Ease of Use:  

The WebsiteAlive chat service is extremely easy to use. We were able to start chatting using the demo version right away, with no learning curve and we never had to consult support. They do offer 24/7 live support should you need it. This web based chat service makes it really easy to customize the look of your chat support, so your chat service buttons and message boxes can look unique and reflect your business. You can easily add logos, change fonts and more to make your chat support service truly the only one of its kind.

Setup Ease:  

This service is incredibly easy to set up. Because it is web based, it does not require the installation of software on to your computer or your server. To begin service you just have to simply install a bit of code on to your website. After the code is installed on applicable web pages you just sign in as an operator and begin monitoring your visitors and chatting. And since this service can watch more than one website, you can easily install the code onto several websites and through the live site monitor you can tell which website the visitor is coming through, so one operator can easily manage several websites.

We really liked that this service works with all operating systems, so Mac and Linux users can easily use this service. And it works with a variety of web browsers, including Safari.

Multi-Tasking Ease:  

As mentioned above, this chat service can easily help you manage multiple web sites. And each operator can manage multiple chat conversations, as many lines as they can handle. However, the chat screen uses tabs for each conversation and it doesn’t look like too many would fit into the screen and still be readable. Though this is not that big of a deal since operators can realistically only handle so many chats at once anyway and visitors can be transferred to other operators easily to help manage work flow.

One thing we did notice though, is that the service says they have a spell checker but we couldn’t get that feature to work. It would just send through whatever gobbledygook we typed up and it did not mark the words red or anything.

Monitoring Capabilities:  

WebsiteAlive includes most of the monitoring tools that we were looking for. It can alert you when you have a new visitor to your site, give you visitor information and more. WebsiteAlive also allows you to send a “proactive invitation” which means you can initiate a chat conversation with a visitor at will, without the visitor initiating the conversation. This option brings online sales to a whole new level.

The information it collects about visitors is similar to what you are used to seeing in a web statistics service. For example, it can relate browser types, IPs, durations and times. Of course it also keeps track of the actual chat conversations.

Feature Set:  

This live chat support service offers every feature we were looking for in this category from customizable buttons to remote administration. WebsiteAlive is fully customizable; you can create your own unique chat buttons and window types and you can select from seven fonts, eight font colors and a variety of font sizes. And it also offers many pre-designed buttons and window types for those that do not want to create their own.

WebsiteAlive can also be set to offer email contact ability when no operators are available. And since it is web based and not software based, it can be altered anywhere you can log in from.

One thing that would have been nice to see in this service is document sharing, so you could send marketing material for example. But it does offer co-web browsing and screen sharing, which is extremely helpful for those that provide technical support. This feature costs a bit extra, but for some it is a necessary convenience.

For security, it includes SSL secure data transfer, which is a good feature considering sensitive or personal customer information like account numbers and so on may be typed in the message boxes. You can also block specific IPs should you encounter any problems with a specific visitor or spammer.

We really liked the mobile chat option, this service can turn your web enabled iPhone, T-Mobile G1 or Blackberry Bold into a portable workspace, so you will never miss an interaction with a potential customer, regardless of whether you are at your computer or not.

Help/Support:  

Like we said, we found this service so easy to use that we did not need to ask for help. However, should you need help or customer service they are available 24/7 through chat (of course!) or they provide email and telephone support.

Scalability:  

This product can grow with your company. WebsiteAlive can support unlimited operators and you can request a dedicated server with 99.9 percent uptime guaranteed if you should need to support a large volume of chat conversations.

Overall we found the WebsiteAlive web-based chat service exceptionally easy to use and you can expect to have your chat service up and running in a matter of minutes. We also liked that you don’t have to install software and that you can handle chat conversations from anywhere, including from your mobile phone.