Online chat programs are an updated way of communicating with your clients and employees over the Internet. You can set chat server software on your website so potential customers can ask questions live while visiting your site, provide business chat software to your clients and employees to have web conferences from all over the world, and find online chat providers for your business. By using online chat software, you can branch your business out farther than you thought it could go.

Using online chat software is easy, when you understand the online chat application technology. Consider these web chat software tips to get you started.

1. Learn how online chat software works and what the different applications are for.

2. Learn how to add live chat software to your website and how to implement it.

3. Learn how to use online video chat software for online conferences and business meetings.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Learn how to use online chat software

Before you can download and use any business online chat program, you have to know how and when to use it. You can learn a lot about online chat programs on the Internet. By researching different types of online chat programs and software and knowing what each one is capable of doing, you'll be ready to pick out the right ones for your business' needs. Whether you need a simple chat program to communicate with potential customers on your website or an online conference center complete with audio and video, you'll be able to find and apply the proper software by doing some research first.

I recommend: Pro Data Doctor explains how online chat software works. Buzzle.com explains how online chatting software works, and what the benefits of it are.

Install live chat software onto your website

Live chat software allows your customers to contact your support team members with any questions they may have as they browse your website. It allows potential customers to contact your business immediately with questions, and receive answers live. This will help ensure that your potential customers become your current customers.

I recommend: Uzoom allows you to add a live chat system to your website. Online Chat Centers offers free live chat software for your website.

Use online video chat software

Online video chat software allows you to communicate with clients and employees through a live audio and video chat. These programs will allow you to have conferences and business meetings with anyone around the world. The software is easy to install and requires minimum hardware.

I recommend: Digi-Net offers DigiChat, a web conferencing software featuring audio and video. MegaMeeting provides software for video conferencing and online meetings.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  You may be able to use simple Internet chat providers for your business needs. If your research shows this is all you'll need, you can easily find, download and use one of these services for free.

Using online chat software, you can bring a human touch to your website, whether it’s social networking, a help desk or a forum. Live chat and live help software can capture customer information to generate sales leads and can also launch a pop-up dialog window to initiate a chat with a visitor to your website. When purchased as a hosted application live chat software resides on the vendor’s server.

When shopping for online chat software, consider the following:

1. Adding real-time chat to your website with live chat software.
2. Hosted versus nonhosted online chat software solutions.
3. Capturing customer information with live chat applications.
4. Meeting customer services needs with live help software.
5. Free online chat programs.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Adding chat to your website with live chat software

Online chat software makes it easy to add chat to your help desk or website. Online chat programs offer a variety of functions, such as a one-to-one dialog between a customer and representative, an open chat room for multiple visitors and the ability to launch chat dialog windows to initiate a chat with someone who is visiting your website.

I recommend: The WebBoard ChatSpace Community Server from Akiva Corporation is a live chat software package that also includes message boards, instant messaging, live events and queued help.

Hosted versus nonhosted online chat software

You can choose to host your chat room in-house by downloading online chat programs onto your own server, or you can use an off-site, hosted, subscription-based service.

I recommend: 123 Flash Chat from TopCMM Software Corp. offers both hosted and nonhosted online chat software solutions with price structures based on the number of users. Both versions integrate with your website database and are scalable to host from 50 to an unlimited number of concurrent users. Omnistar Interactive’s Omnistar Live online chat programs come in both hosted and desktop versions, including a buyout option for the nonhosted version that eliminates annual licensing fees.

Capture customer information with live chat software

The more expensive, professional editions of live chat applications offer more visibility into the customer, capturing customer data and generating reports that can serve as sales leads, allowing the chat room to pay for itself over and over.

I recommend: WebsiteAlive offers live chat software that captures customer information from each visitor who clicks the live chat icon allowing you to view which URL your visitors clicked to reach your website; what country, state and city they logged in from; their browser information; which pages they have visited; and how long they have been on your website. The online chat programs from eLiveService offer chat message logging and transcripts.

Meeting customer service needs with live help software

Thanks to live help software, live chat has become a valuable component of today's help desk. Live help software can provide a cost-effective instant dialog with the customer along with the ability to push solutions.

I recommend: Provide Support offers live help software customized for specific industries including the insurance, real estate, pharmacy, car rental and financial industries. Chat4Support live help software from Coding Best Software allows your representatives to send prepared solutions to the customer from your knowledge base, while saving chat sessions and reporting customer information and chat statistics. ZaZaChat offers a complete help desk live chat software for e-businesses with trouble ticket management.

Free online chat software

Many vendors offer a free, scaled-down version of their online chat programs for individuals or small business use.

