Best WooCommerce Support Extensions Compared Help Scout vs Freshdesk vs Awesome Support

Customer support is usually the unsung hero behind plenty of e-commerce operations. If you dont have a decent system and competent agents in place, sooner or later your sales will be adversely affected. Thats why WooCommerce support extensions are crucial for anyone serious about their business.There are plenty of support  extensions available (and loads of WooCommerce extensions in general), all helping you to provide a better experience for your customers. In this piece,  weve narrowed the choices  down to the best three WooCommerce support extensions. Well look  at what makes them  so valuable, and how each solution fares  against each other. Help Scout vs Freshdesk vs Awesome SupportHelp ScoutFreshdeskAwesome SupportPrice of the extension (for a single site)$79$79$49Price of the service (per month, per agent)Free or $79 for the first premium tierFree or $16 for the first premium tierFreeSupported agents (for the basic tier)Unlimited3UnlimitedSupport channelsVia WordPr ess and via their platformVia WordPress, via their platform, and via phoneVia WordPressSupport for knowledge basesYesYesYes (another add-on)The value of WooCommerce support extensionsA good support experience is valuable for any service website, and doubly so for WooCommerce  sites. Big names such as Amazon understands this, going  above and beyond to provide an excellent  experience. This might seem like a waste of resources, especially when you could be focusing on internal  matters such as improving your invoicing  systems, but its arguably one of the reasons why the big companies dominate the market.Simply put, if youre committed to providing high-quality support,  installing a  WooCommerce support extension could improve your brand and customer experience, ultimately increasing your sales.The best WooCommerce support extensions comparedBelow, weve chosen three WooCommerce support extensions to focus on. Weve looked at their main features,  how well they integrat e, their price, and a quick consideration of each solutions best use case. Theyre in no particular order, so lets get started!Help ScoutHelp Scout is a big name in the support industry, with notable customers such as Basecamp, Buffer, and Pocket. They arent built exclusively for e-commerce support, but the necessary  functionality is included all the same.Main featuresCustomers can make multiple reports and check  on their status on a  personal dashboard.You  can  start conversations with customers while checking individual orders and posts.You can add Carbon Copy (CC) and Blind Carbon Copy (BCC) report recipients. This is perfect if you want to be kept in  the loop for tickets  while letting others handle them.Ability to handle reports from within WooCommerce, or through the Help Scout platform.You can embed customizable forms on your pages.Integration with WooCommerceAlthough Help Scout does enable you to handle reports within your store, you need to pay for a subscr iption on top of purchasing the extension. Once the extension is set up and youre subscribed, youll need to manually link your Help Scout account to WooCommerce.Price$79, $99, and $199 yearly subscriptions for the extension, which entitles you to support and updates. Afterwards, youre free to continue using the extension, albeit without further support.A  Help Scout subscription will cost you $20 or $40 per user, per month unless you stick to the free plan, which limits you to a single mailbox.When to consider using Help ScoutHelp Scout is a  robust support tool that  handles tickets from orders and posts, complete with  the option of automatically forwarding report copies via email.FreshdeskFreshdesk includes support for both WordPress sites and WooCommerce operations. It enables users to handle tickets in an organized fashion through the use of tags and categories, and to manage automatic replies.Main featuresEnables users to check their active tickets through their WooCom merce accounts.Provides your support team with private forums to discuss internal issues.Connects specific products to Freshdesk forums and categories, for easier management.Enables you to create a custom knowledge base that tackles the most common support issues for your operation.Lets  your team to provide support via Voice Over IP (VoIP) using the Freshdesk platform.Integration with WooCommerceSimilarly to  Help Scout, Freshdesk requires you to both purchase its extension and create an account on their platform to get started, then link your desired products.Price$79, $99, and $199 yearly subscriptions for the extension, including updates and support. You are free to keep the extension afterwards, but youll have to renew your subscription to access those features again.There are several pricing tiers for  Freshdesk: Free, $19, $35, $49, and $89 per month, per agent.When to consider using FreshdeskFreshdesk is ideal for providing your support team with a tool that enables th em to collaborate on support issues. In addition, it includes also a VoIP option if youd like  to go down that route.Awesome SupportAwesome Support in itself is an awesome (pun intended) tool if you want to provide support directly via your main WordPress website. And with this additional WooCommerce extension, you can integrate your store tightly with your way of handling customer support.Main featuresAll your e-commerce products visible in the Products tab of Awesome Support by default.Enables customers to leave feedback on their purchases, and send in support tickets.Every ticket can be linked to its corresponding order.Customers can specify which product within the order the ticket is related to.Everything is tied together, support tickets, products, and orders.Easy to use for your customers they can go to their account page, find a specific order theyre having problems with, and click the Get Help button to submit a ticket. All within a single dashboard.Integration with WooC ommerceThe integration in this case is very straightforward. All you need to do is first install and activate the main Awesome Support plugin, which is free. And then, install and activate the WooCommerce extension. After that, youre good to go. No sign-up anywhere needed.Price$49 (single site), $88 (two-five sites), $158 (unlimited sites). Each of these plans also entitles you to a full year of updates and premium support both for the extension itself and the main Awesome Support plugin.When to consider using Awesome SupportAwesome Support is a great solution for those who need deep integration with WordPress and WooCommerce, and dont necessarily want to have to sign up for a third-party support tool.ConclusionGood client relations are the bedrock of any e-commerce operation that wishes to succeed. Failure to get on board with customer relations could see your reputation take a hit, and your sales tumble.The three WooCommerce support extensions were featured provide you with all o f the necessary tools to achieve good customer service. Lets take one final look at each of them, and their best features:Help Scout: Lets you handle support tickets for orders and general inquiries through posts.Freshdesk: Enables you to offer  support using regular tickets and VoIP calls, and provide a community for your team.Awesome Support: Provides good integration with WooCommerce products and orders, and also lets customers submit tickets through their main user panel on your site.Are there any other WooCommerce support extensions that you would personally  recommend? Share them with everyone else in the comments section below!

