Do I have to have my own website?

Yes. BabbleConnect is not a hosting service.
We are easy-to-install with any hosting provider that supports inclusion of custom scripts, including popular vendors like HostGator and Squarespace.

What phones are supported?

BabbleConnect utilizes Slack for managing conversations. Each unique visitor to your web site appears within a single Slack thread, so dozens (or thousands, really) of simultaneous conversations are possible.
The native Slack App is supported on any modern smart phone, is free for basic usage (which is all you need to use BabbleConnect) and is available in the Apple App Store Store and Google Play. It also runs well in any modern web browser.

Is it possible to customize the look and feel of the chat widget so it matches my web site?

Yes, of course. There are some limitations with the pay-as-you-go plan, but our general philosophy is that you should be free to customize the appearance as you see fit.
Things like sizing, background color, fonts, how rounded the corners are, which corner the widget is positioned in, etc., are all customizable out-of-box using our administration tools.

Can I change the behavior of the site widget so it does not automatically open?

You bet. If you would prefer that your site vistors click the chat widget to open the chat window, that's a preference you may set using our administration tools.
You can also configure the widget to start minimized and then automatically open after 5 seconds.

What happens if my customer leaves in the middle of a conversation?

You can customize your chat widget to capture some identity information (specifically, name, phone, and email address) prior to initiating the conversation to facilitate follow-up. For instance, if your business is driven largely on fostering relationships, you might prefer to follow up with a phone call and therefore make a phone number required and an email address optional — or not ask for an email address at all.
With regard to the moment the conversation ends, if a potential customer closes their browser window or manually shuts down their computer or tablet, there is not much that can be done other than manually following up. BabbleConnect will proactively let you know that your customer has left the conversation if we can tell.
For example, if your customer leaves the conversation physically but leaves their web browser open and active, the chat session is still technically active. On the other hand, if the browser is closed or the device is put to sleep, we’ll let you know (via a system generated text message in the same conversation) right away.