Adding support chat to your website

Add a support chat bubble so visitors can ask questions from your Cedros website. Choose whether the assistant, your team, or both should answer; set the wording visitors see; and decide which pages show the bubble.

You need permission to edit support chat settings. Changes save automatically and affect the live site—there is no separate Publish step. For a new setup, keep Show the support chat off while preparing the settings, then turn it on when you are ready to test.

Open support chat configuration

1. Open Support in the admin area and choose Configure. If the inbox is empty and chat is off, Turn on support chat also opens the configuration page.
2. Wait for the settings to load. Check Show the support chat under On your site before making changes.
3. Review Who answers, What visitors see, and Advanced. The Preview shows the opening panel and a summary of the current choices.
4. After editing, wait for Saved just now. If you see Unsaved changes, Saving…, or an error, do not assume the public settings have updated yet.

The preview is a display of your settings. It does not send a message, verify the AI connection, or confirm that a teammate is available. Test the actual public widget before relying on it.

If the page is read-only, ask your site administrator for settings editing access. See Why can’t I see or edit a feature?.

Choose who answers

Under Who answers, choose the mode that matches how you will handle inquiries:

• Cedros Assistant: The assistant answers visitor questions using the site's configured support AI and available content. Nobody from your team needs to be online for an AI reply. This mode does not offer the visitor a Talk to human action.
• Assistant, then your team: The assistant answers first. A visitor can use Talk to human to request your team, and the conversation waits for a person to take over. Assign someone to monitor Support before offering this option.
• Your team only: Questions wait for a teammate. Visitors receive the configured waiting reply and see your response estimate instead of getting generated AI answers.

For either AI mode, have an administrator confirm that the Support Chat Agent has a working AI provider/model and suitable source content. Publish accurate help content before inviting visitors to ask about it. Turning on the bubble alone does not establish that the assistant can answer successfully.

The Online label shown with an AI mode is not evidence that a teammate is watching the inbox. Verify team coverage separately, and use wording that sets an expectation you can meet.

For a team-supported workflow, also check Support chat analytics in the Built-in analytics settings. Chat recording must be enabled for conversation messages and handoff state to be retained for the Support workflow; disabling collection can affect more than the aggregate reports. Have an administrator review both the built-in collection setting and the Support chat analytics control if conversations or messages are missing.

Set expectations while visitors wait

When the mode includes your team, set Response estimate visitors see to a realistic phrase, such as “within one business day.” This is visitor-facing text, not a promise that someone will automatically join within that time.

Write Reply sent while they wait to acknowledge the question and explain the next step. You can include {responseTime} to insert the response estimate. For example: “Thanks for your question. Our team usually replies {responseTime}. Please leave the details we will need to help.”

Keep your business hours current in Settings → General. The team-only widget can show those hours, and configured closure information may also appear. See Setting up your business information.

The chat bubble's visibility follows its on/off switch and page rules. Opening hours, an away message, and a response estimate do not by themselves turn the bubble off or arrange team coverage. Review the experience outside your usual working hours as well as during them.

Customize the opening panel

Under What visitors see, set Chat title and Greeting. Use a title visitors will recognize and a short greeting that explains what they can ask. For an AI-first setup, make it clear that the assistant answers first.

Under Advanced, you can also change:

• Bubble label: The accessible label read by screen readers for the closed chat bubble. Do not rely on it as a visible text banner.
• Message box placeholder: A short prompt shown in the empty message box.
• Ask for a star rating: Controls whether visitors are offered a 1–5 star prompt when a chat finishes.

Check the preview for readable text and useful expectations. Then check the public widget on desktop and mobile, including how it sits near your footer and other floating controls. A good greeting should remain understandable when it wraps onto several lines.

Add useful quick actions

Quick actions let visitors send a common question with one click. They send the configured question immediately; they do not merely fill the message box.

1. Under Quick actions, choose Edit quick actions.
2. Set the Button label and Message visitors send for each action. For example, a “Getting started” button could send “How do I get started?”
3. Choose a Reply method. Generate every time asks the assistant for a fresh answer. Use prewritten answer uses the answer you enter for that exact question in an AI-enabled mode.
4. Use Add quick action or Remove as needed. You can have up to eight actions. Choose Done to close the quick-action editor and wait for the page's saved status.