Writting The Satire Example

Writting The Satire Example Writting The Satire – Coursework Example The Ambitious Increase in Missed H.O.R.S.E shots The reports from a local public basketball court on Monday indicated an increasing trend of missed shots of two young H.O.R.S.E young players. Earlier sources reported multiple dramatic three-pointer misses from shorter distances. The misses from short, obvious distances points at lack of talent in the field of play hence, the young men should relocate to different sports. The missed shots looked funny according to the multiple fans that sacrificed their precise time to come and witness the match. The humiliation became evident on the faces of fans who could only dream about victory for their team.Despite the humiliating misses, the players stepped further back on the court and took four consecutive turns launching half court shots. Unfortunately, all the four shots went astray as it is the normal case in the players’ profiles. The shots indicated the players’ perfection in the misses with the ball bouncing back the backb oard without even touching the rim. With the negative reports, it is clear that any professional coach should not accord a slot for them in their teams unless the team objects to lose. Every fan devoted to the team shifted mindset from wishing the team success to anticipating loss that they became sure about.The young players are a symbol of poor performance hence their inclusion in a team is a direct booking to lose a basketball competition. Just like other star players, the two players called out Swish prior to a number of their shots. A recorded instance is when trying to hit an impossible one hundred-turnaround fade away from the baseline (The Onion editors 1). The two players are best and at their pick only during individual shows when there are no opponents, fantasy basketball suits them most and not a reality show. At press time, one of the wasteful players confidently walked behind the basket for an unsuccessful attempt at striking the ball over the backboard. The futile sho ts are a usual practice and art associated with the young players, and every fan anticipates it every time they attempt on a shot.The Onion editors.† Missed H.O.R.S.E Shots Getting Increasingly Ambitious.† The Onion Newspaper 16 Feb 2015. Print.

