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Velaro, the leading online click-to-chat and click-to-call software provider, was rated the #1 live chat service in an independent review by Top Ten Reviews. Velaro’s service, which directly increases a web site’s ability to convert browsers in to buyers, won the gold award for best live chat software provider.

Most notable in achieving the #1 spot are Velaro’s standout features, which include rich customization, comprehensive reporting, co-browsing with form fill, advanced marketing with sales rules, and extensive out of the box integration with popular e-commerce products like NetSuite, Sugar CRM, Email Center Pro, Aptela, and Twilio.  “We liked the great flexibility, customization and integration abilities offered by Velaro live chat services,” says Top Ten Reviews.  “Velaro takes the time to assess a client’s needs and provides exactly what they’re looking for: an increase in sales.  Implementing the software allows for customer interaction, and that means a direct opportunity to convert a browser to a buyer. Only about one percent of online shoppers make a purchase. Compare that with the fact that more than 20% of shoppers who chat will convert to a sale.  What’s more is that 25% of chatters end up buying more items during the transaction. Good business sense, right? If you need more proof, Velaro will give that to you, too.  They offer access to monthly reports outlining sales, tracking conversions and providing insight into customer behavior online (and these are provided in a multitude of formats for your convenience). ”

Curtis Blair, Vice President, Channel and Partner Alliances for DirectPointe, discusses his choice of Velaro “I led our team in a very thorough selection process with specific features and capabilities.  We evaluated the top chat providers and found ourselves most satisfied with Velaro’s offering.  Velaro provided the best overall sales experience, the most feature-rich demo, sufficient time to review the product, and customized training that matched the varying level of our team members.  I would recommend Velaro to any business that is looking to extend their reach to and share of the market they are targeting.”

Velaro President Alex Bloom commented on the review. “This review focuses on very important aspects for internet retailers.  We are pleased Top Ten Reviews underlines the necessity of not only leveraging a top click-to-chat service to increase online sales, but how critical it is to use one that seamlessly integrates with retailers existing applications.  We align ourselves with other best of breed product leaders to offer the best experience for retailers and their customers.  From CRM and Analytics integration out of the box, to customizable shopping cart integration to fit every online retailer, we provide the means to bring it all together for today’s E-commerce merchant.”

About Velaro

Founded in 2000, Velaro is an established leader in click-to-chat conversions. Velaro won independently rated live chat awards in ‘05, ‘06, ‘08, and ‘09. With 99.98% uptime guaranteed, Velaro is the solution of choice for leading companies such as LG Electronics, Blue Cross Blue Shield, MarketStar, Experian, Toro, Improvements Direct, Skillsoft, and Epicor. For more information about Velaro’s products, visit http://www.velaro.com/toptenreview

About DirectPointe

Direct Pointe, Inc. (DirectPointe) is a Utah-based Managed IT Service Provider offering a full suite of managed IT services to both businesses and now individuals. DirectPointe commenced operations in March of 2000 and has consistently grown its client base.  For more information, visit: http://directpointe.com/

About Top Ten Reviews

TopTenREVIEWS gives you the information you need to make a smart purchase. We make a recommendation for the best product in each category. Through our side-by-side comparison charts, news, articles, and videos we simplify the buying process for consumers.  For more information, visit: http://www.toptenreviews.com

Your Click-to-Chat buttons should always be placed tastefully and prominently on your web pages.  Live chat works best when it compliments the site and keeps customers focused on their visit.  The last thing you want is a customer coming to your site with every intention to buy and then getting distracted by poor navigation or hard-to-find chat buttons and leaving out of frustration.

2. Smart Proactive Chat Invites

Invite the right customers to chat at the right times.  You do not necessarily want to invite every customer, on every page to chat with your agents.  However, you most definitely want to offer chat to those people on your site who may be having trouble, or to those who qualify for promotions.  Remember, your live chat tool should not only allow you to interact with your customers, it should also give you a much deeper understanding of the people visiting your site.

3. Know Your Trouble Spots

Every site has trouble spots.  Pages where web site visitors seem to exit in mass numbers.  If you don’t know which pages are losing customers, you should.  Trouble spots on web sites can be the cause for over 50% of your web site abandonments.  Learn which pages are giving you the most grief, and make sure you have your chat buttons clearly visible.  Also, these are great pages to send out automatic invites after 30-45 seconds of idle time by your visitors.

