Hi,

This is Nathan of The Web Architect, I would like to give a few suggestions for your chat product. I figure that the more we post, the better, you, the cutechat people can make this product, and the more awesome the product will get. I am going to just post anything I think of in here, as I think of it...

When you read these suggestions, keep in mind I have been using this product for less than one week. I am trying to try and research what I am saying by playing with the software before I suggest something, but if I suggest something that is already implemented, I apologize, just let me know.

First Suggestion: 

I find it a large drawback that while I am the operator in the Live Support Chat, I can only see the people waiting and cannot interact with them, I can only interact with the current person. It would be awesome if somehow I was able to speak with as many people who are waiting for live support as I want.

For example: Perhaps, the support chat view for an operator could consist of just a listing of waiting customers, then I could click the a customer and it would spawn a new window showing me the chat on the left and on the right side it could also show me their name, email, and original message. And at the same time, I still have the original window open showing a current list of waiting people. Then by closing the chat window, that would end that chat with that specific person. (eg. one, one-on-one chat per window + one window for a list of waiting people.)

I find it a tad disorienting that the "I am ready to do next support" button is a checkbox, yet when the person I am talking to disconnects, it does not automatically move to the next person, I need to click "close current session". (Is this by design or am I just not patient enough or using it right?)

I figure that by using the suggestion above, it eliminates the "close current session" button because I could just close the chat window with that person while still having the original window with the list of people waiting.

Second Suggestion:

I thought it would be cool to have an inactivity timeout for operators of the live chat. eg, I was thinking maybe have a small tray icon that is spawned by a locally run application, maybe something you can drop in your startup items. Basically what it would do is sit in the tray, and when you right click it you can select available or not. Then if it is set to available, when your mouse is active, it will spawn the live chat operator's window minimized (and auto login with the correct username/password). Then when a client comes in and requests live support, the window would un-minimize and take focus and maybe ding or something. (Maybe this window could only spawn when there is actually someone waiting for support. So someone connects for support, and a new window spawns on my pc and makes some kind of continuous attention noise until I focus the window.)

However, if lets say I walk away from my pc and forget to log off the operators window, the tray icon would see that my mouse was idle for I don’t know, lets say 15 min and log me off, so that the icon on our site would say "Leave a message". Then as soon as I come back and move my mouse again, it would change the icon on our site to "available" again.

Hi,

Here is another idea…

I was thinking this morning, my partner and I were on our support chat and I realized that I cannot easily see who else is online doing support. I thought it would be cool if when you login as a live support operator you could see who else is logged in as an operator.

Perhaps where you see the list of waiting clients it could look something like this…

Operators Online: Operator 1 Name, Operator 2 Name.

Also, the client name could be clickable and that is how you could start a new chat with that client. My partner Eric did not like the idea of opening a new window for each client. So instead, there could be one chat window and a small icon beside each client’s name. Then when a client speaks, the icon would flash. When you click the client’s name, the chat log would swap to the chat with the person you clicked. (eg. the whole chat history would change depending on who you click)

This way you can talk to an unlimited number of clients, all in one window.

No problem, when I send in suggestions I don't really expect a response. I am just posting ideas as we get them so that you can take them into consideration for new versions.