W6 Legal Discussion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

W6 Legal Discussion - Essay Example In effect, taxes are in place to ensure that people stay responsible and give back to society from what society gives to them. On this basis, it becomes very questionable to think of taxing organizations such as non-profit health institutions whose sole approach to doing business is to help the people within their territories instead of making profits. As the adage is said, unto him much is given, much is required. However, these non-profit hospitals make no profits, based on which they will have to produce any taxes. Apart from the fact that non-profit hospitals do not make any profits based on which they will be taxed, it is also important to realize the fact that these hospitals make their contributions to society through the low cost and in some cases free medical service they provide (Walker, 2005). Because the fundamental wisdom behind the need to have taxes is to ensure that citizens become responsible to their countries, it will be argued that the efforts and activities of these hospitals are contributing and responsible enough for them not to be taxed. Consequently, the idea of tax exemption for non-profit hospitals is strongly supported. Stuart and Showalter (2011) acknowledged that in the administration of health institutions, monetary strength is very crucial. What this means is that at every point in time, the hospitals must be in a position to have sufficient funding to run their internal management affairs. Based on this understanding, an idea to tax the hospitals that are not for profit would only be a means of further depriving the hospitals from becoming financially independent. Having said this, the need for there to be sufficient scrutiny of the non-profit hospitals to ensure that they live up to the reasons for which they are tax exempted will be advocated. It is important that there will be sufficient auditing to ensure that hospitals do not take advantage of the country in the name of

Peter's Declaration to Alexei Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Peter's Declaration to Alexei - Essay Example This declaration in question partakes of the conventions of the ethical will, a didactic literary genre popular with Russian moralists of all political persuasions. However, instead of actually giving some moral and practical advice to Alexei, Peter decides to deprive him of his right to the inheritance of the throne. Peter I, though, does give reasons behind his attitude toward his son, one important issue being that Alexei does not even care to listen to him regarding the military affairs although they should be grateful to the military for being in the better position they were in now as compared to the previous times. It is apparent that Peter I felt that the art of war is something that should be known by every young man. He felt that it is the only way through which they can learn about order and defense and in Peter’s opinion, these two things are extremely important ingredients for there to be a well-ordered reign. Peter’s own son, however, failed in this area a nd it was his decision to disinherit him as he is of no use to the kingdom he would be getting after Peter I. Peter I felt that Alexei cannot rule without having the know-how of such things. Thus, without any hesitation, Peter gave his son the status of a lazy slave and made him appear as a good for nothing lad who can never make into this world. Peter, I was sad that he had not been able to change his son and make something out of him though he had tried every kind of action, including verbal and physical beatings and scolding.

Social Entrepreneurship Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Social Entrepreneurship - Essay Example It is antithetical to innovation, too political, wasteful, inefficient, and bureaucratic. Dees thinks that counting on independent social entrepreneurs provides society with more opportunities at a lower risk. Social entrepreneurs tend to be more inventive when compared to government in finding solutions to problems since they respond to failures by the government by creation of parallel tracks while inventing new models, which improve public, institutional performance. By that, he means that social entrepreneurs play a crucial role in supplementing or complementing government functions. Dees also feels that the use of charity as a means of dealing with poverty cannot be relied on since it avoids dealing with the real problem. Consequently, he believes that social entrepreneurs build sustainable refinement rather than offer temporary relief by use of charity. In Taking Social Entrepreneurship Seriously, J. Gregory Dees (2007, p. 25) writes, â€Å"While this focus on government as a social problem solver has led to some notable successes, such as increased access to education and health care for many, the experience also revealed the limits of government as the vehicle for social problem solving†. ... Social entrepreneurs do not place a limit on their activities because of the available resources. Rather, they first focus on the opportunity, then think about its implementation later. This is in contrast to the government administrative mindset, which is dependent on budget constraints that derail the planning processes and offer priority to projects, which are ready to go. Entrepreneurs mainly focus on developing their entrepreneurial idea, then start thinking of how to acquire the money to finance the venture. An entrepreneur willing to drill a borehole in Africa devotes time to identifying the area most in need, gets the residents involved, sets the wheels in motion, then finally looks for resources. On the other hand, government will have to fit in the project in its already stretched budget, which may see it given decreased priority. Social entrepreneurship came about, in part, because of the disappointment faced by entrepreneurs with projects run by the government. Recently, an Indian bank, Ecobank started offering savings for very low-income citizens after its partnership with government to offer credit, slowed down because of the government’s bureaucratic and rigid laws and regulations. Ecobank felt that private for-profit ventures have the ability to stimulate increased innovation and economic growth. Another issue that interests me and I would like to discuss from this article is that Dees (2007, p. 27) writes, â€Å"They aim to create sustainable improvements and are willing to draw on self-interest, as well as compassion to do it†. That is to say, social entrepreneurs, through motivation by self-interest, give their charity in order to establish