I recommend: eLiveService’s free edition has all the same features as its advanced live chat applications except it is limited to two operator accounts and the dialog window cannot be customized. In addition to offering hosted and nonhosted live chat software, ParaChat Group’s ParaChat provides a basic chat room free of charge.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Hosted online chat programs are generally priced by the number of visitors to your chat rooms.
• •  Live help software features allow your sales representatives to initiate dialog with a pop-up chat window.
• •  Look for hosted online chat software solutions that offer chat encryption to ensure private dialogs.
• •  Make sure your live chat software solution is compatible with all the major web browsers.
• •  Find live chat applications that allow customization of the dialog window so you can add your logo and other branding.

An online chat application was once just a way to keep in touch with friends and family; now it's a great business tool, too. You can add a business online chat site to your company's website so potential clients can ask questions and receive answers in live time. You can even add video to your chat so you can have face-to-face meetings with clients or employees outside of your office.

You'll first need to learn about online chatting software and the online chat providers you can get them from. You'll also want to know about Internet chat software for the web and online video chat software. Learning this information is a great way of making the most of online chat software.

1. Learn about and chat server software.

2. Learn about Internet chat providers for using web chat software.

3. Learn about online video chat software.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Find online chat software

For basic online chat sessions, in which you can chat with one or more people live over the Internet, you'll need an online chat application. There are many chat applications available, but for business use, you'll want to make sure you're using business chat software. Chat programs made specifically for businesses allow you to customize the features you'll want to use to conduct your online chats.

I recommend: LiveAgent lets you to communicate with and watch visitors in real time. It also helps you manage your software with a support staff, and they provide live customer support. BoldChat allows you to select the chat package your business needs.

Find web chat software

Another way you can offer your clients and employees the option to have a live chat is by using web chat software. This software will allow you to provide a chat option on your business website. This is a great feature to have so potential clients can ask questions about the products or services advertised on your website live, while they look at the site.

I recommend: RealChat allows you to add a chat feature to your website. OfficeIRC allows you to send real time messages over your network or the Internet.

Find online video chat software

In addition to simply chatting with your clients or employees, you may want to be able to hold an online video conference. This is where online video chat software comes in. This software allows you to have live video and audio chats over the Internet. It's great for meetings or conferences with employees and clients outside of your office, anywhere around the world. If you have a web cam and Internet access, you can take advantage of this feature.

I recommend: Webcam Chat Software allows you to broadcast video as well as chat online. Video Flash Chat offers a two-way real time audio and video chat.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  If your online chatting software needs are basic two-way typing chats between you and another person, you may want to look into simple chatting programs you can load onto your computer.

Online chat software is a great tool for a website because it allows visitors to utilize the information on your website more readily. You can use online chat software for your help desk, as a forum for customers to give testimonials, or as a way for consumers to get in touch with your sales staff. It can assist you with marketing and sales as by launching a pop-up dialog window to start a chat with the customer. There are lots of various software packages on the market and you can pick and choose the various features you require. As you start your exploration of this product, it would be helpful to understand some key terms.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Virtual community

Virtual community, also known as e-community or online community, is a process in which a group of people interact with one another primarily using the Internet to communicate, incorporating media such as newsletters, email, social network services or instant messages. Online chat software is designed to facilitate virtual communities.

I recommend: PCMAG.com explains virtual communities.

Social network

A social network is a structure made up of interdependent individuals or organizations. Typically, they have something in common such as business necessities, ideas, friendship, values or visions. Social networks operate more easily with the use of online chat software.

I recommend: The Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication discusses online social networking in more detail.

Online conference

Online conferencing is also referred to as web conferencing. It refers to the way meetings or presentations are conducted via the Internet. In these meetings, participants can join from their own computer and are connected to others via the Internet. Online chat software can facilitate this type of meeting with the use of collaborative tools such as polling and question/answer sessions.

I recommend: GoToMeeting explains how online conferencing works.

Internet relay chat

Internet relay chat (IRC) is a way to send real-time text messaging via the Internet. It is mostly designed for groups to communicate in a discussion forum. It also allows one-to-one communicating and data transfers. Online chat software's main purpose is to facilitate this process for users.

I recommend: Visit Internet.com for more information about IRC.

Direct client-to-client

Direct client-to-client (DCC) is an IRC related sub-protocol that allows users to interconnect using a server for exchanging files or to perform non-relayed chats. After a DCC session is established, the session can run independently from the IRC server. Online chat software facilitates this process for users.

I recommend: Dictionary.die.net explains the DCC process in more detail.

Real time visitor monitoring

Real time visitor monitoring refers to the way that online chat software tracks how many visitors come to the host's website, which page they visit, and how long they stay on the site.

I recommend: Live2Support explains real time visitor monitoring.