Ask us chat

The Ask us chat is a small Ask us a question button in the corner of your site. Visitors type a question, like "Is there parking?" or "Are you open Sunday?", and get an answer straight away, in the language of the page they're on. When it can't answer, it offers to pass the question to you, and it lands in your Inbox.

It's an add-on: $7 a month for a site, with up to 1,000 conversations a month. It's also included in the Business plan.

No website from us? The chat works for a business with a booking page and no website too: it answers from your hours, services and FAQ list and from a website you already have. See Take bookings without a website.

What it answers from

Only your own published site:

• your FAQ list (it prefers these answers, so they help most; see Your FAQ list)
• every page's text, prices included
• Business info: phone, address, service area, hours, holidays and seasonal hours, so it knows whether you're open right now
• your lists: upcoming events, products, services, job openings and the rest

It never makes up prices, availability, discounts or promises your site doesn't make. It says plainly that its answers are automated, and it politely turns down questions that aren't about your business.

It can't book, take orders or payments, or change anything. It tells visitors where on your site to do those things.

Turn it on

1. In your dashboard, click Ask us chat on your site's card, then Turn on the chat. See Add-ons.
2. In your editor, click Ask us chat, and turn on Show the chat on my site.
3. Write a Greeting, the chat's first message, like "Hi! Ask us anything about the café or the garden center."
4. Under Show it on, keep Every page, or choose Some pages and tick them.
5. Publish. The chat learns your site each time you publish, so publish again after you change something it should know.

Your Spanish pages get the greeting translated when you publish, and the chat answers in Spanish there.

Instructions for the chat

Instructions for the chat are a few short rules in your own words, like "For prices, ask them to call" or "Always pass complaints to the team." Click an example under the box to add it. Visitors never see your instructions. The chat follows them, but it still answers only from your site.

Questions it passes to you

When the chat doesn't know, it says so and offers to pass the question on. The visitor leaves their name, an email or phone number, and the question. It arrives in your Inbox from "Ask us chat", with what they asked the chat, and you get an email, like a contact form message. Reply to the email to answer them.

Visitors can also click Ask the team instead at any time.

Questions to answer

The Ask us chat screen lists the questions the chat couldn't answer, most asked first. The same question asked in different words is listed once, with how many times it was asked.

• Click Answer, write a short answer, and click Add to my FAQ list. Publish, and the chat (and your FAQ sections) can answer it from then on.
• Click Skip for a question you don't want to answer on your site.

This is the best way to make the chat better: each question you answer is one it won't need to pass on again.

Conversations

Conversations shows every chat from the last 90 days, newest first, with the page it started on and whether it was answered, not answered, or passed to you. Click one to read it. Conversations are deleted after 90 days.

The monthly limit

The add-on includes 1,000 conversations a month, far more than most small businesses get. A very long site or very long conversations can reach the month's limit sooner. If your site reaches it, we email you, and until the 1st the chat button asks visitors to leave their question for you instead.

When the add-on is off

If the chat is turned on in your editor but the add-on is off, the button still shows, but it doesn't answer: it takes visitors' questions for you, like a contact form. A publish check reminds you to turn the add-on on.

Your privacy policy

When the chat is on, add a sentence about it to your privacy policy, like "Questions you ask in our chat are answered automatically and kept for 90 days, so we can answer you and improve our answers." A publish check reminds you if your privacy policy page doesn't mention the chat. The chat window also tells visitors not to share card or health details.

Try it in the editor

In your editor's preview, the button works without the add-on, but it only answers from your FAQ list and sends nothing. On your live site, it answers from everything.

Related: Your FAQ list, Your inbox, Add-ons.