Small Business | Forum « Live Chat Experiences/Recommendations?

Live Chat Experiences/Recommendations? (11 posts)

Topic tags: advice, App, Facebook, Google+, Live Chat, social media

Alexandra Briggs said
1 year, 4 months ago:
Has anyone here utilized Live Chat on websites or integrated within social media? I know Google+ has Hangouts functionality and I AM curious about using that, but also wondering about Live Chat overall.
We are trying to find ways to incorporate live chat and wonder how helpful it could be. Does anyone have experiences they can share? I have seen a few that can work on a website and a Facebook page but upon research it looks like a lot of “spam-type” ads come up. Does anyone have a provider they use? Or do you have one you have researched and they seem promising?
Or, have you used Google+ hangouts? How do you reach your customers in this way?
@alexandrabriggs | # | Top
Carol Bremner said
1 year, 4 months ago:
Hi Alexandra,
I use Google+ hangouts for a weekly mastermind. If we use the hangouts plus feature, it allows the six of us not only to meet in real-time, see and speak to one another, but also to share our screens. That way, if we want feedback on a site or are trying to figure out a program, we can all see the screen in question and provide feedback.
We use the chat box to share links to websites and other data that can be clicked on or copied and pasted elsewhere.
This feature is also great for helping clients and for showing a group how to use a specific application and answering questions about it.
@torontocarol | # | Top
Alexandra Briggs said
1 year, 4 months ago:
@torontocarol When using the hangouts is there a specific “leader” in the hangout who can allow or not allow screen sharing? My thought is if you want one screen shared for a presentation but everyone to be able to see and view the other participants.
@alexandrabriggs | # | Top
Joan Muschamp (Fagnani) said
1 year, 4 months ago:
@alexandrabriggs if you want Live Chat as a feature on your website, I can check back–I looked into it for my last company.
But, you need to ensure you have staff available in whatever window you say you will staff it. It gives a very negative impression if you say Live Chat available, and then a visitor gets a message no one is available.
Some systems actually do not show the live chat when your staff is not available–I think you can even have the widget display a form or other feature.
@joanmuschampfagnani | # | Top
Glyn Berrington said
1 year, 4 months ago:
yeah we have used whosno live chat system for soem year maybe 5-7. The system is interesting not only can you chat but you can see what users are and have looked at, what search terms they used and can open pages for them, you can set invites on certain pages or have certains actions as wel as manually. There are some marketing uses also, I even suggested some uses that they did implement. I do find that when customers chat they are surprised that you are human, and do tend to convert.
here’s a link I have no conection with them other than using their system we bought the software and run it on our server. www.whoson.com or you can go on our site and see how it works and chat to me http://www.sturbanclothing.com
@spudty | # | Top
Randi Thompson said
1 year, 4 months ago:
I am also interested in this topic. @alexandrabriggs I have been using the Google+ hangouts, but would love to be able to do this with a larger group. People love seeing each other! Does anybody know of face to face chat room that is also out there?
@randithompson | # | Top
Alexandra Briggs said
1 year, 4 months ago:
@spudty Thank you for those links. I pulled your website up and saw the basic functionality of the software. I think I have seen “Whoson” used on other websites as well. Do you wait for the customers to reach out to you via Live Chat or do you also send a live chat request in case they have questions? Is that something Whoson is able to integrate even?
@alexandrabriggs | # | Top
Glyn Berrington said
1 year, 4 months ago:
@alexandrabriggs
we send auto requests after 3 page visits. I used to keep an eye on visitors also and if they lurked at the checkout would send manual invites to chat. We have in the past sent of triggered invites with coupons and competitions. I like it as a system and its not stupid expensive and easy to intergrate
@spudty | # | Top
Carol Bremner said
1 year, 4 months ago:
We take turns opening the hangout, depending who is ready to start first. Then any of us can take a turn to share our screen.
@torontocarol | # | Top
Terra Lynne Mrkulić said
10 months, 1 week ago:
Sorry I am late to this party, but Live Chat is my industry so I thought I would chime in albeit long after this thread started. I work for a company that has a social media application that enables businesses to incorporate the same chat functionality across all their customer touch points (website, email marketing, social channels, mobile, etc.). This means that all your chat data can be aggregated and your chat agents aren’t working with multiple programs.As LivePerson’s social media manager, I incorporate chat features into our dominant social channels. Plus we are able to add live chat buttons to email campaigns and throughout our public communities. Having all this data feed into one system enables us to monitor cross-channel visitor behavior in a unique way.There are many really awesome chat providers out there that offer a wide range of features and functionality. It’s a really cool industry that is constantly evolving as ecommerce itself evolves. I definitely suggest considering a chat option for your customer touch points. I don’t have the exact statistics in front of me, but having live chat deployed definitely increases conversions, average order values and customer satisfaction. If you want to see the numbers or case studies, I’d be happy to post them.Thanks!
@terralynnemrkulic | # | Top
Ivanka Menken said
10 months, 1 week ago:
Not sure if this answers the question but we use http://www.livechatinc.com/ as our Livechat solution.There is some integration with other sites, but the Livechat functionality is mostly contained within the websites.
I have it set up in such a way that the livechat panel only shows when there is an operator online to help out.What I like about Livechat is the easy user interface and the ‘no frills’ approach. You get what you pay for and I must say that I probably use most (if not all) of the features that I pay for so it feels like good value for money. (Geez – I sound like a commercial… don’t mean it that way – it just helped our customer interaction a lot).
We use livechat for presales enquiries as well as post sales customer support.
Hope this helps
@ivankamenken | # | Top