Automated Responses and Canned Responses
The Automated Responses tab (under Super Speedy Chat in wp-admin) holds every message the chat sends on its own: the welcome message, the instant reply, what happens when nobody replies, the out-of-office messages, Search Assist, and your saved canned responses. The sections appear in that order.
Instant Reply
Welcome Message
Shown when a visitor opens the chat widget, before they type anything. Default: “Hi! How can we help you today?”
Instant Reply
Available since 1.20.4.
Text the robot sends straight after a visitor’s first message, for example “Please wait while we connect you…”. It is sent once per conversation, on the first message only. Blank (the default) turns it off.
The instant reply is not relayed to Discord or WhatsApp, and it does not count towards the one-per-conversation limit on LLM auto-replies and Search Assist, so both still work alongside it.
Instant Reply (away)
Available since 1.20.5.
Sent instead of the Instant Reply outside your opening hours, for example “We’re away right now – leave your email and we’ll reply first thing.” Leave it blank to send the normal Instant Reply at all times.
It is not used when the Opening Hours away mode is Leave it unchanged (only pause forwards below), because that mode keeps the widget looking open, so the normal Instant Reply is sent.
To ask for an email as soon as the chat opens while you are away, rather than in the away instant reply, tick Ask for Email Straight Away under Out of Office below.
When Nobody Replies
Admin Reply Timeout
How many seconds the widget waits for an admin reply before triggering the Timeout Action. Default is 30 seconds.
Set this to roughly how long your team realistically takes to respond when online. Too short and visitors get nudged (email prompt / auto-reply) while you’re still typing; too long and visitors who’d benefit from a fallback give up first.
Timeout Action
What happens when the timeout fires with no admin reply:
| Option | Behaviour |
|---|---|
| Show email prompt | Asks the visitor to leave their contact details (see Contact Details to Ask For below) so you can follow up. |
| Auto-reply with canned response (LLM) | Sends the best-matching canned response (requires LLM Auto-Reply configured). |
| Auto-reply with LLM, then show email prompt | Tries an auto-reply, then also shows the email prompt. |
| Do nothing | No fallback. |
The two LLM options require an API key and saved canned responses – see the LLM Auto-Reply Setup Guide. The Show email prompt option is covered in Email Notifications.
Contact Details to Ask For
Available since 1.20.0.
What the “leave your details” prompt asks for, both when the timeout fires and when you are away with the prompt shown first:
| Option | The visitor sees |
|---|---|
| Email (default) | “Leave your email and we’ll notify you when we reply” and an email field. |
| Phone | “Leave your phone number and we’ll get back to you” and a phone field. |
| Email and phone | “Leave your email or phone number and we’ll get back to you” and both fields. Either one is enough. |
A phone number may contain digits, spaces and + ( ) -, 7 to 30 characters. It shows wherever the visitor’s email does: the Chats list and conversation sidebar, the chat alert windows (tap or click to call), and the notification email.
Choose Email and phone if your customers would rather be called back. Visitors who prefer email still get a reply by email, and nobody has to fill in both.
Out of Office
These apply outside the opening hours you set on the Opening Hours tab. The Instant Reply (away) above also applies.
- Away Welcome Message – replaces the Welcome Message while you are away, for example “Leave a message and your email – we reply first thing.” Leave it blank to keep the normal Welcome Message.
- Ask for Email Straight Away – shows the email prompt as soon as the chat opens while away, instead of waiting for the reply timeout. Ticked by default.
Search Assist
When ticked (the default), the robot suggests 1-3 site-search results when no admin replies in time and no canned response matches. It uses Super Speedy Search when installed and standard WordPress search otherwise, and works with no LLM configured.
To turn robot replies off entirely, untick Search Assist and avoid the two LLM Timeout Actions.
How a result is matched
Matching controls available since 1.20.8.
