Don’t Put Live Chat on Your Website Until You Have Read This Article

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) December 13, 2010 -- Live chat is becoming a “must-have” for websites, as consumers are beginning to show a strong preference for this mode of communication. I won’t spend time trying to convince you live chat can help you increase sales and improve customer service as there are articles all over the Internet that can confirm those facts.

Of course, once a product or service starts showing a demand many companies jump in and start vying for position. During this time you will see many chat providers using varying strategies to earn your business. Here are a few:

• The “Best Technology” company
• The “We Understand Your Industry” company
• The “Best Service” company
• The “Low Price” company

There are more strategies, but you get the idea. A fair comparison would be to look at the evolution of big screen TV’s. At first there were only a few players and the prices were sky high. After that, prices started to fall, but many companies still tried to hold their prices by claiming product superiority. Finally, big screen TV’s were everywhere and you had to determine the balance between quality, reliability and price. For most of us, price is ultimately a top differentiator.

How do you make the right choice in selecting a live chat vendor? Here are some things to consider:

Features and Benefits

• Make sure the chat is “proactive” - this allows you to "invite" visitors to chat by sending them "invitations" to chat that are customized to what they are viewing on your website, the time they have been on your site, etc.
• Make sure the company will customize your chat icons, chat invitations and chat window – do not allow them to brand themselves on your website!

• Make sure they will work with you to change your chat invitations to maximize the effectiveness of your chat.
• Make sure you can monitor website visitors in real-time.
• Make sure business intelligence reporting is part of the live chat solution.

Service Levels

In general there are three levels of service available in live chat:

1. Basic Chat – Even though it is “basic” you should still expect to receive proactive chat, customized chat icons, invitations and chat window, real-time site monitoring, business intelligence reporting and support.

2. Basic Chat with Roll-Over Service – This includes all of the features and benefits of “Basic Chat” plus your chat provider will back-up your staff by answering any chat requests your staff is too busy to answer. There is usually a cap on the percentage of chats that the company will answer – 20% to 25% - before the chat company will require that you move to the next level of service – managed chat.
3. Managed Chat – This is a great solution for businesses that do not have the staff – or experienced staff – to answer chat requests. The chat provider will answer all chat requests from your website using (hopefully) professionally-trained chat agents that they train and employ.

Pricing

You will be amazed at the price-differential as you shop for live chat – from $29 per month for basic chat to over $1995 per month for a managed chat service.

When looking at the three levels of service, you will generally see the following price ranges:

1. Basic Chat - $29.00/month to $399.00/month
2. Basic Chat with Roll-Over Service - $399.00/month to $999.00/month
3. Managed Chat - $599.00/month to $1999.00 month

As I said, prices vary greatly!

How To Decide

1. Confirm that your chat provider offers all of the features and benefits that are mentioned above.
2. Make an honest assessment of your business and choose the “Service Level” that is right for your situation.
3. Find the best priced provider.

ProspectCatch

To save you time and effort – not to mention money – visit www.prospectcatch.com. ProspectCatch is a managed chat option (we also offer basic chat and roll-over service) offered by a leading chat provider on a highly discounted basis. Why? Our retail business is booming but this growth creates some issues for us. Mainly, we need to hire professional chat agents at a very high rate so that they are fully-trained in time to support new customers. That means we have to hire chat agents way ahead of actual demand. By offering our services at discounted pricing – we do this by doing no advertising (other than email/online blogs) and using no sales force (and pass the commission savings on to our customers) – we are able to increase our demand to the point where it makes it feasible to hire and train chat agents at the pace necessary.

Remember, you have choices in chat providers. Look for the right features and benefits, understand your business so that you choose the right service level and then make sure you get a fair deal.

Email us at sales@prospectcatch.com to receive a solution comparison. Our pricing is only $99/month for basic chat (giving you access for 3 operators and up to 4 websites), $149/month for basic chat with roll-over service (up to 25% roll-over assistance) and only $199/moth for managed chat. These prices are subject to change at anytime so act now!

Good Selling,

David Palmer

automotive     live chat     proactive live chat     prospectcatch