Conversations
How to manage, assign, and set visibility for customer conversations
A customer conversation, or chat, can be with a human agent or an AI Agent, or a combination of both, depending on the complexity of the question.
Conversations can be over webchat, WhatsApp or SMS channels - more channels will be added in the future.
Your AI Agent can reply to customer's messages across any channel - more details here.
Conversations over different channels can be viewed in the same omnichannel Team inbox.
Conversations can also be omnichannel, where the same conversation can take place over different channels, eg start chat on webchat, with follow up on WhatsApp.
Conversations can contain attachments and emojis, and conversations over WhatsApp or SMS can also contain invoices and checkouts.
Private notes, which are not viewable by customers, can also be added by users to conversations.
A conversation may be created around a specific topic or issue. For instance, if a contact wants to query an item on their invoice, all the relevant messages and the invoice can be included and referenced within that conversation.
A conversation's status may be open, closed or deleted.
In effect, conversations can be treated like a ticket in a helpdesk system, with all messages and notes contained in one conversation for easier context and reference.
Once the issue has been resolved or question answered, the conversation can be closed. It's possible to easily search for and reference that conversation, which can also be opened again for follow-up with the customer.
To send messages to multiple recipients, a broadcast message should be sent (more details here) - presently it's not possible to send a message from the message box to either multiple recipients or a tag (this feature will be available in the near future).
Creating a new conversation
A new conversation can be created by sending a new message to a contact.
This can be done by clicking on the New chat button, selecting a contact and channel, and then entering and sending your message.
A new conversation with a unique ID will be created.
When reaching out to a customer via new message and new chat, be mindful that webchat messages will not be delivered unless the customer is a known customer with a customer portal profile (coming soon).
WhatsApp and SMS are more effective channels for pro-active engagement. These channels can be chosen via the channel selector in the message box:
Be aware on message sending restrictions specific for WhatsApp and SMS - more details here .
Team inbox and My inbox
When a new message is received from a contact, a new conversation is automatically created with a unique ID.
The new conversation is displayed in the Team inbox of the relevant group.
The conversation can then be assigned to a user(s) or agent (see below). After the conversation has been assigned, the conversation will then be copied into the My inbox of the assignee(s) who are responsible for replying to the message.
In this way, the My inbox acts like a "To do" list for the user, presenting a list of conversations for which they are responsible for replying.
When a message is assigned to a user, it's still listed in the Team inbox for all users to view its messages and contents for reference.
A chat search and filter functionality can be found at the top of the chat list in Team and My inbox:
If you have an AI Agent configured, all new messages will be responded to by the AI Agent.
Unreplied and unread messages
We focus on unreplied messages as a key metric to determine what actions need to be taken by users/agents to keep customers happy.
The number of unreplied messages in an inbox is indicated by the number next to the inbox:
As well as the obvious customer messages that have not received a response, unreplied messages also includes those messages that have been sent a response by the auto responder, and those messages that have been transferred from AI to a human agent and are still waiting for a reply from a human agent.
These are counted as unreplied as they still need a follow up from a human agent.
Unread messages are indicated in bold in the chat list.
Unreplied messages have higher visibility than unread messages since a message can easily be read with no action required from by a specific user, however an unreplied message will always need attention from an agent.
Assigning a conversation
When a message is received, or a new message sent, the subsequent conversation can be assigned to a user, or multiple users, in the group.
Admins and agents have the ability to assign conversations to themselves or user(s) via the manage conversation button at the top of the conversation, by ticking the relevant boxes and click Save:
That member, or members, then has responsibility for replying to subsequent messages from the contact in that conversation.
The assignee can transfer the conversation by re-assigning the conversation to another member or agent in the group. The conversation will then appear in that member's My inbox.
Auto assignment
A conversation can also be auto-assigned, dependent on the sender. In contacts, you can choose a contact name and set assignment to a user or users via the manage conversations section:
This will auto set assignment to the selected users for subsequent inbound messages from that contact. This feature only works when it is possible to predetermine the ID of the contact, eg from their phone number.
Setting conversation visibility
It's possible to set visibility of conversations to a defined list of users. This enables client confidentiality to be maintained for that conversation by restricting the visibility of its messages to specific users in that group.
To restrict visibility for a message that has been received from a contact, and the subsequent conversation, click on the "Visible to" radio button and then define which users should be able to view the conversation:
It's also possible to define the assignment of the conversation: this can only include those users who have visibility of the conversation.
A conversation's visibility can also be restricted once an outbound message has been sent to the contact.
It's also possible to pre-define the visibility and assignment of a particular contact's conversations. This can be done under Contacts, where the same settings as above can be configured to apply to all new inbound conversations from that Contact.
Closing a conversation
Conversations can be closed by the "assigned to" agent, or an admin.
To access a closed conversation, just filter for closed conversations in the filter at the top of the chat list.
Once a conversation has been closed, a future message to or from the customer will create a new conversation.
It's possible to open a conversation again, which will allow future messages to and from that contact to be added to that conversation.
It's not possible to close a conversation that has unpaid invoices contained within it.
Deleting a conversation
A conversation can only be deleted by an Admin; it's not possible for an agent to delete a conversation.
When a conversation is deleted, it will delete all messages and any invoices or checkouts contained within the conversation.
However a conversation can only be deleted if there are no outstanding invoices due to be paid by the contact.
Internal chat
You can send internal messages to other users by choosing the Converso icon in the message tray:
Internal messages can be sent from the team and my inboxes, and they appear in the relevant my inbox, and team inbox. It's possible to leave notes within the chat, and send attachments via internal chat, but only Admins can delete an internal chat.
It's possible to send internal chats to yourself for note taking. At this time, it's not possible to hold group chats.
Dashboard overview
The dashboard provides at-a-glance analytics on messages and conversations, contained on tiles with real time updates:
The dashboard is split into two sections: analytics for you, which can only be seen by you, the logged in user, and analytics for the group, which is viewable by all admins and agents.
You can click on the tile and be forwarded to the relevant list of conversations and messages.
Conversations assigned to me shows the number of conversations that you have been assigned to, and are responsible for responding to. This excludes closed conversations.
My unreplied messages shows the number of messages from contacts in your assigned conversations that you have not replied to - action needed here!
Unassigned conversations is the number of conversations in the whole group that have not been assigned to any agent - it's advisable that these conversations are then assigned to a user.
Unreplied messages is the total number of unreplied messages from contacts in that group.
Unread messages are indicated in bold in the chat lists, and include all conversations including those you have not been assigned to.
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