Engage Digital | Managing interactions in Routing mode
As we discussed in Intro to Routing mode, Routing mode allows you to check what to prioritize since your messages are grouped together according to their workflow status. Interactions are routed to agents based on how they are configured in the admin interface and according to agent competencies and level of urgency.
When a new interaction is received, it will first route to the Ongoing folder, and at that point the agent will get an alert that there’s a new interaction. When the agent accepts the interaction by clicking on the chat, the message thread will pop up in the middle panel.
Keep in mind that accepting incoming interactions in a timely manner is important. Your administrator may set a time limit for accepting interactions via the admin interface and any missed interaction will affect agent productivity. If set by your administrator, the notification for an awaiting interaction will no longer be visible once an awaiting interaction times out.
If there are inactive messages in the Ongoing folder, you will be alerted with a pop-up that the interaction has been inactive. You can declutter the Ongoing folder by choosing to defer that interaction to a later time, transfer it to another agent more capable of solving the interaction, or completing the interaction.
You can also use your message action items to perform interactions. It’s important to be familiar with these action items so you can respond to customers and categorize their messages efficiently. Let’s discuss the message action items available for you in Routing mode.
Message action items in Routing mode
Message action items can be used to respond to customer messages, transfer interactions, edit replies, and more. While some elements of the Inbox and Routing mode may differ, some message action items you’ll see in Inbox may also be available in Routing mode.
To access the action items for a message in Routing mode, simply hover your mouse over the message and the action items will appear to the left of the message.
Let’s review some of the message action items you can access in Routing mode. The following options may or may not be available to you, depending on how your admin configures your permissions.
- Resume: Indicated by a rightward arrow inside a square icon, this allows you to reply to a message. This will allow you to respond back to cases that are completed and transfers the interaction from the History folder to the Ongoing folder
- Categorize thread: Indicated by a tag icon, this categorizes messages to a different folder
- Defer: Indicated by a clock icon, this delays a response to the message for a specified time period
- Transfer: Indicated by a rightward icon, this transfers the interaction to another team or agent
- Complete: Indicated by a checkmark icon, this marks the interaction as complete
- Print thread: Indicated by a printer icon, this lets you print or save a copy of the entire thread. Please read Printing a thread for more information on this feature
- View audit log: Indicated by a notepad icon, this opens the Audit log window, which displays all messages and activity for all cases
- Change language: Allows you to switch to a different language setting. Once clicked, the Message language edition window will open up where you can select your preferred language
- Ignore: Indicated by an archive icon, this ignores all future messages in the same message thread
- Mute: Indicated by a speaker and x mark icon, this mutes all future messages in the same message thread
- Lock thread: Indicated by a lock icon, this will close and lock the message thread. You can’t reply to a locked thread
- Unlock thread: Indicated by a lock icon, this unlocks the message thread
- Ask an Expert: Allows you to consult an Engage Digital expert for help with a customer’s concern. Please read Ask an Expert for more information on this feature
- Cobrowsing: Allows you to request a collaborative browsing session with a customer. Please read Cobrowsing for more information on this feature
- Extra actions: Indicated by a three-dot menu icon, this allows you to see other action items that you can do for a message. Some of the action items enumerated above can be accessed here, depending on how it’s configured by your admin
Accepting an interaction
Now let’s discuss how to accept an awaiting interaction in Routing mode. Before you can reply to a customer message, you need to assign that message to yourself. Once you are alerted about an awaiting interaction in the left pane under the Ongoing folder, you can simply click on the message to accept the interaction. The interaction status will change to Ongoing case once accepted.
Each interaction has a status indicating whether it has been processed or not. Once you accept the interaction, the message status changes from New to Assigned. In this way, it prevents other agents from working on the same message. You can check the status of a message by hovering over the message near the agent initials.
Follow these steps to accept an interaction and respond to a message:
1. Navigate to Routing mode via the left-hand navigation bar.
2. In the Ongoing folder, click on the awaiting interaction to accept and open the message thread in the right panel.
3. Enter your response in the message window at the bottom.
4. Click Send.
Reply assistant in Routing mode
The reply assistant allows an agent to reply quickly to a customer with knowledge base replies and similar question replies. Knowledge base replies will contain a list of knowledge base entries configured by your administrator and organized into reply assistant groups. Similar question replies will display a list of previous replies on related subjects.
The reply assistant can be helpful when answering repeated inquiries from customers requiring similar responses. Note that the reply assistant is created and configured by your administrator.
Follow these steps to use the reply assistant in Tasks view:
1. Navigate to Routing mode via the left-hand navigation bar.
2. Click on the selected message to open the message thread in the middle panel.
3. Below the message field at the bottom of the screen, click on the Reply assistant feather pen icon.
4. Insert a keyword in the message field or select a reply from the list.
5. Click Send.
Another way to use the reply assistant is similar to what you can do in Inbox. You can simply insert a keyword in the reply text box and the preformatted message autofills for the corresponding reply.
