Frequently Asked Questions

No. All features of our live chat service are fully functional in the Trial account and Live Demo.

No. To start using our service in trial mode you just need to enter your desired login name, password and a valid email address. When your trial expires (after 10 days) you will be able to choose a subscription package and submit payment.

Yes. All of your settings will continue uninterrupted when you sign up for our paid subscription.

You can create any number of operator profiles during your free trial period. To add an operator profile please open My Account / Operators and Departments page in your account Control Panel and click 'New Operator' link.

Yes, to change the operator name click 'Edit' next to the operator profile in your account Control Panel, My Account / Operators and Departments page.

All your settings will be kept in our system, there is no need to setup anything anew. All your settings will be kept even if your account is expired, you can activate it at any moment.

No additional software is necessary if you are planning to use the browser-based version of the operator console. However, you can download and install the Standalone console for Windows, Mac OS or Linux, depending on your OS.
We also offer mobile live chat apps for iPhone and Android.

You simply paste a short snippet of chat button HTML script into your web page source code and upload the updated page to your web server. When your client clicks on the live chat button, this code will load the chat window from our servers.

Our live support system is designed to work on any web-site, built on any technology. If your CMS allows adding HTML code and javascript to the web-site, there will be no problem with adding the chat feature to your web-site. If javascript is prohibited by your CMS you still could add the chat feature to your web-site by using special No-Script Code, but some features, such as visitor monitoring and chat invitations, will not be available.

1. Create an account in our system (see How do I sign up?)
2. Login to your account Control Panel using login and password defined by you during the registration.
3. Open My Account / Chat Button Codes page and choose a code version according to your needs. Graphics Chat Button Code is the most popular one.
4. Copy the live chat button code and paste it to your web-site source code. The chat button will appear on your page.

You just need insert your chat button code. We do not limit the number of domains, you can add your chat button to any number of websites.

1. Download the operator console from the Downloads page and install it on your computer or use the web-based operator console available at https://op.providesupport.com
2. Login to the operator console using your Account name, Operator login and Operator password available in your account Control Panel, My Account / Operators and Departments page.

When you login to the operator console, the live chat button on your web-site will automatically switch to the Online state and you will be able to monitor your site and receive live chat calls from your visitors.

The agent apps (both the web-based and the downloadable versions) and the Live Chat Window works on Windows, Linux and Mac-OS, iOS and Android.
Native agent app version 7.x supports any version of Windows starting from Windows 7 and Mac OS starting from Mac OS 10.13. Older native agent versions support any version of Windows starting from Windows 98 and Mac OS starting from Mac-OS X 10.4. Native console installers are available for the following Linux platforms: Debian Etch, Ubuntu 7+, OpenSUSE 10+, Mandriva, Fedora, CentOS. For all other Linux platforms you can download *.tgz file for manual installation.
Mobile versions of operator console are avaiable for iOS and Android.
Web-based Operator Console and live chat window support most of browsers currently in use.

Yes, our system fully supports Mac-OS from both operator and visitor sides. For operators there is a stand-alone operator console application available for downloading at the Downloads page and the web-based console is available at https://op.providesupport.com. The stand-alone operator console can be used on any version of Mac-OS starting from MacOS X 10.4. The Live Chat Window is fully compatible with Mac-OS.

Yes, our system fully supports different versions of Linux from both operator and visitor sides. For operators there is a stand-alone operator console application available for downloading at the Downloads page and the web-based console is available at https://op.providesupport.com. Native stand-alone operator console installers are available for the following Linux platforms: Debian Etch, Ubuntu 7+, OpenSUSE 10+, Mandriva, Fedora. For all other Linux platforms you can download *.tgz file for manual installation. The Live Chat Window is fully compatible with Linux.

Our chat window is fully compatible and optimized to work on mobile devices. For operators we offer convenient mobile apps for iPhone and Android.

Yes, you can create custom drop-down lists so that your customers could choose the needed options.

Only one language customization is possible per account. If you need to have different language customizations for your chat window, you would need to purchase separate accounts and choose one translation per account.

Our operator interface allows you to see where your visitor came from (referrer address). If they enter your website from search engine page and the search engine allows viewing keywords, you'd have search phrase included into the referrer address. This is the real-time monitoring of your website visitors.

