Someone reading your website at 10 at night has a question the page didn't answer. A chat widget gives them somewhere to ask it. With ModPhone, the chat is answered by the same agent, from the same knowledge, as your phone line, so the answer in the chat window matches the answer a caller gets.
What visitors ask in chat
Chat questions differ from phone questions in one useful way: the visitor is already on your site, usually on a specific page. So the questions are narrower.
- On a tax firm's services page: "Do you do returns for people with rental property?" or "Can I send my documents electronically?"
- On a school district's enrollment page: "My son turns 5 in October. Can he start kindergarten this year?"
- On an auto shop's site: "Do you work on Subarus?" and "Do I need an appointment for an oil change?"
- On a city's utilities page: "How do I start water service at a new address?"
A lot of chat questions have answers somewhere else on the same website. The visitor couldn't find the page. That makes chat transcripts a free audit of your site: when the same question shows up week after week, the answer probably needs to be easier to find.
How ModPhone web chat works
The Chat Widget settings give you two things. One is a one-line script to paste into your website, usually just before the closing </body> tag or into your site builder's custom code area. It adds a chat button to every page it is on. The other is a hosted chat page (modphone.ai/chat/ followed by your number) that you can link from emails, social profiles or a QR code on a flyer.
The chat is live as soon as your agent has a phone number. Visitors see your logo, your company name and your greeting. They type, and the agent replies in plain conversational text from your knowledge base and instructions. A Call button dials your agent's phone number, and a Transcript button lets the visitor download the conversation.
Two settings apply to chat only:
- A chat greeting, if you want the first message to differ from your phone greeting.
- Chat instructions, which are added to your main instructions for chat and do not affect calls.
The second one matters more than it looks. By default the agent does not ask chat visitors who they are. If you want a way to follow up, tell it to ask, for example: "After the first answer, ask the visitor for their email and/or phone number so the team can follow up. Ask once, naturally." With that in place, the agent asks in its reply to the visitor's first message, and any name, number or email the visitor shares is saved as a contact.
When chat should hand off
The agent answers what is in your knowledge and says so when something isn't. The handoff question is what happens next, and chat differs from the phone here: you cannot take over a live chat. The agent handles the conversation, and you follow up afterwards.
So plan the paths out of a chat:
- For something that needs a person now, the Call button puts the visitor through to your agent by phone, and the phone agent can transfer them to your staff.
- For something that can wait, collect an email address or phone number through your chat instructions so someone can reply.
- For topics that should not be answered in chat at all, write a rule. "Do not discuss a specific client's return in chat. Offer to have someone call them." is a sensible line for an accounting firm.
The questions that belong with a person are the same ones as on the phone: anything about one customer's account, complaints, anything that needs professional judgment (tax, legal, medical, what the grinding noise from the front wheel might be), and prices that depend on seeing the job.
If you connect GoHighLevel for booking, the agent can book appointments inside the chat. Otherwise, visitors who want an appointment can call, and the phone agent books into your connected Google or Outlook calendar.
How to measure whether it helps
Skip vanity numbers like "engagement". Look at whether people use it, whether it answers correctly, and whether anything useful comes out of it.
Start with usage. The Conversations page has a Chat filter with a count. Check it weekly for the first month. If it stays at zero after a couple of weeks, make sure the script is on the pages people visit and the button isn't hidden behind another widget.
Accuracy takes reading. In Chat Transcripts you can click Analyze on any chat to get a summary, the visitor's sentiment, themes and action items. Sort the chats into four piles: answered correctly, answered wrong, didn't know, and needed a person. A wrong answer points to a fact to fix. A "didn't know" points to a fact to add. Both fixes improve your phone agent at the same time, because it is the same knowledge.
Outcomes are the chats where a visitor left an email or phone number. If you use webhooks, a chat.completed event fires when a chat closes (after 10 minutes without a new message) for chats where the visitor left contact details, so those leads can go straight into your CRM or a spreadsheet through Zapier, Make or n8n. It is also worth watching whether the questions that dominate chat come up less often on the phone.
Chats do not create follow-up items the way phone calls do, so someone has to look at the chat list. Put a weekly reminder on a calendar.
Before you put it on your site
At the bottom of the chat settings page, the Chat Playground lets you talk to the agent exactly as a visitor would. Ask the ten questions your front desk hears most. Ask something it shouldn't answer and check that it declines the way you want. Then paste the script onto your site.
Web chat is included on the Growth plan and above (pricing). The same agent also answers texts, so it is worth reading what an SMS agent handles before you decide which channels to open.
Common questions
Does the chat widget use the same knowledge as the phone agent?
Yes. ModPhone web chat is answered by the same agent, from the same knowledge base and instructions, as your phone line. Chat instructions let you add chat-only rules on top.
Can I jump into a chat and reply myself?
No. Web chat is handled by your agent. You can read every transcript afterwards and follow up by phone or email if the visitor left contact details.
Will the chat collect visitor names and emails?
Only if you ask it to. Add an instruction under Chat Instructions asking for an email or phone number, and the agent asks in its reply to the visitor's first message. Details a visitor shares are saved as a contact.
How do I add the chat to my website?
Paste the one-line script from your chat settings into your site's HTML, usually just before the closing body tag, or into your site builder's custom code area. It adds a chat button to every page it is on.
Which ModPhone plans include web chat?
The chat widget is included on Growth ($99 a month) and above. Starter covers phone calls and texts.
Starting small
Start small: put the script on your contact page and the page that draws the most questions, read every transcript for two weeks, and fix the facts it gets wrong. To see what it would say about your business first, try the demo with your website.