Engaging in Live Conversations

Modified on Wed, 25 Sep at 2:27 PM

This section of the user guide is focused on the live assistant active conversation page. To help you navigate the article we have broken it down into the following sections:

What is the Active Conversations page?
Who has access to the Active Conversations page?
How do I navigate to the Active Conversations page?
How does a virtual assistant end user engage in live conversations?
How do I operate as a live agent?

What is the Active Conversations page?

The Active Conversations page is where a live agent interacts and manages live conversations. Within the Active Conversations page, live agents can view and assign live conversations, interact with live conversation participants, and transfer live conversations to other live agents, as needed.

Who has access to the Active Conversations page?

The Active Conversations page is available to individuals with the following permissions:

For more information on user permissions, review the User Roles & Permissions article.

How do I navigate to the Active Conversations page?

Under the Live Assistant section, select Active Conversations. The Active Conversations tab is where live agents will interact with live conversation participants through live conversation.

How does a virtual assistant end user engage in live conversations?

Live conversation will be offered to a virtual assistant user during two different scenarios:

If a virtual assistant end user asks to speak with a live agent (the virtual assistant is programmed to understand variations of this request.)
If the virtual assistant is unable to answer the current question.

In both cases, there needs to be a live agent available to speak with, or the virtual assistant will function in the typical way (either a contact form or custom response). In addition, the conversation must be initiated in English since translations are not supported in live conversations. If the conversation is initiated in another language, the virtual assistant will function in the typical way (either a contact form or custom response).

Things to keep in mind:

If the virtual assistant is set up with more than one office, the virtual assistant end user will be asked which office they want to engage.
- If an office is selected that does not have a live agent available or is not utilizing live assistant, the end user will not be offered a live conversation opportunity and the virtual assistant will operate as usual (with either a contact form or custom message).
As an agent, to activate a live conversation, the agent will need to set their chat status to available in the admin.

Once a live conversation participant has entered the queue, they will receive a message stating they are in the queue and someone will be with them shortly. This message will be displayed every two minutes to the live conversation participant.

There is no "position" of live conversation participants in the Active Conversations queue. This is because live agents can select specific live conversations that are waiting/unassigned (i.e., the live conversations do not flow in first in/first out).
Live conversation participants will not be notified of the amount of time that remains to wait OR whether they are 'next' up in the queue.
If the end user selects leave a message, they will be given the contact form that will be submitted to the office they selected.
If the end user selects take me back to [virtual assistant name], they will be taken back to the virtual assistant.

How do I operate as a live agent?

On the Active Conversations page, a new live conversation will appear in the Inbound (Unassigned) category.

The agent will need to select the conversation for the conversation to appear.

To assigning the conversation to yourself, as a live agent, can be done in one of two ways:

Respond to the live conversation participant, such as typing “Hi” in the text box.
Select your name in the Assignee dropdown.

Either of these options will move the live conversation to the Assigned to Me category.

This category will only appear if you have active conversations.

You will also be able to see any conversations assigned to others if they are available in the Assigned to Others category.

As you engage in the conversation, the live conversation participant will be notified who they are speaking with.

If the live conversation participant provides their name, you can update the Speaking With field at the top of the conversation panel.

This will enable you to track who you are having conversations with or search for the conversation later if needed.

Using suggested responses

As you engage with the live conversation participant, and they ask a question that is in the knowledge base, suggested text, videos, and links will be provided that you can easily add to the conversation to send to the live conversation participant.

For example, if the end user asks “What is SAP?”, you will be given suggested responses in the knowledge base window.

To add one of these suggestions, you can select the plus button or drag and drop it into the text box.

Editing a response

Your response can be edited, if necessary, before sending to the live conversation participant.

Editing features are available, such as bold and italicize. The tool bar also allows you to send images, links, or attachments. The character limit for a response is 5,000 characters.

As a live agent, you can send attachments such as forms to the live conversation participant.

The live conversation participant will need to return documents via the usual submission process for your office. Live conversation participants are not able to submit/return documents via live conversation.

Conversation preview

As a live agent, you can view what the live conversation participant is typing prior to receiving their response.
This is to help you preemptively prepare your response.

On the other side, the live conversation participant will only see in-progress typing ellipses from the live agent.

Transferring a live conversation

Live agents can transfer conversations to another live agent in the same office or to another department utilizing the Ocelot Live Assistant platform).

To transfer a live conversation, select another live agent from the Assignee dropdown.

All available live agents will display under each office in the Assignee dropdown.

Once the live conversation has been transferred, the live conversation participant will be notified which live agent they are now speaking with.

Keep in mind, if a live conversation to another office, the new live agent may not be able to see the previous conversation history due to agent permissions.

Ending a live conversation

If the live conversation participant ends the live conversation, the live agent will receive a notification, but the live agent will still need to actively end the conversation, by clicking the End Conversation button.

This is to allow you to continue to make notes if needed in your student information system.

If live agent ends the live conversation first, the live conversation participant will be notified and given the option to download the conversation. If the live conversation participant continues to ask questions, the virtual assistant will respond.