After an agent accepts an incoming chat, an active chat window populates the top of their iService screen. This active chat window will remain on every page browsed until all of the agent's chats have ended.
The Agent Chat Console
The agent chat interface is comprised of four panels.
1) The Assigned Chats panel provides a list of chats that are assigned to the agent. Clicking a chat bubble will switch the active chat window to that conversation. When the last comment was from the customer, the text snippet in the chat bubble is shown in red. This alerts the agent to the fact that the customer is waiting for their reply. The chat bubble displays the Customer Name, Question Topic, and Last Comment.
2) The Selected Active Chat panel is where the agent types their responses and views messages from the customer. When the initial chat request is assigned, the chat dialogue includes the subject and question from the customer so the agent knows something about the question before they begin the discussion.
3) The action buttons (End, Forward, and Change Topic) function similarly to the buttons within the MyQueue page for emails.
END - Ends the chat and sends the message "Agent closed the chat." to the customer's chat window. The chat will remain visible to the agent for 10 seconds before it is removed from the list of assigned chats.
FORWARD - This button include two options: Remove From Queue and Assign to Agent. Remove from queue will put the chat back into the queue for the next agent. The Assign to Agent option displays a list of agents that are online AND have their chat status set to Available.
CHANGE TOPIC - This button provides the full list of topics that can accept chats. Only topics that have available agents with the corresponding skills are available for selection.
4) The Selected Chat Customer Info panel provides summary information about the customer, and shortcut links to the Customer Info page for the contact.
5) The Stock Responses panel is used by agents to paste frequently used phrases into the chat conversation. The response picker has two text boxes. The first is used to filter the response list, normally to limit the responses to those that were specifically intended for chat interactions. The second text box allows the agent to search for specific responses, and narrows the list as the agent types.