Live chat triggers lie behind the automated chat messages your visitors see while browsing. These smart little rules track your visitors and their activity, then send them a relevant chat invitation.
It could be a simple greeting, a warm welcome back, an offer of help, or any number of friendly messages based on the visitor’s onsite journey.
But knowing which live chat triggers to use isn’t always easy.
You want to engage without intruding; to automate efficiently without seeming robotic. And the sheer number of options and conditions available mean that setting up live chat triggers can sometimes be confusing.
So, we’ve put together our ten top ideas for live chat triggers. Use these rules behind your proactive chat invitations to optimise your online service and effortlessly engage visitors.
1. The visitor is a returning customer
Example: Welcome back! Is there anything I can help you with today?
Customers that have bought from you before — or even just visited your site before — are valuable prospects for future sales. They’ve already expressed interest in your business. So when a customer returns to your site and indicates that interest yet again, you want to offer great service.
Enter live chat triggers. You can set up a live chat trigger that’s focused on return visitors and customers, giving you the opportunity to provide personalised and friendly service. You can welcome them back to your site and demonstrate that you know them — that they matter to you. This, in turn, will make the customer feel more inclined to engage.
2. Based on referral source
Example: Looking for deals on %product%? Chat to the team about our latest offers.
If a customer has landed on your site through a specific page or advert, a proactive chat invitation can provide the next step. You already know the product, offer or reason of interest that caused the customer to visit. So, you have a talking point to get the conversation going.
Live chat triggers based on referral source can, therefore, allow you to personalise the customer’s experience with tailored messages or offers based on their interest. You’ve already won the customer’s click, but the right chat message can win their conversion.
3. Based on location and language
Example: Besoin d'aide en français? Je suis ici si vous avez besoin de moi!
You can set live chat triggers to respond to the customer’s location data. This can be particularly useful if you have offers available in one region but not another — it helps you provide a relevant experience right from the start.
Plus, location-based live chat triggers allow you to welcome the visitor to your site in their native language. Even when customers can speak and understand English, greeting them in their own language is a great way to launch a personable customer relationship. Agents can then use live chat translation to support the customer with navigating the website comfortably.
4. The visitor is idle or lingering
Example: Have any questions about our security measures? I’m happy to help.
Live chat triggers can also be set to respond to people that have gone idle on your page — meaning there’s been no activity from them for a set amount of time. This is useful for visitors that are stuck, hesitant, or disengaged.
Setting a chat invitation to trigger when the visitor is idle provides an opportunity to bring their attention back to your site or the task at hand. Meanwhile, for visitors that are active but lingering, using live chat triggers means you can reach out with relevant help.
5. Browsing your FAQ section
Example: Chat to us for direct answers to your questions!
Customers landing on your FAQ page are looking for answers. So, use live chat triggers to support them. Sending a chat invitation when a customer has either landed on the FAQ page, or after they’ve been browsing answers for a while, can be a highly effective engagement tactic.
FAQ-related live chat triggers show that you’re at hand to clarify any confusion. This provides an extra level of convenience for customers, and reduces the likelihood of site bounces due to unanswered questions.
6. Clicked through to your ‘contact us’ page
Example: We’re available via live chat! Drop us a chat to get in touch
If a customer clicks through to your ‘contact us’ page, it’s more than likely that they’re looking to speak to you.
So, using this criterion as one of your live chat triggers provides an added layer of convenience for your customers. It demonstrates accessibility and an openness to talking. (Both factors that are highly reassuring on a contact page!)
7. The visitor has a high shopping cart value
Example: Hi, I’m Abby. Let me know if you need a hand with your purchase today.
Live chat triggers can be set to recognise and respond when a website visitor has items in their shopping cart. This gives you a great opportunity to prevent abandonment and convert any high-value prospects.
It could be a full concierge service to guide customers through the checkout process and help them make the right choices. It could be a simple offer of help. Either way, using live chat triggers to engage your high-value leads helps you build relationships and convert more visitors into paying customers.
8. Landing on pages with high bounce rates
Example: Unsure whether you need a product demo? Happy to answer your questions.
Some pages on your site perform better than others. Then, there are the ones that, for some reason, tend to make your visitors jump ship. Proactive chat invitations might just be the life ring needed to reduce these bounce rates.
Setting up live chat triggers on pages that tend to see higher bounce rates can help you keep the visitor online. They create the opportunity to help customers find what they’re looking for, and delay – if not prevent – the fatal click of that ‘x’. Doing this might even provide insight that can help you reduce the bounce rate of these pages for good.
9. The visitor is hesitating at the checkout
Example: You’re almost there! Is there anything I can help with?
Set live chat triggers to respond to customers that linger or hesitate during the checkout process.
This enables you to put any concerns about the purchase to bed, and guide customers through the rest of the checkout journey. Once again, live chat triggers can save the day before cart abandonment.
10. If error messages are encountered
Example: Oops, can I help you there?
Use live chat triggers to invite a visitor to chat when they encounter an error message — such as a 404 page or a repeat web form problem. You can then offer help finding items and information, or support with filling out forms.
This support can help customers feel less stressed or confused, and prevent them from getting frustrated or giving up on your site.
Triggering success with live chat triggers
These are some of the most common — and most useful — live chat triggers that you can use to boost your customer conversation rate. But there are many more metrics you can use as live chat triggers.
You can use chat history, order history, search bar input, time of site entry, or almost any factor you can think of. If it’s a factor that can be tracked, it’s a factor that can trigger a proactive live chat message. And fortunately, implementing live chat triggers can only help your website.
Proactively engaging your customers is a great way to boost your online customer experience. You stand to reduce cart abandonment, make stronger customer relationships that breed loyalty, and even learn more about how to optimise your website.
To see the benefits for yourself, set up live chat triggers on your own website with a free trial of WhosOn.
Useful links
- To chat, or not to chat? Best practice tips for proactive chat invitations.
- Online engagement: you must do better than ‘contact us’
- The chat button icon: text vs image
- Customer service excellence: it's all in the details
- Preventing cart abandonment with live chat software
- A best practice guide to managing concurrent chat sessions