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Their (hosted) live help service is called Liveperson Pro and I wasted no time in joining their services. As you'd expect the sign-up process was very easy, with web-based step-by-step instructions the whole way. Directing me to download the console software (Microsoft Windows and Mac based versions available) and providing links to several helpful user guides and tutorials, I was up-and-running in no time. Though as I've mentioned in other live help reviews, I hate misspellings and yet again I came across a few spelling errors on the instructions and flash movies - uh, spell-checker please? :-) OK enough of the griping... let's get back to the service. It has all the usual features -- agents can chat with multiple visitors, transfer chats to other agents, geographic location about website visitors shown in real-time, etc. One feature I really liked was cobrowsing with joint form-fill... the ability to enter form information in while the website visitor watched in their own browser was nifty (note: does not work with Firefox and Netscape version 6 & 7 browsers, and Java must be enabled on the visitor's browser to work properly). LivePerson offers a very good selection of chat icons/images for subscribers to use on their webpages (the images that say "chat now"...), which saved me the headache of designing my own (and my graphic-editing skills are weak). I was also able to change the chat 'window' icon as well (and for a small fee LivePerson will create a custom one for you). Digging deeper, their console allows configuration of pre and post chat surveys for website visitor chat sessions. Additions to the live chat option are "LiveEngage" rules, where you can send pro-active chat requests to your website visitors based on the criteria you set (send chat invite automatically if 'number of webpages viewed by visitor exceeds "4"', 'time spent on specific page exceeds "1 minute"', etc.). And let's just say there's no shortage of documentation available, all with professionally done flash and slide-show instructions. I was overwhelmed (not in a bad way) with all the handholding the site does for you. LivePerson's Web Based Training (WBT) flash demo was a really good place to start understanding the console before actually using it; I recommend viewing it before even installing the application. Some helpful tips on chat image placement: "Remember these
rules: 1. Buttons work best when they’re on the top of the
page, and 2. Every page should have a Live Chat button. 3. Add a
sentence next to the chat button explaining your new Live Chat service
to your visitors. " Even little reminders like ensuring you
offer training for all the operators keeps implementation easy.
Remember, even the little things can make a difference in your experiences
with live help services. Operating system requirements: Windows 2000/XP/Vista on the PC side, Mac OS-X 10.4 or 10.5 on the Apple end. Unique features: operator can be set to "offline" when their screensaver activates on their computer; many configurable alerts based on the type of website visitor that arrived (visitor was referred by certain search engine keyword, has high shopping cart value, etc.); nice reporting feature where you can see specific information on individual website visitors. With prices starting at $99/mo per Agent, it's not a cheap foray
into live help services for webmasters (and there are certainly
cheaper alternatives). My guess is that mainly the largest of online
corporations are using their services, as they'd want to go with
a service that is well known and has top-of-the-line offerings.
Whenever I see the coding behind live help buttons on large corporate
websites, it usually points at LivePerson servers. Check 'em out. -Dave Swanson
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LivePerson
Inc. (