How can agents quickly reply to customers over chat?

Question

How can I quickly send a message to my customers when they start a chat? Is there a way for the system to automatically post the first message from an agent to a visitor? For example, "Welcome! Please give me a moment to look over your question." 

Answer

Improve your first reply time using two methods:

• Manual replies through Chat shortcuts 
• Automated replies through Chat triggers

Chat shortcuts

Agents can quickly send a message once they decide to serve a chat request through Chat shortcuts. Insert common phrases that are frequently used by your agents and enable your agents to quickly send these repetitive messages with just a few keystrokes. 

Chat triggers

The "First reply" default Chat trigger sends an automated reply to a customer that starts a chat so that they know their request is being attended to. The trigger fires 5 seconds after the customer sends their first message but before the agent accepts and replies back to the customer. Customize the automated message and the amount of time before the message is sent in your Chat dashboard under Settings > Triggers.

You can add specific conditions to the "First reply" default Chat trigger to differentiate which end-users receive the automated welcome message. For example, fire this trigger only when a visitor is from a specific location, on a certain page of your site, or based on other visitor information. 

For more information, see the articles: What default Chat triggers come with Zendesk? and Working with Chat triggers.