Short answer: keep live chat short, human and honest. Greet visitors without interrupting them, answer in the customer's words, say plainly when you need time, hand over to a person when the question is personal, and review your conversations every week.
What should I set up before going live?
Set your hours and an away message, pick a team name and role, write a one-line greeting, and install the chat on every page where customers need help. These four steps tell visitors when to expect an answer and who is answering, so the first conversation starts well.
- Set your hours and an away message. Tell visitors when someone is there. Outside hours, ask for an email address so you can answer later. See office hours.
- Pick a team name and role. Visitors trust "Acme Support" more than a first name with no context, and it keeps your team's personal names private if you prefer. See chat brand names.
- Write a short greeting. One friendly line and an invitation to ask. "Hi! Can I help you with anything?" works. Need ideas? Copy from 32 live chat greeting messages.
- Install it everywhere your customers are. The same chat should be on your pricing page, your checkout and your help pages, not only the home page.
How should I write in live chat?
Write short, answer first and say what you are doing. Put the answer in the first line, keep messages to two or three lines, tell the customer when you need a minute, edit saved replies before sending, and hand over honestly when the question needs someone else.
- Answer the question first. Put the answer in the first line, then add detail. Chat is read on a phone between other things.
- Keep messages short. Two or three lines, one idea. Long paragraphs feel like emails.
- Say what you are doing. "Let me check your order, one minute" is better than silence.
- Use saved replies, but edit them. Insert the shared answer, then add the customer's name or detail so it does not read like a form letter. See saved replies and macros and 33 customer support canned responses to start from.
- Hand over honestly. If the question is about money, an account or something you cannot decide, say who will help and when. If you use an AI assistant, make sure a person is one click away.
What should I do after a chat ends?
Resolve the conversation, ask for a rating, and leave a private note about anything you promised. Then read ten conversations a week and turn the questions you answered more than once into articles. This keeps the inbox honest and makes the next chat shorter.
- Resolve it and ask for a rating. A resolved conversation keeps your inbox honest, and ratings show you where to improve.
- Write a note for the next person. A private note with what you promised saves the next teammate from asking again.
- Read ten conversations a week. Look for the questions you answered more than once and turn them into articles.
What are the common live chat mistakes?
The common mistakes are opening the chat full-screen the moment someone arrives, asking for an email before helping, promising a reply time you cannot keep, and forgetting that many visitors use a phone. Each one makes visitors close the chat, and each is easy to avoid.
- Opening the chat full-screen the moment someone arrives. Wait a few seconds and let them look around.
- Asking for an email before helping. Help first.
- Promising a reply time you cannot keep. Set the expectation you can meet.
- Ignoring the phone. Many visitors chat from a phone, so check how the chat looks on one.
How do I keep live chat from taking over my day?
Use notifications so you are told when someone writes, set your status when you step away, and let an AI assistant handle repeat questions while you handle the personal ones. A small team cannot watch the chat all day, so the tools should tell you when to look.
A small team cannot sit in chat all day. Use notifications so you are told when someone writes, set your status when you step away, and let an assistant handle the repeat questions while you handle the personal ones.
Frosvo includes live chat on its free plan with no time limit. Start free.