Userlike is a feature-packed live chat software that helps companies turn website visitors into long-term customers. Users can enjoy features such as detailed chat analytics, multiple channel integration, handy feedback forms, and efficiency-boosting intuitive chatbots. Userlike has been designed and developed to make customer communication simple.
Eager to learn more about the chat software and the company behind it, I reached out to Userlike’s CMO, Pascal van Opzeeland, to ask him some questions.
The Start Of Userlike
Userlike’s story began in 2010 by two talented and ambitious developers. Pascal told me about Userlike’s beginnings:
“It started in 2010, when the founders Timoor and David met at a party in Cologne, Germany. They both shared the desire of starting their own business. David was already an experienced developer back then. Timoor was still finishing university, but he had set up various side projects during his student years. These included an online laundry service and an online cosmetics shop.
In this latter project he got in touch with website chat software, and he was amazed by the ability to talk with people at the same time they were on the website. His website, which had been a black box of abstract statistics before, now turned into a platform for customer communication.
While David and Timoor both liked the concept, they also saw a lot of potential for improvement. That’s how Userlike was started”.
High Standards of Customer Support
Userlike is trusted by thousands of businesses around the world. Some big names include Nivea, Porche, BMW, Best Western and Hermes. To fully support all its customers, the Userlike team takes a very strategic and methodical approach to customer care. Pascal spoke to me about his company’s dedication to keeping customers happy:
“Most of our customers work in customer support, so for us it’s a must to excel in this field ourselves. Our customers have high standards. Our way to excel in customer service is to approach it like a machine. Great customer service doesn’t just happen – you need to engineer it.
How we did that at Userlike was by first defining what matters. What constitutes good customer service? That’s not the same for all businesses, but there are a few foundational principles, which we’ve defined in the article The 8 Core Principles of Customer Service. For us at Userlike, we focus most on reaction times and reducing customer effort. We track these areas with a number of key metrics, such as first response time, first contact resolution ratio and chat ratings, and we define clear standards for our service agents to target.
Another important aspect of our setup are our customer health scores. These are automatically generated based on how our customers behave in our application, like how many chats they have. These allow us to be proactive in our support, reaching out to customers with deteriorating scores to offer our help.
Finally, something that is absolutely crucial and often underestimated is service channel choice. Most companies offer the channels email and phone by default, even though the average customer experience with these channels is poor. Phones are also quite expensive for companies to offer. To mitigate the costs, they tend to switch to waiting lines, which we all know are very frustrating. Email, then, tends to be slow. And because as a customer you never know how long it will take to receive an answer, many choose not to bother at all.
At Userlike, we prioritize our own channels of website chat and mobile messaging. Email is more hidden on our website, and phone we use only as an escalation channel and for key accounts. This allows us to always offer fast and quality support”.
Userlike's Top Features
Userlike has a strong focus on making communication between customer and business both simple and effective. This helps websites build both trust and credibility, ultimately leading to long-term customer relationships. To this end, Pascal told me what he considers to be Userlike’s greatest qualities:
“I think our product’s greatest strength is in how it combines website chat with mobile messaging. In this mobile and digital era, the website continues to be the most important piece of digital real estate for most businesses.
Companies like Facebook have tried to make themselves the one and only platform, but they’ve failed. Websites are here to stay. That’s why our Website Messenger stays at the core of our solution. Businesses need a direct messaging channel to reach their customers when they are at their most valuable: as they are surfing on their website.
But businesses also need a convenient channel to reach their customers the rest of the time: as they are going about their day. A replacement for phone and email – channels that weren’t built for the mobile, digital lifestyle. Mobile messaging was built for this. It aligns perfectly with existing consumer behaviour, which is what makes it so convenient for customers.
The only “downside” is that consumers are divided among messaging apps (WhatsApp, Messenger, SMS, etc.). This is why Userlike offers a solution that allows businesses to unify all their customer messaging channels. Userlike isn’t built around any specific channel, but around the mode of messaging”.
Pascal continued to tell me what he is most proud of about Userlike:
“I would pick the Message Center, which is the main communication hub in our product where Userlike customers spend most of their time. It is a shared messaging inbox where all customer messaging interactions can take place.
If I look at my phone, I have 7 different messaging apps on there (Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram, SMS, Signal, Threema, Slack). It would be a nightmare if businesses would have to manage that many tools individually. Still, messaging is the most convenient way of communication, so you want to offer it to your customers. Userlike unifies all your messaging channels in the Message Center. Whether it’s website chat, WhatsApp or SMS, they are all the same mode of communication (messaging), and our customers can seamlessly communicate with their customers through the Message Center”.
Plans To Suit Every Budget
Userlike has four set plans to choose from, plus a “Flex” plan for enterprises with specific requirements. I asked Pascal which plan is the most popular amongst Userlike’s customers. Here’s what he told me:
“In terms of user numbers, our most popular plan is Free. There aren’t many customer messaging solutions out there that offer such a professional solution with unlimited chats for free.
From our paid plans, Corporate is most popular. This is because it includes some cool and rather unique features, such as Live Translations – which gives automatic two-way translations if you’re chatting with someone who doesn’t speak your language. And audio calls – through which you can easily switch from a chat to a phone call. Chat is the perfect channel for the first point of contact, but when issues are more complex, or when you’re chatting with a hot lead, having the ability to easily switch to a call is priceless”.
The customer-favourite Corporate plan costs £290 per month when paid annually. Alternatively, you can choose to pay monthly for £320 per month, or biennially, which brings the cost down to £256 per month.
In addition to the features that Pascal told me about above, Userlike’s Corporate plan boasts:
- Powerful analytics to track and analyse your performance
- Access to a wide variety of channels such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and SMS
- Business tool integration, for example Salesforce, Zendesk and Google Analytics
Furthermore, there are a number of features that are included in all the plans. So, even if you opt for the free plan, you can enjoy unlimited conversations, unlimited contacts, various feedback options and multi-language support.
More To Come From Userlike
Userlike strives to give its customers the best experience with their software. They actively work on building on and improving their product. Pascal told me a little bit about what they are working on at the moment:
“One big feature that we are currently working on is screen sharing – the ability for a chat agent to show their screen to a customer during a website chat or audio call. We’ve all grown accustomed to screen sharing through apps like Zoom, Slack and Google Meets. We think it will be a great addition to our product”.
Some Final Words
Lastly, Pascal shared his bio:
“Pascal van Opzeeland is CMO at Userlike, a leading solution for website chat and mobile messaging via channels such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and SMS”.
Thank you to Pascal and the Userlike team for their cooperation for this review. I think Userlike excels in both its customer support and the fantastic features of the product on offer. Some notable impressive features include integration with many of your favourite web tools, the multiple feedback options available, and the ability to customise the design and text of your messenger. I wish the Userlike team the best of luck moving forward and I look forward to seeing further developments from the company.