A few days ago i added a chatbox to my PyrogeniusCommenter sales page. It is located just at the bottom under the “More Questions” heading. For the most part, i dont get that many people opening up the chat on their own. Infact very few per day. But the software im using to chat to my customers can instigate a chat on their browser window. Its hard to explain just in words, so ill start at the start (Always a good place to start).

The software/script im using. Is LiveZilla. Its an open source, free script that is pretty much the most thorough freeware ive ever come across. It is so complete top to bottom, and probably better then every customer support chat out there.

Installation is easy, it comes with its open inbuilt FTP client aswell, which to be fair is extremely slow. But it helps that it doesnt worry you with the details of what to upload. From there you just select your username, password, and your away.

To place on your webpage, its just a small javascript snippet that you can place anywhere. You can head over to PyrogeniusCommenter.com to take a look at how it all looks. But please dont start crazy amounts of chats, it’s annoying as hell

Where the real beauty of Livezilla comes in, is in the server administration. Its actually a desktop application that sits on your taskbar and runs pretty much like every other program. I really love it when people break from the “Must be a webpage” mentality, and go out and make something thats actually useful . From the admin application, i can see anyone who opens my sales page. So in a way it tracks stats aswell. When someone views my webpage it looks almost like if you had a new message on MSN.

Now remember how i said i can instigate chats? Ill show you what i mean. So from the admin panel, i can right click any user who is currently viewing my webpage. And i can “Ask” them to chat with me. With whatever message i want.

Then on the customers browser, they see a small little popup box. Do note that this popup box is NOT blocked by any popup blocker. I tested in both Firefox and Chrome. Its not a new window as such, but just some fancy javascript in the background.

Sure, to some it pisses them off to no end. But its simple enough to just close it and keep reading, or move away from the site. The good thing with me instigating the chat, is so often, a customer has something that they want to know, but they cant get it off the sales page. Emailing me, or going to a forum that i frequent to ask me is often seemed to long winded and they just give up. Times people have accepted my request to chat, they have had just one or two questions like “Does this application allow for the user of proxies”, I say “Yes”, next thing you know they buy.

It almost seems stupid, that one small Yes/No question can convince the buyer to part ways with his/her money. But it seriously does happen.

Other times, its given me a small chance to wind in that customer even more. To almost work like a retail worker in a clothing store. I have a stack of small coupons that i give out to customers that are on the verge of buying. To me, whats $5.. To the customer, they also dont care about $5 in the long run. But its enough to tip them over the edge, and without that last minute selling. I would never have got it.

Others who ive told this to, have thought that its just far too much work. But really, none of my chats with customers have lasted longer then 10 minutes. And often they are simple questions to answer. And if they are buying a $40 product, then thats $40 for 10 minutes work. Obviously not automated money. But if you gave a small coupon to that person, they will then go share it with their friends and it can quickly add up.