When you're offline

Nobody can be online all the time. These settings make sure questions that arrive while you're away still reach you, and visitors still get an answer. All of them are point-and-click in the console.

Business hours

Sites → your site → Hours & waiting:

1. Turn on Only accept chats during business hours.
2. Pick a time zone and add hours per weekday (several periods a day are fine). You can copy one day's hours to every day.

Outside those hours, visitors see a message form instead of a chat nobody will answer.

• Tell visitors when someone is next in: shows "Next online: Mon 09:00" above the form. Very useful for visitors in other time zones.
• After-hours note: under Texts, write it per language, such as "We answer every message within one business day". If empty, the offline note is used.
• List your questions under the form: add an FAQ card under Home page first, then tick List your questions under the message form after hours. Many visitors find their answer without waiting.
• Agent groups can have their own hours (sales can keep chatting after the site closes), under Agent groups.

When no agent is online, visitors see the message form even during business hours.

Wait-time reminder

Same section, Wait-time reminder: if nobody answers a visitor's first message in time, the widget tells them honestly and asks for their email; your reply reaches them there. Choose 30 seconds to 30 minutes; the default is 2 minutes.

• If you already know the visitor's email (they signed in, or left it before), they aren't asked again; they just confirm a masked address.
• The chat is marked as missed, so you can filter those chats and answer them one by one.

Offline messages

Messages left after hours, and emails left after a long wait, go to Offline messages, in To handle and Handled.

• Reply by email sends your answer under the site's name; the sender shows as "Your site (via SealReply)", with nothing for you to set up. Each message can be answered by email once.
• When the visitor replies to that email, it goes to the Reply-to email under Sites → Basics, and you carry on from your own mailbox. Set one.
• Without a reply-to email, the visitor cannot reply: the email says so and has a button back to your website to chat with you. The reply window reminds you to set one first.
• To write from your own mailbox instead, click the visitor's email address, or Use my own email instead in the reply window.
• A chat where the visitor asked for a follow-up and nobody answered before it ended becomes an offline message automatically.
• New offline messages trigger an email to you, grouped when several arrive close together. It contains only the site, time and a console link, never what the visitor wrote. Each person can unsubscribe under Settings → Notifications.

Choose what the form asks under Sites → Visitor features: name and phone are each "don't ask", "optional" or "required". Email and message are always required.

What the visitor sees

• When they come back and open the chat, they still see the earlier conversation and your replies.
• When you reply to an offline message, they get it by email.
• On sites using visitor identity, signed-in customers see their earlier chats on any device.

Get notified on your phone

Account menu → Push notifications on this device. On iPhone and iPad, tap Share → Add to Home Screen first, then open SealReply from the Home Screen and turn it on. Each teammate turns it on for their own devices, so whoever is on duty gets the alerts.

Three things to do each morning

1. In Conversations, filter missed chats and answer them.
2. In Offline messages, reply to each one.
3. For anyone who looks ready to buy, set a follow-up (Customers and reports).