Getting started with web chat

You will learn

Learn about web chat, which is a 2-way communication channel you can add to your Customer Hub interface. Web chat in the Customer Hub allows your business to engage in live, personalized conversations with visitors on your website so they can easily get answers to their questions or assistance with issues.

Before you begin

Web chat is a feature of the Customer Hub, an onsite interface that connects your Shopify customer accounts with streamlined service. To use web chat, you must first enable the Customer Hub feature in your Klaviyo account.

Learn more about Customer Hub.

About web chat

Enabling web chat in Klaviyo adds a Chat tab in the Customer Hub interface. This creates a space for signed-in shoppers (meaning those who have signed into their customer account on your site) to engage help from your support team before or after they make a purchase.

Customer experience with web chat

When a signed-in site visitor opens the Chat tab in the Customer Hub interface, their experience follows these steps:

• • FAQs (if enabled):
    If you have published FAQs, these appear first in the chat thread as the initial touchpoint. Visitors can browse and select from your common questions to receive instant, automated answers.
  • Welcome message:
    If no FAQs are published, or if the visitor still needs help after viewing FAQs, they can proceed to start a live web chat session. They will automatically receive your web chat welcome message (e.g., "What do you need assistance with today?"), and can type their message.

Once the visitor sends their question, it becomes a ticket in the Klaviyo inbox for your support team to assist. When a support representative replies, the visitor receives the response instantly in the chat thread, creating a real-time, back-and-forth conversation.

Visitors can end the chat at any time. Once closed, the conversation cannot be reopened. The visitor must start a new web chat session for additional support.

Enable web chat

To enable web chat and configure your welcome message:

1. In Klaviyo’s main navigation, select Customer Hub.
2. Select Settings.
   
3. Open the Web Chat menu.
4. Toggle on the switch to Enable web chat.
5. Under Login status, select either:
   • All users
     This allows all site visitors to see and click on the Chat tab. However, only those who are signed into their accounts can start a chat. This is recommended if you have the AI Service Agent enabled.
   • Logged in users
     This hides the Chat tab from visitors who are not signed in. Only those signed in to a customer account on your site can see the Chat tab.
     
6. Add a Welcome message. This displays when visitors click on the Chat tab of the Customer Hub drawer before they send their first message.
   • An example welcome message could be: “Hi! How can we help you?”
7. Click Save. 

Manage web chat messages in Klaviyo

Each inbound message you receive from a customer via web chat (whether from the chat directly or handed off by the AI Agent) creates a new ticket in your Klaviyo Inbox, where a member of your team can reply. 

Note that both SMS and web chat tickets feed into the Klaviyo inbox, offering a consolidated place for managing these 2 direct communication channels. Learn more about managing tickets in your inbox.

Web chat notifications 

A notification badge appears next to the Inbox tab in Klaviyo's main navigation when you have new messages. In your Inbox, new messages show a blue dot to indicate they’re unread, and display the sender’s name as well as a preview of their message.

Web chat messages also show a distinctive chat icon next to each ticket in the Inbox, allowing for easy differentiation from SMS messages, which show an envelope icon.

A web chat ticket in your Inbox can have 1 of 3 statuses:

• Open, to indicate an ongoing chat.
• Snoozed, which you can use to temporarily hide a ticket.
• Closed, to mark completed chats.

Replying to web chat messages

Any member of your team can click on a message in your inbox and provide real-time support to the shopper, helping you manage customer queries efficiently.

In an open web chat ticket, your support agents can:

• View the message thread with the sender.
• See a summary of the profile details.
• Check the profile’s event history (whether they ordered a product, received an email, etc.). 

To reply to a web chat ticket:

1. Open the ticket that you want to respond to.
2. Click into the text box and create your response. You can:
   • Use macros for quick replies
   • Use text, images, emojis in your reply
   • Send multiple messages in a row

While communicating via web chat, agents can see read receipts, which show whether their messages have been seen by the profile. This ensures clarity in communication and aids in maintaining ongoing helpful dialogues. Replying to a web chat message automatically assigns it to you. Learn more about ticket assignment for Inbox tickets.

Note that the same profile can have an active web chat ticket and an SMS ticket in Inbox. Once the web chat ticket is closed, however, it cannot be reopened, and site visitors will have to start a new chat session. Each new conversation begins a new ticket.

Web chat best practices 

Link your privacy policy and terms of service

As a compliance best practice, add links to your site’s privacy policy and terms of service so your customers are notified of the terms governing their interactions with web chat. These links will appear before a site visitor sends their first message. To do so:

1. Navigate to Customer Hub.
2. Select Settings >General.
3. Under Terms and policy, add your links for each.
   

Prioritize prompt responses

Customers anticipate quick replies when using chat tools. If your team can't provide immediate support, manage expectations by:

• Set up office hours so site visitors receive an automated reply when your support team is unavailable for web chat, and are informed of how they can expect to receive assistance from you.
• Enable email notifications so your team is notified when you receive a new ticket in your inbox.

Additionally, if you are chatting with someone and need to take some time to investigate, ensure you regularly check back in. You don’t want to snooze the message or keep people waiting for long periods of time. Instead, make sure to touch base with them at least once every 3-5 minutes. Even a simple: “Still looking into this. Thank you for your patience” lets the user know you haven’t forgotten about them. 

Consistently monitor your inbox

Regularly check your inbox to ensure no messages are missed and all customer inquiries are addressed promptly, especially after resolving an issue. 

Additional resources

• Guide to the Klaviyo inbox
• How to configure help settings for Customer Hub
• How to connect Customer Hub and Gorgias