Live chat is a small messaging window on a website, usually opened from a bubble in a bottom corner, where visitors can type a question and get a reply from a person, often within a minute or two. Many chat tools also offer automated replies, but live chat in the strict sense means a human is answering.
How live chat works
You add a short script from a chat provider to your site. Visitors see a chat button; when they open it, their messages arrive in an inbox or app where you or your staff reply. Most tools let you set opening hours, show an away message with a contact form outside those hours, route chats to the right person and keep transcripts. Many connect to WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger or email, so a conversation that starts on the website can carry on later.
Some tools can open a message automatically, for example after someone has spent a minute on the pricing page. Others let a chatbot or an automated chat flow handle simple questions first and pass the conversation to a person when needed.
Why it matters
For many service businesses, the visitor with a question is the visitor closest to buying. “Do you cover Sevenoaks?”, “Can you start next week?” and “Is VAT included?” are buying questions. If the only route is a form promising a reply within two working days, many of those people go to a competitor who answers now. Chat also shows you what your pages are missing: if ten people a month ask whether you offer evening appointments, that answer belongs on the page.
Chat has costs too. Someone has to answer promptly, and an unattended window that sits on “We’ll be with you shortly” for an hour does more harm than having no chat at all. Chat scripts also add weight to every page and can slow it down, particularly on mobile.
In the UK, transcripts usually contain names, contact details and sometimes sensitive information, so they are personal data under UK GDPR. Your privacy notice should name the chat provider, explain why you use it and say how long you keep transcripts. If the tool sets cookies that are not strictly needed for the chat itself, such as analytics or marketing cookies, those need consent through your cookie banner.
Common mistakes
- Showing chat as available when nobody is there. State staffed hours in UK time and switch to a form outside them.
- Pop-up chat greetings that cover the content or the main button on phones.
- Bots presented as people, which damages trust the moment someone notices.
- Not counting chats as conversions, so the channel looks worthless in reports.
- Keeping transcripts forever, with no retention period in the privacy notice.
- Demanding a name, email and phone number before the visitor can even ask a question.
How to act on it
Decide first whether you can staff it. If you cannot reply within a few minutes during the hours you advertise, a clear phone number, a short form or a WhatsApp link may serve visitors better. If you can, add chat to the pages where questions cluster, such as pricing, service pages and checkout, rather than every page, and keep the widget unobtrusive on mobile.
Track a started chat as a micro conversion and a chat that ends in a booking or quote request as a full conversion, so you can see whether it earns its place. Read through transcripts monthly for repeated questions and fix the pages that prompted them. Where chat is part of a wider rethink of how a site handles enquiries, I plan it within a website redesign alongside forms, calls and tracking.