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For HelpOnClick's hosted live help option (servers in Atlanta, GA (USA)) they take care of the server-side of the live help software process; all you do is copy the supplied HTML coding to your webpages where you want your 'chat now' button to show. Joining their hosted service was easy as the process walks you through creation of an administrative login/password. Once logged into the web-based control panel, it's on to creating the departments and operators. Finally, insertion of HTML coding into webpages where the chat image should appear was all that was left. Web-based operator consoles make it easy to be an operator from just about any Internet site. HelpOnClick describes the services as working only with Microsoft-based computers, though I can't see why the operator console wouldn't work on MacOS, Linux, etc. (again, as it's web-based). There's also a 'system tray' application available for you Microsoft Windows users. After configuration of departments and operators, I was ready to start using the live help console. I just visited HelpOnClick's website and logged in as the operator account. To see your live website visitors you need to click on the traffic monitor link. It will show a list of IP addresses, the current webpage being viewed and an ability to invite the visitor to chat. I clicked on the IP address of a visitor expecting to see more geolocation information but the console just said 'loading data...' and didn't show me anything else about the visitor (though I did find basic geolocation information using a different link, but I was only shown country/region/currency and capital-of-the-country -- ISP, City, and State were all missing). The other oddity is if the visitor doesn't move between pages within several seconds, their IP/webpage information disappears from the console. I'd expect that information to disappear from the console IF the visitor left or closed their browser, but not because he/she wasn't moving through the website. The live chat works as expected but is a bit different based on how the chat starts. If the operator sends an invite, the website visitor isn't asked for a name -- the chat window just appears and the conversation starts. But if the website visitor initiates the chat (through the chat now image) then it asks for the visitor name and department. Cobrowsing, webpages-visited, and chat history all worked as expected. Canned responses/urls/images and operator-to-operator chat didn't disappoint either. There's also a reject surfer option that closed the live chat properly, but it didn't permanently block the visitor --which left open the ability for a troublesome visitor to continue initiating chats. Minor negatives: HelpOnClick's website was informative regarding their live help services, but I found it a bit odd that they included links to other non-related businesses on the footers of their webpages. A sprinkling of grammatical errors throughout the site, as well as lacking ANY type of 'contact/address information' (so I know who I'm doing business with) certainly wasn't making the best of impressions. Moving on... pricing is based more on features available to the purchaser, than number of operators. It's best to check the pricing matrix on their website to see what's in/out, as there are quite a few important components not available in the Basic Plan. For instance cobrowsing, real-time traffic viewer, and initiate-chat (all I consider a must in any live help service you purchase) are not available until the Pro Plan. Although I wish I had a website that was so popular in getting 200,000 impressions per month HelpOnClick has footnoted in their pricing: "* Websites with over 200,000 impressions a month are subject to additional fees." If you run a high-volume website, you'll definitely want to find out what incremental costs are involved. In addition, similar to a few other live help providers, it costs another $69USD to have the "Powered By HelpOnClick" removed from the live chat browser windows that show your website visitors. HelpOnClick plans: Basic/Pro/Deluxe ($19USD/mo. 1 operator , $29/mo.
3 operators, $49/mo. unlimited operators). Costs are per website;
separate websites require additional licenses. Number of features
available increase in the higher levels. With it's web-based console,
HelpOnClick is worth considering if you don't want to install the
operator consoles locally. -Dave Swanson
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Israeli-based live help provider HelpOnClick has developed
an interesting web-based live chat & monitoring application.
Though I can't tell you when it was developed, or when the company
was formed, since no information available on the website (jump
to common 