Configuration

Customise the appearance and behaviour of the DealerAI webchat widget for your dealership.

Widget configuration is managed in the DealerAI portal under Settings → Webchat. Changes take effect immediately — no redeployment or code changes on your website are required.

Appearance

Setting	Description
Widget title	Text shown at the top of the chat window (e.g., "Chat with us")
Greeting message	The first message customers see when they open the widget
Primary colour	The accent colour matching your dealership's branding
Position	Where the widget appears on the page — bottom-right or bottom-left
Offline message	Text shown to customers when outside of business hours
Logo	Upload a dealership logo shown in the chat header
Avatar	Upload a custom avatar for bot messages

Use Preview in the portal to see how your widget looks with the current settings before your customers see it.

Window Style

The widget supports three visual styles, configurable under Settings → Webchat:

Style	Description
`window`	A traditional rectangular chat window pinned to the corner of the screen
`roundbox`	A rounded, card-style window — similar to `window` but with softer edges
`speechbubble`	A speech bubble that floats above a compact chat head icon

All three styles support the same feature set. The style is also automatically forced to window when the widget is used in expand mode.

The widget ships with both a light and a dark theme. Customers can toggle between them using the theme button in the chat header. The active theme selection is persisted in a cookie so it is remembered across sessions.

You can set the default theme mode under Settings → Webchat → Theme.

Enabling the Webchat Channel

The Webchat channel must be active for the widget to respond to visitors. To enable it:

Go to Settings in the portal sidebar and select your dealership

Open the Activation & Features tab

Toggle Webchat to enabled

Save your changes

If Webchat is disabled, the widget will still appear on your website but will display an offline message instead of starting a live chat session.

Business Hours

The AI uses the hours configured under Settings → Hours to determine when the webchat is considered available. Outside of these hours, customers see the offline message.

Configure separate availability for:

Sales hours
Service hours
Parts hours

For one-off closures, add dates in the Holidays section.

Language Support

The widget automatically detects the visitor's browser language and responds in that language if it is supported. The default fallback language is English. Supported languages can be restricted under Settings → Webchat → Supported Languages.

VIN Detection

If a visitor is browsing a specific vehicle page on your website, the widget automatically detects the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) from the page and passes it to the AI. This allows the AI to answer questions about that specific vehicle without the customer having to specify it.

The widget integrates with the DDC (Digital Dealer Communications) API for VIN detection on DealerSocket-powered websites. On other platforms, VIN detection uses URL and meta tag parsing.

Session Persistence

Chat sessions persist across page navigation. If a customer starts a conversation on one page and navigates to another, the conversation continues uninterrupted. Session state is stored in browser cookies scoped to the dealer ID, with a 7-day TTL.

Idle Timeout

If a customer is inactive for a configurable period, a countdown dialog appears asking whether they want to continue or reset the conversation. The idle time threshold is set under Settings → Webchat → Idle Time.

Private Mode

When Private Mode is enabled, the widget only opens for visitors who have been passed a valid user context via the data-override-private attribute in combination with pre-filled user attributes. This is useful for authenticated portals where you only want to allow chat for verified customers.

URL Allow / Block Lists

You can restrict which pages of your website show the widget:

Allow list — Only show the widget on URLs that match the specified patterns
Block list — Show the widget everywhere except URLs that match the specified patterns

Configure these lists under Settings → Webchat → URL Restrictions.

SMS Handoff

When the SMS channel is configured and enabled, a Text Us button appears in the chat header, allowing customers to switch from webchat to SMS. This is particularly useful when a customer needs to leave the website but still wants to continue the conversation.

Enable this under Settings → Webchat → Show SMS Button.