Congratulations on selecting NetSupport 24-7. In a few steps you will have available a unique set of online tools to allow you to effortlessly interact with customers direct from your company website.

Before you begin using NetSupport 24-7, this guide will provide you with a very brief summary of the main features included in the product and advice on how best to utilise the solution.

Topics covered in this guide are:

Registration and Installation     

Configuration - Add or Edit Operators 
Configuration - Customise your Chat setup 
Configuration - Customise your Remote Control client setup 
Configuration - Manage your company account details 

Using NetSupport 24-7 for the first time
Using the NetSupport 24-7 Operator Console
Using the dynamic Remote Control
 
Reports 




Registration and Installation

The first step towards using NetSupport 24-7, is to register for your free 14 day trial of the solution. To do this complete the form, as shown below on the main registration page. Basic contact details are required, and it should be noted that these details will be used to create your default Operator ready for use in NetSupport 24-7.

For this registration you are required to indicate which languages your starting Operator is able to communicate in. When you add subsequent Operators you will be able to add or amend the languages selected.

 

If you have been provided with a partner code, please enter this on the registration form. If the partner code field is already completed, then please do not amend this value.

Once you have submitted your registration an email will be sent to the addess provided. On receipt of the email please respond to the message so that your account can be validated. The screen below will be presented to validate your email address :



Having supplied your registration code you will be taken to the NetSupport 24-7 welcome screen. The system is already configured ready for use, however to begin you will need to either paste the supplied html code into your existing web pages so that the NetSupport 24-7 "Chat Now" button is available on your website, or use the provided URL link to test the system. (see using NetSupport 24-7 for the first time)

 


Please note that this html code will be made available to you whenever you amend your chat settings using the "Chat Setup" wizard detailed later in this guide.



Using NetSupport 24-7 for the first time

Your NetSupport 24-7 account is configured with default settings. In due course you can use the configuration wizards detailed below in this guide to customise the solution to your specific requirements. If you want to try NetSupport 24-7 first to gain an overview of the functionality then this section will provide a brief step by step guide to using NetSupport 24-7 for the first time.

To begin using NetSupport 24-7 you need to (a) have an Operator available and (b) have a user request a chat session.

First, open the "Operator Console" from the left hand menu to view current chat requests and respond to selected items.

Next, for a customer to request a chat, NetSupport 24-7 provides 3 easy options, these are :

(1) Paste the NetSupport 24-7 chat script into the body section of a webpage on your site. The script is provided at the end of your initial registration process, or can be accessed at any time by running the chat setup wizard and selecting finish. This code will add a NetSupport 24-7 chat button to your site that can be used by customers on an ongoing basis.

Or

(2) From the Operator Console view select "link for Company Chat Page" from the main lower options panel. This provides a sample web page containing the NetSupport 24-7 chat button and avoids the need for you to add the 24-7 code into your own html pages while evaluating. You can simply Copy and Paste this URL to send to other users, or simply link to this page from your existing website.

Or

(3) From the Operator Console view, select "Email Chat Link" from the main lower options panel. This creates an email ready to send to any selected recipient and automatically contains the link required to start a chat session.

n.b in all of the options above, should you wish for testing purposes, you can act as both Operator and Customer on the same computer. This allows you to review all of the chat features, however the Remote Control function will not operate.  
 



Configuration - Add / Edit Operators

By default your NetSupport 24-7 account will start with a single Operator (Admin) based on your initial registration details. NetSupport 24-7 allows any number of Operator accounts to be defined, however depending on your subscription level,  the number of concurrent operators in use at any one time may be restricted.

Select "Manage Operators" from the main Console menu on the left ( visible to Admin users only).

The initial view will show the currently defined Operators. For each Operator, their name, languages supported and group memberships are indicated. In addition Operators can be assigned Admin status, which provides access to all of the configuration menus not normally available to a standard operator.



An existing Operator account can be amended by selecting the "edit" button.

