Chatbots
Build a chatbot from steps - greet, ask with buttons, collect details, answer from your help articles, make a lead or ticket - and choose when it talks.
Chatbots are on Professional and Business.
Start from a ready-made chatbot
Open Widgets & chatbots > Chatbots and pick one:
- Welcome and pass to the team: asks the topic with buttons, then the name and email, then passes to a person.
- Take a message when nobody is online: name, email and the question, then your team replies by email.
- Find sales leads: a price or a demo; makes a CRM lead or sends your booking page.
- Answer from help articles first: looks in your Helpdesk help centre, then "Did that answer your question?".
Check its words, then choose it on a widget.
Choose when it talks
Open a widget, unfold Chatbots:
- Greet every new chat with: it starts every chat; a person takes over when it passes the chat on.
- When nobody can answer: outside opening hours or when nobody is online, it talks instead of the message form.
An operator who takes or answers the chat stops the chatbot.
The steps
Steps run top to bottom. A step can also jump with Then go to, and each button can go to its own step.
| Step | What it does |
|---|---|
| Say something | Says a line, then goes on |
| Ask with buttons | A question with buttons; each button goes to a step, pass to a person or end the chat. A button's topic sends the chat to people with that skill. |
| Ask the name / email / phone | Waits for the answer and checks it (an email must look like one). It is saved on the visitor. |
| Ask a question | Keeps the free answer (name it under "Keep the answer as") |
| Answer from help articles | Takes a question and answers from your public Helpdesk articles |
| Pass to a person | Gives the chat to your team; when nobody is online it asks the email and takes a message |
| Make a CRM lead / Helpdesk ticket | Makes it from the chat ({ticket} in the words is its number) |
| Send the booking page | Sends your Bookings page as a button |
| End the chat | Says goodbye and ends it |
In the words, {name}, {email} and the answers you kept (for example {topic}) are filled in.
Answers in words, with your own AI key
Without a key, the help-article step shows the best article with a link. Add your own key from Anthropic or OpenAI under Settings > AI answers and tick Answer in words with our AI key on the chatbot: it then answers in one to four sentences, using only your articles, and links the article. You pay the AI service for what you use; the key is kept encrypted.
What happens to the answers
Name, email and phone go on the visitor (and so into leads and tickets). Other answers stay on the chat and show to the operator. Reports > Chatbots shows how many chats were passed to a person, took a message, or finished with the chatbot only.