[Summary]

We are making it easy for you to switch between the classic Flash-based Dashboard, and the new HTML5 Dashboard that we’ve been blogging about.

You will notice a new login form at dashboard.zopim.com. Log in as usual, and the User Interface should guide you along. If you’d like more details, read on..

We greatly appreciate all the encouragement and constructive feedback we’ve received regarding the new dashboard. We aim to continuously improve the dashboard and evolve it with your valuable input.

In the previous our earlier UX series blog posts, we discussed our new dashboard and some of the UX improvements we were working on.

From today, we’re opening access to the new dashboard to all Zopim users! We’ve also made switching between the old and new dashboards easier.

New Login Form

You’ll see our new login form when you visit dashboard.zopim.com. If you haven’t indicated a preference for the new/HTML5-based dashboard, you will be redirected to the classic/Flash-based dashboard upon logging in.

New Login Form

Switching to the New Dashboard

If you’re using a browser that is supported by the new dashboard (sorry, only Google Chrome at the moment), you will see the Sneak Peek tab. Click the button to try out the new dashboard!

Classic Dashboard - Sneak Peek

Saving Your Preferences

When the new dashboard has finished loading, you’ll see a notice at the top of the page.

Beta Dashboard - Notice

To save your dashboard preference, select one of the options:

1. Keep this version: Always redirect me to the new dashboard when I log in from dashboard.zopim.com. If you change your mind later, switch back to the classic dashboard by going to Settings > Profile > Classic Dashboard.
2. Switch to old dashboard: Always redirect me to the classic dashboard when I log in from dashboard.zopim.com. Not to worry, you can still try the new dashboard anytime using the Sneak Peek page.
3. X: Hide this notice temporarily and ask me again the next time I try the new dashboard. You will be redirected to the classic dashboard the next time you log in from dashboard.zopim.com.

Accessing the Classic or New Dashboard Directly

If you prefer to access the old or new dashboard directly, use the following pages instead:

• classic.zopim.com – Always logs you into the classic Flash-based dashboard
• beta.zopim.com – Always logs you into the new HTML5-based dashboard. You can access this with an unsupported web browser, though we can’t guarantee that the dashboard will function correctly.

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[Update: 14 May 2012] Good news as updated below in red. We have managed to condense this migration to within one maintenance window.

• Friday, May 18 2012, 11PM to 5AM EST (UTC-5)

* Details: Do note however that this isn’t a straightforward operation. Voxel was unable to comply with our request to move all servers on the same day. Instead, we’ve made arrangements with them to give us additional servers. These would replace the ones that are due to be migrated on a later date.

In short, this means there’d only be one downtime, but this also means that instead of just powering up the servers after the move, there would be quite a bit of setting up work which we would have to perform. i.e. After Voxel completes their move, we would need an additional one-two hours as a buffer for this set-up time.

That said, we will try our hardest to keep to within the maintenance window stated above. Live updates will be provided during the migration, both here and through twitter @zopim.

[Update: 9 May 2012] We have made a special request to our friends at Voxel to move all our servers in one maintenance window. Please check back for updates.

Our dedicated server provider, Voxel.net, is performing a facility migration over two weeks. Since we have several servers with them, Zopim Live Chat will be unavailable during the following maintenance windows:

• Friday, May 18 2012, 11PM to 5AM EST (UTC-5)
• Saturday, May 19 2012, 11PM to 5AM EST (UTC-5)
• Saturday, May 26 2012, 11PM to 5AM EST (UTC-5)

Downtime is expected to last between 1 and 1.5 hours, though it may take up to 6 hours if unexpected issues occur. Our engineers will be monitoring the situation closely and we will resume service as soon as our servers are online.

For urgent support requests or feedback during this period, we can be reached via Twitter (@zopim), this blog, or email (feedback at zopim dot com).

Be there for your customers when they need you! Start your free Zopim trial today

* Note: This post specifically relates to the design of the chat widget on our own website. It is still undergoing testing, but we’d like to gather some feedback before introducing it as a replacement for the current default design.

Some of you might have noticed subtle changes to Zopim’s chat widget over the weekend. The original design of the widget hasn’t changed much since our launch in 2010. As we build up to the launch of Zopim 2.0, we’d be making our widget more attractive and user-friendly, so your website visitors would feel more comfortable starting a conversation with you.

The first phase is a light touch-up of our existing design. We’re taking a minimalistic approach to this. Wherever it’s possible for us to tastefully remove background colors, borders, etc.. from the original design, we’ve done it. We’ve also removed informational messages that we deemed redundant. By distracting the web visitor less, he / she can focus more on the (hopefully engaging) conversation with you =)

We’ve highlighted some of the changes below. Looking forward to your comments.