To create additional Operator accounts, complete the standard form as detailed below, and identify which languages and groups the Operator is assigned to.   N.b  in NetSupport 24-7 Operators can be assigned to multiple groups such as ( Sales, Support, Admin and so on)  and can be indentified as having a range of different language skills ( e.g. French, English). When a customer starts a chat session, the groups and languages presented to the customer for selection will reflect the combined skills of the current  online operators.

To create additional chat groups, please see the Configuration - Customise your Chat setup section of this guide.



Currently NetSupport 24-7 provides localisation of the customer facing screens for 26 different languages.

A newly created Operator account will carry a status of "awaiting confirmation" until the Operator has replied to the automatically generated email validation message.



Configuration - Chat Setup

NetSupport 24-7 features a powerful, yet easy to use Chat facility which is immediately available for use. The chat features does however offer almost total customisation to suit your operational needs as well as providing a simple step by step wizard to take you through this process.

Select "Chat Setup" from the main Console menu on the left ( visible to Admin users only).



Chat Groups - NetSupport 24-7 Operators can be assigned as members of custom groups such as ( Sales, Support, Admin and so on). When a customer initiates a chat session a list of groups is presented to the customer for selection. Once selected, the new chat alert is then sent to all active Operators that are members of the selected group.

New groups are be added simply by entering the new group name required at the base of the form and clicking on the "ADD" button. This group is now available to be assigned against your Operator accounts. 


Message Lists - These are a list of pre-defined messages that can quickly and easily sent by the operator to your customer during a chat session. These pre-defined or "canned" messages are added by entering both a friendly name (the short name displayed in the Operator console), and the full text message you wish to store. By default NetSupport 24-7 includes a few example messages.



Typical  Pre-defined messages could include items such as " welcome to our site...."," thank you for visiting us..." and specific information on appropriate products and services.


URL Lists - As with the message lists,  you can also define a list of pre-defined URL's. This list of URL's is displayed in the operators console and an operator can send and open the URL in the customer’s web browser by simply clicking on the desired URL in their list. (see "Push URL's" in the Operator console section). 

New URLs are added by entering the URL required and a suitable friendly name for display within the Operator console.



Chat Start Page - For most companies the easiest method for implementing the NetSupport 24-7 customer chat feature is to embed the html code provided at the end of the registration process ( or at the end of the Chat setup wizard) into their existing web pages. However if this is not appropriate, NetSupport 24-7 also generates a unique chat "launch" page that can be used to initiate customer chats.

Often this link will be added to the footer of an email for example or included in a mail campaign. 

This unique Chat Start page can be customised to include your Company logo and a personalised greeting or instructions for your customers. 

Chat Link Image - A customer typically starts a chat session by clicking on a Chat button on your website. As such, the choice of button is important to make sure it achieves maximum visibility. From this menu option you are able to chose from a selection of standard NetSupport 24-7 buttons or if required select a button of your own design, using the "Custom images" option.

Note. NetSupport 24-7 uses two different buttons to indicate when Operators are available and when the company is "out of hours". 


Customise Appearance - You have spent time on your website - choosing the correct colours and selecting a logo that your customers recognise. You can now customise the Chat dialog that your customers will see, to blend in with your websites look and feel.

Below are some examples:



Email Configuration - If your customer tries to initiate a chat session, and there are no operators available, your customer will be prompted to send an Email to the address configured in this dialogue. In addition NetSupport 24-7 can also send a full history of the chat session, immediately the chat is ended, to the History Email address specified within this dialogue.

(Note: All completed Chat histories are also accessible from the main reports section). 

New Chat Alerts - When a new Chat session is started you can alert the logged on operators using a variety of methods from Audio alerts, to Pop up and emailed messages. Any number of alert methods can be selected from this dialogue.

Once all of the Chat settings have been amended a copy of your html Chat Code is displayed for inclusion within your own site web pages. Simply select the html code displayed and use Copy (Ctrl+C) to copy the code ready to paste (Ctrl+V) into the body section of your pages.

