How to use live chat in a booth
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The best way to engage your visitors on your booth is by using the live chat feature. Your delegates will be able to post any questions or comments that will then be viewable publicly and will allow you to connect by posting a response. There are a few tools to manage your chat effectively, and this article dives right into them.
How do I chat?
You can access chat by clicking on the button at the top. The text of the button itself is configurable and can be changed depending on whether the chat is Live or Offline. You can always change the text of that button in Admin Area > Booths - General > Communications.
Tip! You can customise that button to whatever text you prefer. A friendly, inviting message is always good to have and perhaps you can also mention between what times the chat is live on your booth.
My Chat
You will also have your own 'My Chat' tab where you will see only the questions you ask, the replies to those posts as well as posts that you may have been assigned. Essentially, this becomes your own ‘inbox’ to manage.
A post that has been assigned to an administrator will always turn pink and when you have interacted with that post it will return to normal colour.
Threads
Chat will display in easy to follow threads so you can find comments about something of particular interest to you, grouped together. If anybody responds to your message, you will see the number go up in ‘Reply ()’ area where you can click, view and respond to all the replies in that thread or alternatively view them in ‘My Chat’.
Attachments
You may attach a file or image to share with other users. Please note that these are for public use so content must be appropriate. Simply click on the paperclip icon to upload your attachment.
Who’s typing
The system will also let you know which users are responding to your posts by displaying ‘username is typing’. It works the other way round too, so whenever you respond back to your messages, the ‘typing’ message will appear at the top.
Who’s here
Not to be confused with a ‘Who’s here' button on the booth that refers to live visitors. Over to the right, you will see which other users are currently in the chat area. If you wish to find out more about them, you can click on their profile and send a private message.
Read Only Live Chat
Some users visiting your booth when it's Offline, may want to catch up on the chat from earlier in the day. Setting the live chat to Read Only allows them to read the previous live chat posts and comments, but removes all ability to chat from this area.
To turn it on, simply select ‘Read Only’ from the chat dropdown in Booths - General > Communications. Turn your Offline contact method on and click ‘Update’. The ‘Read Only’ chat will be accessed by a smaller button underneath the current online/offline chat box at the top of the right-hand booth panel.
Read Only Wall
When you are offline you may have turned the Wall on, in place of the Live Chat. This enables you to let your visitors post any messages on your booth whilst you are away. When you are ready to be back online and want your live chat to be ‘On’, you may still want users to be able to read the previous offline Wall comments.
If this is the case, turn your live chat ‘On’ and select ‘Read Only’ from the ‘Offline Wall’ dropdown. (You will need to set your Offline contact preference to 'No Preference) then update your stand.
The ‘Read Only’ Wall feature will display in the Wall icon on the right hand side of your booth panel.
Assigning Chat Posts
Assigning chat posts is an easy way to make sure you are managing your live chat in an efficient way, and that all the questions get addressed by your team effectively. See below how you as an administrator can assign, re-assign and un-assign chat posts.
You can only assign a chat post to a moderator that is currently live in the chat, i.e. showing up in the right-panel with online attendees. Only administrators in the event (and booth admins) will be able to act as moderators. You can only have one moderator assigned per chat post at a time.
To assign a moderator:
Choose the message you would like to assign.
Click on the pin icon on that message.
Choose a moderator you would like to assign the message to and click Assign. Keep in mind that they have to be online in the chat to appear in the list if you are assigning the post to somebody else.
If you are assigned to a chat post, you will be automatically subscribed to that message as well. You cannot unsubscribe from that message whilst you are moderating that message. See subscribing to chat posts section.
To un-assign a moderator:
Choose the message you would like to un-assign.
Click on the pin icon on that message.
The current moderator will always appear at the top of the panel, then click Un-assign.
To re-assign a moderator:
Choose the message you would like to re-assign. You will know it’s currently assigned if the pin icon is green.
Click on the pin icon on that message.
Click Re-assign beside any of the available moderators.
Subscribing to chat posts
In a live chat, you can also ‘keep an eye on' your own posts and any chat posts from other participants. You will see an eye icon that can let you subscribe and unsubscribe to/from a message so you can view its replies and follow the conversation. If you have clicked on the eye icon it will make that message and all the replies visible in your My Chat tab view. When you post a message, you are automatically subscribed to that message and it will be visible in your My Chat tab. By replying to a message you automatically subscribe to that message, if you no longer want to follow the conversation you can unsubscribe at any time and your unsubscribed message will disappear from the My Chat tab after a refresh.
To subscribe to a message:
Choose a message and click on the eye icon.
Your subscribed message will appear in the My Chat tab.
To unsubscribe from a message:
Choose a message and click on the eye icon.
Your unsubscribed message will disappear in the My Chat tab after a refresh.