Fantastico has gathered the Best in Open Source Customer Support Software
Many website owners want to have real-time customer service available to their visitors, but assume that the software needed will be too complex and expensive. This is unfortunate because small business owners rely on the satisfaction of their customers for repeat business and ‘word of mouth’ advertising. Additionally, marketing surveys have shown that each unhappy customer tells on average 10 other people (‘potential clients’) about their dissatisfaction. It is imperative that businesses do all they can to respond to their customers needs as quickly as possible. Most small business owners believe it is too costly to provide realtime customer support, but they are mistaken. There are free, open- source software solutions available that offer all the same features as much more expensive applications. Fantastico has reviewed the numerous customer service applications available and chosen only the best to add to their collection:
Crafty Syntax Live Help Web Hosting is one of the most downloaded customer support programs available. This application allows businesses to provide real time,live support to visitors, acts proactively by providing chat invitations, pre-formatted messages and quick responses to every customer query. Administrators will enjoy its tracking features, including referrer and page tracking, multiple operators, and departments. Support forums are available and the community appears active, thus administrators can be assured of assistance in installation and customization processes if required.
Help Center Live Web Hosting boasts that it is the fastest of the Live Customer Support systems available, due to its “slim and trim” philosophy. Whatever their philosophy, Help Center Live Web Hosting still offers features comparable to other open source software bundled by Fantastico. It offers functions which allow unlimited departments and operators, “Smarty” templates and visitor and referrer statistics. One of its unique features allows administrators to co-browse while users are completing forms, seeing what the user is typing in real time, before the field is “entered.” Support is offered through a community forum.
OsTicket Web Hosting is an open source support ticket system which integrates customer support inquiries submitted by email and web-based forms into one multi-user web interface which manages, organizes and archives support requests. Email notification via paging system is a feature unique to this application. Finally, it enjoys a large supportive online community which can assist in installation and customization issues.
Small businesses no longer need to be overwhelmed and unresponsive to their customers’ inquiries and complaints. No-cost applications such as OsTicket Web Hosting, Help Center Live Web Hosting and Crafty Syntax Live Help Web Hosting are available to help small businesses offer ‘big business’ customer support.
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