It’s been a while since the last update, but we’ve been working hard on many improvements to the application.  We’ve just posted a significant update this week that doesn’t change a lot visually, but improves important elements in the underlying architecture that will be important moving  forward.

A couple things that I would like to draw your attention to are the new “My Info”, “Manage Account” and “Contact Support” options are available from the admin.  The “My Info” link is a quick way to access your user details (the user you’re currently logged in with).  “Manage Account” is only available to the Super Administrator and there you will be able to access key information about your account and PayPal details (for paid accounts).  “Contact Support” is a quick and easy way to contact support from within the Dashboard, making it super easy for you to contact us.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about any of these new improvements.

Best Regards,
Luke

I’m excited to tell you about the latest update that we posted this week, which is an upgrade to the Chat Invitation feature.  This update now allows you to customize the look of the Invitation Pop-up window.  You are able to upload a custom operator image and also select custom background and button colours.  Here’s a screen shot showing the new feature in action:

If you’re looking for a specific colour that we didn’t include in this initial release, please let us know and we’ll consider adding it to the system.

In addition we have also improved the operator session management.  We know that many of you like to leave the Chat Monitor window open for extended periods of time and occasionally have had your session time out while you’re not watching.  Not only have we done some improvements to the session timeout reliability, but we now have a 30-second warning that will show up before your session times out.  This warning also plays a sound, so even if you don’t have the Chat Monitor in view, you will hear the warning.

As always, let us know what you think of these improvements and be sure to send us any suggestions you may have on how we can continue to improve these features.

Cheers,
Derek

Due to a rapid increase in the amount of users signing up for Provide Chat we’re going to be upgrading servers tonight at 12:00 AM EST (midnight). There will be a brief moment where the system is taken offline.

When we’re finished, the benefit for you will be a much more agile and faster service.

As always, we’re constantly looking for ways to improve the features, benefits, and overall service of Provide Chat. If you have any questions about any of this please let me know (luke@providechat.com).

Cheers,
Luke

Some of you have been asking for the ability to customize your text links. We’ve just added new feature that will allow you to customize the online and offline text for your live chat links.

If you’re using a text link rather than a button/image you now have full control of the text displayed in the link.

You can customize your text links by going to “Settings -> Image & Text Link” from the Dashboard.

If you have any questions about this new feature or anything else related to Provide Chat please email me at luke@providechat.com.

All the best,
Luke

we have done another update to Provide Chat today which adds some basic search features to the chat transcript reports.  You are now able to narrow down your transcript listings based upon Chat ID, Operator & Date Range fields.

In addition, we have also added the ability to search chat transcripts directly from the Chat Monitor.  You’ll find this new search field directly below the Sales and Technical Info tabs.  You can enter a specific Chat ID or simply click Search Transcripts to open a window with full transcript search abilities.

Finally, we have also done some tweaks to the visitor chat experience.  Now at the conclusion of a chat, the visitor will be shown their specific Chat ID for future reference.  In subsequent chats, the visitor can give this Chat ID to the operator, who will be able to use the Search Transcripts feature to locate the previous chat log.  In addition this Chat ID is also shown in the chat transcript log that the visitor is able to access via the Email Chat & Save Chat functions.

We trust these features will continue to improve your Provide Chat experience and also improve the experience for your site visitors.

Cheers,

Derek

I just wanted to let you know that we have been continuing to work on improving the Chat Invite feature and just within the last week we have rolled out some improvements.  You should now notice that on the Chat Monitor there is an Invite button which you can now use to send a Chat Invite popup to any of your website visitors.  Simply select the visitor you wish to send the invitation to and then click the Invite button and within moments your visitor should see the Invitation popup.

Just a couple quick points about this feature:

1. You need to ensure that you have updated the ProvideChat code on your website to the latest available version.  We posted an update to the Code Generator last week, so if you have not updated your code within the last week you will need to do that before this feature will become active on your website.  This update also improves visitor country and screen resolution detection so it’s worth it to update your code even if you don’t intend to use the Invite feature.
2. If you use this feature in combination with the Proactive Invitation feature and visitor has already received a Proactive Invitation, they will not be sent your chat invitation.  You don’t want to annoy your website visitors with multiple pop-ups and so we ensure that each visitor will receive a maximum of one pop-up invitation per visit to your website.

Please note that this feature is still in beta and so please let us know if you encounter any problems with it and we will address them immediately.

Cheers,

Derek

If you’re on the fence about Provide Chat, then this post is for you. I’m going to explain a little bit about the philosophy, where the product is headed, and why you should choose Provide Chat.

The Philosophy
Most live chat software is too expensive and too complex. Provide Chat is the exact opposite, it’s easy to use and easy to set up.

When we first designed Provide Chat we wanted it to be as easy as possible for you to get up and running. From the moment you sign up all you have to do to begin using Provide Chat is copy a few lines of code (two to be exact), and paste these lines into your website. Once done, you’ll be ready to chat live with your visitors.

What’s more, while a lot of products have many more features than Provide Chat, these features are poorly implemented, making them difficult to understand and use. Provide Chat’s interface is designed with simplicity in mind. It’s extremely easy for anyone to use. Whether you’re using it to further customize the application or you have a support team logging in as operators, Provide Chat has a very easy to understand user interface. You and your operators will be using it quickly and easily in a matter of minutes.