Cobrowsing
If this feature is enabled and your role has permissions, you can request a collaborative browsing session with a customer, which allows the customer to share their screen with you while chatting to solve a problem. This feature is available for Engage Chat or Engage Messaging channels in the Live Chat or Web modes. For Engage Messaging, cobrowsing is available from web browsers only (both desktop and mobile).
You typically discuss with the customer the need for a collaborative session before initiating a request. During a cobrowsing session, a customer can share most screen elements with you including images, videos, text, and canvas. Elements on a page with a shadow DOM, a third party iframe, or other content excluded by your admin cannot be shared.
To request a cobrowsing session with a customer, follow these steps:
1. Navigate to Routing mode via the left-hand navigation bar.
2. Click on the selected message to open the message thread in the middle panel.
3. Advise the customer that you will be requesting a screen sharing session with them.
4. Below the message field at the bottom of the screen, click the Cobrowsing screen icon.
Once the customer accepts the invitation, you will see the customer’s screen in the right pane. Cobrowsing tools such as Take control and Highlight can be used during the session. You can continue to chat with the customer during the session using the left chat pane.
Either you or the customer can end the cobrowsing session at any time. To close a cobrowsing session, click on the Close x icon in the cobrowsing section on the right corner of the screen. The customer can stop the session from their chat window via the Deactivate button.
Using cobrowsing tools during a session
Once a session is established between you and the customer, you can use the Take control or Highlight tools by selecting these icons in the upper right corner of the session window.
- Click the Take control arrow icon in the upper right corner to allow you to move the cursor for the customer, or to click on links or fill out forms. If this function is active, the agent will see a cutout arrow icon in the sharing area.
- Click the Highlight wand icon in the upper right corner to highlight a key area of the customer’s screen.
- Click the Close x icon in the upper right corner to end the session.
Ask an Expert
If you have the corresponding permission, you can easily consult with an Engage Digital expert to address difficult customer concerns. In addition to the permission, to use this feature, your company’s Engage Digital domain needs to be associated with a RingCentral account ID, and you must have access to that account.
To use this feature, follow these steps:
1. Navigate to Routing mode via the left-hand navigation bar.
2. Hover your mouse cursor over the customer message with which you need help.
3. Click on the three-dot icon that appears. Click Ask an Expert.
4. In the Ask an Expert modal window, select the name of the expert you need to contact.
5. Enter your question in the modal window. Be as specific and as brief as possible. You are limited to 300 characters.
6. Check Share message history to send a transcript of your conversation with the customer along with your question. This will copy up to the previous 20 messages in the conversation. (optional).
7. Delete any messages in the message history that are not related to your question if you did step 6. You will not be able to do step 8 if there are more than 1500 characters in the message history. (optional)
8. Click Send.
9. Check the RingCentral app to view the expert’s reply.
The shared message history has the following limitations:
- If the shared message history is longer than 1500 characters, you need to manually edit the history to meet that character limit, otherwise the Send button will be greyed out and you will not be able to click it.
- If there are 20 or fewer messages in the conversation, all of the messages will be copied. The system can also copy only the customer’s messages if there are no agent replies in the conversation.
- Customer and agent names are replaced with Customer and Agent respectively.
- A temporary link for each attachment in the conversation, if there are any, will be included in the history. Each link is valid for one week.
- Structured messages will only be partially copied:
- Quick reply: Only the body of the message will be copied.
- Rich link: Only the URL will be copied.
- Template: Only the title will be copied.
- Carousel: Only the title of the first item in the carousel will be copied.
Printing a thread
If you have the corresponding permission, you can print or save a copy of the entire message thread. You will usually do this only when an authorized person who does not have access to the platform requests a copy of the thread. To access this feature, hover your mouse cursor over the top bar of the thread window then click on the printer icon.
This feature has the following limitations:
- It will try to print all messages in the thread, except for folded content (the agent messages or customer messages that already have replies or have been ignored)
- It can print only up to the last 200 messages. For threads with more than 200 messages, use the filter command to reduce the number of messages that will be printed to 200 or fewer
The printed copy will appear as follows:
- As mentioned in the limitations, the entire thread will be printed unless it is filtered before being printed. This means that by default, the printed copy will contain messages from the whole thread and from all agents that participated in the thread
- Text messages, contextual data, message timestamps, agent and client names, and message statuses will be printed
- All images (including animated GIFs), videos, and structured messages will be printed as static images
- Other file attachments such as documents will not be printed. Instead, a corresponding icon will be shown to indicate the file type of the attachment
- If a message’s content was anonymized by demand in the system’s interface, that content will also be anonymized in the printed copy. However, content from Twitter is a possible exception to this rule. If the thread includes content from Twitter that was not anonymized by demand, then it will appear plainly in the printed copy
Before printing a thread, check the print preview window to ensure that the printed copy does not contain private information.
