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Adding an online chat feature – good idea or not?

Published 12 April, 2013 | By tashword

Maybe it seems a little back to front. I mean, first I reviewed some online chat software and now I am writing about whether or not adding online chat to a website is worth considering.

For me, that’s the order things have happened – I did the research because a client asked me too. And now I am thinking about adding chat to my site as well.

Of course, I could wait a while and see how chat goes for my client… Yet again, their business is so different to mine that any data would probably have limited value.

So what’s so good about offering online chat functions?

Here are what I see as the reasons for adding chat to a website…

you appear approachable and interested in helping potential clients
it is simply another way people can choose to contact your business
you can solve issues quickly – no waiting for emails or loosing people because they can’t find the answer they want from your site
some people prefer to interact online instead of via the phone – and I suspect this tendency will increase
an online chat can be quicker and less intrusive than getting a phone call
by answering immediate questions, you can learn what people want to know when visiting your site – and maybe what is missing (or hard to find) from your site
it’s a relatively simple way to make your website more interactive
as a service provider, it can also be a great customer service tool for existing clients
for someone like me, knowing how to use a new feature can be beneficial in advising my clients

And what’s NOT so good about adding chat to your site?

If online chat was perfect for every website, we’d all have it, right? So here are some downsides to adding an online chat function…

it costs money – there is quite a range of prices but you are likely to pay for the software and maybe hosting
it will take time to set up - choosing a supplier, adding the code to every page on your site, customising the system to match your site/brand/clients
there may well be time and money in getting a designer involved to integrate things nicely into your site
it’s a new tool to learn how to use
it’s potentially a distraction – being interrupted as you work and having a new set of stats to look at and worry about
if you can’t be online a lot of time when your clients may expect you to be, it may give an impression of being unavailable or disinterested. Most software shows you are offline – yes, people can leave a message for you to get back to them, but not all will and the offline message may not be great. Some software has the chat button disappear when you are offline so that could be a solution if you are frequently unable to monitor chats.
it may not suit your audience. Taken to extremes, a blind audience is more likely to prefer phone calls to online chats, but there would be less extreme examples where chat would be a waste of effort to install
being live, you need to think faster than if answering an email or even updating social media. If writing (or writing clearly with good spelling) is a struggle or you’re concerned with being 100% accurate, then an online chat feature may be intimidating

Making the choice

Have I missed any other points to consider?

I think it’s also important that a website gives the right impression. Do you think online chat is suitable for professional businesses or perhaps just for more informal or technology businesses?

Or put it this way, would you ever use an online chat feature on a professional website?

Posted in Business Communications, business info & tools | Tagged contact, feature, online chat, reason, website | 7 Comments

Online chat solutions in review

Published 10 April, 2013 | By tashword

I have been researching online chat software for a client. There are a lot of options available so I thought I’d share some of my observations for anyone else who may be thinking of making their website more interactive.

Of course, these are my personal opinions and experiences, and are based on a user’s perspective. I looked at many websites, compared features and made a short list of six suppliers to try – this is my short list.

Online chat suppliers

I will list these roughly from best to worst so you can skip the rest of the list once you’ve found one to suit you. I’ve added a couple of explanations at the end, too, so you can understand their terminology when visiting their sites.

Prices listed are as listed on their sites – presumably in USD so at least comparable to each other. You can convert to local currency online if need be.

Note many of these have an affiliate program if that is important to you. I am not an affiliate with them (I won’t promote products/services I wouldn’t use myself!) and note that the ones I like best either don’t have or don’t promote an affiliate program – I wonder how coincidental that is?