Concurrent Execution of Database

Concurrent Execution of Database Question 1: a) What is meant by concurrent execution of database in a multi-user system? Discuss why concurrency control is needed giving a suitable example. How the concept of Time stamp based and validation is based Protocols used in concurrency control. Ans:- Multiple transactions are allowed to run concurrently in the system. Concurrent execution of database is meant by execution of database in parallel. I.e. each transaction must behave in isolation. This means that the concurrent execution does not result an inconsistent state. Ensuring consistency in spite of concurrent execution of transactions requires is very complex Advantages are: increased processor and disk utilization, leading to better transaction throughput 4 E.g. one transaction can be using the CPU while another is reading from or writing to the disk reduced average response time for transactions: short transactions need not wait behind long ones. Timestamp Protocol: Timestamp is a unique identifier to identify a transaction. Timestamp can be considered to be as the transaction start time. It determines the concurrent execution such that the timestamp determines the serializability order. Time stamp holds two timestamp values: W-timestamp() is the largest time-stamp of any transaction that executed write() successfully. R-timestamp () is the largest time-stamp of any transaction that executed read() successfully. Suppose that transaction Ti issues write (Q). If TS (Ti) < R-timestamp (Q), then the value of Q that Ti is producing was needed previously, and the system assumed that that value would never be produced. Hence, the write operation is rejected, and Ti is rolled back. If TS (Ti) < W-timestamp (Q), then Ti is attempting to write an obsolete value of Q. Hence, this write operation is rejected, and Ti is rolled back. Otherwise, the write operation is executed, and W-timestamp(Q) is set to TS(Ti).The timestamp-ordering protocol guarantees serializability since all the arcs in the precedence graph are of the form. Timestamp protocol ensures freedom from deadlock as no transaction ever waits. Validation Protocol: The optimistic concurrency control techniques also known as validation or certification techniques, no checking is done while the transaction is executing. Several methods use the validation technique. Execution of transaction Ti is done in three phases. Read and execution phase: Transaction Ti writes only to temporary local variables Validation phase: Transaction Ti performs a validation test to determine if local variables can be written without violating serializability. Write phase: If Ti is validated, the updates are applied to the database; otherwise, Ti is rolled back. The three phases of concurrently executing transactions can be interleaved, but each transaction must go through the three phases in that order. Each transaction Ti has 3 timestamps Start(Ti) : the time when Ti started its execution Validation(Ti): the time when Ti entered its validation phase Finish(Ti) : the time when Ti finished its write phase This protocol is useful and gives greater degree of concurrency if probability of conflicts is low. That is because the serializability order is not pre-decided and relatively less transactions will have to be rolled back. Question 2: Why does deadlock occur in concurrent execution of transaction where locking scheme is followed? How can you detect deadlock in database system? How is the problem of deadlock resolved? Explain with the help of an example. Ans: Although locks prevent serious data inconsistencies but their use may lead to a major problem. The schedule may create deadlocks. A database deadlock is caused when two transactions wait for each other to unlock data. Deadlocks can be managed by using deadlock detection and prevention techniques. A deadlock is a condition that occurs when two transactions wait for each other to unlock data. Deadlocks occur when two transactions T1 and T2 exist in the following mode: T1 locks data item X and it needs to access Y while Y is locked by T2 T2 locks data item Y and it needs to access X while X is locked by T1 If T1 has not found unlocked data item Y and T2 needs Y, T2 cannot begin, if T2 has not unlocked data item X and T1 needs X, T1 cannot continue. Consequently T1 and T2 wait indefinitely, each waiting for the other to unlock the required data item. Three basic techniques exist to control deadlocks:- Deadlock prevention Deadlock detection Deadlock avoidance Deadlock prevention:- A transaction requesting a new lock is aborted if there is a possibility that a deadlock can occur. If the transaction is aborted, all the changes made by this transaction are rolled back, and all locks obtained by the transaction are released. The transaction is then rescheduled for execution. Deadlocks prevention works because it avoids the condition that leads to deadlock. In deadlock prevention, timed out schemes are used. Deadlock detection:- The DBMS periodically test the database for deadlocks. If a deadlock is found one of the transactions is aborted and the other transaction continues. The aborted transaction will be rescheduled for execution later on. The system uses wait- for graph. The system is in deadlock state if and only if the wait-for graph has a cycle. Deadlock avoidance:- The transaction must obtain all the locks it needs before it can be executed. This technique avoids rollback of conflicting transaction by requiring that locks be obtained in succession. The serial lock assignment required in deadlock avoidance increases transaction response. Example:- Deadlock checking occurs when a transaction has waited 30 seconds; no lock wait timeouts occur. Question 3: What is two phase locking? Describe with help of an example. Will two phase locking result in serialisable schedule? Will two phase locking result in deadlock? Justify your answer with the help of an example Ans: Two phase locking defines how transactions acquire and relinquish locks. Two phase locking gurantees serializability but it does not prevent deadlocks. The two phases are: Growing phase in which a transaction