Live Chat

[pnguyen]

how important is it to have it advertise on your site?

[GigeWeb]

We have a live chat program but our new company policy only makes it for sales. Its not really important for us as we see the majority of prospects call or e-mail us rather than chat on the software.

[Hosting24]

It's important to have livechat, but be aware many users will abuse it. For example, after submitting support ticket, they will come to chat asking questions like "I have submitted new support ticket 5 seconds ago, can you answer it?" and similar. Now imagine you have many clients like this person... Your workload will raise dramatically.

And it's just ONE of examples...

[pacifichost]

very important, you need a live chat program or else you'll be cutting off a vital potential number of clients

[Point Red]

we don't have a live chat support yet. Is it expensive to have it? I assume it requires at leaset 2~3 persons to handle, right?

[Shakehost]

It all depends on how you want .. you can just have one person or have people do shifts if you want to have 24/7 live support .. there is free live support software out there .. livezilla <<

[bhumphries]

It's important to have livechat, but be aware many users will abuse it. For example, after submitting support ticket, they will come to chat asking questions like "I have submitted new support ticket 5 seconds ago, can you answer it?" and similar. Now imagine you have many clients like this person... Your workload will raise dramatically.

And it's just ONE of examples...

I have to agree with this 100%. It's incredibly irritating when this happens. Another thing you need to be aware of is offering support via livechat. Either you have to implement strict guidelines for support over livechat or no support at all. We only do sales over livechat, and beyond that, we just help direct the user to our billing/support panel to submit a ticket. To often I've had people come to me ask me to cancel a server, or install something on the server via livechat. Once I direct them to our support panel, then they tell me their not the owner and don't have access to that.

Overall Livechat is nice to have to an extent, but not necessarily needed.

[Hosting24]

we don't have a live chat support yet. Is it expensive to have it? I assume it requires at leaset 2~3 persons to handle, right?

It depends on number of clients your company has. If you haven't thousands of clients and your servers are stable, single person can handle livechat sessions without any problems.

And there are many free chat solutions available. You may check LiveZilla.

[bhumphries]

We use LiveZilla and personally I don't have any real issues with it. It does the job and is fairly simple to use and setup. Majority of the time a single user can handle livechat, but it all depends on the kind of business/support you're offering. If you're allowing live support via livechat, and you're running a large business, then you'll want to have at least a few people on livechat during normal business hours and evenings.

[datarealm]

Also keep in mind of course a single person should be able to handle multiple chats at the same time (particular for sales chats, support does get a bit more difficult to balance concurrent conversations).

[hostesta]

I find Livezilla to be unprofessional try alternatives like kayako and providesupport.

[Hosting24]

hostesta, do you have any serious troubles using LiveZilla? I didn't use it, but demo looks good.

[pingpipe]

We use LiveZilla also. We've found that the most effective way to use it is as a sales tool, if a potential client has a question there's someone available to answer it while the prospect is still on the site. If someone requires tech support they are directed to our support ticket system. (tickets are answered quickly, and client will have a written answer to their question they can refer to if it arises again)

[SitePenguin Ltd]

Very important in my opinion.

[ganhua]

if it's a huge company, it should have live chat. it helps answer support question faster as well, and your customers trust you more

[supportivhost]

Live Chat systems are good for the company people will check for live support to since it's so good to get an answer for little questions quick.

[Brittain93]

Im sure its a + for clients!

[Taba-Volsh]

how important is it to have it advertise on your site?

It gives a plus to clients to get quickly the answers they need.

[SysHosts]

It's important to have livechat, but be aware many users will abuse it. For example, after submitting support ticket, they will come to chat asking questions like "I have submitted new support ticket 5 seconds ago, can you answer it?" and similar. Now imagine you have many clients like this person... Your workload will raise dramatically.

And it's just ONE of examples...

This is so true, We get this all the time unfortunatly we wont limit our live help to just sales because sometimes its alot easier to speak on live support than tickets.

Would suggest getting a telephone support number aswell (skype do some good prices on 3-month plans)

[generouswebhost]

how important is it to have it advertise on your site?

I think it is essential. Live chat is important to answer any questions customers may have on the fly. Great for turning leads into sales. I would recommend live chat for all serious hosts out there.

[ServerHitch]

zopim.com is good.
+ aim bots ( live chat to and from your aim )
+ third party service ( hosted off site )
+ similar to myspace chat, or facebook chat ( user interface )
- costly for more than 1 operator
- takes extra time to load from third party location

LiveZilla is probably best
+ chat initiation ( invite visitor to chat )
+ hosted on-site
+ software GUI client for admin as well as operator
+ unlimited operators
+ 100% free, no costs
- windows-only client, however there is an API if you wanted to create a client

[suppleSupport]

It's important to have livechat, but be aware many users will abuse it. For example, after submitting support ticket, they will come to chat asking questions like "I have submitted new support ticket 5 seconds ago, can you answer it?" and similar. Now imagine you have many clients like this person... Your workload will raise dramatically.

And it's just ONE of examples...

That happens a LOT with us too. We only use live chat for issues that take less 15 minutes to resolve, otherwise we ask clients to open a ticket.

[Hydro_Host]

I think it is important to have it. Even if not many people use it. At least it is there for when people do want to use it.

We have just started using LiveZilla which is free but I would highly recommend it. It is reliable and has a lot of good features!

[Sean Hudson]

I agree with what many people have already said - Live chat is very important. We use LiveZilla, it is very good and they offer a free version for anyone who is looking for live chat software.

[~ServerPoint~]

I agree with what many people have already said - Live chat is very important. We use LiveZilla, it is very good and they offer a free version for anyone who is looking for live chat software.

I agree. They cmight not use that at all, but they will know that you are right here and ready to help for them

[webhostukcom]

Yes thats true livezilla is really a good chat software to work on.

[123Systems]

LiveZilla is the best 'free' live chat you will find.

There are better paid ones however, But livezilla hands down for free.

[TechGuy1]

Important! Live chat brings in clients its a way for them to ask quick questions and get a quick response.

[edgaras]

I think, if the company's servers are stable, and there's not much problems with your services it's enough if only one person from company answers the customers questions as it's done by my hosting provider
h ttp://balticservers.com. I haven't ever felt any discomfort for that..

[Veledrin]

Just a suggestion, but what about a live support system like a messaging client? The option of email ticket support would still exist, and you can have a link to something like an IRC channel on your site, there they can speak with multiple admins, sales experts etc? Is this a bad idea?

[ayesh]

It's so important as I think.

[ladesign]

It greatly depends on what type of business you have and the volume of customers you receive on a daily basis. I'd say its important but not a necessity.

[cyberls]

We use livezilla and its good..And it is very important that you maintain the quality in chat. so atleast three shifts each day. And an important thing is that use people who know what they are doing!. Just english wont do it.

[mwaraitch]

I think its very important to have a live support in your website to get maximum clients, and to satisfy them ,,,

[vibesh]

it is important u can get the review from customer and u can improve your sales and support

[vibesh]

live chat is the another service to customer for resolving there issues.
also u can know how people are thinking about your service.