Free stuff! Free stuff!

Perhaps the best part of fashioning the CRMchump blog daily is the reportage of free stuff; here’s some more. In an effort to boost sales on individually owned e-Commerce sites, Volusion has offered free live chat software. Volusion Live Chat Software is a 100 percent hosted solution with no server installation needed.

The solution was reportedly developed somewhat accidentally. With the announcement of the release, the mono-monikered James (Hey, he’s like Sting or Cher. Or Socrates!), Volusion sales manager, told the story of a monthly sales meeting a short while back. In the meeting, the question, “What have customers asked lately?” was summarily answered with “What’s the quickest way to increase sales on my e-Commerce site, without paying any money?”

Members of the Volusion sales staff mentioned that several customers had asked questions regarding finding and installing third-party chat software on their sites, primarily with the intention of being able to answer online customer queries in a timely manner, which has been demonstrated shown to reduce cart abandonment and increase sales.

Talk of creating Volusion’s own live chat software began, and gradually the development of Volusion’s own live chat software evolved. Indeed, James reported that just two days after the precipitous meeting, work on Volusion Live Chat began. Volusion Live Chat is being touted as an instrument for success in real-time live help; live customer support; saving of money and resources; less expensive live online support, as opposed to telephone support and / or chat support.

Volusion Live Chat is promised to assist in completing the sales cycle by giving quick online answers. Founded in 1999, Volusion is a supplier of e-Commerce solutions, website design, merchant accounts, SSL and search marketing services. Version 4.0 includes One-Page Checkout with guest registration, and a new GUI with integrated help and training videos.

All Volusion stores come standard with built-in business and marketing functions in one customizable package, including analytics, reporting and return on investment features; CRM; a phone order and POS system, automated drop shipping; a five-tier affiliate system; import / export functionality; and free 24/7/365 support and upgrades.