Relay and conversations
What Relay is for, how live visitors are ranked, and how Relay fits with routing, follow-ups and the Conversations inbox.
Relay is for the moment a buyer on your site is ready to talk to a person. Your agent handles most conversations alone. When a visitor shows strong buying intent, Relay puts them in front of your team while they're still on the page, so a rep can step into the chat or open a video call before the interest cools.
This article explains what Relay shows, how visitors are ranked, and where Relay fits with routing, follow-ups and Conversations.
You're in the right place when you want to understand how live visitors reach your team. To start taking over chats, go to Take over a live conversation.
Where do Relay and Conversations live?
| Screen | Where to find it | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Relay | Relay in the sidebar | Visitors chatting with your agent right now, and taking over a chat. See Take over a live conversation. |
| Routing activity | Relay → Routing | Setting your own availability and seeing who recent signals went to. See Routing activity. |
| Needs a human | The Relay panel in the bottom-right corner of Relay | Hot visitors any rep can claim with Meet or Reply, or invite with a Relay request. |
| Conversations | Conversations in the sidebar | The full record of every conversation, live or finished. See Read conversations. |
How are live visitors ranked?
Every visitor on the Relay board has an intent score, shown on their card. The score rises as the visitor shows buying signals in the conversation and on your site. ShowPilot also reads the lifecycle stage from your CRM when the visitor is known there.
| Column | Who lands in it |
|---|---|
| Hot right now | A high intent score, or your CRM marks the contact as sales-qualified or an open opportunity. These visitors also appear under Needs a human. |
| Researching | Prospects with a moderate intent score. |
| Customers on-site | Contacts your CRM marks as customers, whatever their score. |
| Just landed | Visitors with a low intent score so far. |
A visitor can move between columns while you watch. The board refreshes every five seconds.
How does Relay relate to routing?
Routing decides which rep a live signal belongs to. When a visitor turns hot or asks for someone to reach out, your routing rules pick a rep, and live signals go to reps marked Available first. Set your own status on Routing activity, and set the rules themselves in Inbound → Routing. See Routing rules.
Relay itself doesn't lock a visitor to one rep. Anyone on your team can take over a chat from the board.
How does Relay relate to follow-ups?
Relay covers the questions a person can answer while the visitor is still there. When nobody steps in and the agent can't answer a question, the agent tells the visitor your team will follow up. The question then waits in Inbound → Follow-ups until someone answers it by email. See Answer follow-ups.
How does Relay relate to Conversations?
Every chat you see on Relay is also in Conversations, and it stays there after the visitor leaves. Use Relay while the visitor is on the page. Use Conversations to read the whole transcript later, see what the visitor viewed and teach the agent answers it was missing.
Troubleshooting
| Issue | What to check |
|---|---|
| Relay is empty | A visitor appears once they've messaged your agent in the last few minutes. With nobody live, the board shows No visitors on-site right now. |
| A known customer shows under Hot right now | A customer with a high intent score counts as hot. Their CRM lifecycle stage decides whether they also count as a customer. |
| You never get routed live visitors | Check your status is Available on Routing activity. |
| A conversation you took over is missing from Relay | The visitor left or went quiet. Find it in Conversations. |
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to watch Relay all day?
No. Connect Slack to get an alert when a visitor turns hot, with a link to the conversation. See Slack.
Does the agent stop when a rep takes over?
Yes, while you're replying. It picks the conversation back up if you go quiet or when you select Release.
Where do finished conversations go?
To Conversations, where every transcript is kept.