1. Name headers
   The rounded background has been replaced with simple colored fonts
   
2. Buttons
   Button images replaced with CSS-styled buttons
   
3.  Status Messages
   Removed non-critical status messages
   
4. Larger font size, better contrast
   Better readability
   
5. Less prominent branding
   

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Dear users,

We will be performing regular maintenance of our servers on Saturday 28 Apr 2012 at 11PM PDT for approximately two hours.  During this period, Zopim’s Live Chat service will not be available.

Hope to have your patience and understanding on this!

Be there for your customers when they need you! Start your free Zopim trial today

It’s been a month of late nights (and more to come) as we stepped up to prepare for the launch of the new dashboard. I decided to take a breather this long Easter weekend and looked what I found!

Support Grinch!

I never got tired looking at the Support Grinch (who is actually Wenxiang, but who could tell) tight green suit, lime Mohawk hair and red tights. Unforgettable and charming at the same time, the Support Grinch had hordes of people crowding around him at any moment. As Cody from portfolio.com pointed out, he bears an uncanny resemblance to a modern day Sleestak!

SLEESTAK?

Note: don’t let the smiley faces and hug photos fool you! The horrors from the epic battle between the Support Grinch and heroic players are still fresh in our minds. It took one entire day, hundreds of brave souls and countless attack tweets to finally transform the grouchy Support Grinch.

Onslaught of tweets!

  For those who needs a refresher, here’s how it all began..

How it all began....

And here comes the most burning question: who won the MacBook Air?? It’s none other than James, a Zopim paying user, who was earnestly sending telepathic hugs day and night, all the way from SPAIN! Not surprising why he managed to clinch the highest score and walked away with a MacBook Air! Congratulations James!

Oh and did we mention that we were picked up by Wall Street Journal and Austin360? We were also listed on the happenings and highlights of SXSW 2012 on various techblogs such as Pandodaily and Portfolio.com. All thanks to everyone of you who supported us! Hope you had some crazy fun too : )

And now.. back to the new dashboard ;p Have you signed up for beta access yet?

Be there for your customers when they need you! Start your free Zopim trial today

This is the first post in our user experience (UX) discussion series featuring our new dashboard. Many of you are really excited about the new dashboard and want a say in how it eventually turns out. So we thought it would be good for us to share our design considerations, and to have an open discussion with everyone involved. As usual, constructive feedback will be most welcomed:

1. Highlight specific situations where your usability is compromised.
   e.g. “when I’m on a small netbook screen, I’m only able to see very few visitors”
2. Leave out emotive, unqualified comments – they are likely to be overlooked
   e.g. “I like the brown look, it gives more OOMPH”

Episode One – New Dashboard, Fresh Beginning

As we close in on the release date of our brand new dashboard, we’re really keen to share some behind-the-scene discussions we had about User Interface (UI) improvements.

Having an existing dashboard was a great start, since we’ve gotten almost two years worth of user feedback / criticisms. The pain points that were highlighted became the reference point in our very first design iteration.

Pain points

For example, a major pain was that for a busy website, the “Visitor List” didn’t work too well, since it became rather long and disorganized. Serving customers on a first-come-first-served basis became a challenge as well.

Current Vistor List

This was why we added a prominent “Serve Next” button that immediately puts you in a chat with the longest-waiting visitor.

Serve Request

We also allowed you to neatly “Group” visitors (e.g. by country / by URL).

NEW Visitor List

During the life cycle of the old dashboard, we’ve also been guilty of adding features that felt disjointed from the rest of the UI. With a revamped design, we had a chance to rethink how these features should work together. Factoring in our product roadmap, we also tried to future-proof our design as much as possible.

User Testing

After countless design iterations (and heated debates!), we arrived at our very first prototype last year, and were ready for early user testing. This was where we are thankful for the handpicked group of customers, who spent their precious time on Skype with our product team.

As we anticipated, there was a mixed reception to the initial prototype. While everyone loved the new clean look, we also got amazing feedback about common use cases we inadvertently overlooked. One of them is the ability to visualize how each and every visitor is moving through your website, in real time. We realized many of you love stalking.. er following visitors as they surfed from page to page (and it’s not really a bad thing). This inspired the new visualization feature on the dashboard. You can now stalk to your hearts’ delight.

Visualization

In  future episodes, we will discuss some of these topics in further depth

• Impact of Framework on UX
• Scalable Visitor List
• Efficient Chat Experience
• Visualization

Get Early Access

As we rolled out refinements and quick design changes on a bi-weekly basis, our pool of happy beta dashboard users also grew. We’re now confident of rolling this out on a larger scale. So here’s how you can get your hands on our spanking new dashboard:

1. If you are the account owner, get early beta access by filling up the short form on www.zopim.com/account/betaaccess
2. Once this is done, all your agents would be able to access the beta dashboard on beta.zopim.com

There is a prominent “Feedback” button in the Dashboard. This goes straight to the product team. You can also leave your comments on this blog =)

Be there for your customers when they need you! Start your free Zopim trial today

It’s no secret that we’ve been working on a new version of our dashboard, widget, and website. And we’re reaching the stage where we can start letting you get your hands on some improvements.

