How does a customer prove who they are in my website chat?

Some things a website visitor asks for belong to a customer's own record: an earlier booking, a job, a document, a payment, or a quote they want to approve. Before the AI touches any of that, it makes sure the person typing really is that customer. It does this by emailing a 6-digit code that they type into the same chat. There is nothing for you to turn on.

When the code is asked for

• Only before something on their own record. A brand-new visitor you have no record of has nothing to prove, so a visitor who asks about your opening hours, or who wants a quote for a new job, is not asked for a code.
• Not to start a chat. The pre-chat form never asks for one. A visitor you already have a record for, with a job waiting on their answer (for example after filling in a form), can be asked for a code in their first messages, once they give what that job needs.
• Never for a signed-in visitor on a site with identity verification turned on. If your site already tells the chat who is logged in (see How do I put the snippet on my site, and check it's really live?), those visitors never see a code.

What the customer sees

1. The AI says it has emailed a 6-digit code to their address, shown with most of it hidden, for example s***@gmail.com. If the chat has no email for them yet, the AI asks for the email they use with your business first.
2. They open the email, which comes from your business, and type the code into the chat.
3. The code works once and expires after 10 minutes. They get 3 tries. After a wrong code the chat says how many tries are left. After the third wrong try, or once the code has expired, the chat offers to email a new code or pass them to your team.
4. When the code is right, the AI carries on with what they asked for.

If the code doesn't arrive

• Ask the customer to check their spam or junk folder.
• Ask them to wait a minute, then ask the chat for a new code. A new code cancels the older one, and there is a limit on how many codes one chat can ask for in an hour.
• If a code cannot be sent, for example because the address has asked not to be emailed, the chat says so and hands the conversation to your team. A person can always help, and they see everything the customer has said.

What happens after

If they already have a record with you, the chat and anything they did in it before the code (a booking, say) joins that record, and the extra record made for the chat is merged away. You don't have to merge it yourself.

The same happens when your site's sign-in passes the chat their email or phone number.

Sometimes only this chat and its messages move, for example when the record made for the chat is also used by another chat, or your team had already moved the chat onto a different contact. Nothing is merged then, and you can still merge the two from Contacts if you want one record.