Live Chat Widget for website

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sleepy

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Ultimate Geek
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#113576 21-Jan-2013 12:52

Live Chat Widget for website

We have been running a live chat widget on our website to allow Questions in realtime.

Has been popular but the outside company does not always supply the correct answer so wish to do inhouse.

Is anyone doing this or seen one done well. All opinions are welcome though would be good if they are on topic

It needs to not be shown when not available as customers dont like the leave a message approach.

(sorry if in wrong Forum but could not spot a better one)

Cheers Sleepy

jbard

1377 posts

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#748206 21-Jan-2013 13:55

Hi

I assume you mean 1 on 1 chat sales/support and not site wide chat like Geekzone has.

If you are after a free option your best choice by far is Craft Syntax

The interface is outdated and it does take a bit of work to setup but it by far the best free option.

Their are numerous paid options with nicer interfaces and more features than crafty but crafty has plenty for what 99% of people need.

mattwnz

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#748222 21-Jan-2013 14:32

I am confused when you say the outside company doesn't know the answers? Did you subcontract it out to a company to handle the live chat and answer's. If so then it would be the quality of answers that are the problem.
There are heaps of live chats available but you have to staff them yourself. Not aware of any that disappear though when not being staffed. I have found the self hosted ones don't run well on shared hosting and often time out.

sleepy

337 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 39

#748225 21-Jan-2013 14:37

Actually it was the Questions not applying to the answer in any way if you mentioned one product they replied about another. not every time but enough to be a concern.

we beleive that there are some live chat programs you can turn off when no one available to answer

jbard

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#748226 21-Jan-2013 14:39

sleepy: Actually it was the Questions not applying to the answer in any way if you mentioned one product they replied about another. not every time but enough to be a concern.

we beleive that there are some live chat programs you can turn off when no one available to answer

Yes you can turn off Crafty Syntax when no one is online to take questions, in fact i'm pretty sure this is a standard feature of most live chat programs.

mattwnz

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#748238 21-Jan-2013 15:15

jbard:
sleepy: Actually it was the Questions not applying to the answer in any way if you mentioned one product they replied about another. not every time but enough to be a concern.

we beleive that there are some live chat programs you can turn off when no one available to answer

Yes you can turn off Crafty Syntax when no one is online to take questions, in fact i'm pretty sure this is a standard feature of most live chat programs.

I have used zopim in the past, which is free if you just have one user staffing it. But to turn off offline messgaes you have to upgrade to a paid plan. I don't see a problem with having offline messages, because it is really no different from email.
These live chat systems do require quite a lot of resources to staff and you can get a large number of time wasters on it, so subcontracting it out isn't such a bad idea if you have a good company to subcontract out to.

Kyanar

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#748242 21-Jan-2013 15:19

jbard: Hi

I assume you mean 1 on 1 chat sales/support and not site wide chat like Geekzone has.

If you are after a free option your best choice by far is Craft Syntax

The interface is outdated and it does take a bit of work to setup but it by far the best free option.

Their are numerous paid options with nicer interfaces and more features than crafty but crafty has plenty for what 99% of people need.

Eeep. Page loads in 8 seconds... check. Creepy eyes animation that slides into place... check. Page looks like it was made in 1993... double check.

In terms of live chat widgets, options like Olark or Zopim are probably better as they simply sit in the corner of the page and pop out when clicked, and when you're offline they become a simple contact form that emails you. Both have a free option too, though Zopim's free option is more limited than Olark.

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mattwnz

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#748332 21-Jan-2013 17:46

Kyanar:
jbard: Hi

I assume you mean 1 on 1 chat sales/support and not site wide chat like Geekzone has.

If you are after a free option your best choice by far is Craft Syntax

The interface is outdated and it does take a bit of work to setup but it by far the best free option.

Their are numerous paid options with nicer interfaces and more features than crafty but crafty has plenty for what 99% of people need.

Eeep. Page loads in 8 seconds... check. Creepy eyes animation that slides into place... check. Page looks like it was made in 1993... double check.

In terms of live chat widgets, options like Olark or Zopim are probably better as they simply sit in the corner of the page and pop out when clicked, and when you're offline they become a simple contact form that emails you. Both have a free option too, though Zopim's free option is more limited than Olark.

Don't you mean the other way around. The olark free one is limited to just 20 chats per month. Zopim free isn't crippled like that, and has most features, mainly just missing concurrent chats and multiple operators. I use it successfully on the free account and someone viewing from outside would never know.
I also don't think the olark one works unless you have a separate chat client, while the zopim one works in a browser.

Kyanar

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#748348 21-Jan-2013 18:25

mattwnz: Don't you mean the other way around. The olark free one is limited to just 20 chats per month. Zopim free isn't crippled like that, and has most features, mainly just missing concurrent chats and multiple operators. I use it successfully on the free account and someone viewing from outside would never know.
I also don't think the olark one works unless you have a separate chat client, while the zopim one works in a browser.

Ooops, my apologies, I didn't notice that monthly conversation limit (what kind of crazy limit is that? That won't encourage people to use their service, it'll frighten everyone away!)

mattwnz

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#748351 21-Jan-2013 18:29

Kyanar:
mattwnz: Don't you mean the other way around. The olark free one is limited to just 20 chats per month. Zopim free isn't crippled like that, and has most features, mainly just missing concurrent chats and multiple operators. I use it successfully on the free account and someone viewing from outside would never know.
I also don't think the olark one works unless you have a separate chat client, while the zopim one works in a browser.

Ooops, my apologies, I didn't notice that monthly conversation limit (what kind of crazy limit is that? That won't encourage people to use their service, it'll frighten everyone away!)

Maybe Olark has changed it recently. I did give it a trial, but I found Zopim pretty good on their free account. But I don't expect it to be free like that forever, as many people will find the free account good enough.

sonyxperiageek

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#748361 21-Jan-2013 18:47

What do Pb Technologies use on their website? Theirs look to be quite good!

Sony

mattwnz

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#748367 21-Jan-2013 18:52

sonyxperiageek: What do Pb Technologies use on their website? Theirs look to be quite good!

Looks like an older styled one, possibily self hosted. Also shows them offline which isn't what the OP wants.

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Kyanar

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#748507 21-Jan-2013 22:16

sonyxperiageek: What do Pb Technologies use on their website? Theirs look to be quite good!

Custom built.

sleepy

337 posts

Ultimate Geek
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#748910 22-Jan-2013 15:35

Should have pointed out we dont mind paying for the software just need to know what is good