Live Help Now

this was highly rated in a review I read, and I can see why
fully customisable although it takes a bit of effort to change every aspect
can respond to a chat via your desktop or mobile device
offers a 30 day free trial – with no credit card details to get started which I like
$21 per operator per month (nice to choose the number required but pricey if you have a few people)
SSL chat with data stored in a data centre in the USA (not in the cloud)
has a section where you can add ads to promote specials, etc
pre-prepared responses, links and images (most only have text)
two-way file transfers
hide chat or use a contact form when you’re offline
can run multiple chats
real-time visitor tracking & stats
print or email transcripts of chats – stored on the system for 3 months (or less upon request)
extra $50 a month to remove ‘powered by’ link on chat windows – very disappointing
can view visitor’s Facebook profile but otherwise doesn’t integrate with social media unfortunately
I received a welcome email the next day with a contact name – nice touch
easy enough to use although I sometimes forgot to swap between the operator and admin panels so couldn’t find what I wanted
can also chose a tab function so visitors can search answers or chat
free WordPress plugin

Banckle

14 day trial (1 operator, 25 chats)
free WP plugin
Works across browsers & platforms (including mobile)
detailed stats reports (easy to export)
multiple chats
unlimited operators and the ability to chat with other operators (eg ask them a question to help a customer)
offline contact form
searchable archive of chats
track & record visitor data
transfer chats between operators
customisable
pre/post survey
$9 = 1 operator online at a time, no customisation, their name; $29 = 4 operators, no customisation; $69 = 8 operators, customisation. Note an annual payment discount applies.
Many help videos
Can save/print/email offline transcript easily (as can member) – but Banckle staff can’t access them
SSL and works over https
they apply good security measures– not stored in cloud but can choose to use Dropbox
sharing links work
simple to operate
my client couldn’t access the backend through their strict firewalls unfortunately

Website Alive

$30 USD per month or $98 for additional features (supervisor access, recording stats, adding photos of operators)
customisation
chat with transcripts (searchable and download as csv files, or email at end of chat)
email form if offline
visitor tracking & analysis
pre/post chat survey
multiple chat lines
spell check
auto-greetings
2 operators allowed
mobile chat (including transfer current chat to mobile or back!)
transfer chats to other staff, internal chat room
integrate with Facebook & Twitter (ie they can start chats from there!)
can embed onto all pages for permanent viewing, text link for emails
Free 10 day trial, 60 day money back
Nothing to download – access from anywhere, easy set up
No document sharing
Participate in Truste Privacy Seal program
“All chats are saved in our system for future reference

Comm 100

WP plugin
15 day trial
$21 per operator per month – no mobile access, 3 months transcript storage, no email transcripts
$29 per operator per month – mobile access, email transcripts, indefinite transcript storage, chat queue
Discounts for multiple operators & annual payments
Per & post surveys
customisable
multiple chats
spell check
pre-prepared responses & URLs
offline message form
transfer chats, internal chats, supervise chats
visitor stats & web path,
visitor can be emailed transcript
search transcripts
minimal stats (missed chats, operator metrics – more in $49 plan)

Zopim

From review – good layout, basic customisation, very easy to use, great info on visitors, resembles Facebook chat
Free 14 day trial, 5 day money back refund
Free – 1 operator, 14 day archive, 1 chat only
$14 ($11.20 if pay annually) per month per operator unlimited chats, 2 triggers
$25 ($20 if pay annually) per month per operator – unlimited calls, unlimited triggers
Offline contact form or hide it
track visitors
transcripts for visitors & archive
encryption on SSL sites
customise widget colours
pre-prepared responses
manager can supervise chats
plugins for WP
transfer chats to mobile device
internal chats
dashboard for stats
permanent window
FAQ indicates some teething issues with IOS; they are looking into SM integration; friendly service via chat!

Conversion Support

this was actually at the top of my list until I tried it
Free 30 day trial
Free WP plugin to include chat on a blog (last updated Nov 2012)
Mobile access
customisable
visitor tracking, stats & reports – but I couldn’t find any stats within the admin area
no contracts, no software to download (just code to site)
pre chat survey
offline contact form (or hide)
incoming seen by all online
pre prepared responses
multiple chats
integrate with FB or google talk
records transcripts
Free – 1 operator, 100 chats
$10 per month - 5 operators, 3,000 chats,
$20 per month – 10 operators, 6,000 chats
simple to install
button on the site sits below the footer despite changing settings to put it elsewhere
Can’t change time settings to local (eg transcripts will show 5.30pm when it is 11.30am for me) which will make tracking chats more difficult
chat works through my client’s strict firewalls but dashboard access shows an error message
Transcripts emailed instantly & easy to access in backend. Can’t delete them so they are there forever
Links appear as text not a hyperlink – push feature described on the site but the relevant buttons not visible in the admin area
Cloud based storage
Service very poor – chat operator can’t answer how-to questions and they never emailed me back

