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> Elance Home > Main Help > Provider Help > How to use Elance Chat as a provider
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How to use Elance Chat as a Provider

Elance Chat enables you to immediately connect with interested employers via Instant Message Chat Room.

Key Benefits 

  • Enables you to have real-time conversations with employers that you can use to win a project on-the-spot or gather information to develop a winning proposal.
  • Elance Chat can use text, audio or video as a means to communicate with your employers.
  • Elance Chat makes it easier for potential customers to reach out to you and may contribute towards more business connections and results.  
  • Because the chat connection is enabled through Elance, you do not need to use a separate personal or business instant messaging identity.
  • Elance Chat is a free service to both registered buyers and providers with paid memberships.

 

 

How does it work?

  • A buyer can initiate an Elance Chat session from your provider profile or your bid when you're online.
  • You are automatically logged onto Elance Chat when you are logged into the Elance site.   You can choose to not be automatically logged into Elance Chat each time you login to Elance by setting the preference in Connect Activity > Connect Preferences > Allow Elance Chat.

 

   

  • Once it is enabled, you can turn off your Elance Chat presence for the current login session by expanding the left panel and clicking on the 'Disable/Enable Chat' toggle link.

 

 

Tips about Elance Chat

  • If you have multiple users using the same Elance account, the last person to login will receive the Elance Chat console initiated by a buyer to start a conversation.
  • It can take up to 2 minutes for you to appear online (or offline) after you have logged in (or out) of the Elance site for other users to see your Elance Chat status.
  • You must keep an Elance non-secure page (eg. https://) open on your browser in order to receive an Elance Chat window initiated by a buyer.
  • If you are offline when a buyer sends you a message via Elance Chat, you will receive the message via an email notification.
  • If your active browser window is not an Elance page, you will receive an alert indicating a user is trying to communicate with you via Elance Chat.   Note: You will not receive an alert if you have your browser's pop up blocker enabled.
  • The Elance Chat console will log you out after 30 minutes of inactivity.