Before going live

Customers judge the agent by its first answers. Set aside an hour for these checks: they apply to every agent and every channel you open.

#The workspace

Check it in WorkspaceSettingsGeneral.

• In the “Languages and Localization” panel, Supported languages includes all your customers' languages: they are used for the chat texts and the greetings.
• The Time zone, in the same panel, is the one where your business is based.
• The “Opening hours” and closing days are set (Opening hours and closing days). They are used for the agent's replies, operators, transfers and voice greetings: where each one is chosen is in Hours in SupportFast.

#The chat agent's knowledge

Check it in Chat agentTraining.

• Every training is “Completed”: none is “Failed” or “Interrupted”, and there is no yellow triangle for pages with problems.
• You removed useless or outdated pages from the trained website, such as expired offers and test pages.
• If your plan includes it, automatic website sync is on, so the agent learns new pages by itself (Training from your website, Plans, quotas and usage).
• The 10 questions you're asked most often have an FAQ with the exact answer.
• Information that isn't on your website is in a Textual training: holiday closures, areas served, special terms.

#Instructions and behavior

Check them in Chat agentPlayground, in the AGENT node.

• At the top, the status is “Published”: no changes are left in draft.
• The “Business scope” clearly describes who you are and what you do.
• The instructions say what to do when the agent doesn't know something: for example, invite the customer to leave their contact details or to ask for an operator.

#The test with 20 real questions

Prepare a sheet with the questions and ask them all in the test chat: press Test Chat in the agent's top bar. With everything published, the test chat uses the version your customers will see. Tests are real: they use up your plan's messages and trigger active automations (see Where test conversations end up). Here is an example for an auto repair shop:

Note the wrong answers and fix them (When an answer is wrong), then ask those questions again until all the answers are right.

#The chat on your website

• “Chat name”, “Welcome Message” and “Suggested Questions” are written in every workspace language (Agent profile: Interface).
• If you collect contact details, the form asks only for the essential fields: in the form, every field that's turned on is required (Agent profile: Contacts).
• In Agent profileGeneral, “Privacy Policy” contains the link to your privacy notice: before the chat starts, visitors see it and give their consent.
• In the same General tab, “Traffic Limits” panel, the Monthly Message Limit is off or high enough (users with the “Billing” permission can see it). When the agent reaches it, it stops answering until the end of the month: on the website, visitors read “You've reached the monthly message limit.”; on WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger they get no reply.
• The button appears on every page, on computers and phones, and doesn't cover other elements such as the cookie banner (Installing the widget).
• The agent is “Active”.

#Your team

• Every teammate who works in the console has their own user, with the right role (Team, roles and permissions).
• If you use live chat: Enable Live Chat is on, the “Operator Availability Hours” are set and the “Unavailability Message” is written in every language (the Operator Chat tab).
• In Agent profileGeneral, “Email Notifications”, the emails you need are turned on and the “Email for notifications” is the right address.
• You have decided who checks Conversations, how many times a day, and who answers when a customer asks for an operator.

#WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger

If you use these channels:

• In WorkspaceIntegrations, the channel status is “Active”, not “Error”.
• In Agent profileIntegrations, the “Agent” column shows this agent and not “Unattended”.
• If customers send you photos, documents or voice notes, on the channel page, in the “Files and Audio” panel, Receive Files and Receive and Transcribe Audio are turned on. They are off by default, and while they are off, attachments are discarded. You need a plan with the “Files and audio in chat” feature and, to transcribe voice notes, your own OpenAI key (WhatsApp: channel settings).
• You sent a test message from your phone with Test channel and the agent answered.
• If you want to write to customers first on WhatsApp, you have at least one approved template (Meta rules: 24 hours, costs, limits).

#The phone

If you use the voice agent:

• The greeting and recording are set up as explained in Recording and consent.
• In AccountTelephony, the number is “Active”, and the connected number appears in the agent's bar (Assigning and managing numbers).
• A real phone call from a mobile gets the greeting and correct answers.
• Transfers reach the teammate during the planned hours.
• If you forward your current number, you called that number from another phone, including the “If I'm already on the phone” and “If I don't answer” cases if you turned them on (Forwarding calls from your number).
• After a successful call, the summary email reaches the right people, with the summary filled in.

#Usage and plan

• You checked in AccountSubscription how many messages, minutes, automation runs and campaign sends are left this month.
• You have decided what to do when a quota runs out. An add-on or automatic purchase restarts messages, calls and automations right away, but not campaigns that are already paused: the full table is in A monthly quota has run out (Add-ons and automatic purchase).

#Launch day

1. Spread the word

   Put the chat link in your email signature and on social media, and add a notice on your website. If you have a new number, update it everywhere it appears.

2. Follow the first conversations

   Fixing the first wrong answers right away makes a real difference. What to look at every day and every week: The first 30 days.

#See also