From here on, you can look forward to mini releases and some extra sweetness once every few weeks. These mini updates include anything from UI changes, launch of new features, or random musings by the product team.

Just last week we rolled out a version of the chat widget which works on iOS devices to all users. This week, we’re announcing a spanking new theme editor for the chat widget, and we’re throwing in some new themes as well!

Fresh from the oven: Widget Theme Editor

This new widget theme editor is from the future. Some of you using the beta HTML5 dashboard may already have played around with it. We’ve extracted that out, and made it available for all users. You can access it as follows:

1. From the dashboard, go to “Settings > Customize Widget > Open Theme Editor”.
2. Alternatively, go straight to dashboard.zopim.com/themeEditor!

Zopim Theme Editor

So what’s new?

Many of you love the ability to change widget color / themes / greeting messages without having to change the widget embed code. Now we’ve extended it to include customization for language, chat bubble messages and colors, right from within the theme editor.

Customized chat bubble

That’s not all. You can now preview the settings live as if it’s on your site! We took pains to build in a live preview so all you need to do, is to key in your website URL on the top right hand box to see the changes live.

Live Preview

Last but not least, we have some bonus new themes! Now that you have more variety to choose from, it’s time to give your chat widget a new look and feel for the year. Here’s a sneak peak:

New Themes!

New themes will be rolled out over the next few months so watch this space! If you have a rockstar widget design that will bowl us over, or some fancy design ideas that you dreamt of as you’re reading this, please get in touch via marketing@zopim.com.

Be there for your customers when they need you! Start your free Zopim trial today

This year we will be rocking SXSW in Austin again! And instead of just standing by a boring booth, we’ll be taking to the streets with a geolocation game called HugTheGrinch, which we conceived and developed in the last two weeks.

Here’s how it works, our co-founder (VP Partying / Engineering) Wenxiang will be dressed up as a super badass Support Grinch. He will be terrorizing the innocent civilians of Austin with his unsanitary vocabulary, outrageous hairdo and evil smirk.

Seeing all you happy pple makes me SICK!

Instead of punishing him for his crazy antics, we advocate reforming him through love and hugs. Log into HugTheGrinch.com to register and track down the Grinch. Find him, grab a photo of you hugging him, and tweet the picture! Even if you’re not at SXSW, you can still join in the fun by attacking the Grinch from afar.

Oh, did we mention AWESOME prizes? The top player walks off with a MacBook Air! There’ll also be many other prizes to reward the craziest players.

 Start hunting down the Support Grinch @
HugTheGrinch.com

What about Zopim users?

We’d love the chance to meet many of you face-to-face, and talk about your experience with Zopim. Do approach the Grinch to say hi, and join in the fun. We’d much rather be handing the prize to one of our customers, so here’s what we’re doing:

• We’re blogging about this before the game launches. This way, you guys can get a head start on HugTheGrinch.com
• Once you’ve registered, verify yourself as a customer on this page.
• From this point on, all your attack scores will be doubled!

We’ve also made some irresistible Grinch and Zopim apparel. Identify yourselves as a Zopim customer to get your hands on them! We have limited stocks, so grab em early!

Grinchy goodies for all

How this came about

Linking back to our business, customer engagement software is only part of the equation for customer happiness. We often see you, our users inject great passion, humor and spontaneity when using Zopim to chat with their customers. This reinforces our belief that true customer joy can only be delivered when people within the organization are positively happy. This was why we embarked on a campaign to eliminate the Grinch in ourselves / organizations, and spread joy, happiness and positivity through hugs.

It’s no secret that our development team has been working on a new state-of-the-art HTML5 dashboard. Using the backend infrastructure, and knowledge we’ve amassed over the past year, we’ve managed to conceive and develop this mobile game over two short weeks during our spare time, and (a lot) of post-office hours.

This game really won’t be possible without the hard work of our team here in Singapore. We’re blessed to have a great and fun-loving team. Don’t worry, no devs were abused in the last two weeks.  We kept everyone well-fed and fat.

It’s been a fun process for us, and we hope you’d have a rewarding time playing this at SXSW or from the comfort of your home.

Be there for your customers when they need you! Start your free Zopim trial today

Following the many ‘What people think I do’ memes, we have specially created one just for our dearest CSRs, and all you Customer Support evangelists. Hope you like it!

P.S. That’s not what we really do… oh wait a minute… ;p

Be there for your customers when they need you! Start your free Zopim trial today

<script>
$zopim(function(){
  $zopim.livechat.bubble.setColor('#000000');
})
</script>

<script>
$zopim(function(){
  $zopim.livechat.iLove && $zopim.livechat.iLove('Zopim Orange Bubble');
})
</script>

Be there for your customers when they need you! Start your free Zopim trial today