Smart Triggers require a Pro plan. Delivered trigger messages do not count
toward your monthly message quota — like cart recovery, they’re free to send.
How Smart Triggers work
- A visitor lands on a page that matches your trigger’s URL rules.
- The behavior condition is met — the time-on-page delay elapses, or exit intent is detected (the mouse moves toward the top of the window on desktop, or the visitor switches tabs on mobile).
- The chatbot opens the conversation in the widget with your message, personalized by the AI from your template. If the AI is unavailable, your template is sent exactly as written.
- If the visitor replies, the conversation continues like any other chat — same knowledge base, tools, and handoff rules — steered by your conversation goal.
Trigger types
Time on page
Fires after a visitor has spent a set amount of time (5–3,600 seconds) on a matching page —
for example, 2 minutes on
/pricing.Exit intent
Fires when a visitor is about to leave: the mouse moves toward the top of the window
(desktop) or they switch to another tab (mobile). Detection arms after 10 seconds on the
page, so instant bounces never trigger it.
Create a trigger
1
Open Smart Triggers
In the dashboard, open your website and go to Chatbot → Smart Triggers, then click
New Trigger.
2
Describe the trigger
Give it a name (e.g. “Pricing page — offer plan help”), pick a trigger type, and for
time-on-page triggers set the delay in seconds.
3
Target the pages
Choose how the URL is matched — contains, is exactly, or starts with — and add up
to 10 patterns like
/pricing. Leave the patterns empty to trigger on all pages.4
Write the message
This is your message template (up to 500 characters). The AI personalizes it for each visitor
using the page context; if the AI is unavailable, it’s sent as-is.
5
Set a conversation goal (optional)
Describe how the AI should steer the conversation after the visitor replies — e.g. “Help the
visitor compare plans and offer a demo if they hesitate.” (Up to 1,000 characters.)
6
Pick the re-show cooldown
How long to wait before the same visitor can see this trigger again: 1 hour, 24 hours, 7 days,
or 30 days.
New triggers are saved as drafts — they don’t fire until you switch them on. Test the
message first, then activate.
Test before activating
Every trigger has a Test this trigger panel with two ways to preview it safely:- Preview message — generates a sample opener with the exact same AI path a real visitor fire uses. No visitor is contacted, and each preview shows a fresh variation.
- Open in Test page — opens the chatbot Test page with the trigger simulated, so you can chat as a visitor and check that the conversation goal steers the replies the way you want.
When a trigger stays silent
Smart Triggers are deliberately conservative, so visitors never feel spammed. A trigger is held back when:- It’s still on cooldown — the visitor saw this trigger recently (per the re-show setting).
- The visitor already replied — a visitor who replies to a trigger is never shown that same trigger again.
- Another trigger just fired — each visitor gets at most one proactive message per 5-minute window, across all triggers on your website.
- Live support is involved — if the visitor has a recent conversation with a human teammate, triggers stay quiet.
- The trigger is a draft — inactive triggers never fire.
Language of the opener
The AI writes the personalized opener in the language of the page content that was crawled for the matching page (English if unknown) — not necessarily the visitor’s browser language. If your site is in German, the opener is in German.Best practices
- Lead with value, not “Can I help?” — reference what the visitor is looking at: “Still comparing plans? Tell me what you’re building and I’ll narrow it down.”
- Set a real conversation goal — the opener gets the reply; the goal converts it.
- Start narrow — target one high-intent page (pricing, checkout, docs) rather than every page, with a 24-hour or longer cooldown.
- Use exit intent for hesitation, not goodbye — a discount or a “wait, one question” message works better than a generic farewell.
Plans & limits
Delivered trigger messages don’t count toward your plan’s message quota. See
Billing & Plans for details.
Related
Testing your chatbot
The Test page where trigger simulations run.
Human handoff
Escalate a triggered conversation to a live teammate when it needs a human.
Cart Recovery
More proactive outreach: bring back abandoned Shopify carts the same way.
Widget design
How the chat widget looks when it opens with your message.
