Integrating a Chat Support Widget
An excellent way to provide instant, real-time support to attendees is by providing a chat interface for them to connect with your event planning team directly. PheedLoop has an option dedicated to this functionality, which allows you to embed any third-party live support chat widget directly inside the Virtual Portal.
Our default suggestion is a platform called PureChat, due to it being free and very simple to use. However, there are countless options out there, including ones with sophisticated AI chatbots and additional features. Aside from PureChat, common real-time chat widgets we suggest are Drift, HubSpot, Zendesk, and Tawk. For the purposes of this article, we will demonstrate how PureChat would be set up and function inside your virtual event portal.
Step 1 - Create a PureChat Account
Visit https://purechat.com/ and create a new account.
Step 2 - Install the PureChat Script in PheedLoop
When you log in to PureChat, you'll find an option to install a script on your website. Click on that, and copy the contents of the code snippet.
- From the Event Dashboard, navigate to Experiences > Virtual > Settings
- Scroll down to Custom Code
- Copy and paste the code into the Support Chat Code Snippet field
- Select Save Changes
Step 3 - Customize the PureChat Widget
There's a lot you can do with the PureChat widget, so we'll largely leave it to you to explore the different ways in which you may want to customize the widget. Click on the Websites icon in PureChat's dashboard's left-hand side menu, and click on Customize for the new widget you created. The main thing we'll suggest you adjust is the position. Set it to Bottom Left, so that it does not interfere with the contents of the virtual event portal. Everything else is entirely up to you! We recommend exploring PureChat's own help and tutorial content, available here.
To test your PureChat widget, simply visit your virtual event portal, and you'll notice the chat widget near the bottom left area (see animation below). Click on it to experience your first live chat!
