Review

ProvideSupport

ProvideSupport is a browser-based live chat platform that offers an optional download able client for operators.

Chat

Operators can have multiple chat sessions. Each chat session appears as a separate “tab” labeled with visitor name. New chat sessions’ tabs will appear at the bottom of the chat room tabs list and operators may choose to accept or deny new chat requests as needed.

Visitor Monitoring

Users have several features to monitor visitors on their website. A visitor list shows all visitors on the site including the pages they’re currently viewing; users can also view their navigation history, country, browser and OS details, Referrer URL and keywords.

Chat Invitation

The chat invitation with your message will be displayed to the visitor and he/she will be able accept the invitation or decline it.

Spelling

ProvideSupport comes with a spell checker that supports 12 languages. A user’s dictionary helps the software get accustomed with commonly used phrases not seen in the dictionary. The spell checker features a suggestion list and options to make changes where required. Integrated spell checker supports English (British, American, Canadian), Brazilian Portuguese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish languages.

Supported platforms

ProvideSupport’s live chat operator console is available for free download for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. The browser-based platform may also be used for non-compatible systems.

Canned Responses

ProvideSupport offers Canned Responses permitting operators easy access to answers to frequently asked questions. Push URL and Images is also available.

Pricing

All ProvideSupport packages have the same set of features and differ only in the number of available operator profiles. Additional operators are available for the Enterprise package at a discounted fee.

Account Type	Small Business 1 operator	Corporate 3 operators	Enterprise 10 operators	Included Discount
1 month subscription	$15	$30	$60	-
3 month subscription	$35	$70	$140	22%
6 month subscription	$60	$120	$240	33%
1 year subscription	$99	$198	$396	45%

Additional features

Co-browsing - Co-Browser allows you to follow and actively navigate visitors on your website. You can see the pages visitors are browsing, print them out, push pages to visitors having active chat sessions with you.

Operator to Operator Chats – Operators can have chat sessions between themselves.

Chat Transcripts – Chat sessions are saved for later viewing.

“Party is typing” notification – Both operator and visitor are aware when the other party is sending a message.

Reports

One of the downsides of ProvideSupport is in this category. Administrators don’t have any options to automatically or manually generate reports.

Customizations

The Online/Offline chat icon could be customized to match your website brand. We also found that the pre-chat form, post chat survey, chat invitation, visitor and system messages could also be customized.

Multiple Site support

With a single account you can have additional websites and web pages managed by the same set of operators at no extra cost.

Multiple Languages support

Site administrators can customize text into any language. This works well with the spell checker feature.

Security (Encryption)

Chats may be encrypted using SSL to safeguard sensitive information provided by the visitor.

Customer Support Representative Performance

Users can contact support via live chat and email.

On an endnote, ProvideSupport is a simple customer service platform for small businesses. We would not recommend this software for larger businesses who want to integrate third-party CRM software or monitor operator performance or conversion rates. The software is cost-effective and you get real value for money on the core benefit of this software – which is providing a quick response system for customer queries.

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