See user availability for chat

[sd_elm]

As an operations manager, it is required that I can tell at any given time how many agents are available on chat or paused, as well as how many chats each agent is engaged in. Currently I am not able to see how many users on my team are available unless I find and open a chat conversation, click on the Asignee dropdown, and scroll through the list to see who is available or away. 

Please add funtionality so we can quickly see agent # of chats and agent availability.

[jlericson]

Agreed. Coming from Zendesk/Zopim the chat software had the functionality to see the Agents that were signed in and avilable to receive chats.  This was useful as a supervisor to make sure people were being responsive and statying logged in when they are at their desk. 

Please consider this addition as i'm sure many others would find it useful. Zendesk even had a supervisor dashoard with real time stats.

[bayleafdigital]

Yes, agreed this would be helpful...

On a related note: 

If the chat session has already been initiated, but the rep stepped away (e.g. went to bathrm, picked up a phone call, etc.) and is not answering the chat request in a timely manner, then  there should be some fallbacks in place.

e.g.. If rep does not respond in x seconds (or mins), then:
a) transfer to next available rep, or
b) show error message.

So some sort of "inactivity timer" where after that period of time, some action happens so the visitor does not hear crickets or feel ghosted.

[cdewey22]

Hi all- thanks for the feedback. We are working through this problem and approaching this in phases.

The first phase will be to provide the manager level tool as mentioned in this post. This feature will provide a manager view of each agent's current availability at that moment in time and also allow the ability to turn that agent on and off. We are looking for folks that would like to give us feedback on this feature (a 45 minute interview). If you are interested, please fill out this form and we will be in touch to set up an interview next week. We will reach out to confirm the interview and time. 

In future releases, we will be adding metrics here around each agent. Also, as mentioned above adding fallback logic around if the agent is not available turning them away after a period of inactivity. As well as re-assigning the chat to an available agent after a period of no response is also something we are working through for the future. The above interview and first release will be focused on the manager view and providing the ability to manage their team's availability. We will work through these additional problems in future releases. 

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me at cdewey@hubspot.com.

Thank you, 

Cassie 

Product Manager

[cdewey22]

I forgot to add that there is a $50 incentive if you are willing to provide feedback. If you already signed up, that applies to you as well! 

Please sign up here if you are interested.

[clioi]

Hi @cdewey22 - please can you provide an update on this? I'm also interested in the feedback interviews.

Also, FYI, there are other similar requests on the forum

https://community.hubspot.com/t5/Sales-Hub-Tools/Set-users-as-unavailable-for-chat/m-p/206502

https://community.hubspot.com/t5/HubSpot-Ideas/Auto-set-chat-agents-to-Away-at-the-end-of-business-h...

https://community.hubspot.com/t5/Sales-Hub-Tools/Managing-the-availability-of-team-members-on-live-c...

https://community.hubspot.com/t5/HubSpot-Ideas/Admin-control-panel-for-Chat/idi-p/193149

https://community.hubspot.com/t5/HubSpot-Ideas/Admin-access-to-Away-Toggle/idi-p/194767

[cdewey22]

Hi @clioi - 

I have added comments into the separate issues that were listed here. We are planning to build a new page that will show all the team members availability and allow an admin to be able to change the status for any of the agents. My team is close to being able to pull this work in, so I will provide an update as soon once I have more information about the release. 

At this time, we have already tested this concept but I will put you on my list for future work here. Next year, we will be looking into making this availability be smart, by knowing if the agent has stepped away and being able to toggle them off proactively. I will let you know when we have concepts to start testing there. 

Let me know if you have any further questions or feel free to email me at cdewey@hubspot.com

Thanks, 

Cassie

[danslb]

@cdewey22  Also really need this feature implemented.

How close are you to releasing this? 
Is there any chance of joining a Beta any time soon?

Are you still accepting feedback?

Best 

[Satuosi]

Hi, this seems to be open for 7-8 month now but no updated on the status. It appears to be a fairly common feature anywhere else so why does it take that long to implement? Thanks.

[Penne23]

@cdewey22  I hope you're staying safe! Is there an update on this? With everything going on with COVID-19 we have more clients starting up live chat for the first time with large teams and the managers are asking how they can see who's available and who's away since they're trying to manage staff from home. Perhaps this issue could be elevated in priority since live chat is a desired feature for remote teams in the wake of COVID?

Thanks!

Penne

[cdewey22]

Hi all-

Phase 1 is now in beta! This new feature will provide insight into your chat team’s availability status and adds the ability for Admins and Super Admins to control the individual user’s chat status to available and away. If an admin sets an agent to an away status, they will see a message in the inbox letting them know they were turned away and can toggle themselves back available once they are back. 

Please request this beta feature by filling out this form .