Yes. You can create canned responses inside your account administration area. You can define answers on the company level - accessible to all operators, on the department level - accessible to operators associated with particular department, and for each operator individually. You can also import the list of responses into your account from a CSV file. After you set up predefined answers, your operators will be able to choose them from a drop-down list in the operator console. Your operators may edit or customize these messages as necessary before they are sent to the visitor.

Your offline messages are sent to the account profile if no email for offline messages was specified on the Account Settings / Offline Settings page. For offline departments, such requests are sent to the department email.

Yes. Type "open: www.some-address.com" (without quotes) in your operator console. This will open the page on your customer's computer in a separate browser window, unless your customer is using a popup blocker. This address will also be highlighted and clickable in the live chat message area. To save typing, you can create canned messages with "open:" and "goto:" commands for web addresses used frequently.

Yes, you can block a specific IP, a range of IPs or specific URL from the Account Settings / Chat Access Restrictions page in your account Control Panel. Additionally, you can limit chat button displaying to specific region.

You can also block IPs of abusive callers directly from your desktop agent app, if this permission is enabled for you.

Yes, you can easily limit or allow access your chat from specific countries in your account Control Panel on the Account Settings / Chat Access Restrictions page

Yes, you can limit access to your chat by website URL in your account Control Panel on the Account Settings / Chat Access Restrictions page

Yes, you can use Forced logout option on the My Account / Operators and Departments page in your account Control Panel.

No, unfortunately. Java script would have to be added to the auction page. Current eBay rules prohibit the use of Java script in the auction page source code.

Yes. We have a special version of HTML code that can be added to your web page that prevents a live help chat button from showing. This code is available on the Chat Button Codes / Hidden Code for Visitor Monitoring page.

Our system supports text messaging only. VoIP and video are not available at this time.

Unfortunately no, the chat button can be connected to the whole account.

Phone icon is part of our website design, it is not connected to chat. However, we can provide an image by request for active (paying) accounts.

All basic HTML tags used for content formatting are allowed. The list of disallowed tags currently is the following: DOCTYPE, HTML, HEAD, BODY, TITLE, META, BASE, SCRIPT, NOSCRPT, LINK, FRAME, FRAMESET, IFRAME, XML, OBJECT, EMBED. It can be extended at any moment if we notice that some HTML tags are used in an inappropriate way.

Yes, you can easily do this with help of basic HTML formatting which is allowed in your system messages

The web-based console is accessible via browser, it doesn't require installation on operator's machine and can be easily used on any computer from any location.
The stand-alone console is an application, it requires installation.
The stand-alone console is more powerful than the web-based one, it supports more features and it is more convenient to use. The stand-alone console supports spell checker in several languages, file transfer, it can generate alerts on different events, it can sit in the system tray and raise only on certain events, there is also a geo location map included in the stand-alone console.

Yes, there are a number of shortcuts that can be used in the stand-alone Operator Console:

For this you would need to follow Options / Notifications tab in your console and enable “Direct sound” play sound method

You can easily do this on the Account Settings / Images page. However, if you store the image on your server and generated the chat button code for custom images, you would need to update images on your server. While doing this ensure that your old links remain functional. Otherwise you would need to generate a new chat button code with your new links to images.

Yes. This can be achieved by placing a slightly different version of our HTML code on each page of your site. This code would include the addresses of online and offline chat buttons you would like to have on each particular page of your website.

Yes. You can place chat buttons on any number of pages, sites, and domains. Your subscription package defines only the number of operator profiles within your company account.

Yes. Our system works on both static and dynamic pages created with any technology (HTML, PHP, ASP, JSP, CGI and others), on any kind of hosting. We also have a version of chat button code that can be placed on secure pages without browser warnings. You can choose to run all your chat sessions over secure connections.

You can get the direct link to your chat window on the My Account / Chat Button Codes page where you need to choose "Direct link to your chat window".

Yes. If you are using an email interface such as Microsoft Outlook that sends messages in HTML format, you would select the Source tab at the bottom of the message box and paste our auction HTML code into the source code of the message. When you select the Edit tab after inserting the code, you should see the live chat button. You can then drag and drop the button to the desired position. If you are sending text-based emails, use direct link to your chat window.

Yes. You could use a direct link to your messenger. You will find it in your account Control Panel on the My Account / Chat Button Codes / Direct Link to Your Chat Window. This link will allow you to chat with your clients but some popular features won't be available, such as visitor monitoring and pro-active chat invitations. To fully benefit from the system we usually recommend using our standard codes provided on the Chat Button Codes page.

