I've used such services in the past and found them quite helpful ... but only if you get through to a real person, and that real person actually knows what they are talking about!
After much research, I picked out 4 companies worth looking at:
* LivePerson
* BoldChat
* ProvideSupport
* Crafty Syntax
I know there are loads more, but the majority of them fall into what I would call "the LivePerson clone" - ie: they offer the same quality of services at roughly the same cost.
And I should mention COST straight up here. Normally services or software from different providers is in the same ballpark. Not so with LiveChat Clients (at the time of writing - November 2009).
So let's start off with costs (all UK £, excluding VAT, normal prices):
LivePerson.......... £99 per month
BoldChat............ £199 per month
ProvideSupport.... £15 per month
Crafty Syntax...... £free
That's quite a disparity, and having researched and spoken to all these companies they certainly feel their offering is "best value for money".
If money is no objection, BoldChat seems to be the premium service, although some of the features such as "preview visitor text before sending" seem a little too much like spying for my liking. In terms of scalability, for a large number of support operators it seems to have all you'll need.
LivePerson is probably the market leader right now, and if you strike a hard bargin they will drop to £80 per month (or lower: £60 was mentioned to me) easily.
However, if we're simply looking at value for money, then given the list of features alone, either ProvideSupport or Crafty Syntax would have to take the prize.
ProvideSupport offer very similar features to LivePerson, at a fraction of the cost. I should mention that all of these clients can be placed on multiple websites - you only pay for each support console. I also liked some of the additional features of ProvideSupport, such as a photo of the Support Rep. It's always nice for clients to see who they are talking to.
Crafty Syntax is interesting, and is obviously a labour of love for its creator and seems to be related to Olark, another Chat client that links into Instant Messanger accounts.
If I was running a forum or non-professional website, I would probably be tempted by Crafty Syntax. It's feature list is comparible with LivePerson, and of course it's free. My doubts in a professional environment are twofold - it does not have the look and feel of the other applications, and who would we go to if we needed support?
Taking all of this into account, for our needs I cannot see a valid argument for paying the extra money for BoldChat or LivePerson. Crafty Syntax is just too much of a risk for a professional company, so our winner (at least in terms of the first application we'll test) is ProvideSupport.
I'll post up some feedback when we've have a chance to test it.
In the meantime, there are various "comparison" charts listed below. Please beware: most of these sites are not independant and purposely skew the results to their own favoured products. I, on the other hand, am not biased, and I hope this information has helped!
As always, if we can help in any way, please give me a call on 0845 900 2822, or send us a message via our website: http://www.livingstonesolutions.co.uk/contact.html
Links for comparison:
http://live-chat-support-software-review.toptenreviews.com/
http://www.providesupport.com/product/comparison-chart.html
http://www.whoson.com/compare.aspx
http://www.livechatcomparison.com/index.jsp
http://www.pilpilon.co.il/boldchat-live-chat-software-for-websites-s-2186.html
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