Pre-chat form

With tawk.to you have the ability to set up a pre-chat form which asks the visitor to enter some details before starting a chat.  

Here’s how you can set up and edit a pre-chat form:
– Click on the ‘Administration’ (Gear) icon in the upper tab menu
– Then, click ‘Chat Widget’ under ‘Widget Content’ and select ‘Edit Content’
– Then, select ‘Pre-Chat.’

You can mark a field as required or mandatory by clicking the asterisk.

A potential problem with a pre-chat form is that it significantly reduces the number of incoming chats.

It’s like going into a shop, having a walk around and then going up to the counter and asking “How much are those shoes?” or “Do you ship to Australia?” and the person behind the counter saying to you, “I’m happy to answer your question, but can you give me your name, email address and phone number first?”

Bad experience, right? Well, that’s the same thing you are doing with a pre-chat form.

Most tawk.to users report using a pre-chat form so that they can capture the visitor’s details in case they miss the chat.

An alternative to using pre-chat form is to set-up a Chat Rescuer Trigger.

A Chat Rescuer is a type of trigger — or automation — that sends a message to the visitor in the chat if you don’t respond quickly enough.

Here’s how to set it up:

– Log in to your tawk.to dashboard
– Click on the ‘Administration’ (Gear) icon in the upper tab menu
– Select the ‘Triggers’ option
– In the top right-hand corner, click ‘Add Trigger’
– Select the ‘Basic – Chat Rescuer’ as your type

Here are a couple of tips for setting up your Chat Rescuer:

1 – Set the delay — this is how long it will take to send the message. You don’t want this to fire too quickly, as every visitor is going to get this message. Nor do you want to set it to fire too late, as the visitor is most likely going to have left the chat already.

2 – If possible, try to use your name and image, or a team member’s name and image. It’s going to help to build trust.

Your message might look something like this:
“Thanks for your patience. We are currently responding to other customers. We shouldn’t be too much longer, but if you can’t wait, leave your name and contact details. We’ll get back to you shortly.”

Remember! Not responding to a visitor in chat is a bad experience for your visitor and a missed opportunity for your business.

You shouldn’t set-up a pre-chat form or a Chat Rescuer expecting to miss chats. It should be a last resort or a worst-case scenario.

You want to do everything you can to reduce the number of missed chats. If you need help, we have a team of agents that can be there when you’re not, so you never have to miss another chat.

For more information or for links to the relevant articles in our knowledge base please check the description below.

Next up, we are going to discuss using triggers and how you can engage more people on your website.

Learn More:

Using the Pre-Chat Form

Creating and managing triggers

Using the Pre-Chat Form

Here is a video showing you how to add a pre-chat form to the visitor widget.

Creating and Managing Triggers

Triggers are used to create proactive chat engagement.