LiveConnect Overview
What’s on this page?
Features at a glance
Tulip LiveConnect enables online customers to communicate with in-store associates in real-time. Customers can chat with any store of their choice through web chat widget or using their social chat accounts.
Omnichannel support: LiveConnect supports web chat widget for your e-commerce site as well as integration with popular messaging platforms like WhatsApp and WeChat.
Responsive support experience: When store associates are unable to respond through web chat, the conversation can be switched over to text messaging (SMS).
Access to catalog or photo library for attachments: Store associates can insert product images in the chat from the catalog or photo library.
Route chat from social media accounts: Customers messaging your brand’s social media accounts can be routed to nearby stores.
Support for sales attribution: With support for sales attribution parameters across all channels, you can collect and analyze sales attribution data using your preferred tools.
Features deep dive
Incoming message handling
Messages sent to the brand from web chat or social chat platforms appear under the Chat Requests list. If message routing is enabled, then messages will appear in Chat Requests only after it’s been routed to a store.
Any associate from the specific store can view the customer’s message. All messaging functionality is disabled to associates until they tap Accept. When an associate accepts, the conversation is transferred to the associate’s Active Conversation list and removed from Chat Requests. The conversation is now bound to the specific associate, and no other associate can view or reply to the conversation.
Note: At the enterprise level, social chat platforms like WhatsApp and WeChat are intended to focus on customer support for customer-initiated chat requests, and not one-to-one messaging for promotional or marketing purposes.
Unlike SMS, customers cannot message an associate directly on the brand’s enterprise account. Instead, customers can message the brand and expect to get a response from any brand representative or associate. To support this communication model, Tulip’s LiveConnect directs all new messages from these channels to the Chat Requests conversation queue.
Incoming LiveConnect chat requests are routed directly to stores using a chatbot. The chatbot prompts the user sending the incoming message to specify the region and store they want to interact with. As incoming chat requests are routed to stores, store associates choose the messages they want to respond to.
New message notifications
If notification for new messages is enabled, all associates in that store receive a notification on their device when a new message is received. Once a conversation is accepted by an associate, only that associate receives notifications for that conversation.
The following notification types are supported:
- Notification on the lock screen when new messages arrive - multiple notifications are grouped together.
- Notifications on top of the screen while using the device when new messages arrive.
- Indicator on the tab bar option that includes a count of the total number of unread conversations.
Advanced chat features
During an active conversation, an associate and a customer can converse freely by utilizing the following features:
- Send and receive text, images, emojis, and GIFs.
- Attach products from the product catalog.
- Attach images: Take photos using the device or attach an image from a photo library. Up to 20 images can be attached at a time.
- Expand images in the conversation window.
- View product details directly from the conversation window.
Unattended chat management
When a customer initiates a Web Chat conversation through Tulip LiveConnect on a retailer’s e-commerce site, and the customer is routed to a specific region and store, associates are notified of the new incoming message.
If a store associate doesn’t accept the routed message, the customer receives an automated Web Chat away message from the store after a period of inactivity. The away message invites the customer to move the conversation to SMS instead.
Move conversation to SMS
When customers choose to switch conversations to SMS and provide their mobile phone numbers, they’re sent an automated message prompting them to opt into SMS text messages from the retailer. Customers must respond to the SMS text message with YES to continue receiving text messages from the store associates.
Once a conversation is moved to SMS, customers can also change their phone number if needed.
In cases where a store associate doesn’t accept the routed message or an associate becomes unresponsive, the customer receives an automated Web Chat away message from the store after a period of inactivity.