User guide

Workspace basics

As an agent, your workspace is a centralized location for you to handle all of your conversations. When you log in to the Conversational Cloud, your workspace will open as the default homepage. Below are the main areas and tools you'll be using within the workspace for your daily messaging operations.

My Conversations

The My Conversations list includes all of the recent conversations that were assigned to you, including conversations that were recently closed. You can work through your My Conversations list from the top down, and filter closed conversations into the list at the end of your shift to ensure you documented everything properly.

Dynamic conversation list

The My Conversations list is a dynamic conversation list that is automatically sorted by SLA, otherwise known as response time. Conversations with the shortest SLA are the most urgent and are therefore sorted to the top of the list. The list updates automatically after every agent action or incoming conversation, ensuring that the most important conversations are always prioritized. This allows you to efficiently work through the conversation list by always focusing your attention on the conversation at the top of the list, rather than manually determining who to help next.

The conversation list is comprehensive, including ongoing, overdue, idle, and closed conversations that are filterable by status. Each conversation is assigned a color and a random icon to help you distinguish between consumers in the list. Clicking on each conversation will allow you to read the transcript, browse different widgets and start engaging with your customers. If you choose to click on a consumer’s name, it will open up the entire conversation and you can begin messaging.

Conversation status and filters

The conversation list includes ongoing, overdue, idle, and closed conversations. By default, ongoing, overdue, and idle conversations are filtered in. Conversations with the idle or closed status can be filtered in or out of the list. Ongoing and overdue conversations cannot be filtered out of the conversation list. You will see at the top of the list a count of how many conversations with each status are currently in your workspace.

You can filter conversations in the list by status:

All Conversations

If you have permission to view the All Conversations tab, it can be used to search for closed conversations that started within the past 13 months. You can use the time frame filter as well as the robust search tool found at the top of the page to find what you're looking for.

All Conversations can be viewed in either ‘list mode’ or ‘conversation mode’ by selecting either of the icons in the top right corner. In list mode, you’ll see high-level information about each conversation. When you select a conversation from the list it will open in conversation mode where you can view the full transcript.

List mode:

Conversation mode:

Your data bar

As you go about your shift, your own agent data bar will display on the top of your workspace and will update immediately. This will help you keep track of your performance as well as your expected workload. The data bar in the Agent Workspace represents the real-time tracking of your current workload and shift.

The data bar in your workspace represents the queue data that is relevant only to you and your conversations for the current shift. Here you will see real-time data, tracking the following:

OPEN: number of current open conversations

PENDING: number of conversations pending an agent response

OVERDUE: number of conversations that exceeded the target response time

SOON TO BE OVERDUE: number of conversations about to exceed the target response time in 5 minutes

ACTIONABLE: number of conversations that are waiting to be assigned to an agent in the queue and have an immediate action (e.g. reply to a waiting customer)

IN QUEUE: the overall number of conversations in the queue, including actionable and not actionable. A not actionable conversation is still open but awaiting a consumer reply. Only the actionable conversations are routed to agents.

CSAT: displays the customer satisfaction score based on the Post Conversation Surveys that were completed in the last 12 hours.

Shortcuts & hotkeys

To view the shortcuts available in the Agent Workspace, see this link.

Managing messaging conversations

Beginning your shift

When you start your shift, you should change your status to online to start receiving messages. To change your status, click on your image in the bottom left corner to open the drop-down status menu and select Online. Once you do that, conversations from the queue will be assigned to you based on their priority. If there are already existing conversations in your queue, you will see them here, in the My Conversations list.

Warm-up: staggered incoming conversations at the beginning of your shift

Some contact centers opt to configure the ‘warm up’ function for agents. If this is enabled, the incoming conversations assigned to you at the beginning of your shift will be slower and build gradually. The warm-up feature will send you one message at a time with a defined interval between the first few incoming conversations, allowing you to adjust to your shift and get into the flow of your messaging workload.

Taking incoming conversations

The updated Agent Workspace uses SLA to prioritize conversations on your behalf, allowing you to simply respond to the conversation at the top of the list. When you first enter the conversation list you will first see that there is no conversation selected. Click on the conversation at the top of the list to start handling conversations.

You should always answer the conversation at the top of the list. You can also scroll manually through the list if you need to answer another conversation. When you receive incoming conversations, they will automatically be sorted into your conversation list in the order that you should answer them, based on their SLA. Also, after you respond to a conversation it will be re-sorted and prioritized accordingly.

Incoming message alerts

You can now see the number of incoming conversations in the navigation bar. A notification will appear on the Agent Workspace icon indicating the number of conversations with incoming messages, and an orange dot will appear on the conversation in the list that has a new incoming message.

Once you start handling conversations, you should work through the conversation list from top to bottom. Once you handle a customer, more customers can come in, and when you finish the conversation you will be taken to the next conversation in the list.