 



Configuration - Remote Control Client Setup

After registration your NetSupport 24-7 account is automatically provided with a standard on-demand remote control package. The remote control component includes a large number of features and these can be customised to suit your business requirements. In addition, by reducing the number of features enabled within your Client setup you can also reduce the size of your on-demand client package ( size ranges from 420 Kb > 606kb depending on features included.)

The Client setup wizard will guide you through the process of setting up your configuration of the NetSupport 24-7 Client. Once this configuration is completed the revised client installation package will be created and made available for future Remote Control sessions.

Select "Client Setup" from the main Console menu on the left ( visible to Admin users only).




User Interview - When your NetSupport 24-7 Client is launched and run on a customer PC it will prompt for four pieces of information. These questions can be customised to suit your own business requirements by amending this dialogue.

Customise Text - While the on-demand client is in operation on the customers PC, NetSupport 24-7 can be configured to provide a range of visual indicators / messages to the customer to indicate activity or a change in state. These messages can be configured to suit your requirements.


Multi Connect - The NetSupport 24-7 Client can be configured to support more than one simultaneous operator connection. This can be useful if one operator needs the help of another to resolve a particularly difficult problem.

Inventory - The NetSupport 24-7 Client can be configured to allow scans of the hardware and software inventory of the customer’s computer. This Inventory also includes details (and control of) the current background Processes and Services running. You can also optionally allow an operator to Close running applications and start and stop Windows Services.



Note: If inventory is disabled then the inventory detection files are not included in the Client package, which will reduce the size of the on-demand download by approximately 100kb.

Encryption - NetSupport 24-7 can encrypt the screen data that is sent between the Customer and Operator. This data can be encrypted using a range of encryption algorithms from 64-bit DES encryption up to Military standard 256bit AES encryption.

Disconnect - When the operator disconnects from a NetSupport 24-7 client it can be configured to log off, lock or restart. Please set these options below if required.

Disable Features - All of the key features of the NetSupport 24-7 Client can be either enabled or disabled. By default they are enabled, this dialogue allows you to select any features you wish to disable.

Connection Point - The NetSupport 24-7 Remote Control feature uses an indirect connection between the Customer and the Operator. This connection is made possible by connecting to one of the regional NetSupport 24-7 Gateways.

The fastest responding Gateway is automatically selected, however you can override this by selecting a gateway from the list provided.




Configuration - Manage Company Account

This page shows the company profile for your organisation. You can change your company details by editing any of the values displayed and pressing the submit button. The bottom table shows a high level summary of your usage information for the current month.

The manage company account screen is also used to review and where appropriate amend your current subscription details.

 




The Operator Console

The Operator console is used by any NetSupport 24-7 operator to both monitor and manage incoming Chat requests as well as access and review reports and system configuration. It should be noted at this stage that the first time the product is used by an Operator they will be prompted to install the Operator Remote Control software. This is a one time installation ( per PC) that adds the necessary technology needed for a 24-7 Operator.



The Operator Console is separated into three key areas, to the left is the System Menu. The base of the sytem menu lists current active Operators, within their respective groups ( n.b an Operator can be a member of more than 1 group). At any time an Operator can select another Operator from this list and send them a message.

The main screen region is separated into an upper and lower region. The upper region lists all new and active chat requests received by the company. For an inactive Operator the lower part of the screen shows a basic system summary. Once a chat request has been selected by the Operator however, the low part of the screen becomes the active 1:1 chat session.  The divider between the upper and lower parts of the screen can be moved, and its position will be remembered for future use.

Active Chat Session

During an Active Chat session the 1:1 Chat window is constructed of a main feature Toolbar running across the top of the window, the left hand side of the window contains the active chat history, with the chat input box directly below.To communicate with the customer simply enter your message into the "send message box" and either press "Enter" or click on the "Send" button.