Online chat glossary

operator – the person who answers the chats for the business. If you have a system with multiple operators, you can usually personalise it and use their names; if you only have one operator function but multiple staff, they will have to share a name.

pre-prepared response – often called a canned response. SImply a commonly used answer or question that is added to the system to save time and typing during a chat. For example, I could have ‘Yes I write guest blog posts’ or ‘My monthly newsletter is free to subscribe to’ as canned responses.

pre-chat survey - the ability to ask some questions before allowing someone to chat with you. Common questions are name and email address but you can add things like ‘what do you want to ask about?’ or give them a choice of departments to chat to.

permanent window - the chat window will stay open and visible even if the visitor changes pages within your site. This is most relevant if the chat window is not a pop up window (ie is embedded into the page)

How do you decide?

If you are looking at doing something like adding a new feature to your website, how do you go about the process?

I love the simplicity of just grabbing one option and running with it, but I would never feel I had the best deal unless I had looked at other options as well. I like to shop around a bit – even if that just helps me learn more about the features to look out for – then create a short list and decide.

Do you need to look at options yourself or are some good reviews enough for you?

Posted in business info & tools | Tagged feature, online chat, review, website | 3 Comments

Making websites sell for you

Published 21 February, 2013 | By tashword

man pointing to various elements of a successful website

The right website elements = sales & money

If you run a business website, it makes sense to have it help you sell stuff, right?

But have you ever looked at your website to see if does help you sell stuff, or if it makes hard work for your potential customers?

A recent review of websites…

I have been looking for some software for a c lient without any prior knowledge of any relevant suppliers. So I was relying entirely on what I found online.

Not surprisingly, I looked at a few sites.

I started with the top site listed in Google AdWords and found…
- very small font that was hard to read (lucky I don’t have poor eyesight to start with!)
- after 5 minutes, I found a small link on one inner page that showed me a demonstration of the program (for a function I didn’t actually want) – otherwise no screenshots or demonstrations are on the site
- the list of features includes things like “enables businesses to focus on their skills” and “proven reliable since 2000″ – it doesn’t answer questions about the capabilities of the software to the point that it really isn’t a list of features at all
- there was a huge list of testimonials on a distinct page (not near any information) rather than actual information
- there are no prices listed on the site to give me any guidance as to the quality of their product or if it’s within budget
- I decided I didn’t trust them with my email address or phone number so they are not a potential supplier
So I went to the second site listed in Google AdWords to find it…
- looked much better than site 1 – it was clean, easy to read and not text-heavy
- the prices and features pages were just contact forms so the site was actually information poor
- I noted the footer mentioned an affiliation with a company I know overcharges like a wounded bull so I closed that window, too
Thus I moved onto the third site in Google AdWords…
- it was professionally laid out, gave clear direction to relevant parts of the site and written with a consumer in mind
- they provide a 30 day free trial which built my confidence in them
- includes a clear list of ‘for $x you get these features’ so I could assess if it suited my needs and budget straight away (and no need to waste their time on a non-qualified customer)
- all packages even include a webinar on how to use the software, available to all my client’s staff - this is a great bonus and probably cost very little to produce
- I trusted this business but the features my client needs weren’t there unfortunately – at least I knew that quickly, though
Next, I looked at the fourth site from Google AdWords and saw
- lots of white space on the page and an overall professional look and feel
- clear answers to key questions, followed by a list of benefits (eg saves time and improves revenue) and some testimonials – all on the home page
- home page has a button ‘instant demo’ so I can see what is on offer and mentions a 30 day free trial – instantly developing my trust. And 30 days money back guarantee effectively means you get 60 days trial!
- the home page has a feed from their blog – with 3 items from the last two weeks showing me it is current and they maintain their site
- the pricing page is a comparison table of their plans, clearly showing the actual price and included features
- their main menu includes ‘help’ which leads to a knowledge base and a lot more details than I need to know at this stage. Note the excess information was not in my face to overwhelm me, but it easily found which again builds my trust
- I recommended this supplier to my client and we have since trialled the software and it is working very well in tests.

