During a live chat session, you’ll often need to ask the chatting customer for some personal data. And sometimes, you’ll need that data structured in a specific way for validation purposes. (Think a telephone number, or a date of birth, for instance.)
You want the information quickly, smoothly, and in the correct format. But you also want it without disrupting the chat session by sending the customer to a form or webpage elsewhere.
This is where WhosOn’s dynamic fields feature makes your job easier.
Here’s a closer look.
What does the feature allow?
The dynamic fields WhosOn feature allows you to create custom form fields to use during a chat session to collect needed customer data.
The form fields can span any topic that follows a specific format.
You might have a dynamic form to collect:
- • Postcodes
- • Reference / ID numbers
- • Contact numbers
- • Email addresses
- • Dates
- • Credit card details (though masked for security)
You can create and customise these form fields yourself via the WhosOn settings portal. So, they’ll always be relevant to your business needs.
In short, using dynamic fields allows you to create custom form fields to send to chat users during their conversation. And in the process, you smoothly and systematically collect the data you need.
When do you use it?
Dynamic fields are for when you or your agents need to acquire structured customer data within a chat session.
(Structured customer data is any information that comes in a fixed format — not open questions such as asking for feedback.)
You use them while chatting with an online visitor, and need specific information to help them effectively. For example, say you’ve integrated live chat with your CRM. A customer is chatting to find out about their order, which means you need their reference number – i.e. a structured sequence of characters like FX20-ASP-9812.
With a single click, you can send a ready-made form to the customer with placeholders for their reference number. Once submitted, this reference number can link directly to your CRM via a webhook to push-pull needed data for the chat agent.
This process, then, is much easier than manually requesting information, making sure it’s formatted properly, and running admin to validate the data yourself.
Who uses it?
First, managers or chat admins use the dynamic fields feature when they set up the forms they want available to their agents.
Next, agents use dynamic fields option when they need to collect some information from a customer.
Finally, customers use dynamic fields that are sent to them in-chat to provide requested information.
So, forms touch all levels and participants of the live chat process.
Why is it useful?
Dynamic fields allow you to collect structured data during a chat session without interrupting the flow of the conversation.
Because they’re customisable, you can make sure that you have the form fields that suit your specific business needs. Additionally, because dynamic fields follow the format of the information you want, they help ensure customers input the correct information (in the correct way) when prompted.
So, all the data you collect using this forms feature is already in the format that you need it to be for your databases and such.
You can also set dynamic fields to close the chat if they’re left unvalidated for too long.
How does it work?
Dynamic fields work via a straightforward process:
- 1. You set up your dynamic fields within the WhosOn settings portal before chatting with anyone.
- 2. Once in a chat, agents can click to request a form whenever they need to acquire relevant customer information. They then choose from a list of the dynamic field forms available.
- 3. This will then send an in-chat form to the customer in which they can input the requested information.
- 4. Submitted data can then be used for validation, or for integration into another system such as a CRM.
Dynamic fields
Whether it’s a reference number, a postcode, phone number, or another piece of structured data, dynamic fields offer a smooth, streamlined way to collect the information you need from chatting customers.
This is just one of the many handy engagement features WhosOn has to offer. Explore further, with a 30-day free trial.