ITSM Configurable Workspace chat session tabs in SOW
Summarize
Summary of ITSM Configurable Workspace Chat Session Tabs in SOW
The chat session tabs feature in ITSM Configurable Workspace enhances agents’ ability to manage multiple customer interactions effectively by providing real-time visual indicators on chat tabs. These indicators include color-coded backgrounds, unread message counters, and status messages that alert agents to unread chats and approaching SLA threshold timers. This system helps agents prioritize chats, avoid SLA breaches, and improve overall response efficiency while multitasking.
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Key Features
- Real-time Duration Tracking: Tracks chat session length starting when a customer sends a message and the tab is inactive, alerting agents as SLA thresholds approach.
- Tab Colors: Uses a color-coded system—white for active tabs, purple for inactive tabs with unread messages, yellow for warning SLA threshold, and red for critical SLA threshold—to visually indicate chat urgency.
- Unread Message Counters: Displays a red counter on inactive tabs showing the number of unread messages, helping agents quickly identify chats needing attention.
- Tab Messages: Notifies agents when chats are in wrap-up or have ended, appearing on the chat tab for quick status awareness.
- Unsaved Changes Indicator: A gray circle appears on tabs with unsaved changes, disappearing once changes are saved to prevent data loss.
- Transfer Support: Supports manual and automatic chat transfers with specific behaviors for unread message counters and SLA timers for the receiving agent.
- Maximum Tabs: Agents can open up to 10 chat session tabs simultaneously to manage workload effectively.
Key Outcomes
- Improved Prioritization: Agents can visually monitor SLA status via tab colors, enabling them to prioritize customer chats proactively.
- Enhanced Multitasking: Timely visual cues and unread message counts help agents handle several chats simultaneously without missing critical interactions.
- Increased Agent Productivity: By highlighting urgent conversations, the feature supports faster, more efficient responses, boosting customer satisfaction.
Practical Configuration Notes
Administrators with the appropriate role can enable and customize chat session tabs and SLA threshold timers (warning and critical) via the SOW Admin Center. Default SLA timers are 30 seconds for warning (yellow tab) and 60 seconds for critical (red tab). These values and tab color thresholds can be adjusted to meet organizational needs.
During chat transfers, the system resets unread message states and tab colors for the receiving agent, ensuring a fresh interaction view. When chats are transferred to queues, SLA timers and colors apply to the agent who picks up the chat.
Overall, this feature equips ServiceNow ITSM agents with a powerful visual management tool to maintain SLA compliance, streamline multitasking, and enhance customer engagement in chat interactions.
Use visual indicators on chat session tabs, such as colors and icons, to alert agents about unread messages and SLA threshold timers.
The chat session tabs feature helps agents to manage multiple interactions efficiently. Agents can use visual indicators to reduce the risk of threshold timer breaches, improve chat prioritization, and optimize response times. This feature enables agents to multitask effectively while maintaining service level commitments.
The chat session tabs feature introduces a color-coded system for chat session tabs in Configurable Workspace based on configured Service Level Agreement (SLA) thresholds. Additional visual indicators alert agents about unread messages, chat status, and unsaved changes. These visual cues help agents to prioritize their interactions by tracking chat duration and alerting them when conversations require immediate attention.
Key features
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Real-time duration tracking for chat sessions | This feature actively tracks the duration of a chat and alerts the agent when predefined SLA thresholds are reached.
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| Tab colors | This feature uses tab colors to indicate the status of a chat with one or more unread messages.
For more information, see Tab colors. |
| Unread message counters | Inactive tabs display a counter that shows the number of unread chat messages. For more information, see Unread message counters. |
| Tab messages | Messages on the chat session tabs appear after the customer name and notify the agent of the following chat conditions:
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| Unsaved changes indicator | A gray circle on a chat session tab indicates that there are unsaved changes on the tab. The circle disappears once the changes are saved. |
Benefits
- Improved prioritization: Agents can visually track the SLA status of each chat by glancing at the tab color and use that information to prioritize customer responses.
- Agent multitasking: Tab color changes and real time notifications help agents to handle multiple interactions simultaneously, minimizing the risk of missing crucial chats.
- Agent productivity: The system helps agents respond more efficiently by highlighting conversations based on urgency, improving customer engagement and satisfaction.
Tab colors
- Tabs display a purple background color to indicate that a message has been received.
- Tab colors transition to yellow and then to red to highlight chats that have reached SLA thresholds.
| Tab color | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|
| White |  |
Indicates the active tab. This is the tab where the agent is currently working. |
| Purple |  |
Indicates an inactive tab that has one or more unread messages from a customer. The chat duration timer begins when the first message is received. The tab remains purple for 0-30 seconds (default value), at which point the timer reaches the warning SLA threshold level.
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| Yellow |  |
Indicates an inactive tab with unread messages that has reached the warning SLA threshold level. The tab remains yellow for 30-60 seconds (default value), at which point the timer reaches the critical SLA threshold level. The tab also includes a warning icon. See SLA threshold timers for more information. |
| Red |  |
Indicates an inactive tab with unread messages that has reached the critical SLA threshold level. The tab remains red until the agent selects it and restarts the timer. The tab also includes a critical icon. See SLA threshold timers for more information. |
SLA threshold timers
Administrators can configure warning and critical SLA threshold timers for inactive chat session tabs. If an agent leaves a customer’s chat unanswered beyond the length of time defined in these threshold timers, the system changes the tab color.
The chat session tabs feature includes the following default SLA threshold timer settings. For more information about changing these values, see Configure chat session tabs in SOW.
| Threshold timer | Description |
|---|---|
| Warning of SLA breach | The chat duration timer begins when the first chat message is received from a customer and the agent is away from the chat interaction. After 30 seconds (default value), the chat session tab turns yellow and displays a warning icon to alert the agent of an impending SLA breach. The tab remains yellow 30–60 seconds. |
| Critical SLA breach | After 1 minute (default value), the chat session tab turns red and displays a critical icon to alert the agent of an impending SLA breach. The tab remains red until the agent selects it and restarts the timer. |
Unread message counters
When a chat message is received, the counter updates to display the total number of unread messages. After selecting the tab, an agent can see the unread messages in the chat window.
Selecting an inactive tab clears the tab color and resets the unread messages counter. The threshold timer and counter restart when the agent navigates away from the tab.
Viewing unread messages
When an agent selects an inactive tab and returns to a chat conversation, they can see the unread messages in the chat window. This window uses a separator between the older messages and the unread messages and displays the time when the first unread message was sent. This separator appears if there’s a time difference greater than 30 seconds between the first new message and the last seen message.
Maximum number of tabs
An agent can have a maximum of 10 tabs open at one time. If an agent attempts to open additional tabs, the system displays a message that advises closing one or more tabs before opening a new tab.
Transferring chats
There are two ways to transfer a chat from one agent to another: manual transfer and automatic transfer.
| Transfer type | Description |
|---|---|
| Manual transfer | When an agent manually transfers a chat to another agent and the new agent accepts the chat:
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| Automatic transfer | When a chat is automatically transferred to another agent or to a queue:
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If a chat is transferred to a queue, SLA threshold timers and tab colors are applicable to the next agent who picks up the case.
When an agent seeks help from a colleague or manager using the Agent Whisper feature, the SLA threshold timers and tab behavior are applicable only for the owner agent and not for anyone else participating in the interaction.
Configuring the chat session tabs feature
Users with the administrator role can enable the chat sessions tab feature and configure SLA threshold timers for chat sessions from the SOW admin center.
- Warning of SLA breach
- Critical SLA breach
For more information, see Configure chat session tabs in SOW.