Guest post by Alex Levitov.
Americans tell an average of 15 people if they have a poor customer service experience. But in the case of a good experience, they’ll tell only 11 people.
That is probably the perfect explanation for why companies in the USA lose over $62 billion every year due to poor customer support. In the absence of proper customer support, not only does the customer never come back, but also gives your business bad publicity.
On the flip side, millennials are ready to pay 21% more for good customer care. And 60% of customers say that customer support is the key to making them feel loyal towards a brand.
So the lesson to be learned here is that you need to have good customer support services on your website.
And here are three most effective ways in which you can offer online customer support on your website –
- Live chat
- Ticketing system
- FAQ sections
Now, how can you add all these to your website?
Well, WordPress, the most popular website builder, has solutions for all your needs.
All you have to do is add the right plugins, and you will have stellar custom support solutions set up on your site.
Before we move ahead…
What is a plugin in WordPress?
A plugin is a block of code that can be added to your website to get additional functionality. There are over 54,000 options available in the WordPress plugin directory.
And several (read: hundreds of) options are available in the customer support category.
But not all of them are worth it.
The five best WordPress customer support plugins that you can trust and invest in include –
1. WP Support Plus Responsive Ticket System plugin
Price: Free
Average Rating: 4.3/5
WP Support Plus Responsive Ticket System is an open-source plugin that lets users set up a ticket-based support system.
It is a plug-and-play kind of offering. All you have to do is install the plugin from the WordPress plugin directory, and you can start using it.
Note: The plugin is only being maintained for its past users. And new users should go with SupportCandy. It is a newer version of the plugin by the same set of developers (Rated 4.7/5). And it also performs all the same functions.
Key Features –
- Diverse use cases like technical support, trouble ticket, customer relation, and service request management.
- Unlimited tickets.
- Unlimited agents.
- Super-fast speed of operation.
- Option for guest tickets.
- Allows file uploads.
- Responsive design and intuitive interface.
- Lets users create custom form fields.
- The HTML code of the tickets can be edited.
- Email notifications for new tickets.
- Advanced options for filtering tickets.
- Premium add-ons are also available (for email piping, satisfaction survey, knowledge base, FAQs).
2. WP Live Chat Support plugin
Price: Free
Average Ratings: 4.6/5
WP Live Chat Support is one the most reliable, effective, and popular WordPress support plugins. And it is confirmed by the fact that it has over 1,900,000 downloads.
The plugin is now called 3CX Live Chat. And offers a broad range of features to users. It is a truly native plugin that doesn\’t depend on third-party services. You can manage and handle everything from your WordPress dashboard. But you can also choose the plugin\’s server so that your site is not overloaded.
Key Features:
- It is a native experience plugin and allows replying to chats from the dashboard itself.
- Unlimited agents.
- It lets you initiate chats with the visitors on your site.
- Agents can edit the messages.
- Allows uploading files in chat.
- Report and analytics options along with chat ratings and feedback surveys.
- Six fully customizable chat box themes.
- Departments can be set up, and chats can be transferred from one agent to another.
- Animations can be applied to the chat window.
- Webmasters can access historical live chats.
- Desktop notifications for live chats and options to view missed chats.
- Compatible with caching and translation plugins.
- Agents can see the messages before the visitors send the chats.
3. Tidio Live Chat
Price: Free. The premium plan is available at $10/month.
Average Rating: 4.8/5
The Tidio Live Chat is one of the highest-rated WordPress plugins for live chat. It lets users connect with customers over chat or email and also with the help of chatbots.
It has a free plan that includes all the features necessary for basic use cases. The premium plan comes in at $10/month.
Key Features:
- Four options for connecting with customers. Includes chat, email marketing, chatbot, and messenger.
- It can be used on the website 24/7 and helps generate more leads.
- Tidio can also be used to keep track of the visitors who come to your site. You can track on what pages they go and spend how much time on particular segments.
- Customers anywhere on the site can be contacted.
- Customizable color scheme option.
- It can be used on any device (web, Android, iOS, etc.).
- The Tidio Live Chat integrated widget includes 183 languages. 21 pre-translated language packs are available.
- An offline form is available that gives email notifications of messages when you are not online.
- Built-in email marketing tool to send messages to customers who are no longer on your website but had previously contacted chat support.
- Integration with MailChimp, Google Analytics, Zapier, Zendesk, etc.
4. Awesome Support
Price: The core version is free. Bundled add-ons start at a $149 one-time payment. Standalone add-ons are available for $39 or $49, depending on which one you choose.
Average Ratings: 4/5
Among the several plugins WordPress options for setting up a helpdesk, Awesome Support stands out with its long list of features. There are a lot of premium add-ons and bundles that are available. But the free version is also equally promising.
Those with fairly simple help desk needs will find the free version enough. And as your needs get complex and you need more comprehensive or flexible solutions, you can get add-ons.
Key Features:
- Unlimited tickets, unlimited agents, unlimited products, and unlimited internal departments.
- You can respond to tickets from the WordPress dashboard or via email.
- Email notifications for all new tickets.
- Smart agent assessment lets you allot tickets to the currently active agents.
- Allows attaching files.
- You can create any number of custom ticket statuses.
- Slack integration allows for team notifications.
- Website users can safely submit sensitive details (like passwords) using Private Credentials Vault.
- Option to set up a customer satisfaction survey.
- WooCommerce and Evanto integrations.
- Custom ticket forms can be created using Gravity forms.
5. Ultimate FAQs plugin
Price: Free. Single site lifetime license with additional features available for $30.
Average Rating: 4.5/5
Ultimate FAQs is a top WordPress plugin by Eliot Web Design and has over 10,000+ active installations.
The plugin lets users create simple and effective FAQ pages right from the WordPress admin panel. The plugin can also work in sync with WooCommerce and help online store owners.
Key Features:
- Quick and easy installation and setup to get you started quickly.
- Unlimited FAQs can be created. And these are all translation ready.
- The plugin is mobile responsive and displays perfectly on all types of devices and screen sizes.
- Shortcodes and shortcodes helper options to set up an FAQs page instantly
- Plenty of customization options available.
- Support for tags and categories options
Premium Features
- Plenty of options for styling FAQs (colors, fonts, and toggle options)
- The answers can be shown using the Reveal effect.
- Live FAQ search option with autocomplete functionality
- Allows for user-submitted FAQs (and their answers)
- The FAQs can be rearranged using the drag-and-drop option.
- Users can be asked to rate the FAQs based on how valuable and helpful they were.
- FAQs can be shared on social media platforms. And the FAQ page created will be SEO-friendly.
- Option to import and export FAQs from and to spreadsheets available.
With that, we come to an end of the top plugin options for WordPress support services.
No matter which of these you pick, depending on your business needs, having customer support services on your website will help you get a guaranteed increase in lead generation and customer satisfaction.