Every measure uses the visitor’s words after stop words are removed. A result is only suggested when it clears all three thresholds below.
| Setting | What it controls | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Title Match | Share of the visitor’s words that must appear in the result’s title. 0 turns the title check off. | 50% |
| Minimum Passage Match | Share of the visitor’s words that must appear together in one short passage of the result (title, excerpt and content). | 40% |
| Minimum words matched | How many of the visitor’s words a result must contain. With the default of 2, a one-word question never triggers a suggestion. | 2 |
Search These has a tick box for each public post type. All are searched by default.
Minimum words matched and the Stop words list sit under Advanced Matching (click Show minimum words and stop words). Stop words are ignored both when searching and when measuring a match. Separate them with spaces, commas or new lines, and leave out apostrophes (“dont”, not “don’t”). Reset to default restores the built-in list.
Test It
The Test It panel shows what Search Assist would suggest for the first message of your 20 most recent chats, or for a question you type, using the values on the screen as they are (no need to save). Nothing is sent to anyone.
If suggestions look irrelevant, raise Minimum Title Match or Minimum Passage Match a little and click Test again before saving. Your recent chats show straight away which suggestions the new values would keep or drop.
Canned Responses
Canned responses are pre-saved question-and-answer pairs stored in your Super Speedy Chat plugin. When admins are away, the LLM classifier can automatically match incoming visitor questions against your canned responses and send the best-fitting reply. This lets your chat handle common queries around the clock without a live agent.
Saving a canned response from a conversation
While reviewing a conversation in wp-admin, you can save any admin message as a canned response directly from the chat log.
- Find the admin message you want to save and click the star icon next to it.
- An inline form appears with three fields:
- Question — Auto-populated from the preceding visitor message. Edit this to better summarize what the visitor was asking.
- Response — Auto-populated from the admin message you clicked. Adjust if needed.
- Category (optional) — Assign a category for organization, such as “billing”, “setup”, or “general”.
- Click Save to store the canned response.
The saved response is immediately available for the LLM classifier to use.
Managing canned responses
The Canned Responses section at the bottom of the Automated Responses tab is where you view and manage all saved responses. It displays a searchable table with the following columns:
- Question — The visitor question or summary.
- Response — The saved admin reply.
- Category — The assigned category, if any.
- Usage Count — How many times the LLM classifier has selected this response. This increments automatically each time the response is used in an auto-reply.
Each row provides Edit and Delete actions. Use the search bar at the top to filter responses by keyword.
How canned responses are used
Canned responses power the LLM Auto-Reply feature. When a visitor sends a message and no admin is available, the LLM classifier evaluates the visitor’s question against all stored canned responses and selects the best match. If a strong match is found, the corresponding response is sent automatically.
The quality and coverage of your canned response library directly affects how well auto-reply performs. A larger set of well-written responses means more visitor questions can be handled without admin intervention.
The classifier matches on meaning, not exact keywords, so one well-phrased canned answer can cover many differently-worded versions of the same question. You don’t need a separate entry for every phrasing, just clear coverage of each distinct topic.
For details on enabling and configuring automatic responses, see the LLM Auto-Reply Setup guide. The auto-reply only fires after the Admin Reply Timeout set under When Nobody Replies above.
Tips
- Write clear question summaries. When saving a canned response, edit the question field to reflect how visitors actually phrase their questions. Generic or vague summaries make it harder for the classifier to find a good match.
- Build your library over time. Save good responses as you chat with visitors. After a few weeks of regular use, you will have solid coverage for your most common questions.
- Use categories. Categories make it easier to find and manage responses as your library grows. Settle on a small set of consistent category names (e.g. “billing”, “setup”, “general”, “technical”) and stick with them.
- Review usage counts. Responses with high usage counts are clearly valuable. Responses with zero usage may need their question field rewritten, or may cover topics visitors rarely ask about.
- Keep responses concise. Short, direct answers work best for auto-reply. If a topic requires a lengthy explanation, consider linking to a help page or documentation article in your response.
Grow the library from real conversations rather than guessing up front. Star good replies as you answer live, and every couple of weeks review the Usage Count column: rewrite the question wording on anything stuck at zero, and trust the high-count entries to keep carrying your out-of-hours load.
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