Conversations that reach your workplace have already undergone detailed analysis and prioritization. Based on the configurations selected by your contact center manager, there are three ways to accept incoming conversations into your workspace:

• Auto accept: This means conversations will automatically enter your list and be sorted without any action on your end, and your conversation list will automatically update when a new conversation is added. This is a more popular configuration for call centers.
• Advanced mode: For this option, incoming messages will ‘ring’ in your workspace and you’ll have to manually click to open and move this conversation to your conversation list, sorted by SLA. If you do not click to accept an incoming conversation and other agents are available, it will circle and ring to other available agents.
• Manual mode (Ring All Agents): This option means a conversation will ring all online agents simultaneously when an incoming messaging conversation comes into the Conversational Cloud. Given 2 agents answer at the same time, an indication to a “losing” agent after one was assigned.

Auto accept:

Advanced mode:

Understanding the context & history of conversations

There are several tools in place to help you access the information you’ll need to provide excellent service and understand your consumers and their intent.

• Conversation Summary: This dedicated widget enables you to write notes and comments after finishing a conversation. It has been enhanced to support the entering of multiple notes by several agents, allowing you to see a log of comments for context. Since the connection may be ongoing, these notes will help you quickly catch up on the conversation and keep other agents in the loop should they be assigned to them in the future.

• Conversation history: For repeat customers, any previous messaging history will be displayed directly in the conversation transcript. This way you can simply scroll up to review previous conversations, rather than needing to switch screens and navigate to a dedicated widget. The conversation history will be stored within the conversation for up to 13 months, to view history beyond this please check your CRM.

• Consumer info: This widget automatically displays important information about the consumer who is messaging you. This information will include the source channel of the conversation or any custom variables collected by your contact center.

Replying to consumers

Predefined Content

You can reply by using free text, but we recommend using predefined content. Your contact center manager would have created a set of quick answers to the most common inquiries that you can easily enter into the conversation. By choosing predefined content templates, you can lower your average response time by saving time that would have been spent typing out responses.

You can use the search text box to search for the desired content. Please note: The search results will not include category names.

Some predefined answers have associated hotkeys that will enable you to enter responses even more easily. Now, you can configure your hotkeys for predefined content. Simply start typing the shortcut into the conversation and all of the relevant options will display.

Rich Conversations

There are many tools at your disposal that can be used to foster relationships and carry out effective conversations. Rich Conversation capabilities enhance the consumer experience by providing a richer, more engaging channel of communication.

The following types of Rich Conversations are being supported for the enhanced Agent Workspace:

• Structured content cards and carousels
• Consumer to agent photo sharing
• Consumer to agent audio sharing
• Agent to consumer file sharing

Agent Assist

Agent Assist uses LivePerson's Conversation Orchestrator to analyze consumer intent and recommend the next best action for you, saving time and improving efficiency. Agent Assist displays these recommendations inline in your messaging conversations to improve usability and engagement. Some of the actions of Agent Assist include suggesting an agent reply, adding a bot to the conversation, or sharing a relevant Knowledge Center article.

Input Sanitization

For security reasons, any text which you input into the Agent Workspace will be sanitized on LivePerson's end before being sent to the consumer. This means that certain characters which are commonly used in code will not be sent to the consumer. In addition, any actual code you input into the text area (like HTML or JavaScript) might be deleted if our services deem it malicious. Consumers will not be notified that this has occurred; the text will simply not show up for them.

Here are some examples of characters and text which will not be sent by LivePerson to a consumer:

• Any onXXXXXXX attribute where XXXXXXX is any character (for example, the expression "onLoad" is blocked). These expressions tend to be key attributes in malicious code.
• Any "javascript:", "data:", "mhtml:", "mask:", expressions. These expressions tend to be key attributes in malicious code.
• Any SCRIPT, IFRAME, FRAME, OBJECT, EMBED, STYLE, LINK elements. These elements tend to be key attributes in malicious code.
• Any dirname, srcdoc attributes. These elements tend to be key attributes in malicious code.
• Any text sent in between triangle brackets (<>) will not be sent. This applies to square brackets as well ([]). These are often used to describe code and can be used to potentially run malicious code.
• Any Unicode characters will not be translated to rich text and will appear "as is" to consumers (for example, < will not show us a left triangle bracket but as <).

Note that the above list is not comprehensive since there exist thousands of malicious code examples and forms against which we check the text you input.

Additional actions

While conducting a conversation, there are a few actions you can take. Click on the three white dots that appear in the top right of the conversation view. Here you will see a menu of actions with their corresponding shortcuts.

Copy as plain text: This action opens a window that includes that text of the conversation that can be copied to anywhere you need, such as into a CRM record.

