Enable notifications. The first time you visit the agent dashboard, you are prompted to enable browser notifications. Do so! This way you are alerted when new conversations or messages come in even when the dashboard is in a background tab.
Set up your profile. Adding a photo and a display name to your agent profile will give a more human and personal impression to the users you support.
Invite users with conversation links. If you're helping users outside of the dashboard and moving to live chat would help, you can share conversation links to invite users. You can assign the links to yourself, too, so the conversations will be labeled "Assigned to you" in the queue.
Prioritize conversations
Take the oldest conversation. When starting a new chat, it's generally best to help the user who's been waiting the longest.
Take conversations assigned to you. If a queued conversation is shown with the label "Assigned to you," it's meant for you and you should take it. If it's shown as assigned to a different agent, you should usually leave it for them.
Know your group filters. If your organization is using agent groups, the conversation queue will be split into multiple different group filters. Know which groups you are a member of and which filters you should be focusing on.
Know what to look for. You have access to a lot of information about a user and their request - the transcript of their conversation so far and the details pane which includes user information if they're logged in, any notes added by agents, any form data, and any previous tickets from this user if you have a help desk integration. Your organization may have specific flags to look out for in these areas such as cues that indicate health and safety issues. If so, keep an eye out for them.
Keep an eye on active conversations. If you are juggling multiple conversations, keep an eye on your list of active ones for badges indicating unread messages. Keep the list clean by ending chats when they're finished - the user won't move forward in the product assistant until you do!
Tell the user what's going to happen
Greet the user. When starting a chat, use a saved reply to tell the user you're going to take a moment to check their information and see how best to help them.
Ask before starting a call. Use saved replies to ask for permission before starting a voice call or video call.
Say when you're going to end a call. When wrapping up a voice call or video call, tell the user that you're going to end the call and the user will be returned to normal text chat.
Tell the user when transferring a chat. If you need to transfer a chat to another agent, use a saved reply to tell the user you're doing so and that the new agent will get the full transcript so they won't need to repeat anything.
When to start a call
For issues difficult to put in words. If the issue is best explained visually or through sound, a call can be much faster and easier for both you and the user.
For complex issues. In some cases, writing out the nature of the issue can take a long time and it's faster and easier to just talk through it.
For verification purposes. Some organizations may have workflows that require the agent visually confirm a problem or serial number; this can be much easier over a call.
When you can focus on one conversation. If you only have one active conversation that you can give your full attention, a call can often be faster than text chat. If you are juggling multiple active conversations, this may not be the case.
When the user is comfortable with it. Not all users will be in situations where they can join a voice call or a video call. Respect the user's concerns in this area. As an alternative, users can take photos or videos with their phone and share them in the chat where you can draw on shared photos and share them back.
How to handle calls
Confirm they can hear you. Start the call by asking whether the user can hear you. If they can't, you can still type messages to them which will appear over their video feed.
Suggest using the rear camera. In many cases video calls will start with the user's front camera, but the call will be easier if the user switches to the rear camera by tapping the camera icon. This way they can still see their camera feed while pointing their camera at the device they are troubleshooting.
Pause, draw, and point. To direct the user to locations or objects within their camera feed, pause the video so the user doesn't have to hold their camera steady, and then draw circles around or arrows pointing to the relevant part of the image. Your cursor is also visible to the user as a pointer, which can be helpful to show direction or motion.
Save drawings to notes. If you've drawn something, especially if it points to the issue or its resolution, save a snapshot to the conversation notes. Calls aren't recorded, so this ensures that the image and drawing can be reviewed later.
Save useful snapshots. Keep an eye out for other useful information to snapshot to the notes, such as serial numbers or other identifiers.
Recap the call. Calls are not recorded, so it can be helpful to provide a quick summary of the call in text afterward so that it can go into the conversation's transcript. This is especially important if any decisions were made during the call or there are any follow-up actions that need to be taken.
Ending chats
Confirm the chat is ready to wrap up. Before ending a chat, use a saved reply to ask the user to confirm that they are is ready for the chat to end.
Use conversation links to resume chats. If you need to end a conversation but want to be able to resume it later, such as if the user needs to check something and get back to you, you can create a conversation link assigned to yourself. Send it to the user via SMS or email - if you just share it in chat, they may lose access to it. This will require asking for their phone number or email address if you don't have it; use a saved reply for this.
Add any essential notes before ending the chat. To ensure that notes are properly recorded in any emailed transcripts or external tickets, add them before ending the chat.
Ensure proper follow-up. If you aren't able to resolve the user's issue during a chat, make sure any required steps for following up are taken so that the user still feels supported. Depending on your organization, this might mean gathering the user's contact information and filing a ticket in your CRM or it might mean advising the user that after the chat ends the assistant will prompt them for it so they should stick around and answer those prompts.
Say goodbye. When ending a chat, use a saved reply to say goodbye to the user and inform them they'll be returned to the normal product assistant. If there are additional prompts the user should answer afterward, make sure to mention them.