acquires all the required locks without unlocking any data. Shrinking phase in which a transaction releases all locks and cannot obtain any new lock. The two-phase locking protocol is governed by the following rules: Two transactions cannot have conflicting locks. No unlock operation can precede a lock operation in the same transaction. No data are affected until all locks are obtained that is until the transaction is in its locked point. Yes, two phase locking will result in deadlock because when mutual blocking between transactions occurs then it results deadlock. When deadlock occur, the execution of these transaction cannot be completed. So deadlock need to be resolved for completion of these transactions. Example:- In this example, the transaction acquires all the locks it needs until it reaches its locked point. When the locked point is reached is reached, the data are modified to confirm to the transaction requirements. Finally, the transaction is completed as it releases all of the lock it acquired in the first phase. Question 4: When do we use Log based recovery technique? Explain the write ahead log strategy for recovery in a centralized DBMS, with the help of an example. Ans: It is mostly used to structure for recoding database modifications. In a log based recovery a a log file is maintained for recovery purpose. Log file is a sequence of log records. There are two techniques for log based recovery. Deferred database modification: it ensures transaction atomicity by recording all database modifications in the log, but deferring the execution of all write operations of transactions until it is partially committed. Immediate database modification: it allows database modification to be output to the database while the transaction is still in the active state. The Write Ahead log is the basic rule that ensures that a record of every change to the database is available while attempting to recover from a crash. That is if a transaction makes a change and is committed, then the no force approach means that some of the changes may have not been written to the disk at the time of crash. Without any record of changes there is no way to ensure that the changes of a committed transaction survive crashes. For this before writing a page to the disk every update log record that describes a change to the page must be in a stable storage Question 5: Assume that the Railway reservation system is implemented using an RDBMS. What are the concurrency control measures one has to take, in order to avoid concurrency related problems in the above system? How can the deadlock be avoided in this system? How can we implement recovery techniques in such a system? Ans: When several transactions execute concurrently in the database, however there is a chance, the isolation property may no longer be preserved. To ensure that it is, the system must control the interaction among the concurrent transactions; this control is achieved through one of a variety of mechanisms called concurrency-control schemes. TYPES OF CONCURRENCY CONTROL SCHEME Lock-Based Protocols Timestamp-Based Protocols Validation-Based Protocols TO AVOID DEADLOCK: To ensure that no cyclic waits can occur by ordering the requests for locks. Deadlock recovery, and performs transaction rollback instead of waiting for a lock, whenever the wait could potentially result in a deadlock. DEADLOCK RECOVERY TECHNIQUE- To maintain information about the current allocation of data items to transactions, as well as any outstanding data item requests. Provide an algorithm that uses this information to determine whether the system has entered a deadlock state. Recover from the deadlock when the detection algorithm determines that deadlock exists. Question 6: How can we use the concept of shadow paging in database recovery of a real time application? Ans: It is an alternative to log-based recovery techniques. It may require fewer disk accesses but it is hard to extend paging to allow multiple concurrent transactions. The idea is to maintain two page tables during the life of a transaction: the current page table and the shadow page table. When the transaction starts current and page tables are identical. The shadow page is never changed during the life of the transaction. The current page is updated with each write operation. Each table entry points to a page on the disk. When the transaction is committed the shadow page entry becomes a copy of the current page table entry and the disk block with the old data is released. If the shadow is stored in nonvolatile memory and a system crash occurs, then the shadow page table is copied to the current page table. This guarantees that the shadow page table will point to the database pages corresponding to the state of the database prior to any transaction that was active at the time of the crash, making aborts automatic. It is used as an improvement to the shadow copy technique. The key idea of shadow paging is to maintain two page tables during the life of a transaction. Shadow paging helps in better recovery from crashes and also it does not require any undo/redo technique. The disadvantage of shadow paging is that it changes the disk address of the current page table and also copies the actual data block from the RAM to the hard disk output operation. There are drawbacks to the shadow-page technique: Commit overhead. The commit of a single transaction using shadow paging requires multiple blocks to be output the current page table, the actual data and the disk address of the current page table. Log-based schemes need to output only the log records. Data fragmentation. Shadow paging causes database pages to change locations. Garbage collection Each time that a transaction commits, the database pages containing the old version of data changed by the transactions must become inaccessible. Such pages are considered to be garbage since they are not part of the free space and do not contain any usable information. Periodically it is necessary to find all of the garbage pages and add them to the list of free pages. This process is called garbage collection and imposes additional overhead and complexity on the system.

