Displaying Average Wait, Open, & Close Times

Displaying Average Wait, Open, & Close Times 

To display the average wait time/open & close time within your chat widget, start by logging into Talkative and click on the 'Chat Widgets' option.

Select your chosen chat widget by clicking the blue edit button on the right-hand side of the screen. Alternatively, click ‘Create Widget’. 

Important: Make sure your current version of Talkative is up to date here - v0.15 onward! 

Next, scroll down to find your chosen ‘Widget Version’. Select the option by clicking the widget name, or create a new draft from a current version.

With your chat widget chosen, select your ‘Widget Config’ by selecting the edit button. Alternatively, select ‘Add a Widget Config’.

Now that you're inside the Widget Designer , you can navigate down to the ‘Card Editor’ section.

A quick tip: select the green 'Show Preview' tab to see a preview of your chat widget. You can open and close this tab at any time.

As you’ll see above, our current draft has a ‘Text CTA’ inviting the customer to speak to the team by clicking a chat option.

To edit this element and display your average wait time, select 'Text CTA'.

Next scroll down to 'Text Settings', and enter or edit your text content. We've gone for 'Average waiting time:' in the example below.

Now, select the 'Add dynamic text' button above the text field and on the right.

This will open your dynamic text editor. Here you can choose from a few options, including: 

  • Time until open

  • Time until close

  • Average wait time 

We've chosen 'Average wait time': 

Whatever option you choose, once you're done, click 'Add text' to see the dynamic text code entered into the text field, as seen below:

Now, when you open up your chat widget preview, you'll see an automated average waiting time displayed for your customers to view!

Just don’t forget to save and publish your new widget! 

Remember: you can turn this option on and off as and when suits you. You can also choose to display several automated text options at any one time, including the ability to show when a variety of chat queues open or close. See the below example for reference. 



Dynamic text can also be added to queue messages, so you can set expectations about how long the customer may have to wait when they're in the queue for a chat/video.


Data for the average wait time is only available for Talkative standalone users, i.e. not for integrations into contact centre routing systems such as Mitel. Average wait time is calculated based on the average over the last 30 minutes.


Data for time until open/closed is based off business hours for that queue.


These variables can also be used to configure standby cards, e.g. you may want to offer a different contact option if the average wait time is more than 15 minutes.