Does proactive chat require visitor monitoring?

Agent-initiated invitations require visitor monitoring, because that is how an operator sees the visitor and how the invitation reaches them. Automatic triggers do not. Visitor monitoring is off by default and enabled by an administrator.

What can a ZChat proactive chat trigger target?

Time on page, the page address, the referrer, the visitor's browser language, how many times they have visited before, and the department the resulting chat should go to. Every condition is optional and unset conditions always pass.

Where is the visitor data behind proactive chat stored?

On your own server, in your own SQL Server database. ZChat proactive chat does not depend on an external analytics or personalisation vendor.

ZChat 2.0 Self-Hosted Live Chat Own the software. Own the data.

Proactive Chat

Q: What is a proactive chat invitation?

A proactive chat invitation is a message your site offers a visitor before they ask for help. It can fire automatically when the visitor matches rules you set, such as time on a page or the page being viewed, or be sent manually by an operator who sees someone browsing. The visitor can accept or decline.

Q: Do agents have to be online for chat triggers to fire?

Automatic triggers are evaluated by the widget in the visitor's browser, so the rule can match regardless. Agent-initiated invitations require an operator to be signed in and watching the visitor list.

Sales and support timing

Start conversations before a visitor gives up

Proactive chat lets your team reach out with useful, well-timed invitations instead of waiting for a frustrated visitor to leave. Trigger invitations by page, time on site, behavior, or campaign patterns while keeping the logic inside your own deployment.

Rule-based timing

Decide when an invitation appears based on time on page, visit depth, or other signals that matter to your funnel.

Brand-safe templates

Control the copy, visual treatment, and on-page placement so outreach feels intentional rather than intrusive.

Higher-value engagement

Help sales, onboarding, and support teams meet people at the point of hesitation instead of after drop-off.

Invitation styles that match your site

Use compact nudges, richer invitation cards, or more visible prompts for high-intent pages. You control the experience because ZChat runs in your stack.

Centralized invitation controls

Manage invitation behavior from the admin experience alongside routing, widget, and operator settings.

Template, position, and trigger coverage

Tune outreach to fit different pages, devices, and visitor states without handing that decision-making to a hosted vendor.

Two ways a conversation can start

Most visitors never click a chat bubble. Proactive chat gives you two ways to open the conversation first — one automatic, one human — and both run entirely on your own server.

Automatic triggers

You define the rule; the widget evaluates it in the visitor's browser and shows your message when it matches. No agent has to be watching for it to fire.

Every condition is optional, and an unset condition always passes — so a trigger can be as broad as "anyone who lingers 30 seconds" or as specific as "Spanish-speaking visitors arriving from a search engine, on their third visit, who have been on the pricing page for a minute".

Agent-initiated invitations

When an operator can see who is on the site, they can invite a specific person into a chat with a message they write for that moment — the software equivalent of walking over to someone studying a shelf.

The visitor sees a banner and chooses. Accepting carries the agent's opening line into the chat so the conversation starts mid-thought rather than from a blank form. Declining simply dismisses it, and the visitor is left alone.

What you can target on

A trigger fires only when every condition you have set matches. Combine as many as you need:

Condition	What it does
Time on page	Wait a set number of seconds before offering help, so you are not interrupting someone who just arrived. Defaults to 30 seconds.
Page address	Limit the invitation to the pages where it makes sense — pricing, checkout, a specific product, your documentation.
Referrer	Treat visitors arriving from a search engine, a campaign, or a partner site differently from people who typed your address.
Browser language	Greet visitors in a language they read, and route them to a team that speaks it.
Return visits	Hold an invitation back until someone has come back a few times — a returning visitor is a warmer conversation than a first-time bounce.
Department	Send the resulting chat to the right team, so a pricing-page invitation does not land in a technical support queue.

Proactive without being pushy

Badly-timed invitations train people to close the chat window on sight. ZChat is built so the restraint is the default rather than something you have to remember to configure.

Invitations are off until you create a trigger — a fresh install never greets anyone on its own.
An individual embed can opt out entirely, so a checkout or account page can stay quiet while the rest of the site invites.
A visitor who is already invited, waiting, or in a conversation cannot be invited again, so nobody is greeted twice.
Declining is a real answer: the banner dismisses and the visitor carries on browsing.
Rules are evaluated in the visitor's browser against your own server — no third-party behavioural tracking service is involved.

Questions we get asked

What is a proactive chat invitation?

It is a message your site offers to a visitor before they ask for help — either automatically, when the visitor matches rules you set such as time on a page or the page they are viewing, or manually, when an operator sees someone browsing and invites them personally. The visitor can accept or decline.

Do agents have to be online for triggers to fire?

Automatic triggers are evaluated by the widget itself, so the rule can match regardless. Agent-initiated invitations are different by nature — an operator has to be signed in and watching the visitor list to send one.

Do I need visitor monitoring turned on?

For agent-initiated invitations, yes — monitoring is how the operator knows a visitor is there at all, and it is the channel the invitation travels over. Automatic triggers do not require it. Monitoring is off by default and is switched on by an administrator.

Will invitations annoy my visitors?

That depends entirely on your rules, which is why the conditions are as specific as they are. A dwell time keeps you from greeting someone the instant they land, page matching keeps the invitation where it is relevant, and a visitor already in a conversation is never invited again. Any page can also opt out completely.

Where does the visitor data behind this live?

On your server, in your own SQL Server database. Proactive chat in ZChat does not depend on an external analytics or personalisation vendor, which is usually the reason this feature is a compliance conversation elsewhere.

Owned customer support software

Deploy live chat on your own terms, not on someone else's pricing model.

ZChat gives you the installable server, web dashboard, website widget, and desktop agent tools in one self-hosted product you buy once and keep. Run it on infrastructure you trust and connect AI only if and how you want it.

Download ZChat See Product Demo

Deployment

Install on Windows or Linux, behind IIS or Nginx, in a VM, or in Docker if that fits your stack.

Commercial model

One-time purchase, perpetual license, and no monthly per-agent bill attached to growth.

AI Flexibility

Use Ollama locally or connect OpenAI and Anthropic with your own provider accounts.