Live chat for an independent site

Chat uses the same script as stats, so there is nothing new to embed. When you finish, visitors can chat with you during office hours and see an offline greeting and a message form outside them. Without a website, you can use the standalone chat page.

Prerequisites

The site script is installed and the domain is allowed. Changing chat settings requires an owner or admin.

Steps

1. Turn live chat on

   Open ConsoleLive chatChat settings, turn on Enable live chat under Appearance, and click Save. Pages that already have the script load the bubble on the next visit. To force it on or off, set data-chat="true" or data-chat="false" on the script tag.

2. Set office hours

   Open Office hours on the same page, turn on Enable office hours, set the time zone, weekdays, start, and end, then save. Outside that window the bubble shows the offline greeting and asks for a message. Agents can still come online manually.

3. Send one message from the test page or the standalone page

   The Install tab has a Test page. Add localhost to the allowed domains before you use it. If you cannot embed the script, use the Standalone chat page on the same tab for an email signature or a QR code. Reply from Waiting on ConsoleLive chatInbox.

Verify

During office hours the site shows the bubble and you can send a message. Waiting on the workbench shows the conversation, and the visitor window receives your reply. Move the end time before the current time, and the bubble should switch to the offline message.

Common failures

What you see	Why	What to do
No bubble	Live chat was not saved, or the domain is not allowed	Save the switch and check allowed domains
It is always a message form	The current time is outside office hours	Check the time zone, weekdays, and start and end
The workbench has no conversation	You are not on Waiting, or it was an offline message	Open Waiting; offline messages are on the Offline messages tab in chat settings

Knowledge base answers and handoff

A matching question-and-answer pair is sent as written and uses no AI quota. Only questions without an exact match fall back to document snippets drafted by a model. When you finish, every handoff on the workbench carries a reason.

Prerequisites

Live chat is on and at least one agent exists. You can edit the knowledge base and chat settings. The platform has enabled AI auto-answer, and the plan has AI quota or the site uses its own key. Otherwise the AI assistant does not run at all, and pairs are not sent automatically either.

Steps

1. Write the pairs first

   Open ConsoleLive chatKnowledge base and add a question and answer for refunds, shipping, and account questions. Document snippets are for questions with no exact match, where a model drafts a reply.

2. Choose who answers first

   Open ConsoleLive chatChat settingsAI assistant. Set the mode to AI answers first to answer from the knowledge base first, or Only when all agents are offline to answer only when nobody is online. Set Max AI turns per conversation from 1 to 20. Past that limit the conversation is handed off.

3. Leave a way to reach a person

   Fill Handoff message (optional), or leave it empty for the default. The workbench labels the reason: the visitor clicked handoff, no knowledge match, the model could not answer, the turn limit, or an agent took over. Open ConsoleLive chatInbox and join or reply. Automatic replies stop at that point.

Verify

On the test page, a question you wrote returns the stored answer, not a newly drafted paragraph. A question that is not in the base, or a click on handoff, shows the conversation and the reason on the workbench. If the AI assistant tab says auto-answer is not enabled on the platform, the settings there have no effect.

Common failures

What you see	Why	What to do
Nothing is answered automatically	The mode is Off, no knowledge entry is enabled, or the platform has not enabled auto-answer	Pick a mode that answers first and enable a pair; ask the platform admin about the switch
The answer misses the question	There was no exact pair, so a document draft was used	Write the frequent questions as pairs
Nobody picks up after handoff	No agent is online. In Only when all agents are offline mode, handoff asks the visitor to leave a message	Get an agent online, or follow up in Offline messages

Proactive chats and conversion

The report compares whether someone chatted and whether they hit a goal on the same calendar day; it does not show that the chat caused the goal. If fewer than 30 visitors chatted, the page marks the sample as small.

Prerequisites

Live chat is on and you can open the workbench. The report links a visitor only within one calendar day, so a goal on another day is not counted; strict privacy also rotates the visitor id daily.

Steps

1. Enable a goal first

   On ConsoleWeb analyticsGoals, enable a goal that can actually complete, such as a thank-you page or a purchase event. With no enabled goal, the last stage of conversion attribution stays at 0.

2. Start a chat with a high-intent visitor

   Open ConsoleWeb analyticsRealtime, find someone tagged High intent or On pricing page, and click Start chat. The message appears on their page. After they reply, the conversation enters the workbench. You can start a chat with the same visitor only once per online session.

3. Read the two groups for that day

   Open ConsoleLive chatReportsConversion attribution. In the site time zone, compare visitors who chatted that day with visitors who browsed and did not chat, and see how many in each group hit any enabled goal.

Verify

After the visitor replies, Waiting on the workbench shows the conversation. On a day with page views, conversion attribution shows both groups. Do not read the relative lift as a cause, and do not conclude from fewer than 30 chatting visitors.

Common failures

What you see	Why	What to do
The last stage is zero	No goal is enabled	Create and enable a goal
Start chat is unavailable	This visitor was already contacted during this online session	Wait for the next session, or use an invite rule
A purchase the next day is missing	The comparison is one calendar day	Only a goal on that same day counts

Next steps

To let the bubble invite on its own, create a rule at ConsoleLive chatChat settingsProactive invites with a match type, a path, dwell seconds, and a message. A conversation is created only if the visitor opens it and replies; no reply leaves no record.