With a well-designed website, Sightmax was my next review choice as a live help provider. With their software programmed in .NET 2.0 using SQL Express 2005 as the database engine, along with an impressive list of large corporations as current customers, I couldn't wait to dig into the details of their services. (The sprinkling of spelling errors throughout the site is a pet peeve of mine - please fix them Sightmax :-) (jump to common live help software questions & comments at bottom of this review).

Sightmax offers pretty much two levels of live help services -- install the software on your own server, or host it on their servers. The hosted-on-their-servers version is what I've checked out, although the mobile version is very curious-looking indeed!

For such a graphics-friendly website, I was somewhat put-off by the sign-up process - frankly it was a pain in the ass. Probably took me over 5 minutes to go through the whole process, as they use the shopping cart/checkout method. After completing the sign-up, I was amazed again as it took another 30 minutes before I even received the emailed information to actually start using the service (OK call me picky, but these days it should be easy to get people going "instantly"; with all the ways to automate web scripts and such...).

Panicking was not necessary, as the information sent to me via email contained everything required to get live help installed on my website. Two paragraphs of javascript (AJAX) coding to install on every webpage, followed by the download of the console (operator) software, and I was off and running! Installation is very clean and user-friendly.

AJAX powers the chatting application window as well. One feature included is what they call SmartChat language translation, which supposedly does on-the-fly language translation when operators chat with website visitors. Before the chat even begins, the web visitor can select a specific support queue, also indicating where they are in the queue ("you're number 3 in the queue").

The mobile/smartphone console software was developed for the iPhone and Windows Mobile 5.0 and later. The Microsoft Windows-based console has all the standard options: chat invites, transfer chats between operators, block abusive users, follow-up surveys, etc. One cool option is ability of operators to send private message between each other. Console includes Microsoft's Virtual Earth feature to show you a satellite shot of your website visitors' locations. Several reports are available to the administrator, including chat transcripts.

Pluses: has mobile version of operator software, ability to "coach" operators within same chat, easy to configure and use. Minuses: Reports don't work on computers running Windows 2000 or lower, SSL errors in some browsers when using chat (don't know if it was related to the Godaddy certificate), their WHOIS info lists phone number as 999-999-9999 and is also a virtual business address (why hide?).

With prices starting at $59/mo. per Agent, Sightmax.com is a very nice service; definitely worth a look.

-Dave Swanson

> visit www.sightmax.com

> see list of all reviews

Submit A Question Or Comment

Question submitted: Sightmax does not see vistors to site?
Webmaster response: do you have the proper Sightmax coding installed on your webpages? Ensure you've copied the coding exactly as given to you by Sightmax AND have uploaded the changed webpage(s) to your webserver. After uploading the webpage(s), open your website in a browser and do a VIEW SOURCE to see if the coding in implemented properly. Then visits to your website should appear in the console.

Question submitted: Does the iPhone mobile app for Sightmax work?
Webmaster response: I haven't had a chance to review it yet for either the iPhone or Windows Mobile, but I am curious about it. The only problem I could see running into is trying to carry on a live chat with someone, while trying to use the mobile phone keyboard to do so. Better have those canned responses lined up before using the mobile version.