Any live chat programs for web hosting support available for Windows?

HCL=> HelpcenterLive is a Free one written in PHP, You can find this at: www.Helpcenterlive.com

If You have PHP for Windows, then it should Work fine

IMHO, the best chatting program is IRC.
IMHO, the best web-irc is CGI::IRC (perl).

You could install an IRC server and the CGI::IRC which are both free...


Thomas

Hi..

LivePerson is the best Live chat support i ever seen..
If you have enough funds, I strongly recommend it.. :)
Their site is liveperson(dot)com

Nukecpower

PHP Live Support, Very Nice.

Is the PHP one safe?

Yes, 4.3.9 - the Stable one

I would like to recommend Crafty Syntax Live Help script (http://www.cslh.com). This is one of the best live chat script I have seen so far. But this doesn't work on Windows Server :(

I would like to recommend Crafty Syntax Live Help script (http://www.cslh.com). This is one of the best live chat script I have seen so far. But this doesn't work on Windows Server


Man! It Keeps Refreshing the Page Million times, it is Really Annoying, Have You Tried HCL in the First case.....it is like PHPLIVE, but FREE......I Suggest you to try it

http://www.phplivesupport.com/

this is a good one...

also this one:

http://www.kayako.com/

those are great help panels, i like php live because you can setup other admins to do live help and you can have more then one support center, i have not yet really tryed kayako.

You should try a search on hotscripts.com

N-contact from www.netlert.com (http://www.netlert.com). Do a free trial - you'll love it.

I found that using IM's is the best method. It allows customers to easily see when your online and makes it simple to ask a question. You can also easily do followups on sales and see how customers are doing. So far its been fairly sucessfull, my customers love it. So much so that its very rare I recieve emails from them, they just opt for the live support option.

Crafty thing is very bad, it refreshes as you type one message. Poor!

Originally posted by gplhost
IMHO, the best chatting program is IRC.
IMHO, the best web-irc is CGI::IRC (perl).

You could install an IRC server and the CGI::IRC which are both free...
The problem with suggesting IRC is many (if not most) hosting providers and data centers do not allow IRC related scripts, servers, etc of ANY sort, IRC functions are more likely to be hacked, and are more frequently targeted for dDoS attacks whereas MOST (if not ALL) hosting providers and data centers DO allow php/java/etc based live-help scripts, they will run from just about anywhere and they are more secure.

Also, using an IRC chat room does not pesent a professional appearance or offer the logging, referral URL tracking and statistics of a specialized live help script and makes it harder to offer your clients and potential clients a more private conversation with you and/or your support team.

If you want to provide your visitors and clients with live help, it's best to use a script that is designed for it and not an IRC room.

I would also recommend the Help Center Live script which is currently free but feature packed.

You cant beat LivePerson. :)

I've been evaluating some and have found Boldchat to be very nice.

helpcenterlive.com's Livechat support is also Cool.. It is similiar to pHPlive software..
helpcenterlive is loading fast..
Easy to Install..

nukecpower

LivePerson is defiantly the best option. Its front end looks good and the admin end is easy to control with countless features. On their site they sell it for $99 per seat per month however if you talk to them they often offer it to you for less.

If this is out of you budget I suggest PHPLive as a good starter option.

yes, CSLH is cool ;-) http://www.cslh.com/

Originally posted by sonicgroup
I've been evaluating some and have found Boldchat to be very nice.

Boldchat is a good program, but the servers they run it on are very unreliable. They never announce even scheduled reboots and you just get cut off in mid-chat. When their servers drop, I have tried to ping them from the UK and US with no reply, yet they deny that their servers were down at all.

Last week their servers were down for close to 24 hours and when I asked the cause I was told it was a "Minor Problem". 24 hours unusable is not so minor in my books.

The biggest thing recently has been their new upgrade. I pay a subscription for Boldchat and have to start paying for another subscription for the new upgrade if I want to use it. They won't allow me to test the new system under my current subscription and said that I should keep both subscriptions active to test it meaning I pay double the money when I can only ever use one at a time. They seem more interested in taking money than anything else.

PHPLive! is great.. worked many times with it.

