You can require customers to enter information, like name, phone number, or a question, by enabling the pre-chat form.
To enable the pre-chat form
- From the dashboard, select Settings > Widget.
- Click Forms at the top of the page.
- Next to Pre-Chat Form, click On.
- Select the information you want end users to enter before they can start a chat, like in the example below:
Some of the displayed options vary depending on your settings in other areas:
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For the Require Phone Number option to appear, you must select Allow Phone Number under the Visitor Profile section of the same page.
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For the Require Department option to appear, you have to have departments enabled. For details, see Creating agents and departments.
In rare situations, information required in the pre-chat form may not be passed into the chat:
- If the chat is started by a proactive trigger, the pre-chat form requirement is bypassed and chats can be created without users having to fill in their name and email address. For more information, see Why do I keep receiving chats with no customer contact information?
- If a chat is interrupted or disconnected, pre-chat data may not be reapplied upon reconnection, including department and visitor tags.
For more information, see How do I customize the pre-chat form?