Staff who are assigned to chat support can provide live support via instant messaging. Administrators and users with the chat_admin role can assign chat support staff (see Set Up Chat Queues for Help Desk Chat).

Before you begin

Role required: agent

Procedure

  1. Navigate to All > Social IT > Chat to open your chat desktop.
    • A chat queue agent window appears on your chat desktop for each chat queue you are assigned to. If no agent windows appear, ask an administrator to add you as a member of the Assignment group for a chat queue.
    • The chat queue agent window displays the number of users in the queue and how long they have been waiting.
    • Every member of the assignment group sees the associated chat queue agent window.
  2. Click Answer Next User to answer the next user or click Answer beside a specific user in the queue.
    A chat window opens. Only the agent and the user can see the chat window.

Result

Provide support via instant messaging. Chat queue agents can access additional support functions in the chat window menu:

  • Invite User: invite another expert to assist with a support chat. An invitation appears in the favorites list of an invited user.
  • Create Incident from Chat: create a new incident record with the initial question as the short description and the support chat as a linked chat room (accessible from the Create or Join Chat Room related link on the Incident form).
    Note: Administrators can edit this action or add additional actions to the chat window menu.
Figure 1. Chat Queue Agent
Example service desk chat