How to get chat to stay closed once user clicks X?

#1

Hi - I have a bot set to be active on multiple pages on my site. However, once a user opens the bot and goes through the dialogue and then clicks X to close the bot, I’d like it to stay closed (ie with just the icon showing - not the widget text.

Right now as soon as they go to another page where the bot is active (or refresh the current page) the bot will show the full widget text again - rather annoying for users who’ve already opened it and been through the dialogue. Better for the bot to “remember” when it’s been closed and stay that way until opened again.

Any way to do this currently?

#2

Hey Ian,

At the moment, when the user clicks on X, we set a cookie to prevent further reopens for the same user. That’s how it is already.

Can you please double check? If you are still facing problems, please share your URL or write to [email protected] and we will sort it out.

Regards,
Aslam

#3

Hi Aslam - I may not have explained that well.

What I mean is that when the user clicks on X, the chat minimises and you just see the chat avatar on the screen - not the chat text prompt - that’s great.

But then if you refresh the page or go to another page where the bot is active, the text prompt re-appears again.

I have recorded a video showing this here: https://www.screencast.com/t/Zwo8LbGYK7i

The purpose of the text prompt next to the avatar is to get the user to open that chat. if they’ve already opened the chat and pressed X, then there’s no point showing the text prompt again. It’s distracting, and it covers up areas of the screen the user might want to see. The avatar itself is enough to have there for the user to click if they want to go back to the chat.

Cheers

Ian

#4

Ok. Now I understood what you are asking for.

This is not something we had thought of initially. This will definitely go into our discussions. I can’t make any promises.

But I do hope to bring some good news.

Thanks,
Aslam

#5

Thanks. I think if you think about it, it makes sense - that text prompt serves no purpose once the user has opened the chat widget so ideally you won’t show it again. Or perhaps have a configuration option that can stop it being shown again.

Ian

#6

This is something I stumbeled upon too.
It would be great to fix this.

Jeroen

#7

Has this issue been addressed? I don’t see a way to only show it once if someone has closed the popup.

#8

I’m still waiting on a reply on this. Our user experience is totally sacrificed because the chat had to popup every time a user goes into another page.

#9

Hey guys,

Chatbot will not open automatically once the user closes the bot. Only the launcher shows up, and the widget will open when the user clicks on the launcher.

In some cases, you may need to hide the launcher and widget entirely when the user clicks x. For this, you can make use of the cookie named ‘collect_chat_closed’ and conditionally insert chatbot’s snippet code.

For example, if you are using jquery cookie plugin, your code may look like

if(!$.cookie("collect_chat_closed")) {​
   //Your snippet code here
}

The above step is a bit technical (Basic javascript knowledge is needed, i suggest you consult a tech guy to do this)

Cheers,
Shyjal

#10

Sorry shyjal - I’m not quite sure you’ve got what we’re looking for here.

You’re right, the chat doesn’t reopen - but the problem we’re talking about is that the widget button prompt text re-appears if you refresh the page or go to another page where that bot is active.

For example I have a bot that prompts people to open the chat by saying “Hi there! What brought you here today?”. Once they’ve selected the option and interacted with the bot and the chatbot is closed it all looks fine until they go to another page with the chatbot on or refresh the current page. Then the prompt appears again asking them what brought them here today.

As blissdrive said, this is a major usability issue and a real pain for uses to keep seeing the same chat prompt again and again once they’ve closed the chat.

It’s a deal killer for me. I won’t be renewing my collect.chat subscription if you can’t sort this out. Every other chatbot system I’ve used from Drift to messenger bots do this properly - once the chat is closed the chat prompt doesn’t reappear for that user session.

And asking us to implement some complex javascript ourselves isn’t the answer - few of us will be able to do it. This is a basic feature every other bot I’ve seen has.

#11

I am sorry, I got it wrong.

I think I understood your concern now and I will try to give you an honest explanation.

We are not hiding the message bubble for second time user because few of our customers use words like ‘Contact us’ instead of ‘Hi there, what brought you here today’. The former makes sense every time the user visits the website. But as you said, showing the latter one, again and again, is not the best way.

We will think about this seriously on a solution that will fit in both use cases. Stay tuned.

- Shyjal

#12

Thanks Shyjal - hope you can come up with a solution.

For me the default of not showing the prompt text on refreshes is the best one - even when people are using it to say “contact us”.

It’s what the big tools like Intercom and Drift do and I believe the reason is that if someone has clicked a widget with a prompt like “contact us” to start a chat, then had their chat, then clicked x to close the chat… if they go to another page or refresh the page they don’t need reminding that the widget is for contact us - they’ve already used it. They’re unlikely to forget what it’s for. The text then is just distracting.

Ian

#13

Any update on this? My annual renewal for collect.chat is up soon and I nee dto know whether this is something you’re going to fix or whether I need to look elsewhere.

Thanks

Ian

#14

Hi Ian,

Sorry, This is not on our top priority for now. Anyways, we will inform you when we update this feature in future.

Thanks,
Shyjal

#15

Hi Shyja - no need to inform me. I’m afraid if it’s not going to be implemented in the next couple of month’s I’ll have to cancel my subscription. Having the prompt reappear on every page the visitor goes to even after they’ve closed the bot chat is just unacceptable user experience wise.

Sorry. Love the tool, but cant use it if you’re not going to fix this.

#16

Hello Ian,

We have introduced a fix for this problem. You can configure the chatbot not to display the text bubble for the second-time visitor. Please refer https://help.collect.chat/article/show/85463-hide-launcher-text-after-widget-close for more details.

Sorry to keep you waiting. Hoping your valuable feedback and support in future too :slight_smile:

#17

Just to report back - this definitely works. You have to duplicate your chatbot once you get it working - one for the first visit, one for the repeat visits. But it’s a good pragmatic solution.