Free live chat client?
During my daily lurking of WHT, I often like to stop and read the “Web Hosting Offers” section just for kicks, or to see what the latest deals and specials are. Very rarely will you come across any legitimate offers in the shared/reseller section, as most of the hosts in there are new companies who love to post their 800Gb space, 8000Gb bandwidth @ 4.99/mo, FREE domain specials, yet in all actuality, they don’t have the resources to backup their offers.
But back on topic…Most of these companies attempt to come off as professional as possible, and try an trick you into believing that they are a multi million dollar company, with their own Data Center, and their own hardware. It’s sad to say, but the truth is that most of them are running their company off a vps or a single dedicated server. I think one of the biggest signs of them being a small company is the fact that they use a free live chat client. I mean how can you be taken seriously as a company if you are using Crafty Syntax as your means for live support? Granted it somewhat works the same as LiveResponse, ChatStat, etc, etc, but it’s still a free-piece-of-crap-open-source-windows95-looking chat client. No matter how hard you work or how much time you put into customizing it, it still does not look professional, and I feel it reflects on the overall view of the company. I may be the only one to feel like this, but hey…take it or leave it.
Tags: craft syntax, live chat
May 29th, 2008 at 4:38 am
I have to disagree with what you are saying. I think one of the main factors in choosing a live chat solution is reliability. LivePerons, for example, is extremely reliable, and very popular (though very expensive, $99 per month per operator seat).
Rebranding ability is important as well, but if your chats work unreliably, should you mess with customizing?
May 29th, 2008 at 10:41 am
Hmm, that chatstat one looks pretty nifty! haha.
May 29th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
@ Pavel — I think you misunderstood my customizing comment. I was referring to how people will use Crafy Syntax as their live support client, then try and change some of the images around to make it look professional.
May 31st, 2008 at 1:26 am
@Clayton
Sorry for misunderstanding.
You seem to be right about CraftySyntax. I never tried to install it, but… All the chat windows powered by CS that I used to open look very much the same. So, I assume it’s pretty hard to customize it.
I’m a developer of yet another live chat software that’s why this subject is interesting to me. Customization is pretty hard to implement in any kind of script, and live help is no exception. I think a good option is to offer manual customization for additional (pretty small) fee, so that those who are serious about their hosting business could customize live chat button and chat window to perfectly fit their site’s look-and-feel.