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To use website live chat for both sales and customer service, choose a platform that fits your CRM or help desk, decide which team owns each conversation, configure routing and out-of-hours handling, embed the chat widget, and test every route before launch. Then train agents and review measures such as missed chats, customer satisfaction, and tracked sales. A widget alone does not guarantee more sales or lower support costs; results depend on coverage, routing, and follow-through.
How live chat works for customers and agents
Live chat has two parts: the customer-facing website widget and the agent workspace. Visitors use the widget to start a conversation; staff use the agent app or workspace to answer, route, and monitor conversations. LiveChat describes this distinction in its Manager’s Handbook.
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The 2027-2032 World Outlook for Live Chat Software | $1,195.00 | Buy on Amazon |
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The 2026-2031 World Outlook for Live Chat Software | $1,195.00 | Buy on Amazon |
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Repair Shop Software | $19.95 | Buy on Amazon |
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The 2023 Report on Live Chat Software: World Market Segmentation by City | $995.00 | Buy on Amazon |
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The 2023-2028 Outlook for Live Chat Software in China | $595.00 | Buy on Amazon |
For a business serving both buyers and existing customers, chat should be treated as an operating channel—not just a button on the site. Sales conversations may involve product questions, buying assistance, lead capture, or appointments. Service conversations may involve accounts, orders, billing, and troubleshooting. Salesforce’s guidance recommends connecting chat to CRM and help-desk workflows so conversations fit the work teams already do: Salesforce web chat guide.
Choose a platform that fits your current systems
Start by listing your CRM, ticketing or help-desk system, website platform, support hours, languages, and the teams that will own conversations. Favor a current product that works with that stack and can support your routing, agent workflow, and reporting requirements. Salesforce’s current Enhanced Chat planning materials describe routing by queue, service representative, skill, or bot: Salesforce Enhanced Chat planning.
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#1 Best Overall
| Option | Best fit | Setup and operating strengths documented | Lifecycle or scope note |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveChat | Teams seeking a dedicated chat setup and agent workspace | Handbook covers widget setup, agent onboarding, traffic monitoring, and analysis; reporting includes chat counts, activity hours, missed chats, satisfaction, and tracked sales. Handbook; product-tour reporting | Pricing and integrations are not established in the cited setup materials. |
| Zendesk Chat | Teams already working in Zendesk | Documentation distinguishes Chat-only from Chat plus Support and covers widget appearance, forms, ratings, security settings, and deployment. Zendesk deployment | The cited deployment material does not establish prices or specific CRM routing modes. |
| Salesforce Enhanced Chat / Messaging for In-App and Web | Organizations using Salesforce CRM and its current chat or messaging workflow | Current planning material lists queue, service-representative, skill, or bot routing; guided setup can create a queue, select a team, configure Omni-Channel routing, link records, create an offline form, and generate website embed code. Planning; guided setup | Salesforce Legacy Chat retired on February 14, 2026. Do not start a new Legacy Chat deployment. Retirement notice |
| Atlassian Customer Service Management | Teams organizing customer service around Atlassian support spaces | Each customer experience routes to one support space; incoming conversations are offered round-robin to available agents, with an administrator-set conversation limit. Atlassian setup | The cited setup information does not establish pricing or broader channel integrations. |
| Microsoft Teams Live chat | Not suitable for a new deployment at the date of this article | Microsoft documents follow-up contact capture or appointment scheduling for out-of-hours visitors. Microsoft retirement and setup information | New-customer setups stopped August 6, 2026; support ends October 5, 2026. Existing users should follow Microsoft’s retirement instructions. |
Compare candidate products on CRM/help-desk integration, routing by queue or skill, availability handling, concurrent-chat controls, offline capture and follow-up, widget deployment, reporting, and security and data-handling terms. The current sources establish setup capabilities for the options above but do not establish a complete, comparable price list or plan-by-plan integration matrix.
Plan ownership, routing, and coverage
Assign clear ownership
Name a primary team and owner for incoming chats, then define a backup destination. Decide which topics belong to sales—such as product fit or purchase assistance—and which belong to service—such as order status or troubleshooting. Place chat on pages where those teams can respond, and avoid directing sales leads to an unstaffed service queue or urgent support requests to sales.
Choose routing and workload limits
Use queue, skill, representative, or bot routing where the platform supports it and where a visitor’s reason can be mapped to a staffed destination. Keep the visitor-facing choices clear; every option should reach a real team. Atlassian’s documented setup offers incoming conversations round-robin to available agents and lets an administrator set a per-agent conversation limit. Use an appropriate limit for your agents’ capacity rather than assuming one universal number.
Salesforce’s guided setup flow includes creating a chat queue, selecting a team, configuring Omni-Channel routing, linking selected records, creating an offline support form, and generating website embed code: Salesforce guided setup. Its basic implementation guide also describes enabling Chat, assigning chat users, creating skills and agent configurations, creating deployments and buttons, and customizing branding: Salesforce basic implementation guide. These are Salesforce-specific setup paths, not universal steps shared by every platform.
