Auto close for messaging conversations

To help agents manage their active connections list effectively, brands can configure conversations to automatically close after they have been inactive for a pre-configured amount of time. Auto close provides a seamless experience for consumers; they will not receive a post conversation survey, nor see a separator within the conversation thread.

For example, if a conversation has been idle for ten days, it can be automatically closed and moved to the closed conversations list. If the consumer sends a message after this time, it will be treated as a new incoming conversation.

Configuration

1. Click the Night Vision button at the top of the screen.
2. Under Response time, click Edit.
3. The Response time window opens. To configure auto close, adjust the configured time as required. Time units are available in minutes, hours, and days.
4. Click Save.

Auto-close per skill

In some cases, different skills have a different conversation pace and therefore should have different time intervals to auto-close. With auto close per skill, you can choose to create a custom configuration for a specific skill that will be different from the account-level configuration.

This higher level of flexibility to determine when a conversation should close and helps prevent scenarios where conversations get closed too early or late. Configuring auto close per skill thereby can improve the consumer experience as well as the brand's operational parameters.

Notes:

• Brands can configure auto close for any period between 25 minutes and 90 days; the default setting is 90 days.
• A conversation will only auto-close if it is pending a consumer response, for conversations pending an agent response (e.g. actionable conversations), auto-close will not apply. Also, the "auto close" feature does not take into account the status of the last message before closing the conversation.
• When a conversation is sent back to the queue, the auto-close timer will reset and if the conversation is pending a consumer response the conversation will auto close upon expiration of the timer.
• By default, a conversation where the agent has set a manual response time (manual SLA) will not be auto closed. This logic can be altered in the backend by your LivePerson account team so that a conversation set with a manual response time will auto close only after the manual response time expires and an agent sent at least one line of conversation after the manual response time expired.
• Auto close is supported on Web Messaging and mobile from SDK 2.1 and above.
• A transferred conversation is marked as 'actionable' and therefore auto-close does not apply.

Configuration

1. Click the Users tab at the top of the screen
2. Select the Skills tab
3. Select the skill that you would like to configure
4. Scroll down to the auto close section and select custom settings
5. Set the auto-close timer you wish to use
6. Click Save.

Limitations

1. No ability to turn off auto-close feature: The messaging backend servers have a system protection mechanism that closes conversations after 90 days of inactivity to control the load on the server. Due to this, auto close is enabled for all accounts with a default value of 90 days which is also the maximum allowed configuration. 
2. SDK backward compatibility: Elimination of the post conversation survey and close message on the mobile app is supported only from SDK version 2.1 and above. Consumers messaging from an app implementing an older SDK will see the survey and a close message “Conversation resolved by you” (depending on SDK configuration) following auto close.
3. Auto close frequency: Auto close process runs in 5-minute intervals. This means that auto-close will apply to a given conversation anytime between the "configured time" and the "configured time" + 5 min.
4.  Bot Session Length: There is a maximum of 12 hours session length limit with a bot. If the autoclosure setting is configured for a period longer than 12 hours, it might result in the conversation ending abruptly and potentially triggering fallback responses ti the relevant bot skill.
5. Joining as “reader” resets the auto-close timer: The auto close timer is reset when an agent manager opens a conversation to view it in full screen or from the Open Conversations list.
   • This is currently a technical limitation since the auto-close timer is reset with every metadata change of the conversation. An agent manager joining as a “reader” triggers a change in the conversation participant’s metadata.
   • There is a potential workaround: The timer is not reset when opening the transcript widget view from the "All Conversations" list.