Instant Help Frequently Asked Questions

What changes do I need to make to my web site to use Instant Help?

In order to let visitors know that you offer Instant Help, you will need to add a small snippet of HTML code to your web page(s) and visually displays a button for requesting help.

Can I use public IM to provide Instant Help to my web site visitors?

Yes! AIM, ICQ, MSN (Windows Live), Yahoo and Gtalk are supported. In addition to your own public IM account, you will need one 'bot account' for every concurrent customer chat you expect to support.

Can I use my enterprise IM to provide Instant Help to my web site visitors?

Yes! XMPP (Jabber), Lotus Sametime, Microsoft LCS/OCS and JBuddy Server are supported. In addition to your own enterprise IM account, you will need one 'bot account' for every concurrent customer chat you expect to support.

How does Instant Help differ from some other 'live chat' solutions?

Most live chat solutions use proprietary customer service applications. This requires the customer service or sales rep to run another desktop application. Instant Help is different because it leverages the Instant Messenger you already use increasing your ROI for your IM software.

I have seen other live chat solutions that use IM. Is Instant Help better?

Since Instant Help's initial release in 2006 a few new live chat solutions which leverage instant messaging have come on the market. Review these carefully. They are significantly inferior to Instant Help since they do not support chat queuing and routing as Instant Help does. Instant Help is based on a powerful rules engine which allows live chats to be routed to the correct department and where teams of customer service reps or sales reps can provide live chat. Instant Help is built using the same principals as enterprise-ready Call Center Management software. It scales with your live chat needs and as your team grows.