Live customer support and chat for ASP.NET feature summary:

New: Version 3.3 Updated June 22nd 2010.

General Features:

• Unlimited operators
• Unlimited departments
• Unlimited client chats
• No monthly or service fees (outside of your regular hosting account)
• Simple wizards for adding live help buttons to your site
• Ability to configure operating hours for each day or as fixed hours
• Hours can be defined globally or independently on a per department basis
• Automatically transfer chat requests to the next available operator if an operator does not answer for any reason
• If no operators are available a "leave a message" form is provided
• You may customize the leave a message link to direct to any web page if you have existing infrastructure in place for such cases (email, web based systems).
• You can configure an automatic logout such that the operator is automatically logged out after x number of missed chats to ensure that future chats are not routed to the non responsive operator.
• Intelligent request assignment routes new chat requests to the operators with the least number of active requests.  Administrators can assign the maximum number of concurrent chat requests a given operator can handle which is also taken into consideration by the load balancing algorithm.
• Independent of loading and skill assignments, the system will always route a new chat request to an operator without any current chats and assign new requests to the operator who has the least recent activity for load balancing purposes.
• In addition to the chat button you can obtain, using a simple wizard, tracking links to include in your pages which will provide additional information on the user including the path and pages viewed in the site.
• Statistics on departments and operators are available to evaluate operator performance.
• Ability to control leave a message behavior to not link when live chat is not available, to link to the leave a message form, or to link to any page or site.
• Chat image buttons can be defined on a per department basis for 3 states including: open chat, leave a message and closed chat.
• Chat buttons can be defined as styled links in addition to images.  Also, separate mouse over images can be defined for chat buttons to easily tie into any site design.
• Missed message handling enables a customer to leave a message if no operator is available through the provided admin customized form or for the customer to be linked to any other system.  You may also control if a leave a message option is provided when chat is closed.  Finally the administrator can configure if a session is marked as missed if no message is left or not.

Client (browser) chat interface:

• Advanced AJAX chat interface without postback or flashes
• Works intuitively like MSN and other chat systems clients may be familiar with for line feed handling and supports message submit on enter
• Downlevel browser supports ensures a functional chat interface is rendered for those clients using older browsers that do not support new AJAX features
• Support for IE, Firefox, Mozilla, Netscape, Opera and Safari.
• Ability for client to print or email chat transcripts.  Email chat transcript supports token support and custom formatting from the operator console.
• clients can view images inline within the chat system
• clients can get files through the chat interface
• Admin customizable form for pre-chat registration
• Admin customizable form for leave a message form should no operators be available to chat
• Inline and automatic thumbnail support for images (linked to full size version).  Operator can easily send files or images to clients.
• Operator is typing notification lets the customer know if the operator is actively responding or not.  This notification can be enabled or disabled by the administrator.
• Operator can request or initiate chat with the client user without a page reload or refresh (also known as operator initiated or operator pushed chat requests).
• Operators can trigger proactive chats based on requested pages or duration on a given page to maximize sales and assistance to high value customers (for example in your signup or purchase area of the site).  Proactive chats initiate automatically based on set criteria but do not trigger on the customer side until the operator accepts the chat to ensure a seamless experience for the customer.
• With cookies enabled customers are tracked on return visits and do not need to re-enter their registration form details.  They are optionally given the ability to change their email address should they have made a typographical error.
• Customers can rate chat using an AJAX interface at any time during the chat or after it finished.  They can also change their rating at any time if their judgment was too rash.
• If customers have pop-up blocking enabled, .netLIVEHELP detects this and automatically uses a div to prompt if they wish to chat or not in the case of proactive or operator initiated chat.
• Icon customization through the console application affects the web interface with no page level editing required.
• Advanced popup blocking handling for proactive chats.  When a proactive chat is initiated a popup will be attempted, if blocked a div will be used to indicate the chat request has been made.  Options include popup only, failover to div and always prompt.

