2014

CUSTOMER SUCCESS

SAHAREngaging with Live Chat to Deliver Compassion and Hope

© 2014 LivePerson, Inc. 2

CUSTOMER SUCCESS SAHAR

Nonprofit SAHAR offers free online assistance to people who are experiencing emotional distress. Individuals who are depressed or suicidal and need someone to lend an ear can reach out for support through

SAHAR’s website and various social channels. To connect its network of approximately 100 volunteers with those

seeking to assistance, SAHAR relies on live chat powered LivePerson—in Hebrew and Arabic. The organization

conducts approximately 1,000 live chat sessions each month and added mobile live chat with the help of

LivePerson last year, which now accounts for 20 percent of all chats conducted.

ProfileFounded in 2002 and located

in Israel, SAHAR is a nonprofit

organization that engages

with people suffering from

depression or with suicidal

thoughts through a network

of 100 volunteers.

The Challenge• Enable real-time digital

engagement with

distressed individuals

• Offer mobile chat

• Leverage data insights

to improve chat and

information effectiveness

The SolutionEngagement Model:

Live chat engagement

on website and Facebook

Underneath the Hood:

LiveEngage delivers Click-to-

Chat and enrichment analytics

LivePerson Customer Success:

Assistance with mobile live

chat integration; ongoing

technical support and training

and education of volunteers

The Results20% annual live chat growth rate

1,000 live chats

conducted monthly

20% of live chat

conversations now

via mobile devices

Rich data insights

for coaching

and content

Every year, almost one million people commit

suicide globally; this equates to one death every

40 seconds.1 And while some of these could be

prevented, studies indicate there are insufficient

services available to assist those in need—

specifically at critical points when they are in

crisis.2 It was with this premise in mind that

SAHAR was founded in 2002.

Based in Israel, SAHAR offers an anonymous,

confidential online environment that attracts

people in crisis by offering them a listening ear,

mental support, and empathy. What’s really unique

about SAHAR is that it does so with the help of

volunteers. The non-for-profit organization has

six employees. These six staff recruit, train, and

work with approximately 100 volunteers who staff

synchronous and asynchronous communications.

Its support occurs through three online group

forums and one-on-one live chat funneled through

its website and Facebook page. These real-time

connections occur during a three-hour window

each evening from 9 p.m. until 12:00 a.m.

(11:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. GMT) 365 days a year.

With at least one-third of those who communicate

with SAHAR being suicidal, the organization has

helped rescue individuals who threatened to

commit suicide or were actually in the process

of trying. In many other instances, through a

supportive engagement, SAHAR has helped

other individuals who were highly distressed to

find the right resources, enabling them to avoid

hasty decisions. SAHAR offers support in both

Hebrew and Arabic, with about 70 percent of its

engagements in Hebrew and 30 percent in Arabic.

1 “Worldwide Suicide Prevention Day: September 10, 2014,” International Association for Suicide Prevention, www.iasp.info/wspd, accessed March 2, 2014.

2 “Worldwide Suicide Prevention Day: Stigma: A Major Barrier to Suicide Prevention,” International Association for Suicide Prevention, World Health Organization, September 10, 2013.

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CUSTOMER SUCCESS SAHAR

© 2014 LivePerson, Inc.

The right partnershipLivePerson LiveEngage has served as the live chat platform since

SAHAR first went live. As LivePerson was seen as a leader in the

digital engagement space, SAHAR approached the LivePerson

management team about providing live chat engagement pro bono

(part of LivePerson Cares, a global outreach program that supports

individuals and collective initiatives to impact local communities in

positive, meaningful ways). LivePerson quickly saw the value of what

SAHAR was seeking to accomplish and agreed. The relationship has

evolved over the past 12 years.

SAHAR could have sought support from other providers but

specifically turned to LivePerson because it wanted a solution in

the cloud that offered seamless ease of management. The security

standards around privacy and confidentiality that are integrated

into the LivePerson platform were also factors that have become

increasingly important.

“The Click-to-Chat feature and enrichment analytics are also critical

requirements for us,” notes Adi Lahav, the chief executive officer of

SAHAR. “We are a ‘learning’ organization, and the ability to segment

and analyze chat conversations gives us valuable research insights

that we can share with the broader psychological society. But it also

enables us to coach our volunteers better and engage with those in

distress in more effective ways—whether through information on

the website or through social channels.”

What really count are the intangibles, according to Adi. “Our Customer

Success manager treats us like we’re a regular, paying customer,” he

says. “Whenever we need help from Technical Support, they are there

with answers. And whenever we need consultation, our Customer

Success manager is ready to offer recommendations.”

The role LivePerson plays in these connections cannot be underplayed. We save lives every day with the help of LivePerson.

