Live Chat

Overview

The Live Chat console is the central workspace where your support agents handle real-time conversations with website visitors. Access it from Helpon → Live Chat in your WordPress admin panel.

The agent workspace is divided into three main areas:

• Conversation List (left panel) — All active, pending, and resolved chats sorted by most recent activity. Unread messages are highlighted with a badge count.
• Chat Window (center panel) — The active conversation thread with message history, typing indicators, and the message composer at the bottom.
• Visitor Details (right panel) — Contact information, CRM data, session notes, previous conversations, current page URL, browser info, and custom fields.

Agent Management

Agents are WordPress users who have been granted access to the Helpon Live Chat console. You can manage agents from Helpon → Settings → Agents.

Adding Agents

Agent Roles

Chat Routing

Chat routing determines how incoming conversations are distributed among available agents. Configure routing from Helpon → Settings → Live Chat → Routing.

Helpon supports four routing methods. Choose the one that best fits your team structure:

Auto-Assignment

Auto-assignment automatically distributes incoming chats to available agents without manual intervention. Configure it from Helpon → Settings → Live Chat → Auto-Assignment.

How Auto-Assignment Works

• New chat arrives — The system checks for available agents who are online and below their maximum concurrent chat limit.
• Agent matched — Based on the selected routing method, the best agent is chosen and receives a notification with a sound alert.
• Assignment timeout — If the assigned agent doesn't respond within the timeout period, the chat is re-routed to the next available agent.
• No agents available — If all agents are at capacity or offline, the overflow action is triggered (offline form, queue position display, or AI handoff).

Priority Queue

When enabled, the priority queue reorders incoming chats based on these factors:

• Returning visitors — Existing CRM contacts are prioritized over anonymous visitors.
• VIP tags — Contacts tagged as VIP in your CRM are placed at the front of the queue.
• Wait time — Visitors who have been waiting longest are moved up progressively.
• Page context — Visitors on checkout or pricing pages receive higher priority.

Canned Responses

Canned responses are pre-written message templates that agents can insert during conversations using shortcodes. Manage them from Helpon → Settings → Live Chat → Canned Responses.

Creating Canned Responses

Shortcode Examples

Hello {{visitor_name}}! Welcome to {{business_name}}. How can I assist you today?

Our business hours are:
Monday - Friday: 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Saturday: 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Sunday: Closed

You can also book an appointment online anytime at {{booking_url}}.

Thank you for contacting {{business_name}}, {{visitor_name}}! If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to reach out. Have a great day!

I'm going to connect you with a specialist from our {{department}} team who can better assist you with this. Please hold for just a moment.

Available Variables

Import & Export

You can bulk-manage canned responses using CSV files. Go to Helpon → Settings → Live Chat → Canned Responses and use the Import or Export buttons. The CSV format requires four columns: shortcode, title, category, and body.

shortcode,title,category,body
/greet,Welcome Greeting,Greetings,"Hello {{visitor_name}}! How can I help you?"
/hours,Business Hours,General,"We're open Mon-Fri 9AM-6PM, Sat 10AM-2PM."
/thanks,Thank You,Closings,"Thanks for reaching out! Have a great day."

Session Notes

Session notes allow agents to add internal annotations to conversations that are only visible to your team, never to visitors. Notes appear in the right-side Visitor Details panel under the Notes tab.

Note Features

• Tagging system — Add tags to notes for easy filtering and searching. Common tags include follow-up, urgent, billing, complaint, and escalated.
• Note templates — Create reusable templates for common note types like handoff summaries, complaint logs, or follow-up reminders. Templates are managed in Settings → Live Chat → Note Templates.
• Visibility rules — Control who can see each note. Options include All Agents, Supervisors Only, or Private (only the note author).
• Timestamps — Every note is automatically timestamped with the agent's name, making it easy to track when annotations were added and by whom.
• Pinned notes — Important notes can be pinned to the top of the notes panel so they are always visible when any agent opens the conversation.

Chat Features

Helpon provides a rich set of real-time communication features for both agents and visitors. Configure these from Helpon → Settings → Live Chat → Features.

