LiveAgent Review: Multi-Channel Helpdesk for Excellent Customer Support

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Its not an easy job searching for the right help desk software.

Some of them are priced too high, while others are burdened with lower pricing but watered down features. Since customer support is such a huge part of ecommerce it's essential to find the proper tool for your company.

We recently stumbled upon LiveAgent, which is billed as a help desk software for providing excellent customer support.

We find it rather intriguing, because not only do you get standard tools like ticketing and live chat, but you'll see a few other features that are unique to LiveAgent.

It's equipped with 175+ support features so you'll be able to link every channel of possible support inputs like fetching emails, Facebook comments, Tweets, contact forms, live chat or phone calls.

Seeing as how so many of our visitors are interested in finding the perfect help desk tool, let's take a deeper look at LiveAgent to see if it's right for you.

LiveAgent Features

LiveAgent Ticketing

ticketing

Here's the part that we all expected, and it's pretty impressive. The ticketing module is fairly clean and modern, and reference ID numbers are assigned for keeping track of everything. In addition, the ticket phases are logged for reference and for completing the tickets in a reasonable manner. Automated ticket distribution is the big feature, since you want the right tickets going to the right people.

Anyone can transfer right from the dashboard or respond if that's what is required. Everything seems to be in place here, and I really like the interface.

LiveAgent Live Chat

live chat

Real-time chatting isn't always an option with a help desk, but it's smooth and simple with LiveAgent. The live chat windows are customizable, and you gain access to a few pre-made buttons for users to click on when they would like to chat. Notes can be made in the chats, and sharing files is not a problem either. Four styles are given to begin with, and the customization tools allow for changes like status color, position, visitor message color and border color.

Along with modification settings for routing the chats to the right people, they seem to have this feature nicely tuned.

LiveAgent Call Center

computer call

An interesting part of the LiveAgent platform is that you can setup a phone number and completely skip talking to the phone company.

List that phone number on your website, then customers give you a call and it gets sent to the computer your reps are working at. My favorite part of this is that you can call and chat with customers at the same time.

LiveAgent Knowledge Base

knowledge base

The knowledge base is one of the easiest ways to cut down on the amount of time you spend on the phones and chats. It allows people to complete their own research, and LiveAgent offers settings for colors, buttons, articles, and icons. It would be nice if they have more than two predefined themes, but the branding really isn't bad at all.

LiveAgent Social Integration

A simple, yet brilliant feature is the social integration. Instead of going to Facebook and Twitter to see what people write, LiveAgent brings all the comments, messages and other communications to your dashboard. It converts them into tickets for responding, seemingly removing the need to go to the social sites unless you need to post something.

More Unique Feature You Won't Find Anywhere Else

video call

The video call tool is by far one of the coolest solutions from LiveAgent. The browser based video calling works somewhat like Skype where you can share files and still chat with the person on the other end.

audit log

Another interesting feature that's not available in most platforms is the audit log. This serves as a gigantic history database, logging documentary evidence of articles that have been completed by agents. Therefore, if a ticket was handled on Facebook, Twitter, offline or through a voice message, you would be able to go back and see all the details. This log is going to grow to a large database, so they have filtering available.

LiveAgent Pricing

To start off with the pricing, you receive a free 14-day trial to get going and testing out the live chat tool on your own. You don't have to worry about getting charged here, and it's a wonderful way to see if LiveAgent is actually going to work for your organization.

After the trial, you must pay for one of the four plans. The pricing seems reasonable and compared to other help desk plugins and extensions you gain access to support for multiple agents starting with the first plan.

Here's what they have to offer:

  • Ticket – For $9 per month you get support for one agent seat, custom domain parking, email support (ticketing,) contact forms, a forum and knowledge base, and iPhone and Android apps. You can also get a branding free interface for an additional $19 per month.
  • Ticket + Chat – For $29 per month you get support for one agent seat, everything that comes with the previous plan, live chat, real-time visitor monitoring, chat invitations and feedback management. You can also get a branding free interface for an additional $19 per month.
  • All-Inclusive – For $39 per month you get support for three agent seats, everything that comes with the previous plan, Facebook and Twitter customer support, call center support, video calling, time tracking, gamification and you don't have to pay anything to get a branding free interface.
  • Buy a Downloadable License – If you'd rather pay a one-time fee, they offer one that can be downloaded and installed onto your server starting from $11,950.

I'm not thrilled about the additional cost for a branding free interface, but you do receive 24/7 support and free integration service with each of the plans. It's also worth mentioning that each plan has a monthly payment if you'd like to add another agent seat.

LiveAgent Support

LiveAgent support

The support from LiveAgent is pretty basic, and it's nice that you can contact them at anytime of the week or day. The 24/7 support includes the submission of tickets, emailing in and calling a support rep. They do offer tours of the software before you get started, and these help out when you're a little confused when launching.

In addition, the LiveAgent company has a strong presence on social media along with a blog, allowing you to check in on updates and tips for your company. If you're more into completing your own research, the LiveAgent Support portal and knowledge base is a solid place to start.

Who Should Be Using LiveAgent?

If you can foot the $27 per month bill and need an impressive help desk tool for managing customer interactions, LiveAgent doesn't seem that out of reach, even for smaller startups. The pricing is going to increase with the size of your support team, but the video chatting, clean interface and call center are enough for me to recommend to anyone with an ecommerce store. You can start your free 14-day LiveAgent trial by clicking here.

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