For a prewritten reply, supply a complete, current answer and give the question unique wording. A missing answer or duplicate question can cause the normal generated-answer path to be used instead. Choosing Generate every time keeps any saved answer text for later but does not use it for that reply.

Prewritten answers are useful for a short, fixed response you want to control. Review them when the underlying information changes. Follow-up questions use the normal conversation behavior; a saved answer does not replace the rest of the support setup. In Your team only mode, questions still go to the team rather than using AI-mode quick answers.

Removing every quick action leaves visitors with the message box. In modes that include your team, the separate Talk to human action remains available.

Choose where the bubble appears

Open Advanced → Where it shows and select one of these rules:

• All pages: Show the bubble across the website.
• Specific pages only: Show it only on paths you add under Pages to show on.
• All pages except a few: Hide it on paths you add under Pages to hide on.

To add a path:

1. Choose the visibility rule you want.
2. Enter a site path, such as /pricing or /blog, in the path field. Use the path, not a full address with a domain.
3. Choose Add and confirm the path appears in the list. Repeat for other paths, or use Remove to delete a rule.
4. Wait for the saved status, then test an included page and an excluded page on the public site.

A path also matches its subpages: /blog matches /blog and /blog/my-post, but not /blogroll. The / rule matches only the homepage. Query strings and page fragments do not create separate rules, so do not use them to target different versions of the same page.

Specific pages only with no paths hides the bubble everywhere. All pages except a few with no paths shows it everywhere. In every case, Show the support chat must also be on.

Turn it on and test the visitor experience

1. Confirm the selected mode, greeting, quick actions, page rules, and team response estimate. Make sure the appropriate person is ready to monitor any test that requests human help.
2. Switch Show the support chat on and wait for Saved just now. Open a fresh public page where the bubble should appear, using a signed-out window for a public visitor test.
3. Open the bubble and check the title, greeting, message placeholder, and quick actions on desktop and mobile. Visit a page that should hide it and confirm the rule is applied.
4. Send one clearly identified test question. For an AI mode, use a question your published help content answers, then check the response and any source links. For team-only mode, check the waiting reply and response estimate.
5. Return to Support and find the test conversation. Confirm that its message is recorded. If you offer Talk to human, test that action and have a teammate confirm they can see and handle the waiting conversation.

A test question creates real chat activity and may use AI or notify your team. Use harmless test content. The setup is ready when the bubble appears on the intended pages, the visitor receives the expected response for the chosen mode, and the team workflow records the conversation as intended.

Keep the public conversation open while testing a team reply. Use Minimize if you only want to hide the panel; closing the chat can lead to the rating or finish flow and resolve the conversation. If a response fails, use the widget's Retry action where offered and verify the result before sending the same question as a new message.

To pause chat, switch Show the support chat off and wait for it to save. The other configuration stays saved for when you turn it back on. Confirm the bubble is hidden on a freshly opened public page; turning it off does not complete existing conversations in Support.

Fix common setup problems

The bubble is missing. Check the saved on/off state and Where it shows. An empty include list hides it everywhere, and a parent path can exclude more pages than expected. Refresh the public page after saving. If visitors cannot reach the page at all, review Controlling when your site is public.

The preview looks right, but the public widget shows older text. Check for an unsaved or failed change, then load a fresh public page. If saving failed, keep a copy of your intended wording, resolve the displayed error, and verify the settings again before changing more fields.

The assistant is unavailable or cannot answer a question. Check the support AI provider/model and whether the relevant source content is published and accurate. A displayed bubble or an Online label does not verify a successful model response. For an immediate alternative, choose a team-supported mode only if someone can monitor and answer the queue.

Visitors expect a person, but nobody responds. Confirm the mode includes your team and that someone is monitoring Support. Check the response estimate and waiting reply for misleading promises. Queue counts and waiting estimates are guidance; they are not a staff attendance check.

The visitor sees a reply, but the team cannot find the message. Check Support's filters and search, then have an administrator review chat recording and Support chat analytics in the built-in analytics settings. Keep the test time, page address, and distinctive question so the team can locate the correct conversation.

A quick action uses the wrong reply. Review both its button label and the actual question it sends. Check Reply method, add any missing prewritten answer, and remove duplicate question wording. Retest in the public widget after the settings save.