Operator Console

• Tray icon to indicate status
• taskbar balloon tip to notify of new chat requests
• Option to minimize application to tray automatically so limited taskbar space is not taken
• sound notification for new chat request
• flashing window to notify of new chat request
• Operator auto logout if admin configurable number of assigned chats are missed
• Notification of logout with blinking taskbar so operator is away of any automated logout
• Ability for admin user to view a summary of all operators along with current chat status count.  Admin user may also logout any operator.
• Operator to operator chat enables operators to get instant assistance with other operators independent of their client chats.
• Canned messages can be defined at 3 levels: global, department and operator.  Operator level canned messages are specific to that operator.
• Operators can manage images and files uploaded to the system.
• Operators can respond to missed chats via email within the .netLIVEHELP system including template support
• Mail server configuration (SMTP mail sends) with specific reply to address and authenticated SMTP settings set globally, at the department level or for individual operators enables flexible addressing.  The most specific mail settings available will automatically be used.
• Operator can customize the appearance and font and date inclusion for the chat messages to suit their needs (operator specific setting).
• Ability to remember last login name
• Sessions list setting to display sessions past a specific date.
• Separate roles for administrator and regular operators with different sets of options for each.
• Supports data exchange between a deployed web application and the operator console enabling viewing and editing of data within the web application. For example advanced integration with the .netCART shopping cart allows for viewing and editing of a customers shopping cart from the operator console interface to further assist them.
• Real-time spell check integrated into the operator console
• Auto replace supports token auto expansion as well as canned messages.  Type %token or %cannedname and the full text of the token or canned message will be seamlessly inserted.
• Customer is typing notification lets the operator know if a customer is actively responding or not.
• New decline option (configurable by admin on a per operator basis) enables experienced operators to decline an assigned chat request and have it return to the chat pool if they are too busy to handle it (some other issue came up that required additional attention for example).
• Full customer history is now available through the operator console
• Operator / representative photos can be defined on a per operator basis and optionally displayed using the token system.  For example, using an automated greeting canned message the operator could introduce themselves to the customer, show their picture and ask how they can help them today without typing anything.  The greeting canned message will display automatically when accepting a new chat with a customer.
• Operator monitoring allows the admin user to view all operators active in the system. The admin user can logout any operator should they have forgotten to do so.  The admin user can also monitor chats (useful for training purposes) in real-time and see an overview of all chat activity on the system.
• Proactive chat canned messages enable specific canned greeting to be created for a given proactive chat.  For example if a proactive chat is made for an order form where an user has waited for 2 minutes the greeting could be "Thank you for your interest in purchasing our products.  Please let me know if I can be of any assistance with your order completion today."
• Option to view multiple independent chats in their own windows or docked with a tabbed interface in a central window.  When new chat messages are made the appropriate tab will flash until the message is responded to.  When in window mode the window will flash until responded to.
• Complete graphical user interface for customizing all language strings at the console and web level.  Easily convert .netLIVEHELP for use with different languages or just tweak the English strings to match your preferences
• UAC support on Windows vista along with support for a single PC to run multiple independent instances of the console connected to different .netLIVEHELP installations.
• Operator initiated chat initial question support enables operators triggering proactive chat to type their inquiry before initiating the request to ensure the client has more immediate feedback. In addition, canned greeting messages are available specific to a proactive chat.
• Remember me option for secure deployments saves having to provide login credentials.
• Active Directory support enabled automatic login based on active directory login.
• Search interface for active directory database to map users for login.
• Ability to customize the operator console fonts including composition font.

Mail Ticket Features

• In addition to real-time live support, .netLIVEHELP support suite has an optional add-on for mail ticket handling. This robust system is simple to configuration and requires little configuration. The primary interface for interacting with the system is your favorite mail client however don't let the simple interface fool you, this is a sophisticated system for mail system with advanced routing, edit rules and stickiness settings.
• Ability to reformat reply to parts of email messages to correctly reference the appropriate agent or department. For example, if the customer sends to the department and the agent replies, they are replying to the agent not the customer directory so full message tracking and storage is maintained. However, to avoid customer confusion, if the operator leaves that sequence in place, it will be seamlessly updated to show as if the operator directly received the request from the customer (for the original message / address section).
• Load balancing assignment based on operator quotas for relative assignation, more experienced operators can handle more requests for efficient load levels.
• Stickiness settings provide comprehensive options for ticket assignment including locking all future requests to the assigned operator, prioritizing the operator with the most responses on the ticket and prioritizing the operator with the last response on the ticket. A customizable timeout enables administrator to determine the appropriate amount of time before stickiness settings are ignored and the message is routed to the next available operator.
• Multiple department support, independent departments can each have their own email address and respond to a group of operators assigned to one or more departments.
• Multi-threaded operation for mail sending, receiving and assignments
• Console interface enables listing of active and closed tickets as well as closing open tickets or transferring a ticket from one operator to another
• Intelligent handling to prevent reassigned tickets from being double responded. If an operator due to lack of response has a ticket reassigned but still responds with their mail client, they will be warned and the message not delivered, however if they still want to send it, a second send will result in the message being delivered.
• Enter conversation thread of any ticket can be viewed through the console
• Autoresponder messages customizable per department including tokens for dynamic per customer responses

Server Component

• Supports xcopy deployment for easy installation (FTP files and run, no installer is required)
• Supports medium trust for use on shared hosting providers supporting ASP.NET 2.0
• Scalable web service implementation supports multiple database backends for communication and message storage including MS Access, MS SQL Server, MySQL and Oracle.
• Unlimited number of chat requests and operators within the system
• Independent timeouts can be set for inactive customer and inactive operator (the amount of time that without any chat submission the chat session will be considered abandoned by the operator or client.
• A time can be set for when a new request is considered unanswered.  It means that if assigned to an operator and not answered within x seconds it will return a response that no operators are available and provide an option to leave a message.
• Optionally, the system can automatically transfer the request to the next available operator to answer to ensure the customer gets a prompt live chat so long as there is another available operator logged into .netLIVEHELP.
• Comprehensive data exchange API enabling you to interface with your web application, independent of .netLIVEHELP, and have the operator console view / edit data from your application.
• Custom authentication integration enables you to programmatically pre-populate the registration form and have it be automatically disabled.  In this way users that already authenticated within your own web application are not required to authenticate a second time with .netLIVEHELP while still providing the user details to operators answering the support requests.
• Ability to disable / skip preregistration form

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