Deferring an interaction
An agent can delay a response to a message for a specified time period. Once the agent defers the message, it will move to the Deferred folder. Please note that deferred messages will move back to the Ongoing folder at the specified time period the agent selects.
This is helpful when you need to get back to a customer at a certain time. Deferring an interaction can be helpful to organize your messages by decluttering the Ongoing folder. Depending on how it’s configured for you, all inactive interactions in the Ongoing folder will trigger a pop-up telling you that this interaction has been inactive for the specified time period your admin sets. You have the option then to transfer that interaction, defer, or complete it, so it doesn’t stay inside your Ongoing folder.
To defer an interaction, follow these steps:
1. Navigate to Routing mode via the left-hand navigation bar.
2. Hover your mouse over the message and click the Defer clock icon.
3. Select a time or date from the dropdown menu.
If in any case you need to reply to a deferred interaction before the specified time period you selected, you can manually transfer that interaction back to the Ongoing folder. To resume a deferred interaction, simply navigate to the Deferred folder, hover over the message and click the Resume rightward arrow inside a square icon.
Transferring an interaction
An agent can transfer an interaction to another team or agent more capable of solving the interaction. As soon as you accept an awaiting interaction, you have the option to immediately transfer the interaction, so it gets routed to the right agent in a timely manner.
To transfer an interaction, follow these steps:
1. Navigate to Routing mode via the left-hand navigation bar.
2. Under the Ongoing folder, select a message.
3. Hover over the message and click the Transfer rightward arrow icon.
4. Configure the settings as desired (see below for more info).
5. Click Transfer.
The settings you encounter when transferring an interaction defined below:
- Agents: Transfer directly to another agent
- Teams: Transfer to another team or the next available agent
- Categories: Transfer to any agent with the matching categories associated in his or her profile
- Language: Transfer to any agent with the necessary language in their profile
- Comment: Leave any agent notes
- Bypass queue and force assignment to agent: Put an interaction on high priority before transferring to another agent. This is only accessible if you have supervisor access or permission to monitor interactions
Completing an interaction
Completed interactions are cases which have been solved by agents. All completed interactions are nested under the History folder. Please note that if an interaction has unread messages, it will be automatically ignored once you complete the interaction. You must ensure that the interaction is resolved before marking it complete. Depending on how your admin has configured the system, you may also be required to answer additional questions from the customer that are not related to their initial question or concern.
When interacting with a customer through the Engage Messaging and Engage Chat channels, you will receive a notification if the chat conversation is closed by the customer. In the interaction preview, you will see the message "The conversation has been closed". This notification allows you to close or complete the interaction if all issues have been resolved.
When interacting with a customer through the Engage Messaging and Engage Chat channels, you will receive a notification if the chat conversation is closed by the customer. In the interaction preview, you will see the message "The conversation has been closed". This notification allows you to close or complete the interaction if all issues have been resolved.
To complete a case with disposition, take these steps:
1. Navigate to Routing mode via the left-hand navigation bar.
2. Hover your mouse over a message and click the Complete checkmark icon.
3. In the Disposition window, select a category from the Category dropdown field.
4. Enter agent notes in the notes field (optional).
5. If Smart Conversation Close is not enabled, click Save.
6. If Smart Conversation Close is enabled, check Wait for a response before smart conversation close to give the customer a chance to proactively ask additional questions. Leave it unchecked to immediately send the automated message asking the customer if they have additional questions. Continue the conversation if the customer has other questions or concerns.
7. If the customer has no other questions or concerns, repeat steps 2 to 4 then click Save.
If no disposition is needed and Smart Conversation Close is not enabled, once you click Complete, the message will close and a pop-up message with a prompt that says ‘Interaction complete’ will appear.
If no disposition is needed but Smart Conversation Close is enabled, when you click Complete the system will automatically ask the customer if they have other questions or concerns. The customer can choose to answer using two buttons, Yes and No. If the customer chooses Yes within the allowed waiting period, the system will automatically ask the customer for more information about their new question or concern. You must then continue the conversation.
If instead of choosing Yes or No, the customer sends a reply within the allowed period, the system assumes that the customer does have other concerns and has provided details. In this case, the system will no longer send the second automated message and you must continue the conversation.
If the customer chooses No or does not reply within the allowed period, the system will automatically mark the conversation as completed.
If in any case you need to get back to a message you already marked complete, you have an option to resume that interaction. To do so, navigate to the History folder, hover your mouse over an interaction, and then click on the Resume rightward arrow inside a square icon.
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