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October 3, 2014

Firehose Chat – Chat With Website Visitors

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Getting visitors to click onto a business website is hard enough. Keeping them there is even harder. Firehose Chat is a web-based solution for businesses that are interested in offering professional customer support to their online visitors. Using live chat widgets, business owners can answer questions and resolve complaints before customers have had time to bounce.

Download Firehose Chat’s Mac or iOS application, and then copy/paste the provided code into your website. Customize your chat widget with unique text and colors to fit in with your website’s current style. Within minutes, you’ll be able to chat with your visitors in real-time through Firehose’s widget. If a customer posts a question while you’re away from your computer, Firehose Chat will send an immediate notification to your smartphone. You can then respond to the customer through Firehose Chat in a way that feels just like you’re sending a text message to a friend. Visitors have no way of knowing that you’re not sitting in front of a desk when you respond to their queries.

For larger businesses, Firehose Chat offers multi-user support, which means that multiple agents can see each other’s messages as they chat with website visitors. Firehose Chat also offers advanced features like complete chat history logs and visitor location information. Businesses can see each visitor’s browser and system information, along with the exact pages they’re on in real-time.

Practical Uses:

  • Quickly address customer questions
  • Make yourself available to help website visitors 24/7
  • Create a chat widget that fits in with your existing website
  • Review the conversations your employees are having with website visitors

Insider Tips:

  • Answer questions from your smartphone in real-time
  • Customize the chat widget to remove Firehose Chat’s branding
  • Use chat logs to ensure your employees are answering questions in a professional manner
  • Set “do not disturb” hours when messages shouldn’t be sent to your phone

What we liked:

  • Firehose Chat offers custom native apps built specifically for its service
  • Push notifications are sent automatically when visitors want to chat
  • Firehose Chat charges a flat rate for an unlimited number of agents
  • Agents can remain on-call even when they’re away from their computers

What we didn’t like:

  • Firehose Chat’s Android and web applications are still in beta testing

Alternatives:

Company Info:

  • Launched: 2014
  • Privately Held
  • Headquarters: Salt Lake City, Utah
  • Founded by: Mysterious Trousers
  • Web site: https://firehosechat.com

Costs:

  • Free plan
  • Upgraded pricing is $6.99 per month

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