Set business-hour behavior
Publish hours that match actual agent coverage. Decide what the widget does when no one is available: collect contact details for follow-up, offer appointment scheduling, or show an offline support form. Make the next step explicit so visitors do not mistake an unattended chat for a live response. Salesforce documents an offline form in its guided setup; Microsoft’s Teams Live chat instructions describe collecting email or phone details for follow-up or letting customers schedule an appointment outside business hours. Microsoft’s product lifecycle dates make Teams Live chat unsuitable for new setups after August 6, 2026, and support ends October 5, 2026: Microsoft retirement notice.
Prepare the greeting and visitor experience
Write a short greeting that names the kinds of help available and sets a realistic expectation about response. If visitors must choose a reason, keep categories understandable and connect each to a staffed team. Collect only pre-chat details agents need to answer or follow up; unnecessary fields add friction without clarifying ownership.
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- The Clients section stores information about each and every client including their contact details and address and full information regarding previous work done for the client.
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- State whether the visitor is reaching sales, support, or a shared team.
- Explain what happens when the team is away and when a follow-up can be expected, without promising a response time the team cannot meet.
- Decide how agents will verify identity when a conversation involves an account, order, or other sensitive case.
- Tell agents how to record the outcome and convert a chat into a ticket or follow-up when it cannot be resolved in the conversation.
Embed the widget and test before launch
Use the vendor-generated embed code or supported website integration. Where the platform requires domain approval, register the site as a trusted domain before testing. Salesforce’s guided setup generates Embedded Service code; Microsoft’s documentation covers trusted-site setup, test messaging, and generated installation instructions for HTML, WordPress, Wix, or Squarespace sites. Microsoft’s instructions describe its retiring Teams Live chat product, not a recommended new deployment.
- Generate or configure the deployment. Complete the platform’s setup for the chat team, routing, appearance, and offline behavior, then obtain its supported embed method or code.
- Approve the website domain if required. Add the intended domain to the platform’s trusted-site or allowed-site settings before expecting the widget to work there.
- Place the widget on the intended pages. Use the platform’s documented integration for your website, or add the generated code to the appropriate site template. Check that the widget appears on the pages chosen for sales and service.
- Run a real test conversation. Test on desktop and mobile, during agent coverage, and outside business hours. Confirm the greeting, agent availability, each visitor reason, routing destination, and offline capture or scheduling behavior.
- Confirm the handoff. Verify that the intended agent or team receives the message and that any CRM or help-desk record, follow-up details, or ticket is available as configured. A visible widget is not proof that a message reaches the right team.
Train agents and improve the operation
Before launch, train agents on response tone, escalation, appropriate identity verification, outcome recording, and when to turn a chat into a ticket or follow-up. Sales staff need guidance on qualification and next steps; service agents need clear escalation paths and authority for routine resolutions. Salesforce’s general guidance emphasizes staffing, agent skills, and authority, but does not promise quantified results from those practices: Salesforce web chat guide.
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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesReview operating measures on a regular cadence and tie each to a decision the team can make. LiveChat lists chat counts, activity hours, missed chats, satisfaction, and tracked sales among its reporting measures: LiveChat product-tour reporting. These are available measures, not universal targets or evidence that chat caused a change in business results.
- Compare chat volume by hour with staffed coverage to spot periods with missed conversations.
- Review first-response and handling patterns if the chosen platform reports them.
- Track satisfaction and resolution or follow-up completion to see whether conversations are ending usefully.
- Use sales attribution only where the platform can track it and the team has defined what counts as a sales outcome.
- Establish a baseline, then change one operating decision at a time—such as coverage, routing, or training—so its effect can be assessed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can one live chat widget handle both sales and customer service?
Yes, if the platform and staffing plan can route each conversation to the right team. Use clear visitor reasons or supported queue, skill, or bot routing, and define a backup and out-of-hours path.
Should live chat be available outside business hours?
Only if the experience explains what happens next. Configure an offline form, contact-detail capture, or appointment scheduling where available, and make follow-up ownership clear.
How do I know the chat installation is working?
Test a real conversation from the intended website and confirm that it reaches the intended agent or team. Also test mobile display, each routing branch, and the offline path; seeing the widget alone does not verify delivery.
Can I set up a new Salesforce Legacy Chat deployment?
No. Salesforce says Legacy Chat retired on February 14, 2026. Use current Enhanced Chat or Messaging for In-App and Web planning rather than beginning a Legacy Chat deployment.
Can a new customer set up Microsoft Teams Live chat?
Microsoft says new Teams Live chat setups stopped on August 6, 2026, and support ends October 5, 2026. It is therefore not a suitable choice for a new deployment at the date of this article.
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