Consolto Videochat Vs. Skype: Which is better? 

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In today's world, having a reliable and versatile means of communication is vital. There are numerous web conferencing providers out there.

Which one is for you? 

The answer to this question is not as simple as before. There is no more a "one-size-fits-all" videochat solution. It really depends on the use case.

TL;DR; If you provide service to your clients via video-chat, Consolto is for you. If you video-chat with business peers (within a company) or with friends&family - Skype is for you.

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This comparison focuses on use-case #1 - providing service to clients by Videochat (it's not a business-internal communication event). Examples: 

• ‍Consultants - accountants, psycho therapists, coaches, doctors, dietitians, lawyers, life-hackers, teachers and more...
• ‍Freelancers that work remotely with their clients.
• Customer service / support teams that provide remote assistance.
• Complex online sales: when an extra word is necessary to make a sell.

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Video chat quality and ease

• Ease of initiating video-calls: Freelancers, consultants and service providers have a very unique mode of work. In most cases their clients aren't within their social or business circles. A doctor will usually not be a skype-friend with her patients. The same applies to a psychotherapist and other professions. Skype forces users to be friends or at least find their peer on the Skype social network. The significance of this is that a Doctor, for instance, will need to send her skype-ID to clients and they will need to search that skypeId in order to initiate a connection. On the other hand, the videochat flow on Consolto is tailored to a "service-provider/client" use-case. Clients arrive the service provider's website and initiate web-calls from it, within the context of that service provider. ‍
• Installation: Clients using Consolto simply start videocalls from the website of the service-provider. No installation, no downloads, no login. Skype requires that both sides have skype installed and both sides need to login which could be cumbersome and challenging for non-technical people. ‍
• In-call features: Both Consolto and Skype provide screensharing capabilities. Text chat is also possible on both solutions. Turning camera, mic on and off is simple on both solutions. Consolto adds a mute-speakers feature as well as an ability to switch between cameras and microphones. Cool!

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Beyond video communication

• Scheduling: Consolto provides an appointment-scheduling module integrated within the solution. That means that in cases where a service provider cannot answer, they will be forwarded to book a meeting. Skype has a scheduling feature within Skype-for-business which is not relevant in a client/service-provider use case.
• Money transfer: Both Consolto and Skype help freelancers and consultants transform their time to cash by performing money transactions. Both Skype and Consolto have chosen Paypal as the payment gateway to perform money transactions. However, while on both Consolto and Skype a person can send a payment request and receive cash, on Consolto the service provider can also set a cost-per-session rate such that the sessions are pre-paid.
• Offline communication: Both Consolto and Skype provide asynchronous and synchronous chat (online and offline chat). Consolto also provides an inbox lead generator, a link to Whatsapp and to Facebook messenger. These help the service provider be accessible on the channels that the client chooses.

The extra mile

• Impression: Professional tools usually make better impression. Having a skype-call with a client is like using yourname@gmail.com as your business email. It works but isn't the best way to build trust and confidence among clients. Consolto on the other hand provides a professional framework to provide online-sessions as well as manage a long customer-business relationship.
• Analytics: Consolto, as a website plugin, provides an extra layer of analytics to help freelancers and consultants track the efficiency of their website. It's like a google-analytics dashboard for service-providers: how many calls, how many chats, how many were responded etc...
• ‍Cost: Skype is free on a non-professional plan. Skype-for-business costs On Consolto, the lowest plan costs $10/month.

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In summary, Skype is probably THE synonym for Video-chat but in today's world it is not optimized for all use-cases.
Consolto.com is optimized for freelancers, consultants, support teams and e-commerce sales teams that want to personalize their interaction with their clients.

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