Add the web chat to your website

The web chat puts a Chat with us button on your own website. Visitors write to you there, and their messages arrive in the Inbox as conversations of the Web chat channel, answered by the team you choose.

Before you start

• You need the right Set up the inbox (teams, channels, deadlines).
• You need someone who can add one line to your website's pages.

Steps

1. Open Inbox → Inbox settings and scroll to Web chat.
2. Tick Offer the chat on my website.
3. Type the Title on the chat and pick the Team that answers it.
4. Type a Greeting, for example "Hi! Write to us here and our team will answer."
5. Tick Ask for an e-mail and / or Ask for a phone number.
6. Under Sites it may run on (one per line; required), type each website address the chat may run on, one per line, for example https://www.example.com. Without at least one site the chat stays off.
7. Select Save.
8. Copy the line under Paste this line into your website's pages: and add it to your pages.
9. Open your website and write a test message. It appears in the Inbox under Web chat.

What the visitor sees

A Chat with us button opens the chat. The visitor gives Your name, an e-mail or phone if you asked, ticks that you may contact them about their message, writes Your message and selects Start the chat. Your replies appear in the chat.

Good to know

• Private to the visitor. A visitor sees only their own conversation; your team's names and internal notes never reach the chat.
• Consent is kept. The visitor's tick is recorded on the conversation and, when they are one of your customers, as their e-mail consent in CRM.
• The site list is required. The chat runs only on the sites you list, and an empty list means the chat is off. While Offer the chat on my website is ticked without a site, the settings show The chat stays off until you list at least one site it may run on. A page on another site gets fd_widget_origin.
• Replies arrive at once while the chat is open. If the visitor's connection drops, the replies they missed appear when it comes back, each once. A chat left unused for 24 hours ends; the visitor reloads the page to start again (fd_widget_expired).
• Limits. Too many chats or messages from one address in an hour are refused, to keep out spam.
• The Front Desk (AI). With the team's AI mode (e-mail, web chat) on, the Front Desk answers visitors from your published knowledge, or writes drafts for your team, and hands a visitor who asks for a person to the team; see let the Front Desk answer e-mail and web chat.
• Related: answer conversations.