Chat management

Block Shopper

Experts are able to block any shoppers they chat with.

💭 How it’s used.

Experts can block shoppers who send explicit, harassing, or inappropriate messages, protecting them from further harassment.

⚙️ How it works.

The shopper doesn’t explicitly get notified of their blocking, however, all messages will fail to send, which they will be able to see. Once the page is refreshed, they will no longer see On-site Chat.

Blocks are tracked by cookies, so if a shopper clears their cookies or uses private browsing, they’ll be able to bypass their block.

Simultaneous Chats

Experts can be in multiple active chats with shoppers at the same time.

💭 How it’s used.

Merchants can ensure better coverage for incoming chat requests and fewer missed chats, ultimately leading to more sales.

Experts can use their time more efficiently to help multiple shoppers simultaneously.

⚙️ How it works.

Experts see alerts for new incoming chat requests as banners and see banner notifications for new incoming messages from across all their active conversations.

They may only Video Call with one shopper at a time. During a call, they’ll still see notifications for other active chats, but won’t be able to interact with them.

Once the expert is in the maximum number of active chats, they will no longer receive incoming chat requests.

🔧 Configuration

By default, the maximum number of active chats is set to 3, but merchants can change this. The maximum can be set to between 1 and 20 chats, although our testing has shown between 3 to 5 to be most effective.

Transfer to a Coworker

Experts can transfer a chat with a shopper to any other available colleague in the Store App, including a note with any details about why they’re transferring the shopper and what support they need.

💭 How it’s used.

Experts are able to transfer shoppers to others in their team who are better placed to help particular shoppers if they’re unable to support them.

Shoppers are able to speak to a different expert if the original expert who claimed their chat isn’t able to assist them, e.g. due to being in the wrong department or not being familiar with a certain product.

⚙️ How it works.

Experts can initiate a transfer to an available contact within a chat in the Store App. They are required to add a note explaining why.

The chat is then sent to the respective colleague (or group of colleagues). They receive it as an incoming chat request, including the reason for the transfer. They are notified about the chat and will see the Countdown Screen and have 2 minutes to claim it.

The expert who claims the transferred chat can see the full conversation history and all Shopper Events, so they can seamlessly carry on from where the previous expert left off.

If no one claims the transferred chat, the original expert who requested the transfer will remain in the chat, i.e. the chat with the shopper will not be dropped.

Transfer to Customer Service

Merchants can integrate their own customer service solutions into On-site Chat. This allows experts to transfer shoppers requiring customer service if appropriate.

💭 How it’s used.

Merchants can integrate their own customer service tools into On-site Chat, allowing experts to seamlessly transfer shoppers to customer service and solve any service-related issues that Virtual Shopping does not ordinarily cover.

Experts can easily transfer shoppers to customer service and focus on delivering support and advice from a shopping perspective, e.g. if a shopper has questions about returns and refunds.

Shoppers still get the support they need if it is more suitable to go to customer service, and can be sent there directly, helping avoid any frustration with telling them where to go for different topics.

⚙️ How it works.

This adds a button to On-site Chat with a CTA to speak to customer service. An event is fired when the button is loaded and when it is clicked. Merchants can use this event as an integration point to close the On-site Chat plugin and open a third-party chat tool.

For Virtual Shopping’s out-the-box deep integrations, clicking the button will instead automatically start a conversation in the third-party chat tool.