Transfer conversation: Select a skill or agent status to transfer your conversation too. Use the search bar to find the relevant skill or agent. Once you do this, the conversation will move out of your workspace and enter the relevant queue. The conversation will advance in the queue according to the queue policy defined on the account. By default, this conversation will be handled by the queue like any other conversation, with no weighting or preference given to it. Transferred conversations are marked as actionable by default, meaning that they will not be auto-closed by the system until they have reached an agent.

Back to queue: You can send a conversation back to the queue where it will be redirected to another online agent. A queue prioritization rule can be defined so that conversations that are sent back to the queue will receive priority for handling, pushing them to the top of the queue using a velocity factor. Sending a conversation back to the queue does not affect its actionability, so the conversation may be auto-closed if it is inactive.

Resume conversation: This action reopens a closed conversation for you to follow up with a customer.

Adjusting the SLA for follow up

Every time a consumer sends a message, the SLA, or your expected time to reply resets. For example, if you are expected to respond within 1 minute, each time a consumer answers a message the one minute will start over and the conversation will be prioritized automatically and adjusted appropriately in your conversation.

As an agent, you can control the amount of time you need to reply to consumers manually. For example, if you are chatting with a customer and you need to check the status on their application, you can let the customer know that you’ll get back to them in a couple of hours and then manually adjust the SLA of this conversation. By doing so, it will appear in your queue at the appropriate time and remind you to follow up with the customer.

CoBrowse

With CoBrowse, agents and visitors can view each other’s virtual mouse cursors, and simply double-clicking on an element or piece of text in the web page creates an animation effect. This allows brands to address customers’ queries quickly and efficiently by helping them navigate web pages collaboratively. In the enhanced Agent Workspace, this capability is currently available only for the My Conversations list. For more information on CoBrowse, click here.

Closing conversations

The nature of messaging conversations is that they are ongoing and can be resumed at any time. However, to manage agent work streams and ensure consumer requests have been fulfilled, conversations can be marked as ‘closed.’ A closed conversation can be reopened again - either by the consumer or by the agent - with the entire history kept intact.

The conversations can be marked as resolved or closed, either by the consumer or the agent. Within the conversation window, customers have options, one of which is to select to close a conversation. For messaging channels such as SMS or Facebook Messenger, where a custom ‘options’ table is not available, customers will not be able to mark conversations as closed. As an agent, you can close a conversation when you know that it has been resolved. Closing a conversation is done via the drop-down menu within the conversation window. You must close conversations as soon as you are confident that they are resolved to clear your work queue and keep your performance KPIs accurate.

At the end of your shift or during downtime you can use the status filter to filter closed conversations back into your My Conversations. This will allow you to review your conversations and ensure that they were properly documented. Closed conversations are stored in the My Conversations list for between 24 hours up to 14 days, depending on your contact center's configuration. Conversations that exceed this can be found in the All Conversations list.

Surveys

Post Conversation Survey: Upon the closing of a conversation (whether done by the customer, by you, or automatically) the Post Conversation Survey will be triggered to the customer (as defined by your brand). This survey is comprised of CSAT, NPS, or other custom questions. The CSAT scores calculated for your performance in the KPI bar are derived from results calculated from the Post Conversation Survey.

Agent survey: The agent survey for messaging, which was previously available only for chat, allows brands to gather data and insights from their agents about their conversations with consumers. Gathering data from your perspective helps them to determine and analyze the nature of conversations and understand their outcomes. Once collected, this information can be used to recognize issues and optimize messaging operations.

AutoClose for inactive conversations

For conversations that are awaiting a consumer response, the auto-close mechanism will automatically close these conversations after a length of time that has been defined by your contact center manager. Conversations will not be subject to auto-close if they are pending an agent’s reply or if you have set up a manual SLA. Learn more about auto close for messaging here.

Taking breaks & ending your shift

Before you take a break

• Set your status to away so that you do not have new incoming conversations assigned to you. If there are multiple away states displayed in your status menu, select the most appropriate one.
• Don’t leave conversations waiting. If you have any active conversations, you can take one of these two actions:
  • Let each customer know that you will get back to them in x amount of time and set the manual SLA to reflect this commitment
  • Return conversations to queue so that another agent will be able to answer the consumer (you can leave notes to help your colleagues in the summary section)

Before you leave for the day

• Set your status to away about 10 minutes before you are ready to leave so that you do not receive new incoming conversations (refer to your company’s manual on guidance for the accurate amount of time in advance)
• Review your open conversations and resolve the ones that can be closed
• Determine which conversations you want to continue servicing the next day, let the customers know, and manually set the SLA for the next day
• For conversations that should continue immediately - return them to the queue so that another agent will be able to answer the consumer (you can leave notes to help your colleagues in the summary section)
• Filter closed conversations into the list to review the conversations you handled during the shift and ensure that everything has been documented properly.
• If you filtered out the idle conversations, be sure to filter them back into the list and return them to the queue before you wrap up your shift, otherwise, they will remain assigned to you and go unanswered until your next login.

Enhanced Capabilities