<< Click to Display Table of Contents >>   Operator Module > Native agent app > Native agent app 7.X.X > Using the app > Chatting

General

 

To have the ability to chat with your website visitors you need to login to the agent app.

 

There are two possible ways to start chatting:

 

•The visitor can call to your chat

•You can send a chat invitation to the visitor

 

In any case, a separate tab will be opened in the app for each chat conversation. You can switch between tabs to handle several chats concurrently. The latest chats will appear at the top.

 

There is no possibility to chat with several visitors in one chat room. But it is possible to invite several operators to the chat room.

 

Tabs 1 and 2 on the image below are accepted chats.

Tab 2 is the active chat as this tab is open currently. You can see the chat history of this chat in the console and send messages to the visitor until you switch to another tab.

The chat on tab 3 is not accepted yet - the tab still contains Accept Call (5) button. You need to press Accept Call button to start chatting with the visitor. The chat also gets accepted automatically after you start typing a message ad send it to a customer. However, to avoid confusion if you use 'To All' call distribution method it is better accept the chat prior to typing and sending a message.

 

Managing chats

 

 

To accept incoming chat call, please press Accept Call (5) button on the chat tab. The chat also gets accepted automatically after you start typing a message and send it to a customer.

 

It is also possible to activate Chat calls auto accept option on the Tools / Options / Chat Rooms tab, if this is permitted by the account administrator.

 

When you wish to finish the chat, please click X (4) button on the chat tab.

 

Sometimes it is necessary to ignore or decline chat calls. To do this please click X (4) button on the chat tab without pressing Accept Call (5) button.

 

Away mode

 

Away mode allows you:

 

•to monitor the website and handle all current chats

•to initiate operator-to-operator calls with other operators and receive such calls from other operators

•invite other operators to your current chats.

 

Away mode doesn't allow you:

 

•to receive new chat calls as you appear as offline operator for the website visitors

•to send proactive chat invitations to your website visitors.

 

To switch to Away mode you need to change your status in the agent app. You can do this in several ways:

 

•By clicking on the menu in the console chat tabs area

 

•Via the console main menu File / My Status / Away

•Via the console tray menu My Status / Away

 

If you are the only online agent and change your status to Away, the chat button on your website will switch to Offline.

 

Messaging

 

Exchanging text messages in real time is the major feature of any live chat system. Messaging in our agent app is very simple and similar to messaging in any instant messenger.

 

To send a message to the visitor, please type the message in the text input area and click Send (2) button or press Enter.

 

You can add line breaks to your message by pressing Ctrl+Enter.

 

 

1.Text input area - you can type your messages to the visitor in this area. HTML formatting is not supported in messages, but URLs and emails will become clickable after sending the message.

2.Send button (replaced with Invite when sending a proactive chat invitation) - you need to press this button to send a message to the visitor. You can also do this by pressing Enter on your keyboard.

3.Text input area context menu - this menu is opened by right click on the text input area. It contains basic editing functions (Cut, Copy and Paste, Select All), a call to spell checker options and a call to switch between Left-to-Right and Right-to-Left modes.

4.Additional features toolbar - this toolbar contains basic editing buttons (Cut, Copy, Paste, Undo, Redo) and a set of buttons to activate special features: canned responses, emoticons, file transfer

 

Visitor Details and Navigations

 

During the chat conversation with a visitor, the detailed information about this visitor together with Navigation history is displayed in the app sidebar.

 

 

1.Detailed passed from the pre-chat survey. All information from the pre-chat survey fields will appear at the top of the visitor details

2.Called from - the link to the page where the chat button was clicked

3.Current page - the link to the page where your visitor is staying at the moment

4.Information about IP address and location

5.Local visitor's time

6.Referrer

7.Browser and OS information

8.Link to Navigation tab. Note! Navigation link will become active only after you enable visitor monitoring by opening Visitors page

 

How to invite a visitor to chat

 

To invite a visitor to chat you need to do the following:

 

1.Select a visitor in the Visitors list

2.Click "Proactive Chat" button in the toolbar or right click on a visitor and select "Proactive Chat" from the drop down list

 

 

3.In the appeared room type a greeting message

4.Press "Send" button

 

Please note! Chat invitation sending is not automated in our system. Proactive chat invitations can be sent manually from the agent app.

