Live Communication

Many of your website visitors are your potential clients, so a positive first impression is essential. If the visitors see they can chat with an operator right from your website, they know you will be there to assist them when needed. All they need to do to start a conversation with you is to click on the Click for Live Help button on your website.

Adjust your communication status right from the Web control and communication center by clicking on the Live Help button located at the top left of any of the four major sections ('Site Monitor', 'Communication Overview', 'Visitors List', or 'Reports'). Click the Live Help button to enable your visitors to contact you and ask for assistance. To change your communication status via Main Menu->Connection select either Live Help Available or Live Help Not Available from the drop-down list.

After clicking on the Click for Live Help button a visitor can select either a text or a voice chat.

Note: The visitors do not need to install or download any additional software to communicate with the operator except that for the voice chat.

After the visitor has chosen a communication mode, the operator sees the 'Incoming chat request' dialog.

To start a chat session with the visitor, click Accept; the Visitor's profile is opened in the 'Live Communication' tab.

If you cannot talk to a visitor right now, click Queue; the system directs this visitor to the 'Communication Queue' section. Do not forget about those visitors you put in the queue, as there will be no second notification! For details see 'Queuing visitors' section.

If a visitor selects the Text Chat, he sees a progress bar in the 'Routing your call…' window till you accept the call. If you are available for communication the chat window opens at the visitor's front end and a visitor can start communication.

After the visitor has started communication, you see the chat text in the 'Live Communication' tab of the visitor profile and can send the replies. Just enter the text into the lower part of the window and click Send. You can also enter URLs or email addresses - they will become clickable links on the visitor's end.

If you cannot accept the chat at the moment a visitor who sent it gets a notification that the operator is busy and the call has been queued. If a visitor does not want to wait, he can leave a message for the operator by clicking on the 'Leave a message' link.

If a visitor selects Voice Chat, a warning message opens in a separate window suggesting to wait until the software required for voice chat is downloaded. If the visitor selects Yes he sees a progress bar in the 'Loading voice chat applet' window. The process should take just a couple of minutes.

When the voice chat applet is downloaded a visitor sees the 'Routing your call' dialog and should wait till you accept the call. Then a chat window opens and a visitor can start communication.

If a visitor does not want to download the voice chat software, he can close the 'Loading voice chat applet' window. To start a text chat he should click on the 'Click for Live Help' button once again and select the Text Chat button. Please refer to the section 'Leading several chat sessions at a time' for more information about live communication process.

If the voice chat applet can not be downloaded, to switch to Java, or ActiveX applet (depending on the browser you are using) click on the appropriate link below.

•	Open the Visitor's profile by double-clicking on the visitor's badge. Select 'Live Communication' tab and click on the button.

•	Right-click on a visitor's badge, select Engage in communication from the context menu. The Visitor's profile is opened in the 'Live Communication' tab. A message dialog allowing you to start communication with the visitor appears automatically.

2. Create a chat invitation by entering some text into the dialog message text box. There is a default invitation stored in the system: "Hello! I'm %name%. If you have any questions or requests I'm ready to help you. Just click "Start Chat" button to start a conversation." The default invitation contains a variable %name%. It is the operator's name which you specify via Tools->System settings->General->Operator name.

You can leave the default invitation as is, type your message manually or select a 'canned' message by clicking the Canned button (If there are no 'canned' messages, you can create some. Refer to the 'Using 'canned' messages' section of the 'Offline Communication' chapter for details).

3. Click Send. The visitor should receive the invitation in the form of an incoming chat request.

If a visitor wants to accept the chat invitation, he should click the Start Chat button. If he does not want to answer it, he may close the window by clicking the close control at the top right.

After the Start Chat button has been pressed, the dialog 'Open chat with operator' opens. The visitor should use this dialog to enter his chat name (optional) and to select the type of communication (Text chat or Voice chat).

If, while speaking with a visitor, you receive another chat request, you can put the current chat session on hold and attend to the new visitor requesting assistance.

To put a chat session on hold, click the

button in the 'Live Communication' section. The visitor receives a notification saying that the operator has suspended the chat. The Send button disappears from the communication dialog and remains disabled until you resume the chat. This prevents the visitor from sending more messages while your attention is diverted.

The chat may be ended by either of the two parties involved in it. To end a chat, click the

('End communication') button in the 'Live Communication' section. The visitor on his side can click End chat button located at the top right of the chat window.

After a chat is ended, both the visitor and the operator are able to order the chat transcript to be sent to a chosen email address. The operator can specify the necessary email address by selecting one from the 'Send chat transcript' drop-down box.

The visitor has to enter the email address manually. Clicking on the Send button mails the transcript to the specified address.

Note: You have to define the mail parameters via System settings->General settings->Network parameters for a visitor to see the 'Mail me this chat transcript' field in the 'Chat with operator' dialog.

To initiate a voice chat click on the

button in the 'Live Communication' section of the Visitor's profile.

•	adjust the volume of both the operator's phone and the visitor's microphone, if the visitor cannot do it himself;

•	take notes during the voice chat if necessary.

You can lead a voice and a text chat simultaneously (Text messages are seen in the 'Chat' section as usual).