Yes, you can view average rates per agent and per department. However, please note that these reports are available only for standard surveys. If you've uploaded your own custom survey, you won't be able to see its data in the statistics module.

Currently, reports are available only for standard surveys. If you are using a custom survey, the corresponding columns in your reports will display "0."

This metric shows the relative workload of a support agent. It is calculated by dividing the number of chats handled by the agent by the total number of chats.

For more details on each metric available in the Stats module, please visit our user manual.

A "missed chat" is one that was either never accepted by the agent or was accepted after the visitor had already left. This metric is relevant only for chat distribution methods that route chat requests to specific agents. If your chat distribution method is set to "To All," you will not see "missed chats" in your agent and department reports. In this case, if no one accepted the chat, it means that everyone missed it, making it impossible to attribute to any specific agent or department. You will see this metric only on the company level.

This symbol appears when there is no department selection field on your pre-chat form, or when this field is not mandatory. In this case, the chat cannot be attributed to a specific department and is therefore directed to an undefined department, marked as "~."

Yes, we have a statistics API available in our GitHub account.

If you see a blank screen or errors when trying to refresh data, please try clearing cache and local storage in your browser.

We are working on this feature and it will be available soon. Currently, you can only filter transcripts by date, customer name, agent name, and other fields available in the transcripts app.

Please try clearing cache and local storage in your browser.

Chat transcripts start being saved on our servers only after you enable this feature for your account, so you won't be able to see past chats in the Transcripts app. You can still view them in your email if this option has been enabled in your settings.

There is no possibility to set up a separate password for the transcripts app, but as a workaround, your colleague can receive all chat transcripts by email. You need just to enable transcript sending and add their email on the Account Settings -> Chat Transcripts page in your account settings.

If the chat is shown in the Transcript app, but you can't see its text on the right side, it means that the chat hasn't been closed yet.

If you'd like to export transcripts with their full text, it can be done only by exporting to TXT. If you export them to XLSX format, you will see only their headers with the date, customer name, agent name and other data you normally see in the transcripts table.

To view post-chat survey results, select the chat transcript and switch to the Client Data tab on the right.

Our system works over standard HTTP or HTTPS (80 or 443 ports) and does not use any incoming connections. It should work without requiring port mapping / forwarding rules on any network where you can access web pages with browsers like Internet Explorer or Netscape. If you encounter any problems connecting to our service, let us know and we will find a solution.

Make sure you have spelled everything correctly. Note that the account name and operator login are not case sensitive, but the password is. Be sure you are not swapping the account name and operator login. If you forget your login information, contact us and we will send it to you.

Try logging into the web-based console. If you are successful, it is likely that anti-virus software, Internet security software, or a firewall is blocking the operator console from accessing the Internet. If you are also unable to log into the web-based console, try logging into your demo account from the Live Demo page. If this doesn't work, contact us for assistance.

Yes. When you subscribe for our paid service our system sets up automatic recurring payments on your account. Your credit card and PayPal account will be charged automatically at the beginning of the next billing cycle, periodically each 1, 3, 6, or 12 months depending on the subscription package you selected. You can cancel your subscription at any time. There are no additional costs associated with the cancellation.

Yes, you can change your package at any time. This change is free.

You will need to create your new operator profiles on the My Account / Operators and Departments page in your account Control Panel.

Yes. All future updates are free. Browser-based operator interface updates will be downloaded automatically, because pages are loaded from our servers each time you log in. We will send you an email notification when a new version of the stand-alone operator console is released for download.

Yes. The subscription package defines only the total number of operator profiles within your account, not the locations they can monitor from. Operators can download and install the operator console, and log in from any number of places, and serve any number of web sites. Additionally, they can use mobile operator console apps to monitor their chats if they need to go away from their computers.

The billing cycle starts when you subscribe for one of our paid subscription packages. You can choose one, three, six month or annual billing period. Extended subscription gives you a significant discount.

There is no limit. You may have an unlimited number of live chats with any number of unique visitors. Your subscription package defines only the number of operators within your company account.

