Should live chat be implemented along with your help desk software? What are some of its implications as well as advantages and disadvantages? Is it always good to have a live chat around, where customers or internal staff can just click and have someone to "talk" to? We'll explore these issues one by one in this article.

Technology means nothing when not properly implemented, and although technology nowadays are getting easier and easier to understand, we still see many poor deployment of technological systems. Help desk software is definitely one of them, and live chat is a huge part of any good help desk software. The technology is there, but ultimately, it's up to the Company (or whoever is in charge of deploying technology) to use it in a way that adds to the business's bottom line.

Deploying something like a help desk software is not so much a technological challenge. Most professional help desk software comes with great support and instructions. Many even come with graphical installation wizards that even a teenager will know how to use. So it's not so much a question of technological challenges. It's more a question of decision making. Here's an example of how two companies choose to use live chat.

Company A Using Live Chat

Company A is a software company offering a web-based survey software. Customers can sign up for a free trial account, and subsequently upgrade to a paid account if they want to. However, although setting up a survey can be fairly easy, some prospects still require some hand-holding to guide them through setting up their first online survey and launching them.

So having a help desk software that manages incoming emails will definitely be very helpful. Company A recognizes that, and has already setup their own help desk software. But there's a live chat module that comes together with the help desk software, and Company A just thought it would be useful to put it online, and whenever someone needs some support, they can just click on it to activate the live chat.

Here's when the problems start to show.

The same staff who're giving support to the incoming tickets handle the live chat. Since the chat is live, there's very little time for the support staff to think about the problem as customers expect instant responses and don't like to hang around too long for an answer. It's like putting someone on hold on the telephone. It's bad manners. And because everyone can just go to the website and activate the the live chat, the chat sessions start adding up very quickly. And soon, support staff starts to find it overwhelming to handle these live chat sessions.

The end result? The staff starts asking everyone to open a support ticket so that they have more time to answer the emails. But that'll defeat the purpose of having a live chat in the first place wouldn't it? Or worse, the support staff just leave the live chat alone and refuses to login. And the live chat will always appear off line to the website visitors. Bad support means bad marketing. So what happened here, and what exactly went wrong? Before we go into that, let's take a look at how another company implements live chat.

Company B deploys live chat support

Bill is the COO of Company B and is in charge of deploying the help desk systems for the company. Although the company already has a help desk software in place, he takes his time to consider whether he should activate the live chat feature.

There are several questions that he needs to answer first to convince himself that it's the right business decision to activate the feature. Questions like:

• What are the costs associated with running a live chat help?
• Who will be handling the live chat sessions?
• Are they well trained, and completely capable of handling the live chat sessions?
• Where will the live chat button be most useful on the website (or the help desk software)?

Bill then draws up a rough plan. He estimates that if the live chat is handled properly, he may be able to cut attrition rate by 50%. That means he gets to keep more customers if the live chat can offer instant help for his customers. He also estimates that live chat may help increase sales by an additional 20%. That's because if he puts up a live chat button on the sales web page, he may be able to handle pre-sales enquiries better and faster.

He knows that his colleague Tim, which happens to be one of the product developers, is more than capable of handling the live chat technical support. Since Tim is always bogged down with lots of development work (which is normal for talented developers), Bill also has to consider getting Tim an assistant.

He figured that since the live chat will help increase sales, it makes sense for the sales department to handle the pre-sales enquiries.

After considering all the above issues, he finally decided that the Company will offer live chat support from 9pm EST to 5PM EST for both pre-sales and technical support. He has already calculated that the tangible benefits far outweigh the costs.

The live chat button on the homepage will activate the sales department. Live chat for technical support will be activated on the support section of the Company's website. And that's AFTER customers fail to find the solution from the help desk software's knowledgebase. But if there's anyone who goes straight to the home page live chat for technical support, the visitor can be easily directed to the technical support department.

Results. The prospects are happy with the additional service provided, and the existing customers get quicker and faster support from the live chat.

Sounds great? But that's not the end of the story. Bill also discovers that his competitors do not offer live chat as a support option. So implementing the live chat becomes a business advantage. Customers will choose the service provider that provides greater support. Until his competitors realize this, Bill continues to enjoy the full benefits that the live chat feature continues to bring him.

But let's go back to Company A a little. What exactly happened? Can you spot the differences between how Company B deploys the live chat and how Company A deploys the live chat? The key is in know how to execute. That's the key difference! There's no secret here but we've come across so many companies executing like Company A. Don't be Company A!

Would you choose to be Company A or B? The answer is obvious. So choose wisely, and try it out for free if you want to.

What type of software are you looking to download? Help desk software CD burning software Audio, video player Office software (e.g. MS Office) Free Internet browser Anti virus software