Question
How can I test a Chat trigger?
Answer
Chat triggers depend on caching data, IP addresses, user data, and more. For this reason, you can't simply test a trigger from a new tab on your browser. This article includes best practices for testing Chat triggers to make sure you're testing and seeing the right experience.
How to imitate a visitor chatting in
Test Chat triggers from an incognito window or another private browsing window. This makes sure any caching data in your main browser will not interfere with the test. You can also clear your cache and cookies for good measure, but this is not necessary. This is particularly important in situations where your trigger includes conditions like previous visits.
Make sure you are testing from the correct location. If you are testing a trigger with a location-based condition such as visitor country or visitor IP, check if your browser matches with the correct location for the trigger to fire. Learn more in this article: How does Zendesk capture the location of the end user?
You can also use the Simulate visitor button under the Visitors section of your Chat dashboard as shown below. This is a great option for testing, just remember to make sure your IP address or your cache wont interfere with your test.
How to stage your account
Set the correct online or offline status to your account, agents, or departments depending on what you are trying to test. See more in this article: Configuring your chat availability settings.
If you are testing department routing, at least one agent from that department has to be logged in to the Chat dashboard and set to the online status. See more about chat departments in this article: Creating agents and departments in Chat.
If you are testing triggers that fire when the account is offline, all agents need to either be logged out of the chat dashboard completely or set to Invisible.
4 Comments
Does "Simulate visitor" still work? I don't see it
Hi Iree,
Thank you for contacting Zendesk Support.
In regards to your concern, I was able to try the "Simulate chat" from my end and I was able to do so.
I would highly recommend you to clear your browser's cache and cookies first (https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/219161157-Options-to-clear-cache-and-cookies) and also try to reproduce this issue on another browser or an Incognito tab?
Let me know if this will work for you or if you have any questions!
Kind regards,
DJ Buenavista Jr. |
Customer Advocacy Specialist | Support@Zendesk.com
Hello DJ!
Quick question about the chat simulation - it looks like it'll only work on reactive chats. How about proactive chats?
And for URL/Visitor path history-based triggers - is there a way to test it out too? Like an internal browser where we can manipulate the URL/visitor path history to meet the trigger conditions and see if the trigger actually fires up?
Unfortunately, the simulated chats are only for reactive chats. As of the moment, we don't have any test browser or any other internal tools to test such behavior. This is definitely a good idea that we'll take note of. In addition, you can also utilize the use of multiple browser profiles to test such workflows.
Please sign in to leave a comment.