The widget's first impression is the home view — a small set of suggested questions ("predefined inquiries") and, optionally, a contact form ("pre-chat survey") that runs before the chat begins. This article walks through both: what they do, when to use each, and how to set them up.
In this article
What they are
Predefined inquiries
Setting up predefined inquiries
How many to add — and which ones
Pre-chat survey
Setting up the pre-chat survey
When to use which
A practical recipe
What they are
Feature | What it does | Friction | Default |
Predefined inquiries | Suggested first messages shown as clickable chips on the widget's home view. Click a chip → the chat opens with that message already sent. | None | On (you should add at least 3) |
Pre-chat survey | A name + email modal that appears before the chat starts. Shopper fills it in (or skips) before they can send a message. | Some | Off |
You can run them together or separately.
Predefined inquiries
When a shopper opens the widget for the first time, they see the home view — a clean screen with your welcome message and a stack of chip buttons underneath. Each chip is one suggested first message.
Shoppers who don't know what to ask use the chips. Shoppers who know what to ask type directly into the input.
Setting up predefined inquiries
For your default language (typically English):
Open Publish → Widgets → Bubble widget → Manage.
Scroll to Content → Predefined inquiries.
Click Add inquiry, type the question, hit Enter.
Repeat for each chip.
Remove an inquiry by clicking the × on its tag.
For other languages:
Open Settings → Language → {language} → Predefined inquiries.
Add the localized versions of each inquiry.
Translations save independently — if you add 4 inquiries in English, you can have 5 in French if it makes sense for that audience.
How many to add — and which ones
Aim for 3–6 chips total. More dilutes attention; fewer leaves the home view feeling empty.
Pick chips that map to your top 5 shopper questions — the ones your support team answers most. If you don't know them, look at:
Analyze → Recommendations → top knowledge gaps.
Analyze → Support → Customers most often start chats from these pages → which page sparks the most questions.
Conversations filtered by Topic → what shoppers actually open the chat about.
Examples that work well:
Track my order
What's your return policy?
Help me find a gift
Do you ship to my country?
Compare two products
Pre-chat survey
The pre-chat survey is a small modal that appears before the chat starts. It collects the shopper's name and email up front, with a Skip button if they don't want to share.
Two things to know:
It adds friction. Some shoppers will skip; some will close the widget entirely.
It guarantees an email on every conversation that completes the survey. For B2B and high-AOV stores, this is worth the tradeoff.
Setting up the pre-chat survey
The survey content lives under Settings → Language → {language} → Pre-chat survey:
Survey message — the welcome text above the inputs (e.g. "Tell us a bit about yourself so we can save your chat if you come back.").
Name placeholder — placeholder text for the name input.
Email placeholder — placeholder text for the email input.
Start chat button — the primary button label.
Skip button — the secondary "skip" button label.
💡 Tip: Always provide a Skip button. Mandatory contact forms before chat tank completion. The shoppers who fill in optional forms are the ones you actually want emails from.
Translate the survey for every locale you ship the widget in. An empty placeholder or untranslated copy is the fastest way to lose form completions.
When to use which
Your situation | Use |
Most stores | Predefined inquiries only |
B2B / high-AOV / considered purchases | Predefined inquiries + pre-chat survey |
You're list-building above all | Predefined inquiries + pre-chat survey + Email capture set to Aggressive |
You're worried about friction | Predefined inquiries + Email capture set to Conservative |
A practical recipe
A starting point you can keep, tweak, or replace entirely:
Add 4 predefined inquiries mapped to your top 4 shopper questions.
Leave the pre-chat survey off; let Convi capture emails mid-conversation with Email capture sensitivity set to Balanced.
Run the widget for a week. Watch Analyze → Overview → Conversation funnel for the conversion drop-off.
Adjust: if many conversations happen but few collect an email, turn pre-chat survey on (with Skip). If conversations don't even start, your chips are wrong — replace them with what shoppers actually ask.