Live Chat¶
Odoo Live Chat allows users to communicate with website visitors in real-time. With Live Chat, leads can be qualified for their sales potential, support questions can be answered quickly, and issues can be directed to the appropriate team for further investigation or follow up. Live Chat also provides the opportunity for instant feedback from customers.
Enable Live Chat¶
The Live Chat application can be installed multiple ways:
Go to and click Install.
Go to the list view, select a team, and on the team’s settings page, click the checkbox next to Live Chat, under the Channels section.
In the app, go to , scroll to the Email & Marketing section, check the box next to Livechat, and click Save.
Note
After the Live Chat application is installed, a live chat Channel is created by default.
Create live chat channels¶
To create a new live chat Channel, go to . This opens a blank channel detail form. Enter the name of the new channel in the Channel Name field.
To configure the remaining tabs on the channel detail form (Operators, Options, Channel Rules, and Widget), follow the steps below.
Tip
The channel detail form for any channel can be accessed by navigating back to the Website Live Chat Channels dashboard, via the breadcrumbs. Find the Kanban card for the appropriate live chat channel, hover over it, and then click on the ⋮ (three dots) icon to open the drop-down menu. Click Configure Channel to open the channel detail form.
Operators tab¶
Operators are the users who act as agents and respond to live chat requests from customers. When a user is added as an operator in a live chat channel, they can receive chats from website visitors wherever they are in the database. Chat windows open in the bottom-right corner of the screen.
On the channel detail form, click the Operators tab. The user who originally created the live chat channel has been added as an operator by default.
Note
Current operators can be edited, or removed, by clicking on their respective boxes in the Operators tab, which reveals a separate Open: Operators modal. In that modal, adjust any information, as needed. Then, click Save, or click Remove to remove that operator from the channel.
Click Add to reveal an Add: Operators modal.
In the modal, scroll to find the desired users, or enter their name in the Search… bar. Then, click the checkbox next to the users to be added, and click Select.
New operators can be created and added to the list directly from this modal, as well, by clicking New, and filling out the Create Operators form. When the form is complete, click Save & Close, or Save & New for multiple record creations.
Danger
Creating a new user can impact the status of an Odoo subscription, as the total number of users in a database counts towards the billing rate. Proceed with caution before creating a new user. If a user already exists, adding them as an operator will not alter the subscription or billing rate for a database.
Options tab¶
The Options tab on the live chat channel detail form contains the visual and text settings for the live chat window.
Livechat button¶
The Livechat Button is the icon that appears in the bottom corner of the website.
Change the text in the Notification text field to update the greeting displayed in the text bubble when the live chat button appears on the website.
The Livechat Button Color alters the color of the live chat button as it appears on the website. To change the color, click on a color bubble to open the color selection window, then click and drag the circle along the color gradient. Click out of the selection window once complete. Click the 🔁 (refresh) icon to the right of the color bubbles to reset the colors to the default selection.
Tip
Color selection, for the button or header, can be made manually using a slider or through RGB, HSL, or HEX color code entries from the pop-up color selection window that appears when either of the color bubbles are clicked. Different options are available, depending on the operating system.
Livechat window¶
The Livechat Window is the space where the live chat conversation with website visitors takes place.
Edit the Welcome Message to change the message a visitor sees when they open a new chat session. This message appears as though it is sent by a live chat operator, and acts as both a greeting and an invitation to continue the conversation.
Edit the Chat Input Placeholder to alter the text that appears in the box where visitors type their replies. This message prompts the visitor to initiate the chat.
The Channel Header is the colored bar at the top of the chat window. The Channel Header Color can be changed following the same steps as the Livechat button.
The live chat window with a purple channel header and placeholder text that reads, “Say Something…”¶
Channel Rules tab¶
The Channel Rules tab on the live chat channel detail form determines when the live chat window opens on the website, by configuring when a URL Regex action is triggered, such as a page visit.
To create a new channel rule, click Add a line. This opens the Create Rules modal.
Create new rules¶
Fill out the fields on the Create Rules modal, as instructed below. Then, click Save & Close.
