Website live chat

Live chat puts a Chat with us button on every page of your website. Shoppers type a question straight away; your team answers from Sales › Live chat in the console. When nobody is around, the chat asks for an email or phone and becomes a lead, so no shopper is lost after hours.

Before you start #

• Live chat needs a plan with the sales CRM (Pro and Enterprise).
• Chat replies appear only in the chat window. Chat never emails or texts the shopper, so you do not need an email or SMS provider for it.

Turn on chat #

1. Open Website › Live chat settings.
2. Tick Show live chat on the website.
3. Write a Greeting (the first message shoppers see) and a Message when nobody is available.
4. Under Availability, decide when chat shows as online:
   • It is online whenever someone who answers chat has the console open.
   • To also show it online during set hours, tick Also show as online during these hours and enter a time range per day, for example 09:00-18:00, in your dealership's time zone. Leave a day empty for closed.
5. Select Save.

(open full size)

1. Turn chat on (step 2).
2. Greeting (step 3).
3. Offline message (step 3).
4. Online hours (step 4).

What shoppers see #

The button sits in the corner of every page. On a vehicle page, the unit is attached to the chat, so you know what they are looking at. While your team is online, shoppers can chat without leaving their name; they can add an email or phone at any time.

(open full size)

1. Chat window: the greeting, the conversation, optional contact details and the message box.
2. Chat with us button, on every page.

When nobody is online, the window shows your offline message and asks for an email or phone before the shopper can start. That chat becomes a lead right away (source chat, with the transcript and the vehicle) and goes through your normal lead assignment and notifications.

Answer a chat #

1. Open Sales › Live chat. The menu item shows a badge when shopper messages are unread.
2. Pick a tab: Open (nobody has taken it yet), Assigned or Closed.
3. Select a conversation.
4. Select Answer this chat to claim it, or just type in Reply and select Send; replying claims an unclaimed chat for you.
5. To pass it on, choose a colleague under Hand to and select Assign. They get a notification.
6. When you are done, select Close chat. You can Reopen it later.

(open full size)

1. Open, assigned, closed folders, with unread counts.
2. Conversations: shopper, last message, vehicle and who is answering.
3. Chat settings opens Website › Live chat settings.

The conversation updates by itself every few seconds, and so does the shopper's window.

Turn a chat into a lead #

1. Open the conversation.
2. Check or add the shopper's Name, Email and Phone.
3. Under Convert to lead, select Create lead.

The lead gets the source chat, the transcript as its message and the vehicle the shopper was looking at. If the email or phone matches an existing customer, the chat shows that customer and the lead is linked to them.

(open full size)

1. Transcript with the reply box.
2. Claim, hand off, close under Handling.
3. Convert to lead creates the lead in one click.

Who sees which chats #

• People with leads.view_all see every chat at their rooftops (a chat's rooftop is the one of its vehicle).
• Everyone else sees unclaimed chats and their own.
• A chat that is already linked to a lead is visible only to people who can see that lead.
• If the shopper matches a customer a colleague is working with, the chat says so without naming them, and only a manager can convert it.

Tips #

• Keep the console open on a desk computer or a phone during opening hours. That is what makes chat show as online.
• Set online hours as a safety net, so shoppers see you as available during opening hours even if nobody has the console open. Then make sure someone checks the inbox.
• A shopper who keeps typing after their chat became a lead: the new messages stay in the chat inbox. Check there before calling them.

Permissions #

Limitations #