– Adi Lahav, CEO, SAHAR

Ease of management, ease of useClick to Chat is available on SAHAR’s website, Facebook page, and the

Hillel—a website for young adults who have left the ultra-orthodox

world and are trying to assimilate into the larger Israeli society—24

hours a day. SAHAR chose not to deploy proactive rules out of respect

for the privacy of those who are visiting its website, Facebook page, or

the Hillel site. For timeframes when live chat and online forums are not

staffed, which is 21 hours of the day, visitors have the ability to email

messages and are invited back when volunteers are available to chat.

Click to Chat is a static button on the SAHAR website and Facebook

page. SAHAR doesn’t employ proactive chat using rules within the

LiveEngage platform. “We must respect the privacy of those who

are visiting our website and Facebook page,” Adi says. “This is

why we haven’t chosen to use the proactive chat features of the

LivePerson solution.”

Last year, Adi sought the help of his LivePerson Customer Success

manager to integrate a mobile friendly live chat addition from

LivePerson. “Some of our Arabic-speaking audience don’t have

computers and their mobile devices are their only means of

engaging with us,” Adi says. But the prior LivePerson deployment

wasn’t optimized for mobile devices, and interactions within the

chat engagement widow were cumbersome at best. “We wanted

those seeking our support to have an optimal experience when

chatting with us via mobile,” For help the SAHAR team turned to

its Customer Success manager and the LivePerson Labs team.

Mobile is certainly a growing preference for those reaching out

to SAHAR. Out of the thousands of visitors to the organization’s

website each month and the thousands of fans who follow the SAHAR

Facebook site, 20 percent are using mobile devices. And this is not

a static number; SAHAR is seeing 20 percent annual growth in the

number of mobile devices used by those who visit the organization’s

website and Facebook page—and the numbers are comparable for

those Clicking to Chat. More than 200 of the approximately 1,000

live chat sessions SAHAR conducts monthly are on mobile devices.

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CUSTOMER SUCCESS SAHAR

© 2014 LivePerson, Inc.

We are a ‘learning’ organization, and the ability to take chat conversations and segment them and analyze them gives us valuable research insights that we can share with the broader

psychological society.– Adi Lahav, CEO, SAHAR

Volunteers matriculate to engagementThe training program SAHAR has in place for its live chat and online

forum volunteers is quite extensive. It was designed by SAHAR’s

board of directors, which includes experts in the fields of psychology

and psychiatry, in concert with SAHAR’s staff. The six-month training

program for volunteers features courses taught by Jewish and Arab

professionals and lecturers. The aim is to provide volunteers with the

knowledge, tools, and emotional support needed to prepare them for

engaging with those in distress.

Volunteers also undergo training on the LivePerson LiveEngage

platform. The LivePerson Customer Success manager coordinated

with SAHAR staff to integrate learning modules targeted to address

SAHAR’s learning requirements. “As the LivePerson solution has

evolved over the years, we have collaborated with our Customer

Success manager to evolve our training program to reflect those,”

Adi notes. “For example, when the mobile live chat capability was

added last year, our Customer Success manager worked with us to

ensure that our training program included details on how to chat with

someone using a mobile device. The dynamics are different, and our

existing volunteers as well as new volunteers need to understand those.”

Each night, SAHAR typically places two volunteers on live chat, one

to monitor the online forums and one to do what is called “outreach

patrol,” time spent monitoring the organization’s Facebook page and

other online channels. The outreach patrol uses Web monitoring

tools that are programmed to look for specific words or phrase on

websites, online forums, Facebook pages, and other Internet channels.

The volunteer staffing the outreach patrol then leaves a message,

expressing empathy and inviting the individual in distress to come

and use SAHAR’s services—either to join one of three online forums

or to engage via live chat. In addition, a member of the SAHAR staff

supervises and guides the three volunteers as they interact via live

chat and the online forums.

Saving lives“Psychologists have discovered that writing has therapeutic attributes,”

Adi points out. “The anonymity of our online engagement channels

allows those who engage with us to express their emotions without

inhibition. Many of them may never pick up the phone for support,

but they will engage with live chat and discuss events such as sexual

abuse, rape, and other very difficult subjects.”

The role LivePerson plays in these connections cannot be

underplayed. “LivePerson should be very proud of what it is doing—

from the product team to the Customer Success organization,” Adi

asserts. “We save lives every day with the help of LivePerson.

About LivePerson

LivePerson, Inc. (NASDAQ: LPSN) offers a cloud-based platform that enables businesses to proactively connect in real-time with their customers

via chat, voice, and content delivery at the right time, through the right channel, including websites, social media, and mobile devices. This

“intelligent engagement” is driven by real-time behavioral analytics, producing connections based on a true understanding of business

objectives and customer needs. LivePerson is headquartered in New York City with offices in San Francisco, Atlanta, Tel Aviv, London, Amsterdam,

and Melbourne.

LivePerson, Inc.

T: 212.991.1794

475 Tenth Ave

F: 212.609.4233

5th Floor

info@liveperson.com

New York, NY 10018

www.liveperson.com