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Chat Tab: Feature Glossary of Best Practices

Look up a particular feature from the Chat tab below to find out the best practices that go along with it. (The features are listed below in the same order as on the Chat tab of the editor.)

Skip ahead to a section:

Chat preferences

Chat Preferences determine how attendees can contact you during each session type:

  • Scheduled
  • On-demand / Just-in-time
  • Replays

For each, you choose one of the following:

  • Chat
  • Email form
  • No chat or email form
  • Third-party chat

Chat (Recommended default)

In most cases, we recommend using eWebinar Chat.

Why:

  • It supports engagement.
  • It supports conversions.
  • It includes welcome messages.
  • It includes auto responses.
  • Responses are delivered by email anyway if a moderator replies.
  • It preserves chat history and interaction visibility inside the admin.

Even if response times vary, the auto response ensures attendees receive acknowledgment quickly.

Switching to Email form does not change the operational reality — it only changes the perception of immediacy. For this reason, we generally recommend leaving chat enabled and managing response time expectations with the auto response.

Email form

Email form replaces live chat with a message submission form. Responses are sent by email.

Use Email Form when:

  • You want to clearly signal that responses are not live.
  • You have very limited coverage and want to avoid any real-time expectation.
  • You are including replay links in follow-up emails but have disabled replays in your schedule.

Email form removes the possibility of live-style interaction. It makes expectations explicit.

However, keep in mind:

  • With eWebinar Chat enabled, moderator replies are also sent by email if the webinar has ended or the attendee has gone offline.
  • The primary difference is perception, not functionality.

No chat or email form

Attendees have no way to message you during the webinar.

This is rarely recommended.

Removing all contact options:

  • Reduces engagement.
  • Removes a conversion opportunity.
  • Prevents attendees from asking clarifying questions.

In most cases, even an Email form is preferable to removing contact entirely.

Third-party chat

Third-party chat replaces eWebinar Chat with your existing chat provider (e.g., HubSpot, Intercom, Drift, Zendesk, or any provider with embeddable chat).

This is typically used by larger companies that require all chat to flow through an existing support or sales system.

Before enabling third-party chat, consider:

  • You will lose eWebinar’s native welcome messages.
  • You will lose auto responses.
  • You will lose private message interactions.
  • You will lose visibility into chat interactions within the eWebinar admin.

If your team uses Slack, consider keeping eWebinar chat enabled and using the Slack integration instead. This lets moderators stay in a familiar workflow while preserving eWebinar’s chat features.

Third-party chat is appropriate when centralized tooling is required, but it reduces the built-in engagement features of the platform. It is not recommended unless absolutely necessary.

Moderators

Moderators receive and respond to attendee messages during sessions.

You can add as many moderators as you like. There is no additional charge per moderator.

In most cases, you need fewer moderators than you think.

Because sessions and messages happen asynchronously throughout the day (especially in Scenarios 1 and 2), it is often easy to stay on top of chat with a small team.

Adding multiple moderators (recommended)

Best practice:

  • Add multiple moderators to distribute coverage.
  • Use a small group of trained responders rather than a large group of occasional responders.

Examples:

  • In our own demo webinars, three moderators is more than enough to maintain strong coverage.
  • One of our customers has nearly 100 automated webinars running and only two people moderating chat for all of them. Even so, it is easy for them to stay on top of chat.

Using a shared support email (for larger companies)

Some teams prefer to assign a single moderator account using a shared support email inbox. (Keep in mind, this approach requires shared login credentials. A good workaround for this is the Slack integration, which does not require moderators to have an eWebinar login.)

This can be useful when:

  • You want notifications to go to a single monitored inbox.
  • You want a support team to jump in as needed.

This works especially well for training and onboarding webinars where the support team is already familiar with the types of questions that might be asked in the webinars.

Example naming convention:

  • First name: Customer
  • Last name: Support
  • Login email: a shared support email address

Note: This approach requires shared login credentials.

AI moderator (Chatbase)

You can optionally add an AI moderator using the Chatbase integration.

This allows you to:

  • Automatically answer common questions.
  • Provide faster responses when moderators are unavailable.
  • Reduce manual workload for repetitive questions.

Best practice:

  • Use an AI moderator as a supplement, not a replacement for human coverage. A “Connect with a person” feature lets people request to speak with a human moderator if they wish.
  • Review responses regularly, especially for sales, pricing, or policy questions, and train the AI agent accordingly so their responses improve over time.

Set reply-to email address when attendees are offline

This setting controls where attendee messages should be routed when the attendee is offline.

Options:

  • Use the primary moderator’s email address.
  • Use a specific email address.

Best practice:

  • Use a specific email address if you want replies routed to a shared inbox (e.g., support@ or sales@).
  • Use the primary moderator email if you want a single accountable owner.

Chat messages always appear to come from the primary moderator

When enabled, all chat responses appear to come from the primary moderator, even if multiple moderators are responding.

Best for:

  • Maintaining a consistent voice.
  • Creating a cleaner attendee experience.
  • Avoiding confusion when multiple people respond.

This is especially useful when a team is responding on behalf of a single host.

Email summary of chat conversation if no moderator responds

When enabled, if no moderator responds to an attendee message during the session, an email summary of the chat conversation is sent to the email address you specify.

Best for:

  • Monitoring missed conversations.
  • Tracking response-time consistency.
  • Preventing questions from slipping through the cracks.

