This article will analyze the 3CX Live Chat Review. Businesses ultimately realized that customer assistance is a vital component of the customer experience; consequently, the channels via which customer support is provided improved substantially.
Currently, a number of business owners believe that customer service is the most essential aspect of a company, as the prospect of assisting clients in their time of need appears to be both satisfying and sustainable.
Therefore, innovation emerged in the form of a live chat option that allowed many businesses to engage their audience in real-time.
Slowly and gradually, live chat WordPress plugins became the norm, and today there are millions of sites that enable live chat on WordPress websites.
In addition, after the audience experienced and became accustomed to speaking with the business over the internet on their website, they began to favor live chat over other conventional means of communicating with the business, such as email, social media, or phone assistance.
Why did this occur, you might ask? Well, live chat is super-convenient, quick, and effective, and it can be done in real-time while retaining a record of the dialogue to assist with the question after the chat session has finished.
This is only one advantage; the feasibility and significance of live chat capabilities extend far beyond providing an easy, quick, and effective method of connection for your consumers.
With the introduction of the innovative 3CX live chat, everything changed, and entrepreneurs may now benefit from the live chat capability in ways beyond those listed above.
So, without further ado, let's examine the several advantages of the 3CX live chat plugin for WordPress. However, before we begin, let's define what live chat for WordPress genuinely is.
What Is Live Chat For WordPress
If you're a digital company hell-bent on providing your clients with a more easy and efficient method of connecting, you should consider implementing VoIP. Using 3CX live chat is then a no-brainer.
The plugin easily integrates with your WordPress website, as described in the next section, and enables you to chat with your audience in real-time to answer their questions.
In general, live chat software is ideal for all organizations since it enables them to get up close and personal with their audience, identify the issues they're experiencing, and resolve them to increase brand loyalty, credibility, and satisfaction scores.
Even if there are dozens of plugins to choose from, I'll recommend the best one (3CX) so you can get started immediately. Below are some of the most impressive features of this plugin:
- Through 3CX's communications solution, you can easily switch from online chat to call (or video call) when live chat isn't enough to resolve an issue or you want to close a sale.
- Live chats can also be answered from 3CX's mobile apps (iOS or Android).
- Chats can be assigned to a particular agent or a group of agents can answer them.
- The same interface can be used to reply to both live chat and Facebook messages
In addition, 3CX has more than 1.9 million downloads worldwide, and the full communications program and its features are available for free for up to a year.
Now that you have a fantastic live chat plugin for WordPress, let's return to the subject at hand.
The Importance Of A Live Chat Plugin
Live chat capability is crucial in today's market, and given that every brand is competing to provide the best customer experience to their audience, you must have live chat to stand out.
Aside from being a fun feature, live chat provides businesses with a number of substantial and indispensable benefits. Live chat, for instance, develops a culture of interactions and involvement and distinguishes a business.
. Your brand's customer experience will be greatly enhanced by this feature. However, live chat provides you with the following benefits beyond that:
- This WordPress conversion plugin increases customer engagement.
- Enhances the customer experience
- Acquires and onboards customers
- Create a relationship between your agents and your customers
- Your customers will spend less time repeating themselves
- Boosts the productivity of your customer service team
- Support available 24/7
- Enhance your competitive edge
Considering the aforementioned benefits, I am certain that the majority of the entrepreneurial audience is eager to get their hands on this plugin, so here is everything they need to know to acquire it for their company.
What Is 3CX All About?
3CX is all about seamless customer communication, improving your lead count, engaging your consumers, simple integration, and effortlessly bridging the gap between the audience and the brand.
Consider a consumer who needs rapid access to your brand for support with a product or service he recently purchased.
The plugin will play a crucial part in linking this user to your sales representative, customer service representative, or whoever is responsible for managing such complaints.
Moreover, if the internal staff is unable to resolve a customer's question via chat, the plugin provides efficient assistance for initiating an audio or video call with the customer to address his/her concern in greater depth.
In addition, the configuration and installation of this excellent plugin elevate the integration procedure to an entirely new level.
An Overview of the Features of 3CX Live Chat
In 2019, 3CX acquired the previous WP Live Chat Support plugin and it is now 3CX Live Chat.
The plugin lets you embed an unlimited number of agents on your WordPress website, which is relatively uncommon in the live chat industry.
Your choice of where to chat will depend on your setup:- The dashboard of your WordPress site.
- 3CX is available as a web application, desktop, and mobile application (both for iOS and Android).
If you choose the free 3CX service (option 2), one of the things that most distinguishes 3CX Live Chat from other live chat providers is the ability to convert a live chat into a call or video chat with the full 3CX service. I'll elaborate on the price later, but for the first year, the whole service is free.
You will also have a great deal of flexibility in how you communicate with your customers. For instance, if you use Facebook Business messaging, you may include them into your live chat system so that you can answer both live chat and Facebook messages from a single interface.
There are additional options allowing agents to be assigned to various groups and incoming chats to be directed to particular agents or groups.
There are also several smaller options, such as the ability to customize the appearance of your chat box and choose which pages to display it on. It also has some useful features, such as automatically populating the chat details with the information of a logged-in WordPress user.
Hands-On With 3CX Live Chat
It's time to try out the 3CX Live Chat plugin, and I will show you what it's like to use it.
1. Completing The Basic Setup
The 3CX plugin is easy to set up depending on how you want to use it. Once you download the free plugin from WordPress.org and turn it on, it will start a setup wizard that will help you set up some important basics.