4. Simplify, Simplify, Simplify

Your site has one purpose: to get visitors in the information they need as timely as possible.  That’s it.  Your web site is not there to showcase your ability to pick out pretty images, or to express your personal color palette.  Whether your audience is buying your product or retaining your services, your site should be a funnel to your key conversion points – be that a sale or a completed form.  Every path on your site should lead to that goal, and on every critical page live help should be ready and available to keep web site visitors on the path.

5. Greet Visitors Warmly

When a visitor clicks to chat make sure your agents receive them warmly.  Small things such as a smiley face can make a huge difference in a medium that lacks inflection.  Agents should always be pleasant, helpful and answer questions within 30 seconds of being asked, even if they are in multiple chats.  They are the public face of your organization online.  Take advantage of free training and best practices by your Click-to-Chat provider.

6. Integration

Your click-to-chat tool should not be a standalone application.  What good is another application that does not work with your infrastructure? You could have 100s of leads from live chat, but if they’re not integrating with your CRM solution, your email solution and your shopping cart solution; you’re losing time and money.  A good click-to-chat provider wills integration with all your important applications with minimal set up.  A great vendor will provide integration out-of-the-box with a single sign on capability.

7. Reports are Critical

Reports are the backbone to your web site and your click-to-chat.  They show you how well your agents are handling customers, how effectively chat is leading to sales, and give you the overall insight into what was once a black box of information.  Spend a few minutes each week reviewing your reports to ensure you are getting the most out of your live chat vendor.  The reports should be easy to read, export and easily integrate with your other online applications.

Baltimore, MD and Eugene, OR, 12th June 2009 – Velaro and Palo Alto Software announced today an integration between Velaro’s award-winning click-to-chat Software as a Service (Saas), and Palo Alto Software’s Email Center Pro, a Web 2.0 Software as a Service email management tool.

“This partnership helps bring incredible value to online businesses allowing them to streamline their vital sales and support information. Velaro and Palo Alto Software are both best-of-breed providers, in click-to-chat and email management respectively,” said Alex Bloom, President of Velaro. “We’ve seen other click-to-chat providers attempt to build their own email solution and it’s never pretty. Rather than go outside our area of expertise we choose to establish out of the box integrations with leading vendors who specialize in their field. With the Email Center Pro integration, customers are now able to seamlessly manage their email from within the Velaro Desktop Agent.”

“We teamed up with Velaro because we’ve seen over the years that having live operators on our website is a critical component to a great customer experience. Velaro fits seamlessly into Email Center Pro’s mission of exceptional customer service.” says Sabrina Parsons, CEO of Palo Alto Software.

Velaro and Palo Alto Software will be attending the Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition in Boston, Massachusetts at the Boston Exhibition & Convention Center from the 15th to the 17th of June showcasing their integrated solution. You can visit them at booth #701.

About Velaro

Founded in 2000, Velaro is an established leader in click-to-chat conversions. Velaro won independently rated live chat awards in ‘05, ‘06, ‘08, and ‘09. With 99.98% uptime guaranteed, Velaro is the solution of choice for leading companies such as LG, Blue Cross Blue Shield, MarketStar, Experian, Herbalife, Toro, Improvements Direct, Skillsoft, and Epicor. For more information about Velaro’s products, visit http://www.velaro.com/

About Palo Alto Software, Inc.


Palo Alto Software, Inc. develops, publishes, and markets software products for use with personal computers. Business Plan Pro is the best selling business-planning software in the U.S. retail market, according to NPD Intelect. Palo Alto Software’s marketing-planning product is Marketing Plan Pro powered by Duct Tape Marketing. This combined product line offers “know-how” solutions that have made Palo Alto Software the market leader in its category.

Palo Alto Software was founded in 1988 and is a privately-owned corporation based in Eugene, Oregon. For more information about Palo Alto Software products, visit, www.paloalto.com

Learn more: http://www.velaro.com/HolidayEdge

To learn more about the Small Business Promotion, check out: http://velaro.com/HolidayAdvantage

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Any company that currently has a live help/live chat solution, please drop me a line: chad [at] velaro [dot] com

We’ll be available on Twitter at the event: http://twitter.com/velaro_inc or just @velaro_inc.

See you there!

Read the press release: http://tinyurl.com/57a82t

Find out more about how Velaro is helping small businesses: http://www.velaro.com/HolidayEdge

Follow us on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/velaro_inc