The Chat Shop

The Chat Shop story started in 2011. That may not seem like an especially long time ago, but trust us, ten years is a very long time in live chat history. Before we were incorporated, hardly any businesses used live chat, and fewer still seemed to recognise its revenue-generating potential. The more we looked into why this was, we saw that few people really understood the value that chat could bring to their business, and chat was a real challenge to get right. 2011 Small beginnings The Chat Shop was founded by two people who knew they could provide a solution. They sensed that live chat might represent an unexplored opportunity to reach out and connect with customers. Could smart onsite conversation be the key to engaging wavering visitors and converting them into qualified leads? 2012 Officially incorporated By June 2012, The Chat Shop was officially incorporated. The Chat Shop began life with a £5K investment and a strong belief in the untapped potential of conversational marketing, before conversational marketing was really a thing. Despite our shoestring funding, we won our first client at the end of 2012 and worked 18-hour days (on chat!) until we could afford to hire a client team. 2013 We hired our first team After more clients joined, we were relieved to be in a position to hire a team. The founders’ experience of being on chat helped identify exactly the team we needed. They had to be native-English speaking and natural at engaging with prospective customers through chat. 2016 Our focus on innovation grew The chat technology we were using had always been good, but we knew that in order for us to truly take conversation up a level we needed a team of developers. This kicked off our long-standing history of enhancing our clients, customers, and agents' experience with market-leading technology. 2017 The Chat Shop Inc was born Due to increasing demand for our solutions from North America, we officially incorporated our US business, The Chat Shop Inc. This enabled us to grow our US team and client base, building our strong presence on both sides of the pond. 2018 First acquisition The Chat Shop had partnered with Jeff Wilson and the team over at Ortho Engagement a few years prior, successfully delivering chat for over 100 Orthodontists in America, Canada, and Australia. When the opportunity arose, it made sense for The Chat Shop to take over ownership of the business as our very first acquisition. 2020 The big plan We took a step back and really thought about what had driven our, and our clients' success to date. This led to a whole new approach to our solutions - still very much human-led, and tech-enabled, with further investment into our strategy, people, and technology. 2021 ... and beyond Ten years and millions of chats later, our youthful instincts have been vindicated. Conversational marketing and onsite chat are now well-established as brilliantly effective ways to drive customer engagement and boost conversion rates.