Chat with Guests — a Unified Inbox for Every Channel

Guest chat is where an operator handles guest conversations: the chat widget on your storefront plus any connected external channels (messengers, email) all land in one inbox.

There is no separate "Chat" item in the sidebar any more: since late August 2026 the guest inbox lives inside the Work chat — as its "Guests" section. Open Admin Panel → Work chat → Guests (admin.cenaly.ru/team-chat). The old /chat address still works and simply redirects there, so bookmarks and links in old emails keep working. The "Needs attention" feed moved the same way — it is now the "Needs a decision" section of the same Work chat.

The section has five tabs: Inbox, Leads, Contacts, Analytics and Settings (the last one is the gear at the end of the row).

Chat widget on the storefront#

On the guest-facing menu (and on connected BYOD/custom domains via an embeddable script) guests see a floating round chat button. Clicking it opens a conversation:

• a greeting message (can be set per guest language);
• an optional pre-chat form — name, phone, email;
• working hours: outside them, guests see an automatic "we're offline" reply;
• quick-action buttons and attachments (photo/file);
• an unread-message badge on the button itself.

The button and window appearance (color, left/right position, icon) is configured on the Settings tab. Changes are saved automatically — there is no separate "Save" button.

The chat can also be placed on your own website, even if you have no storefront with us: one line of code from the My Website section. The same place enables the Help tab next to the chat, so guests can find an answer without waiting for an agent.

Unified inbox#

The "Inbox" tab is a thread list with filters and a conversation panel:

• Statuses: Open, Bot-led, Resolved;
• filters by channel, label, priority, "unread only", "mine", mentions, text search;
• the conversation panel has an operator reply box, internal notes (not visible to the guest), canned responses (/shortcut), quick actions, AI assistance (draft a reply, translate, suggest labels), and guest satisfaction (CSAT) ratings;
• a contact card on the side shows name, phone, email, and this person's history across all channels.

Leads tab#

Everything a visitor left, in one stream: campaign pop-ups and forms, website forms and messages, callback requests, table bookings and service appointments. For an operator these are all the same event — "someone left their contact details" — so they are not scattered across separate screens.

It is the very same panel as the "Leads" item in the sidebar, just within reach of the chat operator; the location comes from the selector in the tab row. The panel is read-only: leads can be filtered by period, "unprocessed only" and a search over name, phone, email and text, and the list can be exported to CSV.

Connected channels#

Every channel reads and writes into the same inbox — the guest never notices they're being helped by the same operator through a different channel:

Connect each channel under Settings → Channels. The same guest writing from, say, WhatsApp and from the website is merged into one contact card.

The email channel is currently available only on the platform's AWS infrastructure (not on Yandex Cloud).

AI bot and knowledge base access#

The bot has three modes (Settings → AI assistant):

You can set the bot's name, tone and free-form instructions ("persona"), a schedule (always, or only outside working hours) and a daily reply cap. An operator can take over a conversation from the bot, or hand it to the bot, at any time.

If your account has a Knowledge Base section, the bot can be allowed to search it for answers — across all documents or only the ones flagged as available to the bot. Without knowledge-base access, the bot only answers using general instructions and menu/reservation data.

Routing, automation, SLA#

Teams with several operators get additional settings:

• Routing — rules for distributing new conversations by channel/language/first-message text, round-robin or least-busy auto-assignment, and a cap on simultaneous conversations per operator;
• Automation — "on this event, do this action" rules (change priority, assign an operator, add a label);
• SLA — first-response and resolution time thresholds, with escalation (raise priority, assign, add labels) on a breach;
• Live translation — guest and operator messages are translated on the fly when they write in different languages.

History and notifications#

The full conversation history for each thread is stored and available from the conversation panel and from the contact card — you can see what was discussed with this guest before, including in other channels.

The inbox shows unread-message counts per conversation and per filter tab, and a "typing…" indicator appears while the guest is composing a message. Updates arrive in real time, without reloading the page.

Related sections#

• Knowledge Base — documents the AI bot can draw answers from
• Returning Guests — a guest's order history alongside chat
• App Store — account modules and extensions

FAQ#

Does a guest need to sign up to use the chat?#

No, the widget works anonymously. The pre-chat form (name/phone/email) is optional and can be turned on or off in settings.

Can the AI handle a conversation entirely on its own?#

Yes, "Auto-reply" mode has the bot answer the guest without an operator, until a human takes over the thread. A middle ground is "Draft" mode, where the AI only prepares a reply and an operator sends it.

Do all channels feed into one conversation with the guest?#

Yes, if it's the same person — the system merges conversations from different channels (website, WhatsApp, Telegram, email, social) into a single contact card.

Can an external system connect to the chat directly?#

Yes, there's a dedicated API channel with a token — suited for integrations via n8n, Zapier, or the venue's own scripts.