Scheduled Chats are automatically facilitated one-on-one connections between specific Representatives and Attendees at preset time slots during an event. It is a powerful feature that provides enhanced engagement and control.
By enabling both Scheduled Chat and Search & Invite for your event, you can empower Representatives to take different actions for different registrants. Search & Invite lets Representatives encourage selected registrants or signups to visit their booth to chat, but for the most qualified candidates Representatives may want to ensure they have time to meet with them. Scheduled Chat lets these candidates forego booth chat lines and schedule an appointment with a Representative.
Scheduled Chats vs Booth Chats
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If at all possible, please avoid extending the event or changing the event time once candidates have begun registering for an event using Scheduled Chat. If your event time is changed or extended, any existing Scheduled Chats will need to be rescheduled. In this scenario, candidates will be notified that their existing chats are pending and that they need to select and confirm a new Scheduled Chat time. |
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If you would like to use Scheduled Chat and you anticipate 2,000+ concurrent attendees at your event, please contact your Account Manager so they can ensure your event is set up properly. |
Enable Scheduled Chat
Scheduled Chat is enabled per event and then must be assigned to specific Representatives.
- When creating a new event, check Allow Reps to schedule chats, then select the Max Scheduled Chat Duration, and the Buffer Between Scheduled Chats. Once saved, these settings determine the Scheduled Chat time slots available to Representatives across the duration of the live event.
For example, a one hour event between 6:00pm-7:00pm with a Max Scheduled Chat Duration of 10 minutes and a Buffer Between Scheduled Chats of 5 minutes between each means there will be a total of four time slots available for each Representative beginning with the event start time - 6:00pm, 6:15pm, 6:30pm, and 6:45pm.
- To enable Scheduled Chat for an event that has already been created, from the main page of your Event Home, in the Time and Date section, click Manage Scheduled Chats. Or, from Settings in the Event sidebar, click Chats, then see Scheduled Chat Settings.
- Assign all of your Representatives to booths. Even if a Representative intends to only engage in Scheduled Chats, they must be assigned to a booth.
- Check Enable Scheduled Chat while adding a new Representative, or for Representatives who have already been assigned to a booth, click their three-dot More menu and select Enable Scheduled Chat.
If you are using a template to generate new events, you must re-enable Scheduled Chat for each Representative. - You can also let Booth Owners enable Scheduled Chat for their booth’s Representatives, either while assigning them as Booth Owner, or under Booth Owners in an individual booth's Settings tab.
Once Scheduled Chat is enabled for a Representative, you must remove that Representative from their booth(s) and then add them again without enabling Scheduled Chat in order to remove their access to the feature.
Scheduled Chats vs. Booth Chats
Representatives can choose to take both Scheduled Chats and booth chats, but those who only want to take Scheduled Chats should set their Chat Availability in their control panel to "Away", which prevents them from being entered into booth chats.
Chat Availability does not apply to Scheduled Chat. Representatives will always be automatically entered into Scheduled Chats if they are in the event during the Scheduled Chat time slot.
Encourage your Representatives to sign into the event and use Manage Schedule to block off times they are not available before sending out Scheduled Chat invitations.
Read this article to learn more about the Representative’s experience using Scheduled Chat.
Scheduled Chat Reporting
After an event ends, Scheduled Chat information for each Representative and Attendee is available in the Event Participants (CSV) report under event Downloads, and includes:
- Total Scheduled Chat Invites
- Total Accepted Invites
- Total Declined Invites
- Total Pending Invites
- Total Unable to RSVP - Slots Full
- Total Scheduled Chats Attended
This information is not provided in Booth Owner reports.
Please note that these metrics for Representatives can be understood from the perspective that they sent invitations. Meanwhile, for Attendees, these metrics are understood from the perspective that they received invitations.
For example, Total Declined Invites for Representatives refers to the number of sent invitations which were declined; and for Attendees it refers to the number of invitations that they declined.