Text.com is your live chat and AI chatbot platform. This guide shows you how to manage conversations, train your AI bot, reply faster with canned responses, and qualify leads without leaving the chat.
New here? Start with the walkthrough video below, then use the rest of this article as a reference.
How chats move from the AI bot to you
You'll see two main workflows in Text.com: your AI bot chatting with visitors on your website, and conversations that transfer to you so you can live chat with the visitor directly. This five-minute walkthrough shows both.
[VIDEO: screen-recording-main.mp4 — AI bot and live chat handoff (5:07)]
Train your AI bot
Your AI bot learns from the content you give it. Most of the setup is already done for you.
Good to know: Your website is already loaded into the bot. It has crawled your pages, including services, FAQs, and blog posts, and it re-checks your site on a regular schedule to pick up anything new you publish. You don't need to do anything for this part.
[VIDEO: training-ai-bot.mp4 — Training the AI bot (4:54)]
Make your bot smarter
Beyond the website crawl, work through these steps in order and revisit them as your business changes.
Add Q&A pairs. If your website doesn't clearly answer a common question, or the answer is spread across several pages, add it as a direct Q&A pair. Think about the questions your team gets on the phone that aren't on your site yet.
Add tone guidelines. Tell the bot how to talk, for example: "Friendly but concise, use first names, never make promises about pricing." A few sentences of guidance noticeably improves every reply.
Set escalation rules. Define when the bot should hand a chat to a person. Common triggers include pricing negotiations, complaints, maintenance emergencies, and keywords that signal a hot lead.
Test with real questions. Ask the bot at least 20 questions your prospects and residents actually ask. Note any it gets wrong and add Q&A pairs to fix those gaps.
Review conversations regularly. Each week, look at recent conversations the AI handled and add training content wherever it stumbled. Once you're happy with its performance, a monthly review is usually enough. Do a quick pass any time you add a service or change pricing.
Important: Don't skip escalation rules. A bot that never escalates frustrates high-intent leads, and a bot that escalates everything defeats its purpose. Revisit your triggers any time your team's capacity or workflow changes.
Navigate the Inbox
All of your chats, tickets, and AI agent messages live in the Inbox. The left sidebar sorts everything into sections so you can go straight to what needs your attention.
[VIDEO: inbox.webm — Inbox overview]
Sidebar sections
Chats: All active conversations. Filter by All, My chats, Queued, Unassigned, Supervised, or Archive.
AI Agents: Everything your AI bot has handled, including conversations the AI Advisor resolved, marked as Solved, or converted to Sold.
Tickets: Longer support requests that need follow-up. Sorted by All, Unassigned, and My open.
Views: Custom filters and channel-specific inboxes, such as WhatsApp, Messenger, and Twilio SMS, plus your recent chats.
Tip: Start your day in My chats, where conversations assigned to you appear. Check Unassigned a few times a day to pick up anything the AI has escalated.
View customer details
The right side of every chat shows who you're talking to. Check it before you send your first reply.
The details panel includes:
Contact info: Name, email, phone, location, and local time.
Chat history: Total chats and tickets with this customer, plus a "First visit" badge if they're new.
Visited pages: The pages they browsed before starting the chat, which tells you a lot about what they're trying to do.
Chat info: The assignee, the Chat ID for referencing the conversation later, and how long the chat has been going.
Organize chats with tags
Tags help you organize conversations by topic (pricing, tour request, support), lead quality (hot, warm), or anything else that matters to your workflow. The AI can also suggest and apply tags automatically.
[VIDEO: tags-light.webm — Tags in action]
Create a new tag
[VIDEO: how-to-create-new-tag.mp4 — Creating a new tag (0:21)]
In the right panel, find Chat tags and click the + icon.
Type a short, descriptive tag name, such as
pricing-inquiry,tour-request, orvip. Keep names consistent so you can filter reliably later.Press Enter. The tag is created, applied to the current chat, and available for future chats.
Tag and archive a chat
[VIDEO: how-to-archive-tag-chat.mp4 — Archiving and tagging a chat (2:00)]
Make sure you've handled the customer's request and sent a clear closing message.
In the Chat tags panel, add any tags that describe the conversation. You can add more than one.
Click the archive icon, or choose the archive option in the chat menu. The chat leaves your active queue and stays searchable in the Archive view.
Tip: Always tag before you archive. Once a chat is archived, it's easy to forget, and untagged chats make your reporting less accurate.
Reply faster with canned responses
Canned responses are saved replies you can insert into any chat with a shortcut. Use them for FAQs, tour scheduling, pricing links, and any message you type often.
Create a canned response
[VIDEO: create-canned-response.mp4 — Creating a canned response (0:45)]
Go to Settings and select Canned responses in the sidebar. You'll see any responses your team has already created.
Click Add canned response and give it a clear name, like "Tour confirmation" or "After-hours reply."