The Live Chat Button is the icon that appears in the bottom corner of the website. Select from one of the following display options:
Show: displays the chat button on the page.
Show with notification: displays the chat button, as well as a floating text bubble next to the button.
Open automatically: displays the button and automatically opens the chat window after a specified amount of time (designated in the Open automatically timer field, which is revealed when selecting this option).
Hide: hides the chat button on the page.
To include a Chatbot on this channel, select it from the drop-down menu. If the chatbot should only be active when no operators are active, check the box labeled Enabled only if no operator.
The Enabled only if no operator field is only visible if a chatbot is selected in the Chatbot field.
The URL Regex specifies the web pages where this rule should be applied. In the URL Regex field, input the relative URL of the page where the chat button should appear.
This field designates the amount of time (in seconds) a page should be open before the chat window opens. This field only appears if the Live Chat Button for this rule is set to Open automatically.
If this channel should only be available to site visitors in specific countries, add them to the Country field. If this field is left blank, the channel is available to all site visitors, regardless of location.
Note
In order to track the geographical location of visitors, GeoIP must be installed on the database. While this feature is installed by default on Odoo Online databases, On-Premise databases require additional setup steps.
Widget tab¶
The Widget tab on the live chat channel detail form provides the code for a website widget. This code can be added to a website to provide access to a live chat window.
Tip
The live chat widget can be added to websites created through Odoo by navigating to . Then, scroll to the section. In the Channel field, select the channel to add to the site. Click Save to apply.
To add the widget to a website created on a third-party platform, click the first COPY
button on the Widget tab, and paste the code into the <head> tag on the site.
Likewise, to send a live chat session to a customer, click the second COPY button on the Widget tab. This link can be sent directly to a customer. When they click the link, they are redirected to a new chat window.
Participate in a conversation¶
As explained above, operators are the users who respond to live chat requests from customers. The information below outlines the necessary steps for operators participating in live chat conversations on an Odoo database.
Set an online chat name¶
Before participating in a live chat, operators may choose to update their Online Chat Name. This is the name that is displayed to site visitors in the live chat conversation.
To update the Online Chat Name, click on the user avatar in the top-right corner of any page in the database. Select My Profile from the drop-down menu to open the profile page. On the right side of the Preferences tab, locate the Online Chat Name field, and enter a preferred name.
If a user’s Online Chat Name is not set, the name displayed defaults to the user’s name that is designated on their profile page.
Example
A user has their full name as their User Name, but they do not want to include their last name in a live chat conversation. They would then set their Online Chat Name to include only their first name.
Set online chat languages¶
If an operator speaks multiple languages, they can add this information to their user profile. This information can then be used to determine what conversations the operator is assigned. A visitor’s language is determined, via their browser’s language settings.
To add Online Chat Languages, click on the user avatar in the top-right corner of any page in the database. Select My Profile from the drop-down menu to open the profile page. On the right side of the Preferences tab, click into the Online Chat Language field, and select one or more languages from the drop-down menu.
Note
Conversations are assigned to operators based on a number of criteria, including availability and the number of ongoing conversations. While the operator’s main language and additional languages are taken into consideration, they do not supersede all other criteria.
Join or leave a channel¶
To join a live chat channel, go to the , and click the Join button on the Kanban card for the appropriate channel.
Any channel where the user is currently active shows a Leave button. Click this button to disconnect from the channel.
Important
Operators that do not show any activity in Odoo for more than thirty minutes are considered disconnected, and subsequently removed from the channel.
Manage live chat requests¶
When an operator is active in a channel, chat windows open in the bottom-right corner of the screen, no matter where they are in the database. They can participate in conversations without leaving their current location.
Tip
Conversations can also be accessed by clicking the (comments) icon in the menu bar. bar.
Live chat conversations can also be viewed by navigating to . New conversations appear in bold under the LIVECHAT heading, located along the left panel.
Click on a conversation in the left panel to select it. This opens the conversation. From this view, an operator can participate in the chat the same as they would in the normal chat window.