Zendesk live chat triggers conditions and actions reference

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Zendesk live chat triggers allow you to add information about your customers, improve workflow routing, and handle spam requests.

For more information about live chat triggers, see Zendesk chat triggers resources. 

For information on messaging triggers, see Messaging triggers conditions and actions reference.

This article contains the following tables:

• Selecting run events for live chat triggers
• Building live chat trigger condition statements
  • Trigger operators
• Building live chat trigger action statements
  • Using placeholders in live chat trigger action statements

Selecting run events for live chat triggers

When you create a trigger, you must select a run event. These events determine whether that trigger will run, check its conditions, and perform its defined actions. Run events are selected when creating a trigger using the Run trigger drop-down.

Table 1. Trigger run events

Firing event	Description
When a visitor has loaded the chat widget	Runs the trigger when the chat widget appears on the page but the visitor hasn't interacted with it. Note: Selecting this firing event overrides pre-chat forms. To continue using your pre-chat form, use other firing events.
When a visitor requests a chat	Runs the trigger when the visitor requests a chat.
When a chat message is sent	Runs the trigger when the visitor has sent text in the chat widget.

Building live chat trigger condition statements

Condition statements consist of conditions, field operators, and condition values (these vary depending on the condition selected). Condition statements are essentially ‘if’ statements that return 'true' values that meet the specified criteria. When 'Check All of the Following Conditions' is selected, the first condition statement that evaluates to false terminates the trigger. When 'Check Any of the Following Conditions' is selected', only one condition needs to be true for the actions to fire.

You cannot use a combination of Check all of the following conditions and Check any of the following conditions when creating a live chat trigger. You can only select one option or the other. This is also not possible in Developer view.

Note: Zendesk has introduced limits to some trigger conditions. Existing triggers exceeding these limits will be disabled. When you re-enable them, you will receive an error. Condition limits are included in the table below.

Table 2. Trigger conditions

Condition	Description
Time/Date
Hour of day	Hour of the Day (Universal Time Clock): 0 = Midnight 23 = 11 p.m. Note that the Hour of day condition uses the hour only, and does not include minutes.
Day of week	Day of the Week: 0 = Monday 6 = Sunday
Still on site	A condition check of whether the user is still on the domain after X seconds since the scenario chosen has elapsed. Max 3600 seconds
Still on page	A condition check of whether the user is still on the same page after X seconds since the scenario chosen has elapsed. Max 3600 seconds
Location of visitor
Visitor IP	IP address of visitor
Visitor host name	Host name (domain) associated with the visitor's IP address
Visitor city	City name associated with the visitor's IP address
Visitor region	Region the visitor is from, according to GeoIP.  For the US and Canada, we use the ISO-3166-2 regions. These are the different states (e.g. Vermont). For everywhere else, we use the FIPS 10-4 standard. The GeoIP website has a CSV file which lists all the different regions: http://www.maxmind.com/download/geoip/misc/region_codes.csv
Visitor country code	Two-letter country code of the visitor's IP address. Codes are case-sensitive and should be upper-case.
Visitor country name	Country name associated with the visitor's IP address
Previous visit information
Visitor previous visits	Number of previous independent visits: 0 = First time visit Max value 2.1 million
Visitor previous chats	Number of previous independent chats initiated with an agent: 0 = First time chatter
Page information
Visitor page URL	Current URL of visitor (Widget must be installed on this page)
Visitor page title	Current title of page visitor is on (Widget must be installed on this page)
Visitor page count	Number of pages visitor has viewed. First page = 1
Previous page	URL of the previous page the user was on.
Visitor information
Visitor name	Name of visitor
Visitor email	Email of visitor
Visitor referrer	Referrer URL of visitor, if applicable, determined from content headers
Visitor search engine	Referring search engine, if applicable. Note that these values are case-sensitive and should be lowercase: google yahoo bing yandex
Visitor search terms	Referring search terms, if applicable
Visitor tag	Tag (Applied via Add tag action)
Visitor triggered	Triggered visitor (activated by Set Triggered action). Select either of the following from the drop-down menu: True False
Visitor department	Visitor's department, set by the action Set visitor department or Javascript API.
Software/Computer of visitor
Visitor user agent	Visitor's user agent string
Visitor browser	Browser used by visitor
Visitor platform	Platform used by visitor
Online statuses
Account status	Status of your Zendesk Chat account which works as a hierarchy system. Online Away Offline If one agent is online (and the rest are away or offline) then the account status is online and the Online Trigger will fire. If one agent is away (and the rest are offline) then the account status is away and the Away trigger will fire If all agents are offline then the account status is offline and the Offline trigger will fire.
Department status	Status of the selected Zendesk department. Online Away Offline
Visitor status	Status of Visitor: Online Idle (no mouse or keyboard movement in the chat window for 10 minutes)
Chat-related information
Visitor is chatting	'true' if the visitor is currently in an active chat session.
Visitor requesting chat	'true' if the visitor is requesting a chat by hitting Send in their chat message. 'false' if the visitor is not requesting a chat.
Visitor served	'true' if the visitor is currently being served by an agent (for instance, an agent has opted to serve the customer and has sent their first message in the chat). 'false' if an agent has not sent a response to the visitor.
Sender	Name of sender of the chat message
Sender type	Type of sender. Note that these values are case-sensitive and should be lowercase: visitor agent
Message	The message being sent
Department	Department (name) that visitor chooses from the pre-chat form
Visitor queue
Queue size (account)	Total number of incoming chat requests for the account. Note that the condition targets the total account queue, and does not measure the department queue.

