Offline messages

A special button integrated into the site allows the site visitors to contact the customer service operator. Depending on the operator's availability, this button may say either 'Click for Live Help' or 'Leave a message'.   

'Click for Live Help' means the operator is currently online and the visitor can invite him to chat by clicking on the button. However, if any other site visitors have requested live help at the same time and the operator cannot accept the invitation to chat at once, the visitor is asked either to wait or to leave a message. To leave a message he needs to click on the appropriate link ('leave a message') and complete a special form.

The 'Leave a message' button means the operator is offline and clicking on the button will take the visitor directly to 'Leave a message' form.

Please note that the button changes from 'Click for Live Help' to 'Leave a message' not immediately after the operator goes offline. The delay is caused by the fact that Data Collector needs some time to “realize” that connection with Data Center has broken. Sales-n-Stats works so that Data Collector is supposed to periodically receive from Data Center a list of operators who are currently online. If an updated list is not received before the time period specified in the 'Operators list expiration (sec)' option is exceeded, the system “understands” the operator has gone offline and changes the button to 'Leave a message'.

If a visitor attempts to start a chat session with an operator while the button still says 'Click for Live Help' but the operator is already offline, Sales-n-Stats tries to route the call to the operator, and when that does not work out, the visitor gets an invitation to wait or to leave a message.

To leave a message, the customer needs to complete and submit an online form. The form requires the visitor to enter the same information he would be asked to provide when sending an ordinary email (the name by which he wants to be addressed, the email address to which he wants the reply to be mailed, the subject of the message and the message text) and click Send Message.

To protect yourself from spam sent through 'Leave a message' forms enable the 'Enable spam protection for offline messages' option in the 'Data collector settings' section. This will include a CAPTCHA image into the form and the visitor will have to type the CAPTCHA characters to be able to send an offline message.

‘Leave a message’ form completed by a visitor