Best Practices: Proactive Chat Implementation

Contents

Background

In fall 2021, the AskAway Advisory Committee approved proactive chat for the AskAway collaborative chat reference service. Proactive chat is a timed widget that pops-up on a library webpage, inviting the user to chat. It is an effective tool to reach out to students that are new to AskAway and to meet students at their point of need. These Best Practices are based on recommendations made by the AskAway Proactive Chat Pilot Task Group in their Final Report.

Purpose and Application

After piloting this feature in summer 2021, the Task Group wanted to share information with other libraries based on their experience implementing proactive chat. The purpose of these Best Practices is to provide general implementation guidance to libraries.

When a library is ready to implement the feature, they should contact the AskAway Admin Centre for support with widget set-up in LibraryH3lp.