Zendesk chat (formaly Zopim) is a web based chat application for online business owners, born out of frustration for existing Live Chat solutions. The Live Chat industry for web based customer sales and support is not new, and neither are the solutions – they have not evolved to adapt to web users behavior, and are usually difficult to learn and cumbersome for chat agents to use. They are also irritating to web visitors, often taking the form of floating chat invitations that block content or browser pop-ups that makes simultaneous browsing and chatting impossible.
Zopim is focused on serving the needs of web users that hasn't been met by other chat solutions: the need for usability, convenience and simplicity of design:
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lt;ligt;Usability: A great believer of the 80-20 rule, Zopim serves up only the productive tools, packaged for a difference. For example, canned messages are productive, but only if you remember them – what if you don't? Zopim has an functionality similar to Firefox's Awesome Bar, which suggests answers to the questions asked even before you begin typing.lt;/ligt;
lt;ligt;Convenience: Website owners can tend to their visitors no matter where they are. Messages can be routed to consumer IM clients (i.e. MSN, AIM, GTalk, Yahoo), so messages can be replied on-the-go with mobile IM clients. And if website owners are not logged onto the Zopim Dashboard nor their IM, Zopim detects that and switches to the offline messaging mode where visitors can leave their message.lt;/ligt;
lt;ligt;Simplicity of design: Zopim's Chatbar design is very much inspired by Gtalk within Gmail. The Chatbar design is not just highly visible, its a more elegant way to handle chat than in a separate pop up browser window.lt;/ligt;
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We love what Meebo did with web-based IM. This is why we try so hard to recreate the same IM experience for eCommerce owners and their website visitors - no obstrusive popout chats. Just pretty inline chat windows and blazing fast chats.