LivePerson, an AI-powered live chat platform and a leader in G2’s live chat software category, has recently announced two major acquisitions—VoiceBase, an AI-powered voice analytics platform, and Tenfold, a customer experience integration platform—for an undisclosed amount.

The two strategic acquisitions are aimed to fuel LivePerson's vision to help brands attain complete visibility and ownership over engagements in the channels customers care about the most, mainly messaging and voice.

Live chat adoption is increasing

Around 69% of shoppers in the US demand live chat features, and nearly 73% of customers find live chat the most satisfying form of communication with a company. The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the shift towards online shopping which added to the increased adoption rate of live chat platforms. 

Additionally, 79% of businesses say offering live chat positively impacts sales, revenue, and customer loyalty. Customers value instant means of communication the most, and live chat software can help offer immediate and personalized attention.

Why did LivePerson acquire VoiceBase and Tenfold?

By acquiring VoiceBase and Tenfold, LivePerson aims to combine three powerful technologies and create a unified, AI-enabled system that helps brands elevate their customer experience. This includes LivePerson's conversational AI and asynchronous messaging, VoiceBase's speech recognition and analytics capabilities, and Tenfold's voice, messaging, and CRM integrations.

The two acquisitions seem like the most logical step for LivePerson. That's because both companies can support LivePerson's upcoming voice capabilities within the conversational AI messaging platform.

Rob LoCascio, founder and CEO of LivePerson, said: 

"Brands want to accelerate their use of Voice and Conversational AI with deep connective tissue into their systems. It's my great honor to welcome VoiceBase and Tenfold's experts to the LivePerson family as we build the unified AI system behind 100% of conversations with the world's most innovative brands." 

Brands can now elevate their customer experience by carrying the customer conversations' context and continuity across all channels with the help of a single, automated voice and messaging desktop system.

Along with carrying context and continuity, LivePerson can help brands build better customer relationships using the power of personalization. The acquisition adds to the possibilities of utilizing personalization to LivePerson's already robust conversational AI.

Walter Bachtiger, founder and CEO of VoiceBase said:

"Eighty-six percent of buyers are willing to pay more for better customer experiences, meaning huge opportunities open up for brands as we combine VoiceBase's speech analytics tech with LivePerson's Conversational Cloud and AI. We are thrilled to team up with a trailblazing industry leader that shares our vision for improving conversations through actionable, AI-powered insights." 

Combining VoiceBase's speech recognition and analytics capabilities with LivePerson's conversational AI gives brands extensive visibility into customer sentiments, intents, and frustrations across all communication channels. These insights will empower brands to uncover sales opportunities and improve customer relationships.

Jeff Cotten, CEO of Tenfold, said: 

"Today marks an exciting day for Tenfold, our employees, and our customers as we join LivePerson. We've solved a difficult challenge in delivering the most relevant data right into every customer interaction, and with LivePerson, we'll expand this model to messaging to deliver a true end-to-end customer experience platform." 

Tenfold makes LivePerson messaging available to agents anywhere, including the agent's desktop, embedded in a CRM software, or a brand's own integrated system. This will allow brands to work with any voice vendor and complement LivePerson messaging without affecting the agents' experience and productivity.

What does G2 data tell us?

G2's live chat software category has seen increasing category traffic since March 2020. This is mainly because the pandemic necessitated consumers to interact with businesses online. Since live chat is an excellent way for businesses to interact with customers and ultimately increase sales, the category has steadily gained traction.

The Live Chat category traffic in May 2021 was nearly 300% more than the traffic in March 2020. The traffic to the Speech Analytics category has also increased by around 230% in the same period.

In G2's Fall 2021 reports, reviewers gave live chat software products an average score of 90% for ease of use and 88% for ease of setup. Speech analytics software products had an average score of 91% for ease of use and 87% for ease of setup.

The scores suggest that users are finding value in the products of both categories, although there’s little room for improvement, especially in terms of setting up the tools.