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Scenario 2: Strict Chat Coverage

Below is one of four common approaches to scheduling an eWebinar.

When deciding how to configure the Schedule and Chat of your eWebinar, a good starting point is to choose the scenario that most closely fits with your team’s goals, capacity, and how quickly you feel you must respond to chat.

See and choose one of the four scenarios here.

What this scenario optimizes for

This model is designed for teams with strict chat response-time requirements (SLA). Sessions only occur when you’re actually staffed to respond and chat expectations match your coverage window.

This is the best fit for teams with a real response-time SLA, high-accountability support environments, or internal needs that make delayed responses unacceptable.

Why this scenario exists

Some teams need more than expectation-setting — they need operational consistency

This model ensures that attendees only see sessions when your team is available to respond, which reduces the risk of delayed responses.

How it manages chat expectations

Unlike the Recommended Default, this model manages chat expectations primarily through availability controls, not messaging.

Hours of operation (in a fixed time zone) are set to match your actual coverage hours so that scheduled sessions, on-demand sessions, and just-in-time sessions only appear when you can reliably respond. (Replays are only available in follow-up emails.)

You should still use a housekeeping script and auto response message, but the primary mechanism is limiting session availability to your coverage window.

Recommended configuration details

Schedule tab

Event type: Recurring

Scheduled webinars:

  • Recurrence: Weekly, Up to five weekdays, Up to 4 times per day within your coverage hours*
  • Time zone: Fixed (your time zone)

* Since your webinar is set in a fixed time zone (yours), sessions may appear at sub-optimal times in other time zones.

On-demand webinars: On
Just-in-time webinars: On, On the next quarter hour (at least)
Replays: No (Read guide to replays)

Hours of operation: On, Your actual coverage hours 

  • Set hours of operation in a fixed time zone: N/A (The time zone is already fixed.)
  • Allow on-demand outside hours of operation: No

Chat tab

Chat preferences: Chat for all session types

Moderators: Typically a team of people (See best practices)

Moderator notifications:

  • Send email for first chat message: Yes
  • Send SMS for first chat message: Optional (via Twilio)
  • Send email 15 minutes before a session: No
  • Slack integration: Recommended, if relevant (Learn more)

Welcome messages: Per best practices.

Auto response: Yes

  • Auto response message: Yes (As a failsafe, per best practices)
  • Auto response trigger time: 2 - 5 minutes

Alternative configuration for extended support hours

If you offer extended support hours, you may be able to offer your scheduled webinars in the attendee’s local time zone (so they always appear at ideal times of day) and keep full chat coverage.

Below is what your Schedule, Hours of operation, and Moderators would look like if you wanted to take this approach, using this example scenario:

Scenario: Nearly all of your customers are in the continental United States. Because of this, you offer extended support hours (Mon - Fri, 9am - 8pm ET) to cover regular business hours on both coasts. 

Scheduled webinars:

  • Recurrence: Weekly, Monday - Friday, 11am, 2pm, 4pm, 6pm*
  • Time zone: Attendee’s local time zone

* The 6pm session would only appear in Central and Eastern time, because it still falls within your coverage hours.

Hours of operation: On, Mon - Fri, 9am - 8pm

  • Set hours of operation in a fixed time zone: Yes (Eastern Time)
  • Allow on-demand outside hours of operation: No

Moderators:  Entire support team (moderator created with a shared email, per best practices)

This screenshot shows what the actual session times would be in each time zone ( in parentheses).

Tradeoffs

  • Attendance may be lower since sessions are limited to your coverage hours. 
  • You sacrifice flexibility and scale in exchange for strict response-time control.
  • Replays are disabled, which reduces access outside coverage hours.

Transition note (for nervous teams)

Unless you have a strict response-time SLA, we do not recommend this model. Most teams can achieve a strong attendee experience with our Recommended Default scenario. That being said, you may want to start with this model until you gain more confidence with eWebinar.