How does live chat work?
A visitor opens the chat window and types a message. It arrives in your team’s chat inbox, where an agent picks it up and replies, often while handling several chats at once. Outside staffed hours, many tools switch to an offline form or email so the conversation can carry on later.
Because the visitor types, live chat handles exact details well. A customer stuck on a billing page can paste the error message, and your agent can check their account and fix the problem in the same conversation.
Accessibility guidance counts a chat client as a human contact mechanism. WCAG 2.2’s Consistent Help criterion asks that it appears in the same order relative to the other content on each page that offers it, so people can find it again.
How is live chat different from a chatbot or a voice agent?
The difference is who answers. In live chat, a person on your team replies. A chatbot answers typed messages automatically, and a voice agent answers spoken questions automatically, both from the information they’ve been given.
Live chat fits when the answer depends on the customer’s account, when someone needs to act, or when the customer is upset and wants a person. Automated agents help with questions your documentation already answers, especially when nobody is free to reply.
Is Kawl Now live chat?
No. Kawl Now is a voice agent: visitors talk to an AI through their browser microphone, and the AI answers from knowledge your team has approved. It has no text chat.
It can run beside your live chat. Name your live chat in the agent’s instructions and it can point callers there when it can’t help. The voice button is fixed to the bottom-right corner, so check it doesn’t sit on top of your chat button before you switch on customer calls.
Its handover to a person rings your team’s phone rather than your chat inbox, and it’s an early release. Your team verifies a UK or US phone number and turns handover on for the support or sales agent, and whoever answers hears a private briefing first. Customer routing is still being tested, so keep live chat on the page.
Each conversation is saved as a text transcript, so you can compare the questions people ask aloud with the ones they type.
Common questions
Is live chat answered by a person or a bot?
Traditionally by a person: live chat means your team replies in real time. Many live chat tools now add an AI chatbot that answers first and passes the conversation to a person when it can’t help, so ask each vendor who answers at each stage.
Do I still need live chat if I add a voice agent?
Usually, yes, for anything that needs a person, such as account changes, refunds and bugs. Kawl Now answers product questions from approved knowledge, but it can’t look up accounts. Handing a caller to your team’s phone is an early release that needs a verified UK or US number and is still being tested, so keep live chat or email for the rest.