Operators for trigger condition statements

Use the following operators to build trigger condition statements.

Table 3. Trigger operators

Operator	Description
Equals	Exact match = 5 returns true only when 5
Less than	Less than the number entered, but not including < 10 returns true from 0-9
Greater than	More than the number entered > 120 returns true from 121 to 1,000,000,000,000,000,000
Less than or equal to	An exact match or less than the number entered <= 3 returns true on a 3, 2, 1, or 0
Greater than or equal to	An exact match or more than the number entered >= 600 returns true from 600 to 1,000,000,000,000,000
Is not equal	Anything but the value entered != 0 returns true for any number but 0
Contains	String includes the following text "help" matches true with "help, i need somebody"
Does not contain	String does not include the following text "help" matches true with "not just anybody"
Reg Ex	Matches for regular expression values using the Python RegEx framework. This field looks for a full match, not a partial. For assistance, you can use Pythex as a quick-reference and validation tool. (?P<year>(?:19|20)\d\d)(?P<delimiter>[- /.])(?P<month>0[1-9]|1[012])\2(?P<day>0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01]) Test String: 2014-07-28 String match: 2014-07-28

Building live chat trigger action statements

Action statements define what occurs if all the condition statements are true and the trigger fires. You can think of action statements as ‘then’ statements: if all of your conditions are true, then perform these actions to update the user and optionally send notifications.

Table 4. Trigger actions

Action	Description
Send Message to visitor	Sends the given message to the visitor Note: If the account is offline, this action will not work.
Set triggered	Set Triggered can be one of two values and applies a flag which can be used in conjunction with the 'Visitor Triggered?' condition. Select one of the following from the drop-down menu: True False Note: If the account is offline, this action will not work.
Wait	Delay (in seconds) before the next action fires Note: If you have multiple triggers that must be executed in a certain order, you need to add at least one second of wait time between each trigger. This is required due to the fact that triggers do not run in a particular order and are evaluated and executed simultaneously.
Add tag	Adds a tag to the ticket
Remove tag	Removes a tag from the ticket
Set name of visitor	Sets the visitor's name
Set visitor department	Adds a department to the visitor profile. When this action is selected, a drop-down menu appears, allowing you to select an available department. Only works when Run trigger is set to When a visitor has loaded the chat widget.
Replace note	Replaces the note of the visitor's profile
Append note	Adds to the note of the visitor's profile
Block visitor	Bans the visitor from accessing your chat service. See Banning visitors from accessing Chat for more information on blocking visitors.
Request email (continuous conversations)	Sends automated message to visitor requesting an email for continuous conversation re-engagement. See Allowing customers to continue their conversation over email for more information.

Note: For the trigger actions, Send Message to Visitor, Replace Note, Set Name of Visitor, and Append Note, to use the @ symbol, you must include an extra @ symbol. For example, [e-mail] should be entered as user@@domain.com.

Using placeholders in live chat trigger action statements

Placeholders are references to visitor details you can use in trigger action statements. When the trigger is fired, the placeholder pulls in the current visitor and session information.

Table 5. Trigger placeholders

Placeholder	Type	Description
@hour_of_day	Integer	Current hour of the day (UTC timezone). 0 - 23
@day_of_week	Integer	Current day of the week (0 = Monday, 6 = Sunday)
@visitor_ip	String	City the visitor is from (based on IP address)
@visitor_hostname	String	Host name of the visitor's IP address
@visitor_city	String	Visitor's city
@visitor_region	String	Region the visitor is from (based on IP address)
@visitor_country_code	String	Two-letter country code of where the visitor is from (based on IP address). Codes are case-sensitive and should be upper-case.
@visitor_country_name	String	Country the visitor is from (based on IP address)
@visitor_page_url	String	URL of the page the visitor is currently on
@visitor_page_title	String	Title of the page the visitor is currently on
@visitor_referrer	String	Visitor's referral URL
@visitor_search_engine	String	Search engine the visitor used to find your website (can be blank)
@visitor_search_terms	String	Search terms the visitor used to find your website (can be blank)
@visitor_user_agent	String	Visitor's browser User-Agent string
@visitor_browser	String	Visitor's browser
@visitor_platform	String	Adds to the note of the visitor's profile
@account_status	String	Status of your account (online, away, or offline)
@visitor_previous_visits	String	Number of previous independent visits
@visitor_previous_chats	String	Number of previous independent chats inititated with agent
@visitor_name	String	Name of visitor
@visitor_status	String	Visitor status (online, idle, or offline)
@visitor_time_on_page	String	Visitor's time spent on current page
@visitor_time_on_site	String	Visitor's time spent on site during current log in
@visitor_page_count	String	Number of pages viewed by visitor
@visitor_requesting_chat	String	True if visitor requested chat
@visitor_served	String	True if visitor is currently being served by an agent
@visitor_tags	String	Tags applied to visitor
@visitor_triggered	String	Triggered visitor (true or false)
@referrer	String	The URL where the visitor's current session originated