14 things to check in your website chat

A faulty, untested chat tool can send potential buyers to your competitors. It also leaves a bad impression.

Ask most customers about chatbots or website chat, and they’ll think of a bad experience.

Website owners often assume there’s nothing wrong with their chat. Meanwhile, their customers may be complaining about the site on social media.

To avoid this, check your chat tool against the 14 criteria below. This is our own checklist at Askly, where we make chat software.

Hold any tool to it, including ours.

Speed, reply times and chat history

1. It doesn’t slow down your website

Chat tools load at very different speeds, so check how fast yours is.

2. It doesn’t get in the way of buying

Check that the chat icon doesn’t cover important buttons on desktop or mobile.

3. It shows in real time when your team is available

That helps manage customers’ expectations about when they’ll get a reply.

Customers shop on your site late at night and early in the morning. Don’t greet them with a stock line like “We usually reply within a minute” at those hours.

It sets them up for disappointment.

4. It keeps the conversation history when customers come back

Customers often don’t buy the same day, because life gets in the way. If they return a day or a week later, their answers should still be there.

Some tools delete them within hours. That disappoints customers and forces them to ask again.

Let visitors choose to keep the chat on their device, or email them a copy.

5. It shows the chat history outside business hours too

If your team logs off at 5 or 6 p.m., the chat window shouldn’t disappear with all its answers.

Make sure new visitors can see clearly whether anyone is available right now.

Outside business hours, invite them to leave their question in the chat. Ask for their email address and let them know when an answer is waiting.

That brings more customers back to your site to read the answer and complete the purchase.

Languages, channels and team tools

6. It works in your customers’ languages

The chat opens in each customer’s language and translates in real time. With no development work, it can read the browser settings to detect the language.

There’s no point offering support in your language to a customer who speaks another.

7. It keeps visitors on your website

Don’t send them away to your email address or social media pages.

8. It saves your team time

For example, you can easily build a library of your best answers. Less typing, faster replies.

9. It connects Facebook and Instagram to your website chat

Check whether your tool lets you reply to everything from one place. That saves your team time too.

10. It has team features

Look for conversation routing and quick ways to share information.

Ordinary team members shouldn’t be able to delete conversations. That could harm your business.

11. It has a mobile app

Your team can take a photo of a product and send it to the customer. They can also reply when they’re away from their desks.

Help customers buy, and keep their trust

12. It includes an FAQ

Customers see right away whether their question already has an answer.

A customer who leaves the product page or cart to look for help is likely to abandon the cart.

13. It helps customers buy

That’s the main purpose of live chat. The chat window should give every potential customer the help they need:

• live chat
• an FAQ
• an email form
• a click-to-call button

Their attention then stays on the product page and the checkout. They don’t have to hunt for contact details in the footer or on a separate page.

14. It helps you follow GDPR and the EU AI Act

It stays open to everyone, including visitors who decline cookies. It tells visitors when an AI is answering.

See the privacy checklist below.

Privacy, consent and AI in your chat

These points follow the GDPR, the EU cookie rules and the EU AI Act. Start with what visitors see in the chat window:

• Keep the chat open to everyone. That includes visitors who decline cookies.
• Explain what happens to their messages. Say how you use them, who reads them and how long you keep them. Link your privacy policy.
• Say clearly that an AI is answering. Do it from the first message. The EU AI Act has required this since August 2, 2026.
• Label the AI, even if it has a human name or photo. Let visitors ask for a person.
• Ask only for what you need to reply. Don’t use chat details for marketing unless the visitor agrees separately.

What to set up behind the scenes

Then check the settings and contracts behind your chat:

• Chat-only cookies usually need no consent. That means a cookie set only when someone opens the chat, and used only for it.
• Get consent before you track visitors. That covers pages viewed, location or device before the chat opens, plus analytics and ad tags.
• Delete chats on a schedule. Set how long you keep them, then delete them automatically. Only authorized staff should delete chats by hand.
• Delete a visitor’s chats if they ask. Do it within a month, unless the law says to keep them.
• Keep sensitive data out. Ask visitors not to share health or other sensitive details, and remove any that arrive.
• Get legal advice first if health questions are your business.
• Sign a data processing agreement with your vendor. Check where it stores chats, which AI it uses and whether it trains AI on them.

This checklist is general guidance, not legal advice.

Test your chat with real users

People often underestimate how much chat software affects a website’s sales and customer experience.

Services such as Sharewell and UserTesting can test your chat for you. Here’s how it works:

• you describe your target customer
• you add your website link
• you order the test

Without testing, you can’t tell how much frustration a poorly built or underpowered chat tool causes potential and existing customers.

Chat has also become a cost-effective channel in both consumer and business sales. Used well, it can help raise your conversion rate and customer satisfaction.

The average Estonian company juggles at least 5 channels

The Askly team has talked with more than 2,000 people who own or manage Estonian online stores and websites.

Working with customer service experts, the team found that the average Estonian company talks to customers on at least 5 channels:

• phone
• email
• Facebook
• Instagram
• website chat

Each one adds to your team’s workload.

Where Askly fits

Askly covers all 5. One AI agent answers web chat, Facebook Messenger, Instagram DMs and email, and the AI Voice Agent answers phone calls.

All of them answer from one knowledge base, and your team works in one inbox.

• Installs in minutes. Add a script to your site’s head tag, or use the WordPress plugin.
• Works on any website. That includes VOOG, ShopRoller, Magento, Wix and others.
• Detects the language automatically. 30+ languages work instantly. Your team answers in its own, translated in real time, both ways.
• Labels AI answers as AI. A person can take over mid-chat with the full context.

How does your chat score?

Live chat is an important tool for every website. About 70% of online shopping carts are abandoned before checkout, according to the Baymard Institute.

Use these 14 criteria to improve the customer experience and reduce abandoned carts. How many does your chat meet today?