7 Must‑Have Vendor Inquiry Chats for Event Planning

Intercom is a widely used customer messaging platform that offers live chat, help desk, and marketing automation. For event organizers, Intercom’s conversational inbox allows you to manage inquiries about ticketing, venue details, and sponsorship opportunities in one place. Its robust automation features let you trigger messages based on user actions, such as sending a follow‑up email after a ticket purchase. Intercom also integrates with a range of e‑commerce and CRM systems, enabling seamless data flow between your event registration platform and customer support. The platform’s product tours and in‑app messages can guide attendees through the event schedule, while the knowledge base feature allows you to publish FAQs and support articles that the bot can reference. While Intercom offers a high degree of customization, it does require some technical setup for advanced integrations, and the pricing can become steep for larger event teams.

Drift focuses on conversational marketing and sales, offering a live chat widget that captures visitor intent and qualifies leads in real time. For event planners, Drift can be used to gather attendee interest, schedule calls with sponsors, or collect feedback during the event. Its AI-powered chatbots can answer common questions about schedule, speakers, and registration, while the platform’s meeting‑scheduling feature can book one‑on‑one sessions with event staff or partners. Drift integrates with Zoom, HubSpot, and other sales tools, allowing event teams to nurture leads through automated email sequences. However, Drift’s pricing starts at $299 per month for the Starter plan, which may be prohibitive for small event companies. The platform also lacks a dedicated knowledge‑base engine, relying instead on scripted conversations.

Zendesk Chat (formerly Zopim) is part of the Zendesk suite and offers a lightweight live‑chat widget that can be embedded on any event website. It provides real‑time support for ticket inquiries, venue questions, and general event information. The platform’s strengths lie in its tight integration with Zendesk’s ticketing system, allowing support agents to transition chat conversations into support tickets seamlessly. Additionally, Zendesk Chat supports automated greetings and canned responses, which can be used to handle common event questions such as session times or accommodation details. While Zendesk Chat is highly reliable and offers a free plan, its feature set is somewhat limited compared to more advanced chatbot builders, and it does not provide a sophisticated knowledge‑base engine or AI‑driven responses.

Freshchat is a modern live‑chat solution that offers AI chatbots, automated messaging, and CRM integration. For event planners, Freshchat can be used to answer FAQs about ticket pricing, event schedules, and venue logistics. The platform’s chatbot builder allows you to create flow‑based conversations without coding, and its AI engine can suggest answers based on prior interactions. Freshchat also integrates with Freshsales and other CRMs to store attendee data and track engagement. It includes features such as automated triggers, in‑app messages, and a knowledge base that can be used to provide self‑service answers. Freshchat’s pricing is tiered, with a free plan that supports up to 10 agents, making it suitable for small to medium event teams.

Tidio combines live‑chat and email automation into a single platform, making it easy for event planners to engage visitors and nurture leads. The chat widget can be customized with basic branding options, and the chatbot builder allows you to set up automated responses for common event questions such as ticket availability, speaker bios, and venue maps. Tidio also offers email automation, which can send follow‑up emails or reminders to attendees. Its integration with e‑commerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce enables merchants to promote event merchandise directly through the chat. Tidio’s pricing is competitive, with a free plan that supports unlimited chats but limited features, and paid plans that unlock more advanced automation.

ManyChat is a chatbot platform that primarily targets social media messaging, especially Facebook Messenger, but also offers a web chat widget. For event planners, ManyChat can be used to send automated updates about schedule changes, speaker announcements, and ticket promotions. The platform’s visual flow builder lets users create complex conversation trees without coding, and it supports broadcasting messages to a list of subscribers. ManyChat also integrates with e‑commerce platforms and CRMs, allowing event teams to capture lead information and automate email sequences. However, ManyChat’s focus is on social media channels, and its web chat widget is less feature‑rich than dedicated live‑chat solutions. Pricing starts at $10 per month for the Pro plan, but advanced automation and broadcast features require higher tiers.