If you often reply to the same customer questions, consider saving those replies as canned responses. It will shorten your response times and save keystrokes on repetitive typing. With canned responses, you type it once, save it, and reuse it in chats whenever you need.
Apart from being a huge time saver, canned responses help tackle typing errors. Use them for foreign names, complex addresses, common expressions, URLs, or virtually anything that you type repeatedly.
Customers love instant replies – make sure your typing speed is on point with our typing speed test.
Using canned responses
Learn how to use canned responses with our webinar.
Learn how to use canned responses with our webinar.
To use a canned response in chat, type in the hash (#) sign followed by a shortcut, for example, #thanks (try it out!).
You can navigate the displayed canned responses with arrow keys. Hit the Enter key to fill in the message box with a canned response you like and again to send it as a reply in chat.
Canned responses are available in Team, Business, and Enterprise plans.
Your LiveChat account comes with a set of sample responses. You can use them out of the box, tweak them, or add your own. There are two ways to add a new response:
Directly from the chat
If you find yourself sending the same reply yet again, you can save it with just one click.
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Hover over your message and select the + icon.
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In the pop-up, select Shared to create a response for the whole team or Private to create it just for you.
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Edit the message if needed.
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Add a shortcut. To add more than one, hit enter after each shortcut.
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Finally, select Save.
There are more things you can do while creating a new canned response.
If you have several groups, such as sales and support, you can create a response for a specific group. To do that, select the group from the drop-down menu in the modal. Otherwise, the canned response will be saved for the group in which the chat took place.
You can add variables that will be replaced with personalized content during the chat.
You can also add a new response before sending it in chat. This option is available in the canned response selector.
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Type # in the text area or select the # icon.
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In the canned response selector, select +New.
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In the pop-up, select Shared to create a response for the whole team or Private to create it just for you.
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Enter the new message.
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Add a shortcut. To add more than one, hit enter after each shortcut.
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Finally, select Save.
There are more things you can do while creating a new canned response.
If you have several groups, such as sales and support, you can create a response for a specific group. To do that, select the group from the drop-down menu in the modal. Otherwise, the canned response will be saved for the group in which the chat took place.
You can add variables that will be replaced with personalized content during the chat.
Here you can create new canned responses from scratch, edit existing ones, and delete the ones you no longer use. Follow the steps below to add a new canned response:
Whenever you send a canned response, try to personalize it a bit. You can use variables to that end.
Variables in canned responses
Custom variables let you automatically add your customers’ and agents’ names and email addresses to your pre-saved messages.
You can get customers’ data from forms or code it using setters.
Agents’ data is already stored on your LiveChat account and does not need to be obtained in any other way.
You can choose from the following variables:
%customer-name% - loads customer’s name
%customer-email% - loads customer’s email address
%agent-name% - loads agent’s name
%agent-email% - loads agent’s email address
Editing canned responses
Canned responses can significantly speed up your work, but it is critical that they are up to date. Review and update them periodically to ensure the information they contain is top-notch. It’s also a good practice to tweak the less critical messages now and again, to not bore your returning customers. To edit canned responses:
Log into the LiveChat Agent App and go to Automate>Canned responses.
Select the response you want to edit and pick the pen icon.
There, you can:
Change the response from Shared to response suggestion, or the other way around.
Change the group the canned response will be saved to.
Change or add shortcuts. To add more than one, hit enter after each shortcut.
Edit or add event(s) that should trigger a response suggestion. This option is only available for shared responses.
Once you’re done editing, select Save to confirm your choices.
Deleting canned responses
If you no longer need a particular response, you can delete it.
To delete canned responses:
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Log into the LiveChat Agent App and go to Automate>Canned responses.
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Select the response you want to delete and pick the trash can.
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Select Remove this response and confirm.
Private canned responses
If you often send the same message, but you don’t want to add a canned response for the whole team, you can create private canned responses.