Originally posted by contactsonia
I would like to recommend Crafty Syntax Live Help script (http://www.cslh.com). This is one of the best live chat script I have seen so far. But this doesn't work on Windows Server :(

CSLH does work on Windows Server. (http://www.ishatravels.com)

There is also an option to have the page 'refresh'ed rather than have 'continuous' buffering of data.

We have found it to be a very useful chat tool.

PHPLIVE

is the best...

Well all chat programs do refreshes.
The good ones made it unnoticable thats all.

Originally posted by Deltaservers
Man! It Keeps Refreshing the Page Million times, it is Really Annoying, Have You Tried HCL in the First case.....it is like PHPLIVE, but FREE......I Suggest you to try it

And with Crafty Syntax Live Help script (http://www.cslh.com) don't realize that ;)

For those that are using PHPLive, do you use their WinApp as well? Is the WinApp useful?

How do I get this script?

Thanks :)


Michelle

Originally posted by Two-A-T
I would also recommend the Help Center Live script which is currently free but feature packed.

Wow, that is expensive.

I paid less then that for 3 months with Live Human.

Unfortunately they lie about their upgrades etc.

Thanks :)


Michelle

Originally posted by T3H-Joe
LivePerson is defiantly the best option. Its front end looks good and the admin end is easy to control with countless features. On their site they sell it for $99 per seat per month however if you talk to them they often offer it to you for less.

If this is out of you budget I suggest PHPLive as a good starter option.

I just checked them out yesterday & wan't impressed although I love all the gifs they have that you can put on your site.

Most of the features I need/want they don't have & she wasn't too bright; the girl I was talking to.

I asked when they do upgrades & she said "Oh, we don't do upgrades" LOL

She kept telling me I can configure the software if I buy it & I kept telling her I'm not a programmer, plus I don't want to be responsible for any server issues.

I need much smarter people behind the wheel :)



Michelle

Originally posted by KidGeek
PHPLIVE

is the best...

Michelle,

What features are you looking for?

Hi there,

Well I'm looking for all the features PHP Live has(do you know what they are? I also like the different gif options they provide plus...

1. It tells me where the person is calling from... city/state country or, b/c I know the software that does this isn't reliable, if I can edit the signup box to ask several questions, I'll settle for that. I'd also love to have the signup box ask how they found my site, so editing this box is something that would be great.

2. That the customer can't talk to me unless they have filled out the signup box.

3. A company that is addressing the popup box issues with popup blockers. BIG DEAL IMO & none of these companies seem to be addressing this issue.

4. The font style can be set by me so I don't have to keep changing it every time I talk to someone & that it will match the font style the customer is typing in.

5. This isn't mandatory, but I'd love it if the system knew when I stepped away from the computer for a while & put me on busy or offline. I have issues with this w/ the Live Human I have now & it doesn't seem that any of the other ones do this either.

6. A company that updates features on a regular basis & doesn't lie about the fact that they say they are, but then they don't.

7. A company that has good customer service & really cares about what their customers think & want.

8. A system that is compatible with FF. So many of them are only compatible with IE & that sucks & I'm finding that a lot of the Live Chat systems shake when I'm typing out the text which is very annoying & unprofessional. I think it's a FF issue.

9. On PHP Live I can't even see when the customer is typing b/c of this issue.

10. The system I'm on now allows me to see what the customer is typing b4 he presses "send".

11. A system that gives me deals when I pay for 3, 6 or 12 months upfront.

I think that's about it for now. A lot of the feaures I want are listed on that page. If you need it, let me know & I'll pull it up.

Thanks & have a great wknd.


Michelle



Originally posted by sarahnoved
Michelle,

What features are you looking for?

Michelle,


I will tell you that there are only two chats that I have found that address the popup issue. The first is Groopz - which has a lot of different issues - not the least of which is the fact that it uses Java so it is slow to start up and the visitor has to have Java installed.

The second is N-Contact from www.netlert.com (http://www.netlert.com). The window is embedded and cannot be blocked.

Netlert will provide you with all the features that you want except for the advanced look at the typing (I tried that chat as well!) and the signup box. They are great about adding features, so that would be something that you could request.

Everything else on your list is covered plus they have a load of other features. Stop by their website and request some info. Also, their customer service is amazing and they are adding features all the time.