My Definition of Terrorism :: Terrorism, Terrorists, 2015

To me, terrorism is the use of violent actions to provoke fear or terror in a population for the purpose of spreading a message. I agree with Moeller in that terrorism is distinguished from other forms of violence in that â€Å"The victims and the intended audience of a terrorist act are not the same,†1 and â€Å"the psychological impact of a terrorist act is intended to be greater than the physical damage caused. The goal of terrorism is to send a message, not defeat the enemy.†2 Additionally, in regards to Moeller’s questions of whether terrorism is a tactic or ideology, terrorism is purely a tactic among many others, not an ideology at all. I do not believe that actions can be crimes or acts of war. Those are purely interpretations of those reacting to events. In some jurisdictions, terrorism is a crime. At least one nation has chosen to consider it an act of war. I consider these judgments to be separate from the definition of the action. Similarly, the usage of transnational pre-emptive force is irrelevant to a definition. I disagree with Moeller in her assertion that terrorism is targeted at civilians. Terrorism can be targeted at military troops as well, as they are a population. Whenever the nature of an attack is to invoke fear over causing direct damage, it qualifies as terrorism. My definition is broad, encompassing many actions not always considered terrorism, and seeks to avoid entangling terrorism with other topics. Works Cited: Moeller, Susan. 2009. Packaging Terrorism; Co-opting the News for Politics and Profit. West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.