Tickets arent for sure the fastest way but most stable and safe i would say. There is always a tough proof aswell just in case.

Some people prefer tickets, and some live chat. You sould keep both options, I think.

Support tickets are very important in order to have a "history" of problems or inquiries.

I agree you can use it for reference purposes in the future.

I recommend Kayako v4 for live chat software it is user friendly.

- Tickets (a must)
- Live Chat (a good medium to have, but even on live chat we have to sometimes ask clients to open tickets as some issues are better discussed on tickets)

I recently used Zopim and found it pretty good.

OP must have found the Live Chat software now. If not, you may try LivePerson. It is one of the best Paid software available.

If you are looking for Free software, LiveZilla and Zopim are good too

You need to keep records of issues anyway, so why not use tickets? Customer preference and live chat downtimes are two other good reasons to continue utilizing tickets.

I see nothing wrong with a combination of live chat and support tickets. The best part about having tickets is that there is recorded information and can at times be much more reliable than livechat and actually talking to the person.

I suppose LiveChat is fine for receiving answers to quick questions or trivial issues in terms of the hosting account, control panel, billing or quick sales question etc. However, if the client has a complex matter which requires the technician to logon their server so they may investigate, a ticket would be the ideal approach. The last thing any company would want is their client waiting on live chat while the support tech is trying to troubleshoot/resolve the issue at hand. At the end of the day, having both parties on the line for a longer than usual duration may cause frustration on both fronts. The client may be waiting impatiently while a specific daemon may be down and the other is working frenetically to keep the client happy

I would say; LiveChat and a Ticket System serve their purpose well

Regards,

I agree.

Livechat can never replace ticketing system. OP will see the benefits of ticketing once he starts with "live chat only" option.

You should provide both options.

Must agree, tickets is a lot easier to manage rather than 30 live chats, you cannot do them all at once, consider the positives and negatives.

I am using WHMCS live chat addon currently, the program for the Computer seems very sleek and is fun to use, the front end needs to be re-done however.

We find tickets useful, because it does keep track of support requests and whatnot. However if you're looking for a live chat software, definitely check out Zopim!

comm100 is a nice chat software, and they even have an iPhone app for when you are on the go.