Creating a solid revenue stream with apps that ease online communication.
Sikora Works debuted on the LiveChat Marketplace with Quick Notes, the integration that allows agents to create short notes about customers for other teammates. Uncomplicated in its design and having one core functionality, the app turned out to be a huge success, and it’s been so far one of the best selling apps on the Marketplace.
”Customers like Quick Notes because it’s affordable and easy to use, yet makes a difference in their workflows. As a developer, I appreciate its simplicity - it makes the app robust and low-maintenance. Those kinds of integrations are perfect if you’re just starting out your journey with the LiveChat Platform,” says Jakub Sikora, the app author.
Next, Sikora Works released Google Hangouts Meet, an app that integrates LiveChat with a popular online meeting tool. At the beginning, the installation rate was slow but steady. The app started gaining more popularity when the pandemic of COVID-19 started. It broke the record in mid April, when the number of installations increased 8 times. Here’s how the app developer comments that:
Seeing that my app helps companies communicate during such difficult times as the global pandemic was very rewarding.
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Slack for LiveChat, another app by Sikora Works, has also been extensively used ever since the outbreak of COVID-19. As Jakub said, at some point, he exceeded all the limits from his service provider and had to implement a caching mechanism to solve the problem.
”I didn’t expect that much traffic. I advise you to think about scaling before you start coding your app. LiveChat has lots of customers, and even if only a few of them install your app, it can still generate huge traffic,” comments Sikora.
Developing Slack for LiveChat was more difficult than working on any other LiveChat integration. One of the challengens the developer had to overcome was differentiating between the Agent Chat API and the Customer Chat API, which was confusing for him at first. Once he got a hang of it, it opened the door to new possibilities.
”The LiveChat Agent Chat API is really powerful. There’s nice granularity to it. You can achieve a lot with the methods provided by the API,” says the developer.
Sikora Works has also used the Agent Chat API and the Configuration API to build Microsoft Dynamic Cases. As he was already very familiar with the APIs, and the integration itself was less challenging, the development went smoothly. The ready-to-use React components from the LiveChat Design System speeded up the process even more.
Using Design System saves you a ton of frontend development. You just mix and match the components, ending up with an app that’s in line with the LiveChat look & feel.
When asked about what has been of the most help during the development process, Jakub Sikora mentioned the LiveChat documentation, support, and the Distribution Toolkit.
”Even if you get stuck and can’t find the answer in the docs, you can reach out to the Developer Program team for support. They’ll also help you promote your app, for example, via campaigns on the Marketplace or email campaigns. In my case, the Marketplace campaigns made all the difference. They increased the sales of Quick Notes 3 times,” adds Sikora.
The LiveChat Marketplace is still relatively young and there’s plenty of room for new integrations. If you want to build apps that feature on the Marketplace, now is the best time to give it a shot.
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