Check it out! You won't be disappointed.

I just realized that I misread what you wrote. There is a signup box available. Also, N-Contact tracks visitors quite reliably - where possible, down to the organization name.

Hi there,

I'll be taking a look at their system shortly, I'm just busy right now (as usual) LOL

Yes, most have to have a signup box. That's where the popup blockers become a problem b/c the customer clicks on the gif, then the signup box opens up & their popup blocker blocks it.

So they haven't dealt w/ this issue you are saying?

Thanks & have a great Sat. :)


Michelle

Originally posted by sarahnoved
I just realized that I misread what you wrote. There is a signup box available. Also, N-Contact tracks visitors quite reliably - where possible, down to the organization name.

Michelle,
I am saying that popups are not an issue for N-Contact because the signup box and the window itself are embedded in the website page. That is one of the reasons we chose their software. We wanted to be able to approach every one of our customers!

The tracking is done without cookies, btw, so return visitors who delete their cookies are still indentifiable! Cool!

Have a great day!

But isn't n-contact a little steep?
$50-100/mth is way higher than PHP LIve's $99 one time.

Depends on what you are looking for and what you need. We absolutely cannot live without proactive chat. For $99 one time we aren't going to get it. Also, the geotracking available in N-contact is incredibly valuable to us as is the ability for our web page to pass notes to the N-Contact server and have the traffic records show the info. Their use of automated triggers is also something we can't live without now. The referrer history that shows on every record is very useful for our campaigns. N-Contact is more like a marketing tool/live chat rolled into one.

You get what you pay for ;-)! But again, depends on what you need!

Originally posted by Deltaservers
HCL=> HelpcenterLive is a Free one written in PHP, You can find this at: www.Helpcenterlive.com

If You have PHP for Windows, then it should Work fine

I second that, but with HCL you're going to need to tinker around with the code a bit to fix whatever bugs are with the release you download. HCL is notorious for having strange bugs here and there.

Our hosting company uses a version of HCL that we modded ourselves to take care of some problems it was having, and to skin the graphics to our company.

Why dont you have your mod available for sale?
I will be your first customer.
HCL is a decent software if you manage to get rid of the bugs.

Anyway on the popup blocker thing, it isn't too hard for developers to implement that feature.
I can slap a hack for any live chat software so that it can withstand popup blockers. I wun get into the geeky HTML details though. If you are proficient in HTML or/and DynamicHTML you can easily mod any live chat software to your liking.

Originally posted by IncognitoNet
I second that, but with HCL you're going to need to tinker around with the code a bit to fix whatever bugs are with the release you download. HCL is notorious for having strange bugs here and there.

Our hosting company uses a version of HCL that we modded ourselves to take care of some problems it was having, and to skin the graphics to our company.

If it isn't too hard to implement, then why haven't more companies done it? They claim to have proactive chat and then it's blocked.

I for one, would love for you to get into the geeky details of how to do that. Or at least get into the basic idea!

Thanks.

Youre going to be sorry you said that.:D

Anyway its not too hard.
instead of using javascript to do a popup, you can use polling every couple of seconds to detect the state of the chat.
If the polling detects that it is active, the javascript will do a document.write to dynamically generate a Dynamic HTML 'window'
This window is not a real POPup but just a virtual layer.

I plan to work on one that has a fly in window.
Instead of having an obtrusive popup, I will design a very nice box that flies in to the center of the screen while playing prerecorded welcome audio file that goes
'Welcome to the [HOSTING COMPANY] website. I am [AGENTS_NAME]. How can I provide you with a better service today?'
OK, it sounds very BankofAmerica-ish but yeah you get the idea.
Some chat programs has the ability to detect the location of the visitor, N-Contact is one. I can have it play a prerecorded audio files based on the location. 'How's the weather in Florida?'
This is an extreme customization, takes a lot of work, but its doable.

Originally posted by sarahnoved

I for one, would love for you to get into the geeky details of how to do that. Or at least get into the basic idea!

Thanks.

Not sorry at all ;) ! Just interested in what you have to say.

We actually have an audio that says 'Welcome to blah blah. We're here to help.'

Be careful with the tracking - it is not ever 100%.