Managing Chat Participants

    Add, edit, and customize the AI participants in your chat widget.

    FOMOchat uses AI participants to create engaging social proof conversations.

    Types of Participants

    AI Company Representative (Staff Bot)

    • Identified by your brand or a custom name
    • Answers visitor questions using your website knowledge
    • Always accurate and on-brand
    • Displays "(Staff Bot)" badge when enabled
    • Cannot be removed (core feature)

    Simulated Users

    FOMOchat generates two types of simulated users:

    Type Description Behavior
    Customers Satisfied past buyers Share praise, discuss features they love
    Prospects Curious newcomers Ask questions, evaluate the product

    💡 Key Insight: The mix of customers and prospects creates authentic social proof. Customers provide validation while prospects ask questions your visitors are thinking.

    Generation Parameters

    When generating participants, use these controls:

    Avg Participants Slider (1-20)

    Controls how many participants to generate:

    • 1 participant: Single AI rep mode (no social proof conversation)
    • 3-5 participants: Intimate feel, good for B2B or premium products
    • 8-12 participants: Active community feel
    • 15-20 participants: Busy, high-traffic feeling (webinars, launches)

    Customer/Prospect Ratio Slider

    Adjust the balance between satisfied customers and curious prospects:

    • All Prospects (left): Lots of questions, great for educational content
    • Balanced (middle): Natural mix of praise and curiosity
    • All Customers (right): Pure social proof, testimonial-heavy

    Include Skeptic Toggle

    When enabled, one participant will ask skeptical questions or objections. This allows your AI Rep to address common concerns naturally.

    💡 Pro Tip: Including a skeptic helps overcome objections visitors might have but are afraid to ask.

    Participant Lifecycle

    Participants don't just appear and stay forever—they have realistic join and leave times.

    Join Times

    Landing page mode:

    • Participants arrive in staggered waves over the first 2 minutes
    • Creates the feeling of an active, ongoing conversation

    Webinar mode:

    • 60% join early (before video starts or within first few minutes)
    • 25% join on-time (first 40% of video or ~7 minutes)
    • 15% join late (after first quarter)

    Leave Times

    Customers & Prospects:

    • Landing page: Stay 20-30 minutes then leave naturally
    • Webinar: Leave 2-5 minutes before video ends (realistic viewer behavior)

    Staff (AI Rep):

    • Landing page: Stays ~8 hours (essentially always present)
    • Webinar: Stays after video ends to answer follow-up questions

    Editing Join/Leave Times

    Click on any participant card to edit their lifecycle:

    • Joins at: When they enter the conversation (MM:SS in video mode)
    • Leaves at: When they exit (calculated from join time + session length)

    💡 Key Takeaway: Realistic participant lifecycles make conversations feel authentic. Visitors seeing people join and leave mimics real group chat behavior.

    Staff Bot Settings

    Your AI company representative has special settings:

    Offer Email Follow-up

    When enabled, if the AI cannot confidently answer a visitor's question, it offers to follow up via email instead of guessing.

    How it works:

    • AI recognizes it doesn't have the information
    • Offers: "I'd be happy to have our team follow up via email"
    • Collects visitor email if not already provided
    • You receive a notification about the question

    Show as Staff Bot

    When enabled:

    • Displays "(Staff Bot)" badge next to the rep's name
    • When directly asked "Are you a bot?" or similar, the AI honestly discloses its AI nature
    • Promotes transparency while maintaining helpful engagement

    💡 Note: These settings auto-save—no need to regenerate the conversation after changing them.

    Editing Participants

    For each participant, you can edit:

    Name

    Click the name to change it. Use realistic names that match your audience.

    Avatar

    Choose from preset avatars or upload custom images.

    Role

    • Staff: Your company representative (AI-powered)
    • Customer: Satisfied buyer sharing experiences
    • Prospect: Curious visitor asking questions

    Best Practices

    1. Keep it realistic — 3-8 participants feels most natural for landing pages
    2. Use more for webinars — 10-15 participants suits live event replay
    3. Match your audience — Names should feel authentic to your target market
    4. Balance praise with questions — Too much praise feels fake
    5. Enable Staff Bot badge — Transparency builds trust with savvy visitors

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