Live Chat

Live chat is all the rage now with websites. These allow you to instantly chat live with a real human being via the website. Being an IT Geek (or Professional as we like to be called), I could write one, but with the prices so low, I don’t really see the reason to. As they say, why invent the wheel?

To install, simply copy and paste the supplied code into your website and your pretty much up and running. The user interface allows the chat to be themed to match your website.

I’ve tried a few, and settled on Website Alive. Not only is it one of the cheaper options out there, it also allows you to view users live as they are on your site, giving you key information on what pages they are currently viewing, how many pages they have visited etc. Although it’s not as detailed as the de-facto standard – Google Analytics, it does allow you to push prompts to those users to start a chat session. Personally I find these quite annoying, but I guess in some industries a friendly prompt which is not too overwhelming can increase sales.

Before diving in and paying, I’d definitely recommend signing up for a free trial of the software you wish to use and see if there is benefit before you start coughing up any money.

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