File Sharing Details

File sharing can be restricted per role. Admins can configure allowed file types and maximum file sizes from the settings panel.

Chat Transfer

To transfer a conversation, click the Transfer icon in the chat toolbar. You can transfer to a specific agent, a department, or back to the AI. The receiving agent sees the full conversation history, session notes, and visitor details.

Agent Availability

Agent availability determines whether an agent can receive new chat assignments. Agents can set their status from the Live Chat console toolbar at the top of the page.

Status Behavior

• Online (green dot) — Agent is active and can receive new chat assignments. Appears in routing pool. Visitors see a green indicator on the widget.
• Away (yellow dot) — Agent is temporarily unavailable. Existing chats remain active, but no new chats are assigned. Useful for breaks or meetings.
• Offline (gray dot) — Agent is not available. All new chats are routed to other online agents. If no agents are online, the offline routing behavior triggers.

Auto-Away

When enabled, the system automatically switches an agent to Away status after a configurable period of inactivity (no mouse movement, keyboard input, or chat activity). The default timeout is 10 minutes. Once the agent becomes active again, their status automatically returns to Online.

Offline Routing Behavior

When all agents are offline, incoming chats are handled based on the configured offline routing behavior:

• Redirect to AI — The AI chatbot takes over and handles the conversation. If the AI cannot resolve the issue, it collects the visitor's contact information for a follow-up.
• Show offline form — Displays a form asking for the visitor's name, email, and message. Submissions are saved as tickets in the conversation queue.
• Display queue message — Shows a custom message informing the visitor that agents are currently unavailable and provides estimated availability hours.

Escalation Rules

Escalation rules define when and how conversations are transferred from the AI chatbot to a human agent. Configure these from Helpon → Settings → Live Chat → Escalation.

Setting Up Escalation Triggers

Troubleshooting

Common Live Chat issues and their solutions:

Messages not delivering

• Check your server's WebSocket support. Helpon requires WebSocket connections on port 443 (wss://). Contact your hosting provider if WebSockets are blocked.
• Verify that your SSL certificate is valid and not expired. Mixed content (HTTP/HTTPS) blocks WebSocket connections.
• Clear your browser cache and disable browser extensions that may interfere with WebSocket connections (ad blockers, privacy extensions).
• Check the browser console (F12 → Console) for connection errors. Look for "WebSocket connection failed" messages.
• If using Cloudflare, ensure WebSockets are enabled in the Cloudflare dashboard under Network → WebSockets.

Agent not receiving notifications

• Verify the agent's status is set to Online, not Away or Offline.
• Check that browser notification permissions are granted. Go to your browser settings and ensure notifications are allowed for your WordPress admin domain.
• Ensure the agent has not reached their maximum concurrent chat limit. Check the limit in Helpon → Settings → Agents.
• Confirm that sound notifications are not muted in the agent's Live Chat console toolbar.
• If using auto-assignment, verify the agent's skills match the routing rules for the incoming chat.

File upload failures

• Check that the file type is in the allowed list. Go to Helpon → Settings → Live Chat → Features → File Sharing to review allowed types.
• Verify the file size does not exceed the configured maximum (default: 10 MB). Also check your PHP upload_max_filesize and post_max_size settings in php.ini.
• Ensure your WordPress wp-content/uploads directory is writable (permissions 755 or 775).
• If using Amazon S3 storage, verify your S3 credentials and bucket permissions are correctly configured.

Connection drops

• Intermittent disconnections are often caused by server timeout settings. Increase your PHP max_execution_time and your web server's keep-alive timeout.
• If using a reverse proxy (Nginx, Apache), ensure the proxy timeout values are sufficient. Set proxy_read_timeout to at least 300 seconds for Nginx.
• Check your hosting provider's connection limits. Shared hosting environments may restrict long-running connections.
• Helpon includes automatic reconnection logic. If the WebSocket drops, the client will attempt to reconnect every 3 seconds for up to 30 attempts before falling back to AJAX polling.
• Monitor your server's memory usage. High memory consumption can cause the PHP process to be killed, dropping active connections.