I actually looked at a couple more potential suppliers, but these four showed the absolute importance of a good website to help you sell to prospective customers.

*Images courtesy of 123rf

Posted in Business Communications, web content | Tagged design, selling, trust, website | 2 Comments

Make your website more accessible

Published 5 July, 2012 | By tashword

Following on from the Canadian court case and why accessible websites are a good objective, it’s time to share idea on how to make site accessible.

Principles of accessible websites

According to WebAIM (Web accessibility in mind), the key aspects of an accessible site are:

appropriate alternative text (ie alt tags for images and graphics)
headings for data tables (ie appropriate table headers in the code, using <th>, not just titles in columns and rows)
ensure forms have labels for every field (ie use tags) and enable recovery from errors (ie say what the error is and let them try again without having to complete all fields again)
use meaningful text for links so they can be used out of context (ie don’t use ‘click here’ and ‘read more’)
add captions and transcripts for audio materials (including videos)
make attachments (eg a pdf, doc or Powerpoint document) accessible too or convert them into an html format
enable people to skip repeated content (such as navigation menus that are on every page)
don’t rely on colour or font changes to convey meaning
make content clear and easy to read
be careful with the use of JavaScript – make it usable without a mouse and make pages work without JavaScript
design to w3c standards – CSS sheets help readers separate out presentation details from the content; html pages are easier and actually more SEO effective

Following these principles

Making your website accessible makes sense.

The principles are fairly simple and non-expensive to follow. I know I adhere strongly to some of them – and others I just didn’t know or think about. And some aren’t so relevant (for instance, I don’t use JavaScript on my site).

Which of these principles do you follow all the time? Which did you not realise were possible or an issue?

I know it will take me a bit of time, but I am going to work my way through that list (well, the ones I haven’t done in the past) so I can learn how they work and implement them. Starting with form labels and table headers as I didn’t know these existed before now.

As I learn more, I will share that knowledge – the more awareness we share, the more we can make the internet accessible and inclusive. Will you help make it so?

Posted in Business Communications, web content | Tagged accessible, principles, W3C, website | 2 Comments

Why should your website be more accessible?

Published 3 July, 2012 | By tashword

‘make websites accessible’ in braille

Why wouldn’t we want to make our website accessible to all sorts of people, including people with limited abilities (such as visually or hearing impaired people)?

I read yesterday that a court case in the USA is showing that many sites are not easily accessible to the disabled (visually impaired people on this specific case) and may actually be breaking the law by excluding accessibility considerations. Legal aspects of accessibility I know nothing about, but morally and from a business perspective, I know an accessible site is a good aim.

Why make your site accessible?

Well, why not really?

The obvious answer is that the more accessible your site is, the more people can visit it and so you increase your sales or influence by having a bigger audience. Making it accessible also builds trust and credibility for you and your brand.

Also obvious is that you are welcoming all people and being a decent human being to not make life harder for certain groups.

Would you build a cafe and not have a ramp for wheelchairs/prams or refuse to describe your menu to someone who couldn’t read it? Of course not, so why not do the same with a website?

Computers can do many things these days, so don’t assume a blind person can’t read websites so doesn’t go online. There are tools that read webpages to the blind. There are anti-spam tools that rely on audio for those who can’t read the captcha images. Text on websites can be expanded to be seen by those with limited vision.

And so on.

For someone who finds it difficult to hold a book or turn pages of a magazine, how much easier is it to move a mouse and read on a screen? Or use a verbal command to flick between webpages?

Just like a computer reading a webpage is easier than getting someone to read to you if you have limited vision.

Or a website offering written transcripts of speeches and presentations enabling the deaf to know what’s going on.

Or being able to search for a website that offers an understandable version of something for anyone with intellectual disabilities.

We can make life easier for people

The internet has opened so many doors for us as a society.

As website owners/managers, we can open those doors further by making our websites accessible to the disabled.

I have long added alt tags to images, for example, so a visually impaired person can be told what the image is about.

There are other things that are easily done that I wasn’t aware of. Now I am aware, I will start implementing them.

My next post will list some of the ways we can make our sites more accessible.