 

How to invite another agent to chat

 

There are two ways to invite another agent to chat:

 

1.You can do this directly from the app toolbar by clicking "invite agent icon"  and selecting the agent you would like to invite:

 

 

2.You can follow Team tab in the app, select an agent there and invite:

 

 

How to send a screenshot from clipboard

 

To paste a screenshot from clipboard, please do the following:

 

1.Make a screenshot

2.Copy it

3.Click "Send screenshot from clipboard" icon in your operator console

4.Send it to your visitor

 

How to make a screenshot

 

The operator console allows making screenshots and send them directly in chat:

 

1.Click snipping tool icon

2.Take a screenshot

3.Paste it to your chat

 

Basic editing

 

You can perform basic text editing actions when typing messages in the console.

 

Please use appropriate icons in the additional features toolbar or items in the context menu to cut, copy and paste text, undo and redo changes, select all text.

 

You can also use standard Windows shortcuts:

 

•Ctrl+C - copy

•Ctrl+X - cut

•Ctrl+V - paste

•Ctrl+A - select all

•Ctrl+Z - undo

•Ctrl+Y - redo

 

File transferring

 

To transfer a file to the visitor, please do the following:

 

1.Click (Send file) button in the additional features toolbar above the text input area and click Browse… in the opened window and choose the file

2.Or drag and drop the file

3.You will see the File Transfer Manager showing your file sending progress

4.After the file sending process has been completed, the file will be shown to your visitor as a clickable link, which can be opened in a default browser.

5.If you sent a media file a preview will be available for it. It is possible to enlarge an image to its original size by clicking on it:

 

 

6.To receive a file sent by the visitor, please click the link to the file in the chat area.

 

You can transfer files of any format through the chat unless file sending restriction is set in the account settings. The maximum allowed file size is 100MB.

 

Note! Transferred files are stored by the system until the chat is closed. As soon as the chat is closed, the file is removed from our servers and the link to the file becomes invalid.

 

Note! Our system doesn't check files transferred through the chat. Thus we advise you not to accept files from your visitors if the file transfer wasn't agreed previously and to check transferred files with antivirus before opening. Some files can contain spyware or viruses and can harm your computer.

 

Sending predefined responses

 

To insert a predefined responses to your message text or send it right away to a visitor, do the following:

 

1.Click canned responses icon in a toolbar

2.Or choose the response in quick texts section in your sidebar if it is enabled in the app view settings

 

 

3. After you have chosen the response, you can either insert it to your current message or send directly as is to chat

 
 

 

4.You can also run a search among your responses

 

 

 

Creating canned responses from the agent app

 

Agents can create canned responses from their apps. The responses can be created on the agent level only. Responses created from the agent app cannot be assigned to specific department or created on the account level. All responses created on the department and account level cannot be updated or removed from the agent app. They can be updated or removed only from the account Control Panel.

 

To create a canned response you need to:

1.Click arrow in the canned responses list

2.Type canned responses title. Grouping for agent responses is also supported

3.Type your response text

4.Click 'Create new canned response for [OPERATOR_NAME]' button to save your response

5.The response will appear in the canned responses list for Operator

 

It is also possible to create the response from the messages in the chat history:

 

To create a canned response from the chat history message you need to:

 

1.Right click on the message in the chat history area of your agent app

2.Select 'Save this message as canned response' option

3.Type your message title

6.Click 'Create new canned response for [OPERATOR_NAME]' button to save your response

 

You can also update and delete all responses created on the agent level:

 

 

To delete your canned response, please do the following:

 

1.Select the response in the Operator's responses list

2.Click 'Delete' below the response

3.Confirm deleting of the canned response

 

To update your canned response, please do the following:

 

1.Select the response in the Operator's responses list

2.Click 'Update' below the response

3.Make all necessary changes

4.Click 'Save' button

 

Emoticons

 

To insert an emoticon in chat, please do the following:

 

1.Click "Emoticon" icon in the toolbar

2.Select the emoticon you would like to insert to chat

 

 

 

You can also type a certain character string that will be automatically converted to emoticon directly in the text input area. You can find character strings for each emoticon at the bottom of the emoticons list.

 

Emoticons can be disabled by using special key /nosmile. It should be placed before the message. E.g. /nosmile test :)

In case you would like to disable and to show emoticons within one message, you can use /smile key for enabling them

 

/nosmile and /smile keys are system keys and do not appear after sending a message. Smileys are enabled by default, thus /smile key should be used only in combination with /nosmile if you decided to disable smileys in a part of your message.

 

/nosmile and /smile can be used in canned responses and /nosmile is recommended to be placed before HTML if it is sent in chat to prevent from converting symbols to emoticons.

 

Number of concurrent chats

 

You can have as many chats concurrently as you can handle, we don't limit this. But if you are overloaded by chats, you can switch the console to Away mode in order not to receive new chat calls but be able to continue all current chats.