Chat
Chat allows users to carry out a real time "chat" online with analysts. Calls are automatically logged when a Chat request is submitted and analysts can link chats to several calls.
To setup a chat integration (not using the native Alemba Chat) please see External Chat Tool Integrations.
Depending on how your System Administrator has configured chat, you can chat realtime through the Alembot, the native chat interface, via Teams, or some other external communication platform capability.
Whichever Chat capability is being used, the fundamental way you, the user, interacts with Chat is the same.
Initiate a Chat.
Receive suggestions for a fix (automated from the Alemba Chat bot).
Or Chat with a live agent.
As soon as you initiate a chat with support, a ticket is logged automatically for you in ASM. The chat transcript is written to the record and any files exchanged are automatically added.
Chat for Users
Users must have Chat User selected in the Options tab of their Self Service Portal role.
Once users have chat user permissions, they can see the Chat option in their Self Service My Options menu. If there is an analyst available, the item will appear as available. If there are no analysts available, either because they are offline or dealing with other users, the option title will reflect the status.
When the user selects the option, the Chat Request window appears. (If it selected when there are no analysts available, the Description field is grayed out.)
The user completes the description and selects to chat to an analyst.
This logs a call, which appears on the user's screen, and opens a Chat window showing the status of the chat, the number of available analysts and the user's place in any queue. This is updated as the status changes.
When the chat session is accepted by an analyst, the chat begins. Users and analysts can typeto a chat box at the bottom of the chat window.
The icons at the top of the chat window indicate the status of the chat. Typically, there will be a green dot, a minimize and a close icon. When the analyst is typing, the green dot icon will display a small speech bubble.
Users can end the chat by closing the window. The details of the call logged as a result of the chat appears on the screen, and when the user selects the Chat option again, they can see the call in the list of Recently Logged Calls.
Chat for Analysts
When you have Chat permissions, you see a drop down availability box in your banner.You can choose to make yourself Online - Available, at which point the Chat Queue window appears.
Then you can view all waiting, unanswered and answered chats before selecting a "waiting" one to answer.
Selecting an "answered" or "unanswered" chat will display the associated call details.
Once you accept the chat, the Chat window opens on screen, and you can chat in real time with the user.
Once you pick up a call and the call details window appears, close the first call back to ensure that the SLA records the contact with the user.
You can also use a pop up menu to search for other calls logged by the user, link calls, view linked calls, and log further calls against the chat if several issues emerge.
You can end the chat by closing the window or selecting Close Chat from the pop up menu.
Make yourself Online - Available when you are ready to take your next call.
The chat is recorded in the call’s history. This includes the chat start and end times, the contents of the chat, and a link in ASM Core that reopens the chat in the Chat window. The call source is stated as 'Chat'.
Chat for Managers
Select > Chat Queue.
The Chat Queue window appears.
Alternatively, if you are also a Chat Analyst, use the chat availability drop down on the toolbar by changing your status to Online - Available to open the Chat queue window.
Select the Chat Manager option on the left, if it is not already selected. The Chat Manager screen lists the manager's Chat Queues and the Chat Analysts who are assigned to those queues.
In the Chat Queue you can:
Select a queue. Analysts displayed in the Chat Analyst table are updated to reflect the selected queue.
Change the status of queues. Select the Enabled checkbox to set the status to "Online", or deselect to set the status to "Offline".
A message appears to analysts in an online queue that is changed to offline.
In the Chat Analyst table you can:
See the chat User. When analysts are in an active chat session, the User's name appears in the table.
Change the status of analysts. Select the current status of the analyst to see a list of other available statuses. If required, select a different status.
A message appears to analysts when their status is changed.
Setting Up Chat
To set up your system for Chat, carry out the following steps:
Ensure that your system meets the necessary prerequisites and has all of the required settings as part of the installation/upgrade.
For each partition, in the Self Service Portal Settings (Partitioned) window:
Enable Chat.
Link a call template to the chat.
Assign analysts to chat.
Give analysts "Chat Analyst" permissions in their IPK Management security role.
Give users "Chat User" permissions in their Self Service security role.
Give managers "Chat Manager" permissions in their IPK Management security role.
Assign a chat name and image to the analyst and user in their Person Details if you wish.
If you are setting up Chat to work between multiple web servers, you need to edit the Chat web.config. There are currently two methods of scaling out, or spreading the chat across multiple servers:
If you have a Microsoft Azure subscription, you can use Azure, inserting the values provided by Microsoft into the Service bus scale out support lines of code -
Alternatively, you can use SQL Server to scale out, using the following key:
<add key="chat:scaleOutSqlServer" value="TRUE" />