Help CenterIf you often reply to the same customer questions, consider saving those replies as canned responses. It will shorten your response times and save keystrokes on repetitive typing. With canned responses, you type it once, save it and reuse it in chats and tickets whenever you need.
Apart from being a huge time saver, canned responses help tackle typo mistakes. Use them for foreign names, complex addresses, common expressions, URLs, or virtually anything that you type repeatedly.
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Using canned responses
To use a canned response in chat, type in the hash sign followed by a shortcut, for example, #thank (try it out!). We created a separate article where you can find more examples and tips&tricksregarding this feature.
Learn how to use canned responses with our webinar.
Adding canned responses
Each LiveChat account comes with a set of sample responses. You can use them out of the box, tweak them or add your own. There are two ways to add a new response:
Directly from the chat
If you find yourself sending the same reply yet another time, you can save it with just one click.
1) After replying to the customer's question, hover your mouse over your message and click the Save as canned response icon.
2) You will see a pop-up window in which you can edit the message and add a shortcut. To add more shortcuts at once, separate them with a comma.
3) Finally, to keep changes, hit Save canned response.
If you have several groups, such as sales and support, and you save a canned response during a chat, it will be assigned to the group in which the chat occurred.
From the canned response picker
You can also add a new response before sending it in chat. This option is available in the canned response picker.
1) Type # in the text area or hit the # icon.
2) In the canned response picker, click on “+New.”
3) In the popup, enter the message you wish to save, and the shortcut.
4) You can also pick the group to which you want to add the canned response
5) Once you do, click on "Save canned response.
From settings
Here you can create new canned responses from scratch, edit existing ones, and delete the ones you no longer use. Follow the steps below to add a new one:
1) To begin, go to Settings → Agent tools → Canned responses.
2) Then, enter the canned response text.
3) And choose a shortcut.
4) Click Add this response button to save it.
When sending a predefined response, personalize it with the customer's name. Also, try tweaking the template a little bit each time so that you don't sound robotic.
Editing canned responses
Your predefined replies can get old and out of date after some time. You can easily modify them in the following way:
1) First, go to Canned responses.
2) Find the response you want to edit, hover your cursor over it and click edit.
3) Here, you can change the text of the response.
4) And/or its shortcuts.
5) Click on Save changes to finish up.
Deleting canned responses
If you no longer need a particular response, you can delete it by following these steps:
1) Navigate to Canned responses and find the response you want to delete.
2) Hover your cursor over it and click delete.
3) Finalize by clicking on the Delete this response button.
Canned responses for groups
If you have your agents assigned to different groups you can create canned responses that are group-specific. You will find a required canned response quicker when you narrow down the results to a single group rather than having to search through the entire list.
If you have yet to create groups and assign agents to them, check out our article about groups.
Using group-specific canned responses
While you chat, you can choose to see all the canned responses divided by groups or all together.
Canned responses are divided by default, so if the customer comes to chats with the sales group, for example, the canned responses from the sales group will appear first on the list, followed by the responses from all the other groups you are a member of, placed under “Other groups”.
If you want the canned responses to be displayed all together, click on the gear icon in the picker and click on the green toggle.
Adding a group-specific canned response {#adding-canned-responses-groups}
You can add a group-specific canned response both from the Chat section and from Settings → Agent tools → Canned responses.
To add a group-specific canned response from the chat:
1) Type # in the text area or hit the # icon.
2) In the canned response picker, click on “+New.”
3) In the popup, enter the message you wish to save, and the shortcut.
4) You can also pick the group to which you want to add the canned response.
5) Once you do, click on "Save canned response.
To add a canned response that is assigned to a specific group in the Settings, you need to follow these steps:
1) Go to Settings → Agent tools → Canned responses.
2) In the upper left corner, click on the group dropdown menu. Then find and choose the group you want to assign the canned response to.
3) Fill in the canned message text field.
4) Add a shortcut.
5)Click on the Add the response button to save it.
When a canned response is assigned to a specific group, only agents from the specific group will be able to use this response. When you are using this method, the pool of predefined responses available for all departments remains relatively small and your teammates can find relevant responses faster.