You would need to cancel your current subscription and purchase a new one to upgrade/downgrade your account. All your account settings will be kept, the service won't be interrupted. Please login to your account Control Panel, go to Billing / Upgrade page, click Cancel for Upgrade and confirm the cancellation. Then choose a new package on the Purchase page. You would need to pay the difference between the new subscription price and your account balance available at the moment of upgrade. The new billing period will be calculated starting from the date of the upgrade.

Yes, this is possible. To suspend your account please contact our support chat. We will cancel your current subscription and temporarily suspend your account. All your settings will be kept in the system and your remaining account balance will be kept as well. You'll be able to purchase a new subscription and reactivate your account at any moment.

We charge per operator profile in the account. This means that if you purchase a 3-opeartor subscription, you can create 3 operator profiles in your account with a set of customizations for each of them e.g. name, login, password, e-mail, picture, font etc. All of your operator profiles can be online concurrently.

Unfortunately no, our payment plan limits the number of operator profiles created in the account. If you need more personalized profiles for your agents you would need to upgrade.

This message means that the transaction is refused by your bank. Possible reasons are (but not limited to): insufficient funds or daily limit reached. Please contact your bank for more details. Banks never provide this information to merchants, they will only provide it to the credit card owner.

We accept credit and debit cards, UnionPay cards, PayPal and Alipay payments, Bitcoin, U.S. and Canada checks in USD. You'll be able to submit payment after choosing a subscription from your account Control Panel on our site. We also accept Purchase Orders.

Our system charges the card on file only once. If the attempt failed, you would need to submit payment manually while/after updating your card details or contact us in our support chat and we will charge the card from our side.

Your affiliate link has the following look: https://www.providesupport.com/partner/your-account-name or https://www.providesupport.com/p/your-account-name, you'd only need to replace your-account-name with your real account name.

You can see a list of your referrals in your account Control Panel, Affiliate / Referrals page.

Our live customer support system can send transcripts on 3 levels: Company level, Department level, Operator level. The most probable reason of the issue is that transcripts sending is enabled on several levels in your account. Please check these settings on the Account Settings / Chat Transcripts page, in operators' profiles and in departments' profiles on the Operators and Departments page. If you wish to receive all transcripts to one e-mail, please keep the feature enabled only on the Company level. If you wish to receive transcripts to different e-mails depending on the operator/department, please keep the feature enabled on the operator/department level only.

Chat invitation is displayed in a layer and it can conflict with other layers of your web-site, it can get hidden or misplaced. To fix this please cut the first DIV from the chat button code (it looks like <div id="ciXXXX" style="z-index:100;position:absolute"></div> where ciXXXX is a random set of chars, unique per code) and paste it just after the opening BODY tag on your page. Then publish these changes to your web server and check the result. If this doesn't help, please contact our live support chat to solve the problem.

If the post chat survey was filled out by the visitor, the results would be attached to the chat transcript, at the very bottom of it, under the Visitor Details section. If the visitor didn't fill out the survey, the results wouldn't appear in the transcript.

There can be several reasons of this issue:

• Messages can be blocked by your spam-blocker or go to the Junk e-mail folder.
• Messages can be deferred by your mail service depending on its server load. This occurs often with free mail services such as Hotmail.
• Messages can be blocked or rejected by your mail service if your mail account is configured to accept messages only from certain domains or certain e-mail addresses. This can occur with services such as AOL.
• Your mail server can route messages incorrectly.

To solve the issue please do the following:

• Check your spam-blocker and mailbox preferences to allow messages from our domain providesupport.com. Please also check your Junk e-mail folder.
• Contact your mail administrator if you are using a corporate mail server to check if messages from our domain providesupport.com are accepted and routed correctly.
• Try to use another e-mail address provided by another service e.g. your gmail or yahoo mailbox. If you receive messages to this new e mail address successfully, then the issue seems to be related to your mail service.

If all of this doesn't help, please contact us in our support chat, we will check our mail logs and help you to locate the issue.

The problem occurs depending on fonts installed on your computer. To fix it please download and install the latest version of the Operator Console from our website and try to choose another font in Operator Console Tools / Options / Input Area / Font / Change.

1. Please make sure that your Operator Console version is less than 5.7. Starting from version 5.7.1 the Console doesn't support Power PC Macs, sorry.
2. If the Console version is OK, please install Open SLL libraries libssl.0.9.8.dylib and libcrypto.0.9.8.dylib required by Operator Console. Just download and copy these libraries into /usr/lib directory.
   
   Note! Administrator permissions will be required.