But what do you do on your website(s) to make it W3C compatible and accessible? Why do you make it accessible, even to a small extent?

Posted in Business Communications, web content | Tagged acessibilitity, disabled, W3C, website | 1 Comment

Tell others about you

Published 8 May, 2012 | By tashword

There are two main reasons people visit a website – they want information on a topic or they want information about the business behind the site.

So why do some sites avoid sharing anything about themselves?

Add an about us page to your website and blog

As Chris Lake wrote, an about us page “is surely one of the only true rules of doing business online. I can think of no good reason why you wouldn’t have one.”

An about us page can be very simple but it can make a huge difference to people thinking of doing business with you.

For a stand alone blog, it lets readers know who is writing the posts – for instance, is it a business or an individual, is it by an expert or someone learning the topic, or is the blog focussed on a specific topic or just a collection of ideas.

For a business website, it can build enough credibility for me to do business with you – or not.

How ‘about us’ can build credibility

you are being open and transparent compared to making me wonder why you are hiding things – no name on a website instantly makes me suspicious
providing history shows the business is more than a fly-by-night – if you’ve been in business for a few years, you must have done something right!
explaining how the business began or the passion behind the business will certainly give me a believe in the intent of the business and its owners
introducing team members can give me an idea of what skills are available for me as a potential client
listing values or just writing a personal story can show the company culture

I have an about us page on my website and as part of my blog, even though they are on the same domain, so it is easy for people to read about me and my business. I wonder if I’m brave enough to ask if you have read either of them!

How important is an about us page when you are assessing a potential supplier or service provider?

Posted in blogging, Business Communications, web content | Tagged about us, blog, credibility, information, page, website | 2 Comments

Adding depth to your website content

Published 20 October, 2011 | By tashword

Earlier this week, we looked at how shallow websites are not as valuable for your visitors or your SEO efforts so let’s look at how to improve that situation.

Shallow content is giving the minimum so by default giving more is adding depth. Simple.

How can you provide more depth to your content?

generally provide more information but be careful to not just pile on so much information people get overwhelmed – there is a balance between too little and too much that will vary between pages and sites
link to relevant information (on your site and elsewhere) to enhance your content without cluttering up pages with too many words and facts
consider adding fresh content regularly. This could be via a blog, a social media feed, a news feed, articles or uploading your newsletter.
look at every page of your site and review the content to ensure it meets the purpose of the page and answers any likely questions people would have on that topic. For example, expand on your services so they are meaningful – ‘business bookkeeping and reporting’ is better than ‘bookkeeping’ – and give some background on your about us page.
look for ways to add value to people. Some examples are a hair dressing salon adding hair care tips after each service listed, a legal firm linking to definitions of common terms for relevant areas of law, and a book store including guidelines to the age suitability of each book
only create a new page when there is something to add – new pages created with the same information focussed on a different keyword is not adding value and is more likely to annoy humans and search engines
where relevant, add reviews and testimonials to your pages as they provide relevant content from a different perspective
if you can’t see how to add depth, but suspect you need to, get others’ opinions on various pages. Remember your target audience when choosing who to ask
following the usual rules of easy reading (good spelling, grammar, flow and being concise) will make any value stand out better than a page of words that are hard to interpret – sometimes adding value is done by removing the junk!
add tips and ‘how to’ notes where relevant – for instance washing instructions with every clothing description and alternative uses alongside certain products can provide true value to people and potentially increase your sales

What have you done to add depth to the content on your site? Do you think this is something to get help with or easy enough to manage by yourself?

Posted in marketing, web content | Tagged content, depth, value, website | Leave a comment

Is your website shallow?

Published 17 October, 2011 | By tashword

What is the content like on your website?

A new term around at the moment refers to shallow website content, meaning content that meets any minimum expectation without any additional information or resources.
Consider the contact us page on most sites – there is very little content other than contact details. That is shallow content – although highly appropriate for a contact page!

Imagine that level of information on other pages of a site – for example, I followed a tweeted link today to a blog post that was purely a title and a link. It can be very frustrating for a person wanting to learn something if a page gives so little information, but shallow content has worked in the past for getting search engine results.

