Your website works nights now

Hosted by Mrs. NetShow.

Think about who visits your website at eleven at night. Someone who could not call during the day. Someone comparing three businesses from the sofa. Someone who just found a problem and wants to know if you can fix it.

Most websites meet that person with a silent page. The phone line is closed and the contact form promises a reply tomorrow. By tomorrow, they may have booked with whoever answered first.

This post is about giving that late visitor someone to talk to. A NetShow agent on your own website greets them with a face and a voice. It answers from what you taught it, and it does that while you are asleep.

A shop that stays lit after you lock up

A NetShow agent does not keep office hours. Our own FAQ puts it plainly: your agent works 24/7.

On your website, that agent can greet the people who visit. It takes one tag pasted into your site and one proof that the site is yours. After that, the agent is there whenever the page is open, at noon or at three in the morning.

The difference from a contact form is simple. A form collects a question and leaves it waiting. Your agent answers the question while the visitor is still on the page.

What the late visitor meets

Here is what happens when your agent is set to speak first on your site.

A panel docks at the bottom right with your agent's face. The greeting appears as a caption straight away, so the visitor knows at once that someone is there. On our live avatars page we say it in one line: "It speaks first: the hello is there before your visitor types a word."

Browsers keep a page silent until the visitor taps or presses a key. So nothing blares at someone reading in bed. The greeting is spoken out loud from their first tap.

If they want to talk, the browser asks their permission before the agent can hear them. It listens only if they allow it. If they would rather type, the panel's Menu holds Chat for typing instead. It also holds Mute replies and Stop listening, which matter at night more than most hours.

It answers from what you taught it

A face that greets is only half the job. The other half is a good answer.

Your agent answers from the Knowledge Text you paste into the agent editor. Our guide lists what belongs there: the text of your services page, your opening hours, your returns policy, and a pasted FAQ with each question on one line and the answer under it.

That is exactly what a late visitor asks about. Are you open on Saturday? Do you cover my area? What happens if I need to return it? If the answer is in your Knowledge Text, your agent can give it at midnight in the same words you would.

You also decide what it must never do. The Soul MD box in the Personality tab is where you write those lines. Our guide gives three examples: never promise a delivery date, never give medical advice, always hand a complaint to a person.

You set the first words before you go home

The greeting is yours to write. In the agent editor, under Personality, turn on Enable Welcome Message, write the line and press Save.

A good first line is short, says who is talking and asks one easy question. Our guide's example:

Hi, I'm Maya from Riverside Dental. Are you booking a visit or asking about one?

At night that question does a lot of work. It tells the visitor what kind of help is on offer, and it gives them an easy reply.

Your agent also speaks with a voice you pick, under Realtime Voice in the editor. Press Talk at the top of the editor to hear it before any visitor does.

Try it before the lights go out

Nobody else can reach a private agent. That makes the editor the safe place to practise. At the top of it, Chat opens a typed conversation and Talk opens a spoken one.

Ask the questions your late visitors ask. Read the answers, not the settings. When they sound right, publish the agent. Publishing is what makes the tag on your site load; a private agent does not answer anyone on your site.

FAQ

Does my website really answer while I am asleep?

Yes. Once your agent is published and your site is verified, the agent on your site answers whenever the page is open. Our FAQ says it plainly: your agent works 24/7.

Will it wake up a visitor by talking out loud?

No. The greeting appears as a caption straight away, but browsers keep a page silent until the visitor taps or presses a key. The greeting is spoken out loud from their first tap.

Can a visitor type instead of talking at night?

Yes. The panel's Menu holds Chat for typing instead, and Mute replies turns the voice off.

What does it say when it does not know?

You shape that. Write the rules in the Soul MD box, such as always hand a complaint to a person. Then test the hard questions with Chat or Talk before you publish.

Put your agent on your website tonight

Your agent can start answering late visitors on your own website once three things are done. It is published, one tag is pasted into your site, and your site is verified as yours. Our step-by-step guide walks the embed page that hands you both the tag and the proof. It then shows where the Speak first on this site switch appears. It also shows how to take the agent off your site again. Pasting the tag before you verify breaks nothing. Read it once in daylight, and your website keeps working after dark.