We use the live chat at both
www.frik-n-frak.com and at
www.trickypuzzles.com and it works pretty darn well for us! Honestly, not a whole lot of people take advantage of it, but when they do, it usually results in a sale!
We're not always "online." However, even when we are not monitoring the online chat, a customer has yet one more way to contact us by clicking on the "offline - leave a message" button.
We like it most because of the "monitoring" capabilities. When we're really bored... we like to watch people as they navigate through the site! I mean... it beats Gomer re-runs! We can see how many visitors are at the site at any given time and what's being looked at. We see when a customer is having trouble at checkout or experiencing other errors (password not found, trouble accessing password protected puzzle solutions, checkout issues, etc.) and offer assistance.
For the small investment, it's VERY worth it for us to have the online chat!
...not to mention that when I'm on the way home from the office, I have a way of realtime contacting Fr*k to make sure that my grapes are peeled when I get home!
~fr_k