You will see your private responses at the top of the list in the selector, while your team’s list of canned responses will remain unchanged.
Adding a private canned response
You can add a private canned response just like shared canned responses, both from the Chat section and from Automate>Canned responses in the LiveChat Agent App.
Select the link for step by step instructions on how to add a private canned response
When you add a private canned response, only you will be able to view and use this response. This way, you can optimize your work without affecting your team’s workflow.
See how to edit or delete a private canned response.
Suggested responses
Canned responses make your work fast and precise, but you can be even faster when you set up suggested responses. You can use suggestions to streamline routine actions or to make finding the right response even faster.
You can make sure that specific canned responses pop up at specific points in the chat. You can set up suggestions for
From the drop-down menu, select the group for which you want to add suggestions.
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Pick Shared or Private.
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Hover over the desired response and select Edit.
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Delete the shortcut(s)
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Repeat for all the suggested responses.
Canned responses for groups
If you have your agents assigned to different groups you can create canned responses that are group-specific. You will find a required canned response quicker when you narrow down the results to a single group rather than having to search through the entire list.
If you haven’t created groups and assigned agents to them, check out our article about groups.
Using group-specific canned responses
While you chat, you can choose to see all the canned responses divided by groups or all together.
Canned responses are divided by default, so if the customer comes to chats with the sales group, for example, the canned responses from the sales group will appear first on the list, followed by the responses from all the other groups you are a member of, placed under “Other groups”.
If you want the canned responses to be displayed all together, select the gear icon in the selector and switch off the green toggle.
Add a shortcut. To add more than one, hit enter after each shortcut.
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Select event(s) that should trigger a response suggestion.
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Finally, select Save.
From the Automate section
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In the LiveChat Agent App go to Automate>Canned responses.
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Select + New canned response.
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In the pop-up, select Shared to create a response for the whole team, or Private to create it just for you.
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If you have several groups, such as sales and support, you can create a response for a specific group. To do that, select the group from the drop-down menu in the modal.
Add a shortcut. To add more than one, hit enter after each shortcut.
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Select event(s) that should trigger a response suggestion.
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Finally, select Save.
When a canned response is assigned to a specific group, only agents from the specific group will be able to use this response. When you are using this method, the pool of predefined responses available for all departments remains relatively small and your teammates can find relevant responses faster.
Combine tags with canned responses
Thanks to the automation evolution that happens around us, we can take some tasks off our back. This includes manual tagging in LiveChat. Now, instead of manually tagging your chats, you can pre-set canned responses to do that for you.
In simple terms, canned responses will automatically label your chats based on your preferences.
Let’s see how it works!
How it works
You can assign tags to specific canned responses saved in your LiveChat account. LiveChat system will automatically assign chosen tags to chats if it detects the predefined canned response being used in the chat.
However, more often than not, agents modify canned responses to fit the chat tone better. Fear not, LiveChat takes into consideration such situations and still applies a tag, even if the message you send is not identical to the original canned response.
You only need to match 10% of the original canned response for the chat to get tagged automatically.
If the text sample is shorter than 3 characters or than 10% of canned response original text, the tag will not be applied. LiveChat will assume that this canned response was either removed entirely or heavily modified.
Live assistant will join your ranks to keep you informed on what is happening on your screen. The assistant will send you whispers (messages visible to agents only) that will describe what tag got assigned to a chat, and why it happened.
How to set it up
A single canned response can have up to 5 tags assigned to it at the same time.
Select a tag from a drop down menu that you want the chosen canned response to trigger in chats.
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Select Save.
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You should see a confirmation that your canned response was successfully created.
You can only assign tags that belong to the same group as the canned response.
You can also assign tags to your canned responses while creating the responses directly from chats:
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Select the + icon next to the message you want to save as a canned response.
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Select Advanced settings to reach the settings page where you can assign a tag to it.
That’s it! From now on, your canned responses will take the responsibility of tagging chats off you. Get comfy while work does itself!
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