How to Set up Smart Chat Behavior With Chat Modes
Besides changing your Chat Widget’s look, you can also customize its behavior to your company's needs. Here's how.
Video Transcription
To edit your chat's behavior, log into the Userlike Dashboard and go to Chat Settings > Widgets , select your Widget, and select Chat > Behavior from the dropdown menu.
You’ll find different options on how your Chat Widget should react:
- Change the "Approach"
- Enable the "Group Select" mode
- Decide on your "Data Privacy" settings
- And more
In this video, we’ll focus on the first one, the Chat Approach . We cover the other features in this video .
Chat Modes
In the " Approach " section, you can configure how a chat between your Webvisitors and Operators should be started. Which mode works best depends on your use case, website and individual preferences. Let’s look at the options in more detail.
1
Normal Chat
The Normal Chat mode means that every Webvisitor can start the chat. They just click on the chat button on your website and a connection with your Operator will immediately be created.
By default, the Operator gets notified when a Webvisitor clicks the chat button. If you enable the " Passive Connect " option below, the Operator will only be notified when your Webvisitor sends the first message. We recommend this function when you have a lot of incoming chat sessions and want to filter out the ones in which no message was sent.
2
Registration Chat
Like in the "Normal Mode", a chat can only be started by your Webvisitors. What’s different is that before the chat starts, she has to fill in her name and email address.
This allows you to gather additional information before the chat such as the customer's order number or name. This is helpful, for example, when locating the customer in your system is vital in your support process. It’s also a powerful feature for lead-collection.
If you’re worried that your customers won’t start a chat because they would have to reveal personal information, you can make this step optional! That way, they can skip this step to get to the chat. You'll still get the information from everyone that doesn't mind filling out the form.
If you enable "Passive Connect", the chat session will start when your Webvisitor writes her first message.
3
Proactive Chat
The "Proactive Mode" enables you to reach out to your Webvisitors with an automatic chat invitation. In this mode, a message automatically pops up after your customer has been on your website for a defined time. You’ll be notified when they respond to your automatic greeting.
Use this mode if you want to offer proactive support, catch doubting Webvisitors or make your customers aware of your live chat function.
Proactive chat is sometimes perceived as too intrusive, with a risk of disrupting the visitor's shopping experience. Read how to turn proactive chat from "annoying" to "helpful" in this post .
Note that with the proactive approach, Passive Connect is always enabled.
4
Proactive and Registration Chat
If you choose Proactive and Registration mode, you get two in one.
- It’s registration mode if your customer clicks the chat button. A registration form requesting her name and email will appear before the chat.
- But it’s Proactive mode if your customer doesn’t click before the set timeout is reached. The chat window will open automatically after your defined timeout. For this proactive pop-up, there’s no registration.
Choosing this mode allows you to gather information about those Webvisitors who clicked the button, while also engaging customers who might need assistance without gathering information.
5
Remote API
With our Remote API, you can control the chat behavior by setting your own chat triggers based on Webvisitor behavior.
You can define, for example, to only show the chat if your Webvisitor has a certain amount in her shopping cart and hide the chat if she doesn't. Or you can trigger a proactive passive chat when the Webvisitor has visited the same page more than, say, 3 times.
The Remote API is useful to set up a custom implementation of your widget. You get access to our Remote API starting from our Business plan .
Offline modes
So these were our different chat modes. You can also decide what should happen when you’re offline and no Operators are available.
-
Hide Chat.
You can choose to hide the chat button. You can do so full time or go for a more unique approach by setting your daily service times and hide your chat button outside of these times, like on the weekends or at night.
If you don’t want to hide your chat button, but let your Webvisitors know you’re currently offline, you can choose between a few offline modes. - Contact Form. By displaying a regular contact form, you allow your customers to still get in touch with you when you can’t be online in the chat. You can answer their requests later via email.
- Chat Butler. Or use our friendly chatbot! Chat Butler greets your Webvisitors and collects their questions, while notifying your Operators to come online.
- Offline Notification. You can also just show a notification window when you’re offline where you indicate your service times and say when you’ll be available again for support.
That’s it for the first part of our Chat Behavior settings. Thanks for watching and happy chatting! :-)