This is especially useful in coverage-controlled setups where an auto response may trigger, but a human response may not occur before the session ends.

Moderator notifications

Moderator notifications help ensure messages are seen quickly, even when moderators are not actively monitoring the webinar dashboard.

This section includes multiple notification options. In most cases, you only need one or two enabled.

Send email for first chat message in conversation

Sends an email notification to moderators when the first message is received in a conversation.

Best practice:

  • Enable this for most teams.
  • This is especially useful for asynchronous coverage, where messages come in throughout the day.

Send SMS for first chat message in conversation

Sends an SMS notification when the first message is received in a conversation.

Best practice:

  • Use SMS only for strict response-time requirements or high-priority webinars.
  • SMS is not necessary for most teams and can create alert fatigue.

Browser-based desktop notifications (optional)

Although this option does not appear on the Chat tab at all, moderators can also enable browser-based desktop notifications for new chat messages.

To enable desktop notifications:

  • Open the profile menu in the top-right corner of the eWebinar dashboard.
  • At the top of the menu, turn on Desktop notifications.
  • Your browser will prompt you to allow notifications. Click Allow.

Once enabled, desktop notifications will appear as long as eWebinar is open in a browser tab somewhere (and you are logged in).

Best practice:

  • Desktop notifications are a helpful backup for moderators who keep eWebinar open during the day.
  • They are especially useful for teams that do not use Slack.

Send email 15 minutes before a session starts

Sends an email reminder before a session begins.

Best practice:

  • This is only useful when you plan to have a moderator actively present for a scheduled session in a fixed time zone, like in Scenario 3.
  • The large majority of teams can leave this off.

This setting is most relevant in a scheduled-only coverage model where a moderator is intentionally “showing up” to monitor chat.

Slack integration (highly recommended for Slack teams)

Slack notifications allow chat messages to flow into a familiar workflow, so moderators can respond without living inside the eWebinar admin.

Best practice:

  • If your team uses Slack, this is often the best notification method.
  • Slack can reduce response time and make coverage easier with fewer people.

Slack routing options:

  • Send all webinar messages to a single Slack channel.
  • Use a dedicated channel per webinar.
  • Route specific webinars to specific channels.

This flexibility is especially useful when different teams own different webinars.

How moderator names appear when responding from Slack

Anyone in the Slack channel can respond. If the responder’s email address matches a user inside eWebinar, their name will appear correctly in the chat. If the responder is not an eWebinar user, their message may appear as the primary moderator instead. If you want individual names to appear, invite responders to eWebinar as individual users (even if they only respond via Slack).

Welcome messages

Welcome messages are shown at the beginning of a session. Each attendee only sees a welcome message once (even if they later watch a replay).

You can configure separate welcome messages for:

  • Scheduled sessions
  • On-demand and Just-in-time sessions
  • Replay sessions

In most cases, these messages are the same.

The main purpose of welcome messages is to:

  • Set expectations
  • Encourage engagement
  • Reinforce that questions are welcome

Best practices:

  • Keep it friendly and short.
  • Encourage questions.
  • Use the { firstName } merge field to make it personal.

Here is a standard welcome message you can use for most session types:

“Hi { firstName }! Let me know if you have any questions while you watch. 😀”

Using the welcome message to manage expectations

In most cases, expectations should be managed through your housekeeping script and auto response, not through long explanations in your welcome message. Operational settings support your coverage model, but your messaging is what sets expectations.


However, the welcome message for replays is a useful place to clarify response expectations, because replay viewers may be watching at any time — including outside your hours of operation.

This is especially helpful when:

  • Replays are disabled in your Schedule, but replay links are included in follow-up emails, AND
  • You want to keep Chat enabled (rather than switching replays to Email Form)

Keep this message short and neutral. The goal is simply to set a clear expectation that responses may not be immediate.

Example replay welcome messages

General replay expectation setting:

“Welcome back, { firstName }! If you have questions, send them here and we’ll follow up by email as soon as possible.”

Coverage-aware (strict response window environments):


“Welcome back, { firstName }! Feel free to leave a question, and our team will respond as soon as we’re available.”

Fully asynchronous / evergreen tone:

“Welcome, { firstName }! If anything comes up while you’re watching, send us a message and we’ll follow up by email.”

Auto response

Auto response sends an automatic message if no moderator responds within a defined time window.

This is one of the most important settings for managing expectations.

Best practice:

  • Enable auto response in most cases.
  • Use it as a backup, not as a replacement for coverage.

Auto response message

Here is a standard message for your auto response (recommended for most teams):

“Thanks for your message, we’ll respond as soon as possible. If we’re unable to reply before the webinar ends, we’ll follow up by email.”

In strict coverage models (where chat is typically monitored during sessions), auto response is best used as a failsafe. In that case, you may want a slightly different message:

“Thanks for your message, a moderator will respond shortly. If we miss you before the webinar ends, we’ll follow up by email.”

Auto response timing

Auto response timing should balance two things:

  • Giving moderators a reasonable window to respond manually
  • Avoiding long periods where the attendee is left waiting without clarity

Best practice:

  • Set the auto response time to 5 minutes or less.

Longer delays typically do not improve outcomes. If an attendee is actively watching and sends a message, waiting 15–30 minutes for an acknowledgment often creates a worse experience than acknowledging early.