Online chat interfaces

[Katra Farah]

Hi Everyone,

I'm doing research for an online chat interface. Would anyone have recommendations that aren't in house built.

We'll need to embed it on our website.

Thanks again,

Katra

[Dan Bashaw]

Hi Katra,

For background, are you using a specific CMS or preferred technology stack, and do you have a preference for a 'cloudy' hosted solution you just drop in with an iframe, or something that integrates directly with your CMS?

(Chat also interests me a lot, as we are currently looking to integrate chat with a new CRM system, so that chats with prospective students can be associated with their other contact information.)

[Sarah McMaster]

Have you been able to make any outcome statements re: web traffic or online inquiry percentage increases after implementing a chat module? If you would care to share any data or figures I'd be much obliged!

[Dan Bashaw]

In our case the impact of our current proprietary chat tool seems to be minimal, as it is little-used. It requires log-in with contact details and is slow to load. I don't have any metrics on its impact to back up my perception though.

I expect that a lighter-weight solution like olark (http://www.olark.com/) would offer a much better user experience, and would be more used. Olark has a free version you can check out of you want to do some testing: https://www.olark.com/signup/create_new_account

Has anyone used olark or a similar hosted chat solution? Did you find it worthwhile?

[Sarah McMaster]

Thanks, Daniel. We don't currently have any livechat solution so this is new fact-finding territory for us! I will keep the forum posted as/if we are able to move forward.

[Leo Pardo]

Katra,

I used Mibew (http://mibew.org/) at my previous job to help our webinar attendees with technical issues. Our university's department of student activities also uses it on their website. (https://studentactivities.tamu.edu/app/ - look for "chat with us" in the footer"). This is an open-source alternative that would probably be good for what you need. You'll definitely need in-house tech help to implement and maintain it though.