One of Google’s plans, apparently, is to make information-rich pages rank better than such shallow pages. I say bring it on!

So before Google makes that change, maybe now is the time to build up the content on your website. Even adding depth to a page a week or fortnight will improve the experience for your site visitors so what have you got to lose?

So, is your website shallow? Are there obvious questions people would have that you are not answering?

Posted in web content, writing | Tagged information, search engine, shallow, value, website | 3 Comments

Considering an interactive website?

Published 20 September, 2011 | By tashword

Having an effective interactive website is up-to-date, interesting and easy to set up but can be very time consuming, so why consider making your website interactive?

it gives you fresh content which is great for SEO and getting repeat visitors
you can get input and feedback from customers and visitors which can help you improve your business
you can develop relationships which is good for you as a human being, puts a personal feel to your business and develops a group of people who trust you and may just recommend you
build trust and credibility in you and your business by sharing information and encouraging a community
it makes your site interesting and therefore gives people a reason to come back
you can centralise information rather than promote various online profiles – for instance, if I can read your Tweets on your site instead of logging into Twitter I stay on your site for longer
it can be an easy way to announce business news (new products, extended hours, more articles on the site, etc)
you never know why you may learn from the people who decide to interact on your site – use the internet opportunities to positive effect
it will certainly appeal to some groups of people and is unlikely to offend or upset other people
it puts you into the ‘up-to-date’ minority, showing you have an interest inner technology and advancing your business
it shows you are interested in other people and can accept their ideas

This post is part of Word Constructions’ Setting up a website series
1. having a website helps more than you
2. what’s involved in setting up a website?
3. Learn about web hosting
4. Preparing your initial website content
5. Managing website design 101
6. Choosing a web designer
7. Basic web pages
8. Navigating your site

9. Making web content attractive

10. Understanding keywords

11. Must your website be interactive?

12. Making your website interactive

Posted in marketing, web content | Tagged consider, interactive, seo, website | Leave a comment

Making your website interactive

Published 15 September, 2011 | By tashword

While I don’t think making your website interactive is necessary for a successful website, it can be very effective for a number of reasons (and I guess that will be the next post in this series!)

If you are not familiar with the online world, making an interactive website may sound a bit overwhelming and very technical – but hopefully you’re brave enough to have kept reading anyway!

Making your website more interactive can be done in a number of ways and most of them are actually quite easy to add and run.

What is harder is maintaining the interactivity – people will only interact with you if you are seen to be willing to interact regularly and if you give something interesting enough to interact with.

So if you are adding interactive features to your site, I would suggest adding one feature at a time so you can establish it before learning the next one – spreading yourself too thin won’t help your business in the long run.

Making your site interactive can be done by:

adding a blog and allowing comments – software is easy to use but it takes time to think of topics and prepare the content
adding a Twitter feed – there are a few ways to do this but it effectively means people can read your tweets on your website. There is no work to run the feed but managing your Twitter account can take time
adding a Facebook feed – again, your Facebook updates can be read live on your site for little effort other than keeping your Facebook page up-to-date
other social media feeds can also be placed on your site
adding a ticket system so people can not only tell you about issues but track progress simply. This is most commonly used for IT suppliers such as web hosts and software providers
introducing a discussion forum can generate a lot of interest but also requires a lot of time and effort to get enough people involved to make it work, and then maintain it in an appropriate fashion
add some live chat features so people can ask questions immediately
feedback forms and rating systems allow people to give you input and are probably has one of the lowest time requirements in this list
various places offer the means of adding surveys, poll and quizzes that can be purely for fun, to educate or to gain information for your planning. Remember to make the content and the wording appropriate, relevant and clear
if you take appointments or run events, consider adding an online booking system – this will probably save you time as well as making it easier for people to book and change appointments. If the system updates a viewable calendar and can confirm times (rather than just accepting requests), it does make your site interactive.
add a wiki or other shared documents to your site if you are doing research or gathering community input

Do you have any other suggestions for making a website interactive? What have you enjoyed on other sites?

9. Making web content attractive

10. Understanding keywords

11. Must your website be interactive?

Posted in marketing, web content | Tagged content, interactive, social media, website | Leave a comment

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