How to set up Chat Invites

Chat is a great way to answer visitor questions before they leave your website, providing real-time responses during crucial parts of a visitor’s journey. To anticipate questions and target visitors at just the right time, use Chat Invites. 

Here’s how to set up Chat Invites

Note: Account Owners, Admins and Creators can create Chat Invites. 

  1. Navigate to Communicate from the left navigation
  2. Select Chat Invites 
  3. Click on the purple New Chat Invite button
  4. Give your Chat Invite a name for internal reference and click the Next button

At this point, you’ll proceed through a four-step process

  • Step 1: Setup
  • Step 2: Triggers
  • Step 3: Timing
  • Step 4: Review 

Step 1: Setup

Decide what is shown to your visitors

  1. Decide who the Chat Invite will be from:
    1. Team member: Select one team member from the drop-down
    2. Company Icon: This will display the Company Icon set in Chat Settings: Appearance. You can also upload one here. 
    3. None 
  2. Add an invite message. See the preview on the right as it updates with your message. By default, the Chat bubble will automatically truncate the message to show only the first three lines of text. Visitors can click on the message to view the entire Chat Invite message. 
  3. OPTIONAL: Click the toggle next to “Display full message in invite bubble” to force the Chat Invite bubble to show the entire message
  4. OPTIONAL: Click the toggle next to “Auto-hide invite after 30s” to hide the invite if the visitor doesn’t interact with it within 30 seconds 
  5. When ready, click the Next Step button in the upper right corner

Step 2: Triggers Customize when the Chat Invite is shown to visitors 

Customize what visitor behavior will trigger the Chat Invite to display

  1. For basic triggers, use Simple. This is the default for Triggers. 
    1. Location on the website (select one):
      1. Any page: The Chat Invite will be shown on whatever page the visitors lands on, whether it’s the homepage or a product page. 
      2. Specific URL:  This can be set for one specific URL (Exact) or part of a URL (contains). 
    2. Devices (select one): Show to all devices or select one device (Desktop, Tablet or Mobile)
    3. Delay (select one): 
      1. No delay: Shows the moment someone visits your website
      2. Time: Triggers between 3 seconds and 5 minutes, started once a visitor lands on your website
      3. Scroll: Displays the Chat Invite after the visitor scrolls between 10% and 100% down the page
      4. Event: Shows to visitors once they trigger any Event. Click here to learn more about Events.
  2. To further narrow your Chat Invite audience, click on Advanced
    1. Add AND or OR conditions
      1. AND: A visitor completes both/all rules. For example, the Chat Invite would only show to someone who lands on both your homepage AND came from Facebook. 
      2. OR: A visitor completes any of the set rules. For example, the Chat Invite would show to anyone who landed on your homepage or came from Facebook, regardless of whether they occurred together. 
    2. Select from an expanded set of rules
      1. Event: This will show a list of your site’s Events. Click on the drop-down to see a full list of Events. Key Events will be highlighted in color. 
      2. First Visit: Display Chat Invite to visitors whose first visit was in the 1 - 90 days
      3. Last Visit: Display Chat Invite to visitors whose last visit was in the 1 - 90 days
      4. Scroll Delay: Display Chat Invite to visitors after they scroll between 10% and 100% down the page
      5. Segment: Display Chat Invite to a specific segment of visitors. Click here to learn more about segments. 
      6. Source: Display Chat Invite to visitors that are from or not from a specific source. Click on the drop-down to see your visitors’ sources. 
      7. Time Delay: Display Chat Invite between 3 seconds and 5 minutes after the visitor lands on your website
      8. Current Page: Display Chat Invite on a specific page based on URL (exact) or part of a URL (contains) 
      9. Visit Number: Display Chat Invite to visitors who have visited your website a certain number of times 
      10. Visited Page: Display Chat Invite to those who have visited a specific page based on URL (exact) or part of a URL (contains)
  3. When ready, click the Next Step button.

Step 3: Timing

Customize when the Chat Invite is triggered

  1. Click when you want the Chat Invite to be active. Options include:
    1. When available to chat: Shows to visitors only when your team is available to chat.  If a team member is available to Chat, it initiates the Chat Invite with your team. If a team member isn’t available to Chat, it will direct to the away form instead.
    2. During office hours: Shows to visitors only during your set office hours
    3. Outside of office hours: Shows to visitors only after your set office hours
    4. Anytime: Shows to all visitors regardless of your office hours or team availability
  2. When ready, click the Next Step button

Note: Timing set here is related only to that specific Chat Invite. Click here to set when your Chat button will show through the Chat Launcher.

Step 4: Review

Complete the final step before it’s ready to go live or save for later

  1. Check over your Chat Invite. The Chat Invite triggers and timing settings will be shown in text on the left. A preview of what visitors will see will be shown on the right. 
  2. To edit any part of the Chat Invite or the Chat Invite settings:
    1. Click on any of the underlined triggers or timing settings from review
    2. Select any of the steps at the top of the page
    3. Click the gray Prev Step button 
  3. If it looks good: 
    1. Click Save to save it to your Chat Invites table; it will remain paused and inactive.
    2. Click Launch to make it live on your site