Write the message, then set a short, memorable shortcut like
#touror#hours. Keep shortcuts lowercase and predictable.Choose whether the response is personal (only you) or shared with your whole team, then save.
Use a canned response in a chat
[VIDEO: canned-responses.mp4 — Using canned responses (2:09)]
Click into the message box where you want the response to appear.
Type
#followed by the shortcut, for example#tour. Use the arrow keys to pick a match from the list and press Enter.Review the response, add the customer's name or adjust details, then click Send. Always give a canned response a quick read before sending.
Tip: Use consistent prefixes for your shortcuts, such as #faq- for FAQ answers, #link- for links, and #close- for closing messages. This makes it much faster to find the right one mid-chat.
Use AI reply suggestions and Copilot
Text.com has two built-in AI helpers. Reply suggestions draft replies you can send or edit. Copilot lives in a side panel and answers your questions, pulls information from your website, and gives you talking points.
Reply suggestions
[VIDEO: reply-suggestions-light.webm — Reply suggestions demo]
Press Space in an empty message box, or click the sparkle icon.
Text.com generates a suggested reply based on the conversation, your website, and your knowledge sources.
Review the suggestion and edit anything that feels off.
Click Send.
Suggestions improve as you add more training content. See Train your AI bot earlier in this article.
Copilot
Copilot works like a research assistant sitting next to you. Open it from the top right of any chat and ask about your business, the customer, or the conversation.
Ask questions: Try "What are our current specials?" or "What's our pet policy?" Copilot answers from your knowledge sources.
Draft replies: Ask it to "draft a reply confirming a tour for Saturday at 10 a.m." Then paste it into the chat and polish it.
Qualify leads in the chat
Instead of sending prospects to a separate form, capture qualifying details while you chat. The Qualification section on the right updates in real time as you fill in fields.
On the right side of any chat, click Qualification to expand it. If no fields are set up yet, click + Add qualification field to add the questions your business cares about.
As the customer shares details like their company name, industry, or how they found you, log them in the panel. Each completed field turns green with a checkmark.
Watch the progress count (for example, 3 / 5). When every field is complete, a green checkmark appears next to Qualification, meaning the lead is fully qualified and ready to hand off.
Tip: The Leads qualified counter at the top of the app tracks every fully qualified lead. It's a useful number to review each week.
Use the Customers tab
The Customers tab shows everyone currently on your site, lets you review past visitors, and lets you start a chat with someone who's browsing right now.
[VIDEO: customers-tab.mp4 — Customers tab walkthrough (1:27)]
See who's on your site: A live view of every visitor with their location, browsing time, and current page.
Start a proactive chat: If someone is lingering on your pricing page, click their name and open a chat before they leave.
Review past visitors: Search prior visitors by email, name, or activity for follow-ups.
Filter and segment: Filter by location, referrer, or page visited to prioritize outreach.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between the AI Agent, AI Advisor, and Copilot?
The AI Agent talks directly with your customers as the auto-responder. The AI Advisor is a specific AI persona listed under AI Agents in the sidebar. Copilot helps you, the human agent, by drafting replies, answering your questions, and pulling information from your knowledge sources. Copilot never talks to customers directly.
When should a chat be escalated from the AI to a person?
Escalate when a customer asks for a person, when the AI is uncertain, when the topic involves a pricing negotiation or complaint, or when the customer has gone back and forth several times without a resolution. Your escalation rules should handle most of these automatically.
Can multiple team members work chats at the same time?
Your Text.com plan includes one user seat by default, so one person can be logged in and working chats at a time. To have more people handling chats at once, add user seats (see the next question).
How do I add more users to my Text.com account?
Contact your PMW account manager to add user seats. Additional seats are billed on top of your base plan. Each new user gets their own login and can be assigned chats independently, and there's no limit on how many seats you can add.
What happens to chats after they're archived?
Archived chats move to the Archive view under Chats, where you can search them by customer name, email, Chat ID, or tag. Nothing is deleted. Archiving just removes chats from your active queue.
How often should I retrain the AI bot?
Your website is re-crawled automatically, so new site content is handled for you. Review recent conversations and update your Q&A content weekly at first, then monthly once you're comfortable with how the bot performs. Do a quick update any time your services or pricing change.
Can canned responses be shared with the whole team?
Yes. When you create a canned response, you can make it personal (visible only to you) or shared with your team. Shared responses are the most valuable because everyone benefits from a well-written reply.
What's the difference between Tickets and Chats?
Chats are live, real-time conversations. Tickets are support requests that need follow-up over hours or days, such as a question sent after hours or a request that needs research. You can convert a chat into a ticket from the chat menu.
Where do I find the Chat ID for a conversation?
The Chat ID is in the right panel under Chat info. It's a short code like TK04FOZCVP. Add it to internal notes, tickets, or handoffs so anyone on your team can look up the conversation.