Working with Chat triggers

Triggers allow you to set up automated actions when certain conditions are met.

Chat triggers will not fire if:

• No agents are online.
• All agents' availability status is set to Invisible (see Setting your availability status).

This article contains the following sections:

• Creating Chat triggers
• Duplicating Chat triggers
• Disabling Chat triggers
• Deleting Chat triggers

Related articles:

• Zendesk Chat triggers resources
• Zendesk Chat triggers conditions and actions reference

Creating Chat triggers

Chat triggers are created on the Chat dashboard.

In the example below, we're creating a trigger that sends a message to users visiting your product's pricing page:

To create a trigger

1. From the dashboard, select Settings > Triggers.
2. Click Add trigger.
3. Enter a name and brief description for your trigger.
4. Click Enabled at the top to enable your trigger.
5. If the trigger should fire only once per individual, select the Each visitor will receive this message only once check box. Deselect this box if you want the trigger to fire every time an individual meets the trigger conditions.
6. In the Customize Trigger section, use the Run trigger drop-down to select one of the following events that should fire the trigger:
   • Select When a visitor has loaded the chat widget if you want the trigger to run when the chat widget appears on the page, but the visitor has not interacted with it.
   • Select When a visitor requests a chat if you want the trigger to run when the visitor has requested a chat.
   • Select When a chat message is sent if you want the trigger to run when the visitor has entered and sent text in the chat widget.
7. Under Check conditions:
   • Select Check all of the following conditions if you want every condition you create to be met before the trigger is fired.
   • Select Check any of the following conditions if you want one or more of the conditions you create to be met before the trigger is fired.
     Note: You cannot use a combination of Check all of the following conditions and Check any of the following conditions when creating a Chat trigger. You can only select one option or the other. This is also not possible in Developer view.
8. Select actions under Perform the following actions. To add placeholders, type @.
9. Click Create triggers.

When the trigger is created and enabled, a check mark appears in the Enabled column on the Triggers settings page.

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.

Duplicating Chat triggers

If you want to duplicate an existing Chat trigger to use as a template for creating new triggers, you need to copy the trigger's developer code, then create a new trigger using the copied code.

To copy the developer code

1. On your Chat dashboard, go to Settings > Triggers.
2. From the list, click the trigger you want to copy.
3. Click the Developer button on the top right and copy the code you see on the box:

   

4. Click Cancel.

To create the new trigger using the copied code

1. Return to the trigger list page and click Add Trigger.
2. Click the Developer button again.
3. Replace the code in the Customize trigger box with the code you copied.
4. Update the code as needed. Click the Visual button to see the changes before saving them.
5. Click Save changes.

Disabling Chat triggers

If you want a trigger to stop running, but do not want to delete it, you can simply disable it. Disabled triggers can be re-enabled at any time.

To disable a trigger

1. From the Chat dashboard, click Settings > Triggers, then click the trigger you want to disable.
2. In the Trigger status section, click Disabled.
3. At the bottom of the page, click Save changes. On the Triggers settings page, the check mark is removed from the Enabled column.
4. To re-enable a disabled trigger, click the trigger you want to enable, then click Enabled.

Deleting Chat triggers

If needed, you can also delete triggers from the Triggers settings page. Deleted triggers cannot be recovered.

To delete a trigger

1. From the Chat dashboard, click Settings > Triggers.
2. Click the checkbox to the left of the trigger you want to delete. To select all triggers, click the checkbox to the left of the Name heading.
3. Click Delete selected at the top of the page.
4. Confirm that you want to delete the trigger. The trigger is removed from the Triggers list.