To the right of the chat history the Operator is presented with a thumbnail view of the Customers PC ( this is only operational if the Remote Control client has been launched). Below the Thumbnail view are three expandable menus, conatining both the "Canned Messages" and "URL links" defined earlier in the Chat setup section and key "system information" automatically gathered from the customer's PC at the start of the chat. Additional information in this section will be populated once the Remote Control client has been launched. Each of these three menus can be either opened or closed by clicking on either the arrow indicator or menu icon.



At this time the Operator is also able to push a one off URL by selecting the "Push a URL" from the main toolbar, the Operator will be prompted to enter the URL required and submit, this will then be automatically opened on the customer's desktop.

When the Operator console is not in use a small "chat checker" window will run in the lower right hand corner of your screen, this will check for new chat requests and if detected auctomatically open your Operator console. In addition a desktop application is available for download from the utilities page.





Using Remote Control


During the chat session it may be decided that Remote control is required to either aid in a problem resolution or to be used as part of a product presentation. To launch the Remote Control client on the customers PC the operator selects the "Send Remote Control" button from the main toolbar. This transmits the package to the customer who is prompted to agree the dynamic install of the package. Based on the Operating System and security configuration of the customers PC, they may be required to accept 1 or more security warnings at this time.

Once the Remote Control Client is Active, the Customer will be prompted to complete the standard client questions presented to them ( created in step one of the Client Setup wizard). This information is immediately available from the Operator system information panel at the lower right of the console. 

The Operator Thumbnail view will now display a 260 x 200 pixel active view of the customers PC and the update interval can be customised from 5 to 20 seconds.

The Operator Toolbar now provides three newly accesible options, View PC, File Transfer and Inventory. Each of these are launched by selecting the appropriate menu item.



 
View PC - The NetSupport 24-7 View window provides a powerful range of Remote Control features. The Operator can adjust the color depth of the screen information being transmitted from the Customers PC, this will normally impact on the speed of remote Control, the customers desktop can be scaled to fit on the Operators Screen, or the Operator can switch to full screen mode. From this View the Operator can also :-

> Send 1:1 messages direct to the Customer PC
> Remotely launch (Execute) Applications on the target PC from a command line.
> Transfer data between the local and remote clipboards of the Operator and Customers PCs.
> Capture a Screen Shot of the Customer's PC
> Use a range of annotation tools to highlight information on the customer's screen.

All of the Remote Control features provided are accessible from the main view window toolbar.

 

The Optimize menu allows you to configure the color palette used for transmitting screen information from the customers PC. As a general rule, the lower the number of colours sent, the faster the resulting screen performance will be. 



File Transfer - This provides the operator with a  complete file management suite for editing and transferring files and folder and directory synchronisation between the Operator and Customers PC.




Inventory - Selecting this option will prompt the on-demand client to perform a detailed scan of both the Hardware and Sofware on the customers PC. This is far more detailed than a typical inventory analysis and extends to include details of hotfixes and service packs installed, Applications currently running in memory and the ability to both view, and control Processes and Services on the customers PC. This information can be printed out or saved to file for future reference.




At any point the Operator can leave an active chat session by selecting the "leave Chat" button, this closes the Operators view of the chat session but leaves the session active. Typically this can be used when multiple Operators have been involved in a chat.


When a chat session is completed selecting "Exit Chat" whill permanently close the chat session, and will both close the chat on the customers PC and also automatically unload and remove the NetSupport 24-7 remote control client.
The Chat window on the Customers PC will then present the exit feedback survey.


Reports

A range of reports are provided to deliver a full and detailed summary of call activity for any given period, analysed by Operator, Feedback, Call group or langauge. A summary of report types is shown below.



Each report provides a graphical summary identifying call volume by Operator for the selected reporting period and average feedback rating. 


A detailed summary is provided below the chart summaries, identifying the key details for each call recorded, including Start and End time for each chat, the total duration of the call, Customer name and feedback rating if provided. For any selected chat history, selecting the "view log " link will open a full chat history for the selected record.


 

last updated 16/10/2005