordPress Site (The Ultimate Guide)

Are you looking to boost customer satisfaction, increase sales, and lower cart abandonment on your WordPress site?

Adding a live chat feature can make a tremendous impact.

With live chat, you can communicate with visitors in real-time to provide support, upsell products, and close more deals.

But many WordPress site owners don‘t take advantage of live chat because they think it‘s complex or expensive to set up.

Well, that‘s simply not true!

In this ultimate guide, I‘ll show you how to easily add free live chat to your WordPress site in just a few simple steps.

After 15+ years as a webmaster, I‘ll also share tips to optimize your live chat performance based on proven best practices.

Let‘s get started!

Why Live Chat is a Must-Have for Your WordPress Site

Here are some powerful statistics that highlight why live chat is so important:

• 73% higher satisfaction – Live chat has 73% customer satisfaction rating versus 61% for email and 44% for phone support according to American Express.

• 38% more conversions – A study by Kayako revealed live chat can improve conversion rates by up to 38%.

• 70% fewer inquiries – LivePerson found live chat reduces repeated customer inquiries by as much as 70%.

• 15-20% increase in average order value – According to Comm100, live chat can lift average order value by 15-20%.

• 40% increase in sales – Inline Manual discovered Intershop was able to boost sales by 40% with live chat.

Clearly, live chat delivers amazing benefits like:

• Higher conversions
• Bigger order values
• Improved customer experience
• Lower operational costs

It‘s no wonder that 71% of US online consumers prefer live chat for customer support issues.

So if you want to boost metrics like sales, revenue and customer loyalty, adding live chat to your WordPress site is a must.

Next, let‘s see how to easily add it.

Step 1 – Get a Free LiveChat Account

The best live chat plugin for WordPress is from LiveChat. Their plugin seamlessly integrates live chat into your WordPress site for free.

To get started, visit the LiveChat website and sign up for a free account using your email address. The signup process only takes a minute.

You‘ll get 30 days of full live chat access for free to test it out. After the trial period, paid plans start at just $16 per month.

Considering the incredible impact live chat has on customer experience and conversions, the LiveChat paid plans offer outstanding value.

Step 2 – Install and Activate the LiveChat Plugin

Next, you need to install and activate the LiveChat plugin in your WordPress dashboard.

Go to Plugins > Add New and search for "LiveChat". Install the official plugin from LiveChat.com.

After installation, click Activate to enable the LiveChat plugin.

That‘s it! The plugin will seamlessly integrate LiveChat‘s live chat functionality into your site.

Step 3 – Connect Your LiveChat Account

Upon activating the plugin, you‘ll be prompted to connect your LiveChat account.

Simply enter the email you used to sign up for LiveChat, and click Log in.

This will sync your WordPress site with your LiveChat account.

Now live chat is enabled on your website. You‘ll see the chat widget in the bottom right corner.

Step 4 – Customize the Chat Widget

You‘ll want to customize the chat widget to match your brand colors and style.

Go to LiveChat > Settings in your WordPress dashboard.

Here you can change:

• Color theme
• Chat window size and style
• Options like automatic greetings and sounds
• Add your own logo instead of the LiveChat branding

Take a few minutes to ensure the chat widget fits seamlessly into your site design. This helps boost live chat acceptance rates.

Step 5 – Talk to Visitors in Real-Time!

When someone starts a chat, you‘ll get a notification on your LiveChat dashboard.

Simply log in to the LiveChat app to see new chats and respond in real-time from any device.

With the LiveChat dashboard, you can:

• See who‘s browsing your site in real-time
• Chat with multiple visitors simultaneously
• Transfer chats between agents
• Use canned responses to save time
• Access chat history and analytics

Now you can communicate with site visitors to provide support, upsell products, boost satisfaction, and increase conversions!

Pro Tip: How to Staff Live Chat for Maximum Coverage

To get the most out of live chat, you need to have agents available 24/7 to respond to chats promptly.

Here are a few options for staffing live chat:

• DIY – Have your own team respond to chats during business hours. You can take turns and use multiple accounts.

• Outsource – Hire dedicated live chat agents to cover chats 24/7.

• Live chat managed service – Use a company like LTVPlus that provides fully-managed chat agents optimized for WordPress.

• Chatbots – Use a chatbot like Chatfuel to respond to common questions automatically outside business hours.

The best approach is a blended model:

• Live chat managed service for 24/7 coverage
• DIY agents during core business hours
• Chatbots for after-hours

This ensures maximum chat coverage and the most personalized service when it matters most.

Advanced Tips to Optimize Your Live Chat Performance

Now that you‘ve added live chat to your WordPress site, let‘s go over some pro tips to get the most out of it:

1. Proactively invite visitors to chat

Don‘t just wait for visitors to initiate chat – proactively invite them to start a conversation.

You can configure automated rules and triggers in LiveChat to automatically invite visitors based on:

• Scrolling past a certain point
• Spending a set time on site
• Entering a specific page like product, pricing or contact us

This increases live chat acceptance rates.

2. Monitor chat performance metrics

Pay close attention to crucial live chat metrics like:

• Chat response time/speed
• Chat initiation rate
• Chat acceptance rate
• Chat satisfaction score
• Conversion rates of chatters

Optimizing these metrics results in better visitor engagement and maximizes your live chat ROI.

3. Integrate live chat with other tools

Connect your live chat software with other sales and marketing tools, like:

• CRM – Capture lead details from LiveChat into your CRM.
• Support system – Seamlessly transfer chats to your helpdesk system.
• Marketing automation – Trigger campaigns based on chat interactions.

These integrations create an omni-channel experience and unified workflow.

4. Analyze chat transcripts to identify areas of improvement

Use chat transcripts to uncover how you can improve your offering, website, or content to better serve customers.

Look for FAQs, recurring issues, unsatisfied visitors, and conversion points. Then optimize accordingly.

Analyzing chats gives you invaluable insights directly from your customers.

5. Train chat agents on best practices

Well-trained agents are crucial for delivering 5-star live chat experiences.

Agents should:

• Greet visitors promptly
• Use friendly and relatable language
• Personalize conversations
• Ask the right questions to understand needs
• Provide solutions tailored to the situation
• Only send relevant offers or content
• Wrap up chats smoothly

With regular coaching and training, agents will convert more chats into satisfied customers.

Final Thoughts on Adding Live Chat to WordPress

I hope this guide provided an easy way to add free live chat to your WordPress site using LiveChat.

Optimizing your chat setup and staffing model can drive even better results.

Start seeing higher conversions, bigger order values, lower costs, and happier customers from leveraging live chat.

Your website visitors are waiting to chat with you, so don‘t keep them waiting!

Have you used live chat on your WordPress site? Let me know how it impacted your business in the comments!