Your "channel" is your first important choice. You can do either of these:- 3CX service - 3CX will host your chat server, so you can use the apps for iOS and Android (or, for more advanced users, 3CX can be installed on-premise). With this option, you can also turn a live chat session into a phone call or call. The live chat service is always free, and the phone/video feature is free for the first year. But setting this up is a little tricky because you have to do a few things at 3CX.
- Self-hosted WordPress - With just the WordPress plugin, you can host your own chat system. It's free for life, but you can only participate in live chats through your WordPress dashboard. You won't have access to the apps. Setting up here is very easy, and you'll be ready to go in less than 5 minutes.
I want to be able to show all the features, so I will be using the 3CX service (which is also free forever for the live chat features and gives you free access to phone and video calls for the first year):
Following the setup of your 3CX account, the next step is to add the 3CX URL to your cloud dashboard.
I think it would be helpful to have some extra instructions or a link to the help documents in this part of the setup wizard. If you're not already a 3CX customer, getting this information is a little complicated. I had to look around and read different help documents before I figured it out, so I think the average WordPress user will be confused about how to find the information they need.
Note: The developer told us that they plan to fix this in the next version, so by the time you use it, the setup process might be easier for beginners.
There was no guidance in the plugin's settings so I didn't know where to begin. There are two things you have to do to get everything working:- Installing 3CX as a hosted instance is as simple as following this guide.
- Install live chat by following this guide.
Finally, you can make the chatbox match the design of your website:
That's all there is to it! The live chat box should now appear in the bottom-right corner of your site:
2. Configuring More Advanced Settings
After completing the setup procedure, you'll have access to a more thorough settings section via Live Chat > Settings.
This section provides a great deal of information, which is useful for configuring the live chat to your specifications. Here are some of the many alternatives available:
- A person's name and email will automatically be filled in if they are logged into WordPress.
- Mobile devices can be disabled from interacting with live chat.
- Several pages/contents can be disabled from having live chat.
- Offline messages can be controlled.
- Establishing live chat operating hours.
- GDPR support has been added.
- There are plenty more.
3. Responding to Chats
Whether you use 3CX or just your WordPress site will determine how you respond to chats. Your WordPress dashboard is where you'll respond if you're just using WordPress. 3CX, however, offers several options:
- You can manage chats and voice/video calls from your browser using this web app (outside your WordPress dashboard) on your hosted 3CX instance
- Android and iOS apps
- A desktop application for Windows
4. Web Client
It is easy to chat with people on the web client thanks to its modern design.
Several clicks will also allow you to transfer your chat to another agent
5. Mobile Apps
Chats can be answered on the go using mobile apps. Installation is simple - you just have to download the app, then scan the QR code from the web client.
You'll then be able to manage your chats on the go (and your phone calls - more on that later).
6. WordPress
You can respond to chats directly from your WordPress dashboard if you opt for the WordPress channel instead of the 3CX service. Remember, though, that using this channel gives you access only to WordPress - you won't be able to access the web app or mobile/desktop apps.
7. Elevating Live Chats to Call or Video
As I indicated previously, one of the unique features is the ability to integrate the 3CX Phone System, allowing you to convert a live chat into a call or video chat. This is free for the first year but must be purchased thereafter.
Using the top buttons, your visitors will be able to do so immediately from the chat window.
Then, agents will be able to respond immediately from the online application or the mobile applications.
This is quite cool because it allows you to begin a call or video chat quickly using only your Internet connection and without requiring visitors to install the software (visitors just need to give their web browser access to their microphone and camera).
8. Managing Users
With the 3CX version, you also have a separate web portal for managing your entire message server, including adding extra chat agents to reply to chat, defining rules, and more.
You can configure forwarding rules and exceptions when editing a user.
You may also incorporate Facebook Business messages into your live chat system with this web console.
3CX Live Chat Pricing
The 3CX Live Chat plugin is free for an unlimited number of chats and agents, which is quite generous in the WordPress live chat area. Even the majority of free alternatives limit the number of agents you can manage.
If you utilize the 3CX channel (which gives you access to the mobile/desktop apps and phone/video calls), the live chat option is also available for free forever.
The ability to raise live chat conversations to phone or video chats is, however, only free for the first year. If you choose to continue using the phone and video chat services, you can do so for free for up to eight simultaneous conversations (enough for around 25 individuals).
Paid plans commence at $652 per year for up to 16 simultaneous calls and additional premium features.
Quick Links:Final Thoughts on 3CX Live Chat Review 2022
Overall, 3CX Live Chat is one of the most adaptable live chat solutions for WordPress that I have tried. In contrast to SaaS tools, you receive your own hosted instance. Or, you can host it yourself on-site or in the cloud.
This allows for a great deal of freedom and ownership, as well as advanced capabilities such as upgrading live chat sessions to phone or call.
Alternatively, you may use the native WordPress channel and manage everything from your WordPress dashboard, which is ideal for basic use cases.
If you are utilizing the 3CX service, it is also more difficult to set up than other live chat options (though the native WordPress channel is fairly straightforward).
3CX really provides you with your own communications server, which contributes to a portion of this complexity.
However, the developer could make things easier for WordPress users by offering clearer instructions in the WordPress setup wizard or by at least providing a link to a help document that demonstrates the beginning-to-end process of getting the plugin to function.
Having said that, the setup procedure is not very complicated, and once I understood what was going on, I had it operational within half an hour.
Overall, if you desire extra flexibility and support for phone and video chats, you should investigate 3CX Live Chat. Or, if you simply want a simple option to answer chats straight from your WordPress dashboard, you can omit 3CX altogether and simply respond to talks from your WordPress dashboard.