[Nfb-web] Have You Tested Tools for Live Text Chat On Your Web Site? @Olark Others?

[Mika Pyyhkala]

Greetings,

In Massachusetts I am trying to reduce the number of phone calls &
voicemails I get, and have begun looking at live chat solutions to put
on the web site.  Incidentally we have not gotten much engagement from
local constituents using our @NFBMA twitter account; most constituents
(believe it or not) aren't really active on Twitter. :)

I came across @Olark
http://olark.com
which allows you to put a live chat box on your web site.

They have a free plan of up to 20 conversations per month, and it
looks like the entry level plan starts at $15 a month, though I'm
exploring with them if they offer any nonprofit discount.

Tech support was helpful in getting the javascript added to our Drupal
7 installation, and they even helped advise if the chat box was in an
esthetically correct location.

They suggested for instance making the chat inline with the page.

I'm just curious if any of you have experimented or used Olark or
similar tools that enable live chat on a web site?  Typically the chat
is between a web site visiter and a representative from the web site,
its not meant to be a sort of group chat or forum.

Olark works in conjunction with any Jabber client.  I have mainly been
using it with IM+ Pro for iOS.  I have not yet gotten a good Jabber
windows client working.

If you want to see what it looks like its:
http://nfbma.org
(edit field at the bottom)
>From an accessibility perspective it works much better with IE9 than
IE8 running Jaws.

So far I'm the only operator and if I'm not logged in to a Jabber
client it can be configured to either send an email, or disappear.
Also if I don't answer it likely means I'm somewhere I can't respond
to the message.

Thanks,
Mika Pyyhkala
Massachusetts
@pyyhkala
@NFBMA