A chat window promising instant replies that come the next day costs more trust than it earns. Show chat only while somebody is watching, turn it into a short form otherwise, and remove it if nobody can staff it.

Online now, it says

The bubble sits in the corner of every page, with a friendly photograph and a line saying the team is online and usually replies within minutes.

A visitor types a question at eight in the evening: whether you handle a job like theirs, and how soon you could start.

Nobody replies. The visitor waits a minute, then two, and closes the tab. The message waits in an inbox until morning, and the chat never asked for an email address, so there is nobody to answer.

The chat did exactly what it was set up to do. It was set up to promise something the business could not deliver.

Why a slow chat is worse than a form

A form sets no expectation of speed. Somebody who fills one in expects a reply later and gets on with their evening.

A chat window sets the opposite expectation. Its whole promise is an answer while the visitor is still there, and every minute of silence breaks that promise in front of them.

The visitor does not conclude that you are busy. They conclude that the website is not looked after, which is a short step from wondering about the business.

How a chat ends up unwatched

The fourth is the easiest to fix, and often the whole problem. Most chat tools can behave differently outside set hours, but somebody has to find the setting and use it.

Honest hours

Show the chat as available only when a named person is watching it, with notifications on a device they actually have with them.

That usually means fewer hours than the business is open: the hours somebody is free to answer, not the opening hours on the door. A shop open until nine with one person on the till cannot answer chat at seven.

Show the hours on the chat itself, so a visitor knows when a person will be there. And drop default wording such as usually replies in minutes, unless your chat history bears it out.

A message form when nobody is there

Outside those hours, the chat should become a short form: a name, a phone number or email address, and the question.

It should say plainly when a reply will come, such as by ten the next working morning, and somebody has to keep that promise.

Send those messages to the same place as the contact form, so the same person answers them in the same order.

Many chat tools offer this as an offline mode. If yours cannot, hide the bubble outside hours and let the contact form do the job.

A worked example

A family-run RV and trailer rental company in the Fraser Valley, with a dozen units and a two-person office, added a chat window last spring to answer availability questions.

The office manager answered it at first. In July she moved to running the yard on weekends, the notifications went to a phone left in a drawer, and the chat kept saying the team was online.

Most questions arrived in the evening, from families planning trips after work. Replies went out the next morning by email, to the few visitors who had left an address.

The chat now shows as available on weekdays from nine to four, when the office manager is at her desk with notifications on. Outside those hours it becomes a three-field form promising a reply by ten the next morning.

The greeting that opened by itself was switched off. And availability, the question most people asked, went onto the site as a simple calendar that answers it at any hour.

Greetings that pretend

Some chat tools greet every visitor by a first name, with a photograph, as if a person had just started typing.

When somebody is there, it is friendly. When nobody is, it is a small deception that the silence then exposes, and visitors notice both.

If an automatic greeting stays, it should read as automatic, and it should not promise what happens next unless somebody will make it happen.

The cost on a phone

On a phone, the bubble often sits over the bottom corner of the screen, where many sites put a call button, and a greeting that opens by itself can cover half the page.

Chat tools also load code from another company's server on every page, slowing the site on a phone signal whether anybody chats or not.

If the chat stays, it should open only when asked, and never cover the phone number.

Whether chat suits the business

Chat works where questions are quick to answer and somebody is at a desk to answer them: stock, availability, opening hours, which product fits, where an order has got to.

It works less well where the honest answer to most questions is that it depends, and somebody needs to see the job or call back. Then chat becomes a slow way of arranging a phone call.

A sole trader on site all day is rarely the right person to promise instant replies. A visible phone number and a good form serve those customers better.

Read the chat history before deciding: how many chats a month, when they arrived, how many got a reply within five minutes, and what people asked. The answer is usually there.

The counter-case

Some businesses run chat well. An online store with staff on shift, or an office whose customers ask simple questions during working hours, can answer quickly; for them, the advice is only to keep the hours honest.

Some chat tools already handle out-of-hours messages properly. The fix there is checking the settings, not replacing the tool.

For everybody else, show chat only when somebody is watching, turn it into a form when nobody is, and remove it if nobody can staff it.

This week

  1. Send a chat message tonight and time the reply.
  2. Read three months of chat history.
  3. Name the person who watches it, and when.
  4. Set the hours to match that person.
  5. Turn on the offline form outside those hours.
  6. Switch off greetings that open by themselves.
  7. Remove the chat if nobody can staff it.

Step three decides everything else. Hours, forms and greetings are settings; a chat with nobody's name against it will drift back to always online, however well it is configured today.

The same delay on a quote form is covered in the quote request nobody answered for three days.

Frequently asked questions

Why is a slow chat worse than a form?

A form sets no expectation of speed. A chat window promises an answer while the visitor is still there, so every minute of silence breaks that promise in front of them.

When should the chat show as available?

Only when a named person is watching it, with notifications on a device they have with them. That is usually fewer hours than the business is open.

What should happen outside those hours?

A short form asking for a name, a contact and the question, saying when a reply will come and sending to the same place as the contact form.

Are automatic greetings a problem?

When nobody is there, yes. A greeting with a name and photograph implies a person is typing, and the silence that follows exposes it. Automatic greetings should read as automatic.

Does chat slow down a website?

It can. Chat tools load code from another company's server on every page, whether anybody chats or not, and on a phone the bubble often covers the call button.

Which businesses suit live chat?

Those with quick questions and somebody at a desk to answer them, such as stock, availability or order status. Where answers depend on seeing the job, a phone and form serve better.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Chat bubble saying online at midnight?

Send it a question tonight. If nobody answers, we will set honest hours and an offline form this week.

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