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Should You Build or Buy Live Chat For Your Website?
Melody Jaimon • May 30, 2024
Introduction:
As a business owner, you should be ready to tackle the changing customer needs in order to compete favourably.
It's imperative for you to provide easy and quick access to sales and service agents. This can easily be achieved by implementing a live chat feature on your website or app.
Some benefits of having a live chat include: boosting lead generation, increasing conversion rates, faster customer support, improved customer experience, etc. There are two major options for creating a live chat – building one by yourself or relying on a third-party live chat software.
In this article, we'll discuss the pros and cons of each approach and also suggest another possible method.
The pros and cons of building a live chat feature.
An in-house live chat software usually requires strong tech skills and infrastructure. You'd need developers that would create the software according to your requirements. It's quite expensive and takes a long time to complete but you have no restrictions and can customize the platform fully.
The pros:
- Cheaper in the long run
Although engineering and infrastructure expenses may be costly, they are upfront. It's a one-time investment rather than paying annual licensing fees for a third-party app.
- Complete control
It allows you to develop an application that meets your unique requirements. You can integrate every necessary feature and also customize the appearance as you want.
- Adequate flexibility
When building a live chat from scratch, you can choose the development and production tools. This ensures that you have an efficient, scalable, and secure platform.
The cons:
- Expensive to build
There are infrastructure and development tools that make it possible to build such applications. They have to be paid upfront and require the services of multiple engineers.
- Costly to maintain
Cloud servers, data warehouses, security protocols, etc have some recurring costs and are needed to keep the app up and running. So maintenance can be a menace.
- Needs specialized skills
A realtime chat system should be done by professionals. The backend, database, and user interface needs to be handled by a team of developers with prior experience.
The pros and cons of buying an “out-the-box” live chat software application.
An out-of-the-box live chat software is relatively easy to use. You won't bother about infrastructure or development. It mostly involves installing the application and integrating with your website, helpdesk, and other internal systems. Since it's owned by a vendor, there are annual licensing fees to pay, you don't have direct control over the platform, and the vendor is also in charge of security and reliability.
The pros:
- No engineering required
You can easily install a live chat software in a few steps. The vendor would provide instructions for installation and also provide support. You can also embed in several apps.
- Immediate launch
It's much faster to use a ready-made solution rather than spend months building your own platform. You can launch and add to your internal workflow as soon as possible.
- No maintenance costs
The software provider is expected to oversee maintenance and settle any recurring costs for the application. This means that you won't be concerned with maintenance.
The Cons:
- No control over features
You can't exactly dictate the features that are included on the platform. The vendor might be open to suggestions but it's entirely up to them to tweak or add extra functionality.
- The fees can add up
The licensing costs can be expensive over time and can increase when your business grows. You should be ready to handle such regular expenditure in your business.
- No guarantee whatsoever
You should know that the vendor can decide to reduce the quality of the application at any time. They may switch to weaker infrastructure, reduce integrations, and others.
A third option to consider —
If you aren't keen on building a live chat app or buying a ready-made solution, there's another option. You can outsource to a company that specializes in building such. It ensures that the live chat software is being built by those who have a proven track record of building similar apps.
Outsourcing your website design and live chat app to a company like Love My Online Marketing is more affordable than building from scratch and using a third-party app. It gives you access to experienced engineers who can deliver swiftly and add all the functionality you need. This option is relatively more efficient, more flexible, and takes less time to complete.
Conclusion
Implementing a live chat application on your website helps to improve marketing, sales, and support. Customers can easily communicate with your agents, ask questions about products or services, and seek help when necessary. You may build your own chat application from scratch, rely on a third-party vendor, or simply outsource to a company.
Love My Online Marketing has 10+ Years of working alongside businesses and helping them grow. Discuss your options for online success from website Design and Development through to Google Marketing.
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