Goodbye Google Analytics, Hello VisiStat!
June 24, 2014

Goodbye Google Analytics, Hello VisiStat!

Nick Ezzo | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

B2B Solution

Modules Used

  • PageAlarm
  • Touch Mapping
  • Visitor Totals
  • Referral Links

Overall Satisfaction with KickFire LIVE Leads

We use VisiStat as part of our core success metrics for marketing. A number of the reports and graphs go directly to our executive team each week to measure the effectiveness of the website and marketing efforts. PageAlarm gives us the ability to reduce downtime and detect threats and outages. The StatCaster Ticker tells us who is on the site right now, and helps inform our sales team of real time activities.
  • Real time analytics shows who is on the site right now
  • Simple and well-designed interface is far superior to Google Analytics and others
  • Reports and graphs are boardroom-ready
  • Simple and easy to get started
  • Support could be more proactive to make sure we are getting the most out of our subscription.
  • Reduced time spent collecting data and reporting on traffic to nearly zero
  • Provides clear visibility across all departments in the organization
  • Allows faster follow up by sales reps
Google Analytics is clumsy and has an extremely complex user interface. We're also wary about Google having access to our website data. We did not evaluate other solutions.
They are very good at solving cases that I bring to them. I'd like to see more proactive support to make sure we are getting the full value out of the solution.
For small businesses that don't have big budgets for marketing automation, VisiStat is an ideal first step. For companies that have sophisticated systems in place, VisiStat will augment your analytics and provide a deeper dive into your website activity. Since the implementation involves adding javascript to your site, the user should be familiar with how to do this.

Using KickFire LIVE Leads

3 - VisiStat is used by Marketing, Sales, and Products. Marketing wants to track website usage, unique visitors, and returning visitors. Sales wants to see who is on the site right now. Products wants to have a sense for which areas within our product are the most popular and how long people spend in each module.
1 - You just need someone who can copy and paste the javascript snippet onto the page. Our web designer placed it into the footer of our CMS. It took 2 minutes.
  • Website effectiveness
  • Real time sales prospecting
  • Product usage data
  • The emails that get sent when someone hits a landing page are a real bonus
  • The website monitoring is key for us
  • The Pulse score is something we've started checking more
  • We'd like to add more of the lead conversion functionality
We've been happy customers of VisiStat for many years. I've used the service at multiple companies and you can't beat it.

Evaluating KickFire LIVE Leads and Competitors

Yes - We were using log-based web analytics from Urchin, which was later purchased by Google and turned into Google Analytics.
  • Price
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Product Reputation
  • Vendor Reputation
The real time web analytics were something we could not get anywhere else. VisiStat nailed it with that functionality.
Today, there are more choices. When we implemented VisiStat, we were really only looking at Google Analytics.

KickFire LIVE Leads Implementation

Don't hesitate to contact VisiStat support. They are extremely helpful.
Change management was minimal
  • Finding the right place in our CMS to place the javascript
  • Making sure non-CMS pages had the code
  • Making sure that our IP range was filtered out

KickFire LIVE Leads Training

  • Online training
  • Self-taught
The tutorials are very good and they explain how to get started using the system. The online webinars are very good for advancing your knowledge of the product.
You can easily begin using the product because of the extensive in-app tooltips and other help resources. Everything is extremely well documented and easy to understand.

Configuring KickFire LIVE Leads

The product is very easy for novice users to get in and start using. For more advanced users, the system allows a flexible API and other advanced features.
Make sure you have a good list of known IP addresses and domains to filter out. Make sure your web designer or webmaster knows how to place the javascript on each page or in an include file.
Some - we have done small customizations to the interface - We've created a custom website summary that goes to our executive team every week. It shows the KPIs we care about.
No - we have not done any custom code
We use Wordpress and Joomla extensively. You should be aware of how to add custom code to these CMS systems.

KickFire LIVE Leads Support

ProsCons
Quick Resolution
Good followup
Knowledgeable team
Problems get solved
Kept well informed
No escalation required
Immediate help available
Support understands my problem
Support cares about my success
Quick Initial Response
None
Back in December 2008, VisiStat CEO Stephen Oachs personally responded to a question from our web designer.

Using KickFire LIVE Leads

ProsCons
Like to use
Relatively simple
Easy to use
Technical support not required
Well integrated
Consistent
Quick to learn
Convenient
Feel confident using
Familiar
None
  • The graphs are perfect for distribution to an executive audience
  • The heat map shows us the most interesting places on the page
  • The transition messages are a great way to pass the time when data is loading. They are great!
  • Tracking down an individual website visitor can be tough
  • Sometimes the date settings revert back to defaults when you go from page to page
It was designed for people who are business users, not tech users.

KickFire LIVE Leads Reliability

We've gone from a few thousand unique visitors per month to nearly 200,000 unique visitors. VisiStat doesn't miss a beat.
We've never had any outages in the 7+ years using the system.
The system is very responsive, and when there are times in which data is loading, the VisiStat system provides humorous loading messages.

Integrating KickFire LIVE Leads

We don't do much integration, but I am aware there is a robust API for VisiStat.
  • Microsoft Excel
Not difficult if you understand CSV exporting.
  • File import/export
Determine your end goal clearly.

Relationship with KickFire

The service is SaaS based and we signed up online. It was a piece of cake.
The support is great and we haven't had any billing issues.
We didn't negotiate. It was a web form.
Make sure you get it working the way you want. It's a powerful tool but only if it's giving you the data you need.

Upgrading KickFire LIVE Leads