Live chat
Live chat is a website or in-app messaging channel where customers chat in real time with human support or sales agents. It needs staff available during opening hours, and is often paired with an AI chatbot that answers first and passes conversations to an agent when a person is needed.
Example
A furniture store staffs live chat from 9 to 5; outside those hours the chat window asks visitors to leave a message.
Why it matters for a website chatbot
Live chat is personal but limited by staff hours and headcount. An AI chatbot covers the rest. ChatBento is not live chat: it answers on its own and passes conversations to your team by email, so you don't need anyone watching a chat window.
See it in practice: Human handoff
Related terms
- Human handoffHuman handoff is the point where an automated chatbot passes a conversation to a person, either because the customer asks for one or because the bot can't help. A good handoff carries the conversation history and contact details along, so the customer doesn't have to repeat themselves to the person who takes over.
- Chat widgetA chat widget is the small interface embedded on a website, usually a round button in a bottom corner, that opens a chat window when clicked. It connects visitors to a chatbot, live agents or both, and is normally added to a site with a short JavaScript snippet or a platform plugin.
- First response time (FRT)First response time (FRT) is the time between a customer contacting support and receiving the first reply from a person or system. It is usually reported as an average or median across conversations. Automated acknowledgements are often excluded so that FRT reflects the first meaningful response to the question.
- AI chatbotAn AI chatbot is software that holds a text conversation with people and writes its replies using artificial intelligence, usually a large language model, instead of following a fixed script. It can understand questions phrased in many different ways and, when connected to a knowledge base, answer from a specific organization's own information.