Here’s a clear, organized list of common and important features you’ll find (or want) in conversational support software, grouped so it’s easy to compare and prioritize.

Core conversational features

• Multi-channel support: chat (web/in-app), SMS, email, social (Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram), and voice—handled from one platform.
• Live agent chat: real-time messaging between customer and human agent with agent presence.
• Bot + human handoff: seamless escalation from automated bot to live agent (and back) without losing context.
• Persistent conversation history: retains session history so customers and agents can pick up where they left off.
• Typing indicators and read receipts: shows users/agents when the other side is typing or has read messages.
• Attachments & media: send/receive files, images, videos, links, and rich cards/carousels.

Agent productivity & workspace

• Unified agent inbox/queue: single place for agents to manage conversations across channels.
• Canned responses/macros/templates: prebuilt replies to speed handling of common questions.
• Internal notes & private chat: agents can leave notes or consult colleagues without exposing info to customers.
• Co-browsing / screen sharing: agents can view or guide a user’s screen to resolve complex issues.
• Transfer & conferencing: transfer chats between agents or add multiple agents.
• Agent routing & skills-based routing: route conversations to the best-qualified agent or team.
• SLA and priority management: set response/resolution targets and priority rules.
• Agent collision prevention: prevent multiple agents from responding to the same conversation.

Bot, automation & AI features

• Natural language understanding (NLU) / intent detection: understands user intent and extracts entities.
• Multi-turn dialog & context management: maintains context over multiple exchanges and sessions.
• Dialogue flow builder / low-code bot builder: visual tools to design conversation flows without heavy coding.
• FAQ/knowledge base integration: bot answers from a company KB and suggests articles.
• Automated workflows / escalations: trigger processes (tickets, approvals, follow-ups) based on conversation events.
• Sentiment analysis: detects user sentiment to prioritize or escalate conversations.
• Smart suggestions & agent assist: propose replies or knowledge articles to agents in real time.
• Hand-offs to rules or human: configurable fallback and escalation triggers.
• Machine learning retraining tools: manage intents, re-train models, and review misclassifications.

Customer experience & self-service

• Knowledge base + article suggestions: surface relevant articles inside the chat and via bot.
• Self-service flows (forms, guided troubleshooting): let users solve issues without agent involvement.
• Proactive messaging & notifications: send triggered messages, reminders, or updates (opt-in compliant).
• Surveys & feedback capture (CSAT, NPS): collect ratings and comments after interactions.
• Personalization & user profiles: use CRM data to personalize conversations.
• Multilingual support & translation: automatic translation or native language routing.

Integrations & extensibility

• CRM & ticketing integrations: e.g., Salesforce, Zendesk, ServiceNow—sync contacts and cases.
• Commerce & order system hooks: access order status, returns, refunds inside chat.
• APIs, SDKs & webhooks: embed chat in apps and integrate events with other systems.
• Identity & single sign-on (SSO): authenticate users/agents via SSO (SAML, OAuth).
• Platform/third-party apps marketplace: add plugins for payments, surveys, analytics, etc.

Analytics, reporting & quality

• Real-time dashboards & monitoring: live view of queue sizes, agent status, and response times.
• Conversation analytics & transcripts search: search chat logs, filter by tag/intent/sentiment.
• Historical reporting & KPIs: first response time, resolution time, CSAT, containment/deflection rate, volume by channel.
• Quality assurance tools: scorecards, review workflows, and coaching notes for agent training.
• Conversation tagging & custom fields: categorize interactions for reporting and automation.

Security, compliance & governance

• Role-based access control & audit logs: control who can view/edit and track changes.
• Data encryption at rest & in transit: secure storage and transport of messages.
• Data retention & export policies: configurable retention periods and data export for compliance.
• Privacy & regulatory compliance: GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA support where applicable (HIPAA requires special BAAs).
• Redaction & PII handling: tools to mask or remove sensitive data in transcripts.
• Backup & disaster recovery: ensure high availability and data resilience.

Deployment & scalability

• Cloud, hybrid, or on-premises deployment options.
• Multi-tenant support (for SaaS providers).
• High availability & autoscaling for peak loads.
• Performance & rate-limiting controls.

Operational features

• Ticket / case creation and lifecycle tracking.
• Business hours / offline messaging & auto-responders.
• Throttling / rate limiting to prevent abuse.
• Conversation archiving & export.

“Nice-to-have” advanced features

• Voice bots and IVR integration.
• Rich bot actions (payments in chat, appointment booking).
• Contextual routing using ML (route by predicted complexity).
• Knowledge article auto-generation or RAG (retrieval-augmented generation) for summarizing articles or generating replies.
• Conversation summarization and next-action suggestions.
• Low-latency webhooks and event streaming (for real-time automation).
• SDKs for mobile apps (iOS/Android) with native UX.

Key KPIs to track in conversational support

• First Response Time
• Average Handle Time / Resolution Time
• Containment / Deflection Rate (bot resolves without agent)
• CSAT / NPS scores
• Volume by channel and peak traffic times
• Cost per contact / agent utilization
• Escalation rate and transfer rate

Quick prioritization guide

• Must-haves for basic support: multi-channel chat, live agent workspace, canned responses, basic bot with FAQ, KB integration, reporting on response/resolution times, security/role controls.
• Important for scaling: routing/queues, SLA management, advanced bot with NLU, analytics, integrations to CRM/ticketing, audit logs.
• Enterprise-grade: multi-region deployment, compliance (GDPR/HIPAA), advanced automation (RAG/ML), contact center/voice integration, SSO, and governance tools.

If you want, I can:

• map these features to specific vendor types (e.g., contact-center platforms vs. chatbot platforms),
• create a prioritized checklist for selecting software, or
• tailor recommendations for a specific use case (e.g., ecommerce support, SaaS customer success, healthcare).