What are your opinions on having a "live chat" on your website. Like/Dislike?

Any good free ones anyone know of? I heard of this one:

http://www.meebome.com/

but have never used, so don't have an opinon.

Can't wait to hear what you guys think

Nicole

I think it's a neat idea. I've used it with Dell and HP for support, and it's really a nice service.

That having been said... Who will man it? With Dell and HP, there are zillions of people on their payroll just waiting for notification that I want to chat. When I click the link on their site to chat, it grabs one of those people and we immediately start chatting about whatever the issue is. So, if you wanted to use it for your site, you'd need to be in a position to be ready to start chatting at a moment's notice at least during your business hours.

I can't justify the potential for distraction in my mind. You could be neck deep in an important task, and then some teenager pops in to ask if you can help proofread his homework for free. There goes your train of thought (if you are like me).

I would stick to normal IM programs (MSN, Yahoo, Skype) and only offer them if the customer makes an appointment. Then, I would consider that as billable time. Otherwise, with the on-site chat I think you may be opening up yourself to too much potential interruption.

Unless you mean you would only allow it to be used by appointment. Which...I don't know if that's possible out-of-the-box. But, if it is then nevermind most of my argument.

I too like Lukeg would not welcome the interruptions. I have manned live chat for a client while his regulars were on vacation and it was constant interruptions. It drove me crazy.

I prefer a live conversation so that I can vet a potential client as well as drive the conversation to not give away all the "goodies". There are several ways to get in touch with me and it seems to be working fine.

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Lee Drozak

thanks for the responses. What I meant is a little chat box that I can turn on/off depending on how busy I am, I would man it...it will show whether I'm available. Just thought it would be something to bring in a potential client incase someone came to the website and had a quick question, but didn't want to look for our email address and send us an email...this way they can ask a quick question instead of heading off to the next website...
Nicole

I suppose you could do something like that. If you currently have a lot of time where you don't mind sporadic interruptions, then it might be alright. But, as you gain clientele and become more busy, you probably will be disabling it more often. So, customers may end up not having much of a chance to ever find you online and could become frustrated.

Have you considered having a form where they could submit questions? They would be delivered to your email and the person sending would not need to look up your email address nor fumble around in their email client in order to send it. That's the easiest method of achieving sort of what you are wanting that I can think of right now.

BTW, I just did a chat on iPage.com which is likely much like what you are talking about. I waited for about 10 minutes before someone answered me. If I had been there casually I probably would have left after just a few minutes. Moral: if you are going to offer this service, you will need to be quick at replying lest you irritate your visitors.

Those are just my thoughts, though.

I had Skype on my site for a while - it's no different to instant chat really but it's free and you can set it to "busy" "away" etc.

You can get a Skype button from their website to add to yours...

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Bridie's Typing Services
Celebrating 10 years in biz

Hi ,
I definitely add this feature .I have experienced websites where I got mnore answers onn live chat than I was getting just by browsing .I would want that for my site too as this gives a very personal approach to serving your current clients and potential ones too.
Hazel

This is a great thread, I was actually researching this today. If I learn of anything I will inform the forum.

I've used LiveAdmin there is a free version (Live Admin Lite) but this has less features. It is a good feature though, nice if a potential client wants to ask a quick question :-).

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Telephone Answering virtual assistant
alldaypa.com