When it's staffed, live chat is excellent: fast, personal, and human. The catch is the word staffed, someone has to be sitting there ready to reply, which is exactly what small teams can't spare.
Outside working hours, most live chat tools fall back to a message form, which reintroduces the slow-reply problem they were meant to solve.
An AI receptionist removes the staffing requirement: it answers instantly at any hour and captures the lead, and hands off to a human when a real person is needed.
Related guides
Related terms
Browse all 104 terms- Website chat widgetA website chat widget is the small chat window, usually in the corner of a website, that lets visitors ask questions and get help without leaving the page.
- Chat LauncherA chat launcher is the small, persistent button on a website, usually in a bottom corner, that a visitor clicks or taps to open the chat window. It is the entry point to the whole conversation.
- Chat BubbleA chat bubble is the rounded container that holds one message in a chat interface, visually separating what the visitor said from what the assistant replied. It is the basic unit of a conversation on screen.
- Chat SessionA chat session is a single continuous conversation between one visitor and a chat widget, from the first message until the conversation ends or times out through inactivity.