Getting contact information from the visitor in chat and managing them is a challenging task. When the data is lost, it is a tedious process to view the entire chat to get that single piece of information you're looking for in the conversation.

Pre Chat Forms helps you overcome this limitation by collecting the essential data from your visitors before starting a chat. You can use the collected data to analyze the visitor and record them in your SalesIQ portal.

• In the Settings > Brands > Your brand > Flow control, add the required fields by clicking on the Add Field text
  
• Drag and drop the field you would like the users to fill before initiating a chat with your operators.
  
• Under Form Style, select Traditional to enable the Pre chat forms.
  

Fields can be marked as mandatory by checking the 'Mark this field as mandatory' checkbox on the right. Users cannot skip the mandatory fields. 

In-Chat forms

In-Chat forms allow the users to initiate chat without having to fill in the details before starting conversations; this can be very advantageous when it comes to quick support based businesses, where the customers expect to be assisted immediately without having to wait, you can collect their details later in the chat.

Conversation style

This style collects the details from the users in a more modern conversation style. The details must be entered in the chat window on the required input field.

• In Settings > Brands > Your brand > Flow control, scroll down to Form Style, and choose Conversation, click Save on the pop up that appears on the top of the page.
  

Inline Style

If you wish to have a more modern feel where the visitors can dive into the conversation and collect their details later on inside the chat, you can go with the inline style. In the Inline style, the details are collected using standard chat window fields. 

• In Settings > Brands > Your brand > Flow control, scroll down to Form Style, and choose Inline, click Save on the pop up that appears on the top of the page.
  

Set up Waiting time for visitors

Define a time limit within which the operators must respond to the incoming chat request. If the limit exceeds, the unattended chat will go to the missed chat section. A lower time limit can increase customer satisfaction but a higher time limit has more chance of getting picked if you have limited operators. 

Associate Departments 

If you have individual departments to look over a website or a part of the website, you can route the website visitors to their respective departments. For example: If a visitor initiates a chat from a Car dealership website, you can route the request to the department handling automobiles. Only the operators of that department will be able to see the incoming chat request. You have to assign at least one department with a brand. 

You can assign multiple departments to a brand, and there is no cap on how many departments are associated with the brands, but a minimum of one department must be associated with each brand in your portal.

• Navigate to Settings > Brands > Your brand > Flow control, scroll down to Departments responsible for the chat. From the drop-down, pick the departments you want to associate with the brand.
  

• In the flow page, you can view all the associated departments under Chosen Departments. 
  
• Click on the 'x' mark on the right side of a department to remove it. The last remaining department cannot be removed.
  

Note: Only the operators associated with the department will get the chat request when a visitor initiates a chat.

Use department Resources

To use resources like Canned Responses, Templates, etc. available in the chosen departments. Enable the Display Departments for Resources option in the flow page, below the Chosen department heading. 

If disabled, you have to pick the departments to utilize its resources. In the Flow control page, disable the Display Departments for Resources option and select the departments whose resources you would like to use.

Reopen Chat

Allow visitors to reopen a closed chat to seek further assistance on the issue. Reopening chat can help your operators assist the user based on the past chat's context without starting from the beginning. 

• In Settings > Brands > Your brand > Flow control, scroll down to Reopen Chat and toggle the switch to enable it.
  

Chat Notification settings

You can allow your operators to decide if they want to pick a chat or to ignore them. Or you can automatically assign incoming chats to available operators whenever a visitor initiates one. Automatically assigning requests can help reduce missed chats. 

Chat Queue:

You can set the maximum number of simultaneous chat request an operator can get. Once the queue limit has reached, the visitors will be asked to leave a message to contact the operators again. 

Content Moderation

You can moderate your chat by filtering abusive content. Enabling this can help you have a professional and safe workplace to assist genuine users and avoid abusers.  

• In Settings > Brands > Your brand > Flow control, move over to the Abusive Content Moderation tab on the top, and enable the Content Moderation option.