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What is the Virtual Visitor and Why Use It?

Think of the Virtual Visitor as a built-in, interactive simulator of your Emplorium chat widget. It runs your current configurations in isolation, allowing you to:

  • Catch errors early: Identify and fix issues before they impact real customers.
  • Iterate rapidly: Make changes and instantly see their effect.
  • Ensure consistency: Verify that your customer experience is uniform across different scenarios.
  • Validate complex logic: Test intricate Triggers and multi-step Flows.

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🧪 Key Use Cases

The Virtual Visitor empowers you to thoroughly test every aspect of your Emplorium setup:

Test Your Widget Setup

Instantly see how your chat widget looks and behaves with your latest customizations.

  • - Verify appearance, brand colors, and placement on the screen.
  • _- _Check responsiveness across different simulated device types (e.g., toggle light/dark mode).
    • Observe how the widget behaves on initial load or message.

Simulate Triggers & Conditions

Ensure your proactive messages and automated actions fire correctly under specific conditions.

    • Enter simulated URLs (e.g., /pricing, /contact) to see page-based triggers activate.
    • Simulate referrers, device types, or visitor attributes (e.g., IP address, country).
    • Watch Flows launch when their start conditions are matched.
    • Evaluate fallback behavior if a trigger’s conditions are unmet.

Preview Flows & Forms

Walk through any multi-step Flow you’ve configured, just as a user would.

    • Fill out forms as a mock user to validate data collection and field updates.
    • Observe how the Flow progresses based on your simulated responses.
    • Validate dynamic message personalization (e.g., ensuring {{first_name}} is populated correctly).

Test Aura AI Accuracy

Engage directly with your Aura AI assistant in a controlled environment.

    • Track Aura’s fallback tagging (#fallback) and evaluate its intent recognition.
    • Rapidly iterate on Aura’s training data with immediate visible responses.

Run Data Requests & Updates

Verify the integration of your external API calls within Flows or Aura AI.

    • Simulate scenarios that trigger Data Requests (GET) to pull product or order data and inspect the response.
    • Test Data Updates (POST/PUT) to ensure data is sent correctly to your external systems or webhooks are fired.

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⚙️ How to Use the Virtual Visitor

Accessing and using the Virtual Visitor is straightforward:

1

Access the Virtual Visitor

From the Emplorium home page and on the visitor table, click on the **New Virtual Visitor **button.

2

Interact with the Widget Preview

A preview of your Emplorium chat widget will launch in the center-right panel of your screen. This is your interactive sandbox.

3

Simulate Page Visits

Use the URL bar located above the widget preview to simulate a visitor navigating to different pages on your website (e.g., type /about, /contact, /pricing, or any specific path). This is crucial for testing URL-based Triggers and Flows.

4

Start Typing & Interacting

Begin typing messages into the widget input area. Engage with it as a real customer would to test responses, Flow progression, Aura AI behavior, and more.

5

Utilize Control Options

The Virtual Visitor panel includes helpful controls:

  • Toggle Light/Dark Mode: Test your widget’s appearance in different themes_. _
  • Refresh/Reset Session: Clear the current session to start fresh and re-test initial load behaviors.
  • Track Fallbacks: Monitor how often Aura AI encounters situations it cannot resolve.
  • Inspect Unresolved Queries: Review queries that Aura couldn’t answer.

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🔍 Best Practices for Effective Testing

Integrate the Virtual Visitor into your workflow to ensure maximum reliability and polish for your customer engagement.

  • Always Test New Configurations: Make it a rule to thoroughly test all new Flows and Triggers in the Virtual Visitor before publishing them live.
  • Verify Aura AI Training: Use diverse test messages to check the coverage of your AI’s training data, including different phrasing and edge cases, and monitor for fallback triggers.
  • Validate Forms & Integrations: Simulate filling out forms and ensure that data is correctly collected and that any associated external API calls (Data Requests or Data Updates) function as expected.
  • Check Responsiveness & Accessibility: Briefly test the widget’s appearance and usability across different simulated screen sizes (if available in the tool) and widget themes.
  • Simulate User Paths: Don’t just test individual features. Try to simulate common customer journeys from start to finish to ensure a seamless experience.

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Next Steps