Because I am an independent child

An increasing number of sites are completed with online consultation systems. This is definitely a suitable alternative to calls or emails - both for the questioner and the respondent, time and nerves are saved, and with the right strategy, the quality of feedback and the number of sales grow noticeably. Moreover, these services establish not only online stores and websites that sell services such as booking hotel rooms.
The online consultant is relevant for any site that has or is expected to have a phone number: a bank, a charitable foundation, an anonymous coffee-makers club, after all. And how much it will increase the conversion depends mainly on the human factor - the operators and those who control their work. How does the decision to install a consultant usually occur?

It is known that there are paid services. But many people decide to create their own online consultant service, initially “sharpened” for the needs of a particular organization, and not to “steam”, giving money for what is being implemented on their own. Absolutely free". Probably. This is a typical way of thinking of many Internet business executives who understand the need for an online consultant, but do not delve into the technical details of the development.

So, we make an online consultant on the site yourself.
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From what, what does an online consultant consist of, or the necessary functionality

What are the minimum requirements in the technical assignment for the specialist who signs up to create their own online consultant?

1. Web chat

Actually, the very window in which communication with the visitor takes place. Here you need to implement (in the minimum acceptable way) the work of the Java-script, which is responsible for the work and sending messages in the main browsers. Introduce the playback of the sound, notifying about the new message. It is also necessary to add the ability to send logs to the e-mail of the site visitor, send requests in offline mode (when the operator is not in place).

It will take at least two weeks for programming, layout, testing and implementation of cross-browser compatibility. Provided that the person who is engaged in development does not deal with any other work tasks.

2. Operator console

The minimum functionality that must be implemented in the application for the operator to ensure that the implementation of the system makes sense:

• opportunity to chat without significant delays
• notifying the operator of incoming calls
• opportunity to communicate with several visitors at the same time
• view message history (if a visitor comes to the site again)

Also need the ability to view a list of all visitors who are on the site and extended information about them.
<Please note: this is the minimum functionality, in the event that you have only one operator, and the functionality is crooked and performs the necessary actions every other time.

The creation of the console will take at least another two weeks, provided that it will be implemented in the easiest way - via the web interface. Plus, another week and a half for testing and revision.

3. Server part

The word “server part” in this context means that part that will be responsible for displaying the button or shortcut on the site, as well as accepting the requests necessary to create and display a list of visitors and the correct operation of automatic invitations.
This point needs to be considered in more detail. Displaying the current list of visitors requires that the code set on the site send a request at least once every 5 seconds. And since there is no adequate way to track the loss of focus on a page (if a person switches between tabs), the number of requests is multiplied by the number of open tabs.

A very simple server part is the support of the ability to communicate in a chat, no more. Your programmer will spend 2 more weeks on this. But the attendance of a normal site is not a couple of people per day, so take for example the average value of 1000 visitors - as in a normal online store. This means that for 2–3 operators we do more:

• Multiple chats simultaneously
• The work of these 2-3 operators in parallel
• Transfer chat to another operator

Feel free to plus 4 weeks of development.

Thus, the minimum threshold for development is 10–12 weeks. And then, of course, you will need a search on the history of correspondence, and statistics on the work of operators (and then who knows, they suddenly read Habr at the peak hour of attendance instead of communication with visitors), etc. - This is 4 weeks in the appendage.

In total, we get 16 weeks (4 months) of development, subject to the correct set of TZ for the implementation of the rudiments of the main functionality. But in the process it will turn out that you need many more options.

Is self-written service powerful and fast?

With the software part is more or less clear. Let us estimate what we need power.
To begin with, a programmer writes JavaScript code that is responsible for displaying an operator call label and monitoring visitors. Calculate the number of requests.

Suppose there are two operators on the site. Standard working day - 8 hours. Each application generates at least 1 request in 5 seconds (only for monitoring the list of visitors) - this is 5760 requests per working day.

Suppose that the traffic to your site is approximately 1,000 unique visitors per day. Practice shows that on average a user views 3 pages at a time. Accordingly, 3000 requests to the online consultant per day.

This means that even if you have a dedicated server or very high-quality hosting, a specialist who has at least a minimal understanding of load optimization should be engaged in writing an online consultant. However, he should be engaged in this task not in the background, that is, in fact, the online consultant will be the main task of the programmer.

Then it will take about 4-5 months to develop . And still you need to understand that the product will be a “semi-finished product”, with which you will have to constantly rush, each time pulling a specialist so that he can change the colors of the label and the chat window, for example.

Time is money, or the miser pays twice.

How is business performance measured? Of course, profit. In our case, it is logical to assume that profit for you is money. And if you invest in a product that does not pay off, you can not boast of efficiency. What do you think, how economical is the decision to start writing a not so simple service?

Consider the costs:

• Hosting or dedicated server = 150 and 3000 rubles per month respectively
• The software part — the PHP programmer's salary is approximately 51,000 rubles per month (according to the Yandex salary meter ).
  4 months * 50,000 = 200,000 rubles.
• Service support - 4 weeks per year = 50,000 rubles for a specialist’s salary.

A minimum of 250,000 rubles is the cost of a “free” ^* online consultant who will constantly fall, who will not have a sufficient number of well-implemented functions that are unlikely to provide comfortable communication between the visitor and the operator.

And when your business expands, you will need to add a multi-site support function to the system. And certainly more than two operators. Accordingly, it is necessary to develop the service itself, change the design, buy more power and distract the programmer from current tasks - creating a little service, it requires constant support. This means an inevitable increase in costs. Your brainchild will resemble a certain monster of Dr. Frankenstein, to which you constantly need to sew that finger, then insert the eye into place - at the expense of the main work.

Ax porridge

So, even the free script of the online consultant needs to be maintained, and its refinement will cost money and time resources.

Any independent development should be done by specialists who know exactly how and what works, what functions should be present initially, so that the service does not roll on the go.

SaaS solution is obviously cheaper, more professional and easier.

After all, you do not open a travel company before each trip to Turkey? :)

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_{* - for comparison: for the same amount you can use the LiveTex tariff for 2 operators for 8 years.}