Finally, Provide Chat is affordable. You can have a single user trial account for free. If you need up to three operators you can be using Provide Chat for only $9. Many live chat companies charge $30, $40 or even more for just a single user.

Where the Product is Headed
Since launching Provide Chat in late December 2009 we’ve been working hard getting the foundation of the product as solid as possible. We’ve made huge improvements to quality, reliability, and speed. The truth is, the number one reason why you need a live chat product like Provide Chat is because you need to chat live with your website visitors. While there are products out there with an insane amount of features, we’ve made sure to spend our initial development focus on one main feature – the live chat itself. Provide Chat’s main feature, live chat, is reliable, rock solid, and uses the latest internet technologies to make chats between you and your visitors as seamless as possible.

While focusing on this feature, we’ve had the chance to make many other smaller improvements, as you can see from previous blog posts. These include: typing notifications, chat transcripts, chat invitations, custom operator images, interface improvements, and more. All of this completed over the last three months!

While we’re generally mum on what we’re working on, I can tell you we have a huge feature in the works that’s never before been used in a live chat application. What I can say is this feature will greatly increase your sales/conversions, even while you’re offline.

With that in mind, over the next six months we do plan to add many other live chat features (on the fly translations, multiple website/domain support, reports/statistics, etc) that haven’t yet been made available in Provide Chat.

So Why Choose Provide Chat?
Simply put, because it’s the easiest system out there to use and most competitively priced.

Sure, there are other products out there that have all the bells and whistles, but often those products are overly complex. Features were added without much thought to how easy they would be to use. With Provide Chat you get an extremely solid foundation that does its core purpose extremely well, and that’s chatting with your customers.

As new features are added, they’re thoughtfully put in to make sure things are simple and easy to use. Also, one of the benefits of being a Provide Chat customer, new features will instantly be made available to your account, and you’ll get the full service at the same great price. So while other site owners will be paying $30 per user, you’ll get new, well planned features at a highly competitive and affordable price.

If you have any questions about Provide Chat please email me at luke@providechat.com.

Ready to get started? Sign up to Provide Chat here and be on your way to chatting live with your site visitors.

Cheers,
Luke Holzken

Just a quick note to let you know that we have updated Provide Chat with some improvements to the General Settings.  On the surface it doesn’t look like much has changed but the three new configuration options reveal some great improvements to the software.

Here is a quick overview of the new options:

1. Operator Session Timeout - You can now set the specific time that an operator’s session will last.  This will be helpful for those who might be logged into the software for several hours without much activity and in the past their session would timeout.
2. Operator Response Timeout – Previously this was a default value of 1 minute. You now have control over how long a visitor will wait for an operator to accept their chat before being sent to the unavailable “send an email” screen.
3. Inactive Visitor Removal – Previously this was a default value of 5 minutes. You now have control of this setting as well.  Basically this controls how long a visitor will continue to be displayed in the chat monitor after the visitor has become inactive. A visitor becomes inactive after their chat has ended or they leave your website.

Please take a look and change these settings if neccessary. By default we’ve set them to what we feel are the best recommended values.

Cheers,
Derek

We’ve just released a new feature, Smart Invites. This is an optional feature that you can either enable or disable. When enabled, every visitor on your website will receive an invitation after they have been visiting your site for a predefined period of time or page views. Visitors who have spent a reasonable amount of time on your site are clearly interested in the services or products you’re offering. With Smart Invites you can instantly invite these visitors to chat with you.

The benefit of this feature is you can increase your sales. Visitors are more likely to purchase if you can answer their questions in real time. If you can get your visitor to chat with you the higher the likelihood you have of closing a sale with that visitor.

You can access Smart Invites from your dashboard by going to Settings -> Proactive Chat. This feature is currently in beta but is solid enough to begin using.

To make use of this feature simply set the “Proactive Chat Overall Status” to enabled. Next, select the number of seconds or page views you would like your visitors to be instantly invited to a chat.

Invited visitors can choose to chat with you or simply close the invite and continue browsing your website.

Over the coming weeks we’ll be fine tuning this feature, ironing out any potential bugs, and making the Proactive Chat admin area more user friendly. Additionally, we’ll be adding a Visitor Targeted Invitation feature to the Chat Monitor. This will allow you to individually target specific visitors and invite them to chat with you.

In the mean time, if you have any questions about this feature or discover anything that doesn’t quite work right, please let me know.

Cheers,
Luke

With Custom Operator Images you can upload a unique operator image for each of your customer service agents. For each operator you can now choose to use the default female image, default male image, or your own custom image.

This feature is made available to paid subscriptions only.

Here you can see how you can add a custom operator image using the admin dashboard:

Once you’ve added your own operator image, site visitors will see it in their chat window:

Yes, that’s my photo

And to update you on the latest regarding Proactive Invitations and Smart Invitations, we’re currently working on that feature right now and it should be available for you in the coming days.

In the mean time, if you have any questions about this or anything else Provide Chat please let me know.

Cheers,
Luke Holzken