Enabling cognitive routing of chats

After enabling live chat for end users, as an administrator, you can configure cognitive routing of chats to make sure that the chats are assigned to agents with subject expertise. Chats can be routed to agents based on the chat topic, region, or both.

How cognitive routing of chats work

In BMC Virtual Chat, administrators can define support queues based on topic, region, or both and assign appropriate agents to the support queues. Learn how to define support queues for topics and support queues for topic and region in Setting up support queues in the BMC Virtual Chat documentation.

In BMC Helix Chatbot, administrators must provide the BMC Virtual Chat administrator key and company so that company-specific topics are populated in BMC Helix Chatbot. Application business analysts can add synonyms for the chat topics so that specific words are associated with a topic.

Example of auto-routing chats based on topics

For an IT chatbot, in BMC Virtual Chat, you create the topics—Connectivity, Hardware, and Software.
You define a support queue for each topic and assign agents to the support queues.
In BMC Helix Chatbot, you add synonyms such as wifi, access, connection, send, and receive for the Connectivity topic.
When an end user types wifi not working in the chat window and requests for live chat, the chat is automatically transferred to an agent who is assigned to the Connectivity topic support queue.

Support queues and automatic routing scenarios

The following table describes how automatic routing works in different scenarios:

Scenario	Automatic routing
Topic-based support queues are defined. End-user conversation matches one of the topics.	The chat is automatically routed to the appropriate topic-based support queue.
Only one topic-based support queue is defined. End-user conversation might not match the topic.	The chat is automatically routed to the topic-based support queue.
Topic-based support queues are defined. End-user conversation matches more than one topic.	The end-user is prompted to select a topic before the chat is transferred to a live agent.
Topic-based support queues are defined. End-user conversation does not match any topic.	The end-user is prompted to select a topic before the chat is transferred to a live agent.

Before you begin

The following table describes the products and the tasks that you must complete:

Product	Task
BMC Helix Chatbot	Ensure that you have enabled live chat.
(If you want chats to be automatically routed to agents with subject expertise) BMC Virtual Chat	Ensure that you have the BMC Virtual Chat administrator key and company name. Get administration key and company name from this screen
(If you want chats to be routed to agents with subject expertise) BMC Helix Platform	Ensure that you have configured the Chatbot Skills for which you want to configure the topics.

To route chats to a subject expert agent

If you want chats to be automatically routed to subject expert agents, perform the following tasks:

Task 1: To configure Administrator Key and Company
Task 2: To add synonyms for the topics

Task 1: To configure BMC Virtual Chat Administrator Key and Company

As an administrator, configure the BMC Virtual Chat Administrator Key and Company so that topics created in BMC Virtual Chat are populated in BMC Helix Chatbot.

Log in to BMC Helix Innovation Studio and navigate to the Administration tab.
Select Configure My Server > Virtual Chat Configuration.
In the Virtual Chat Configuration page, expand Additional Settings and fill out the following fields:
Field
Action
Administrator Key
Enter the BMC Virtual Chat key that you obtained earlier.
Company
Enter the name of the company in BMC Virtual Chat that you obtained earlier.
Click Save.

Field	Action
Administrator Key	Enter the BMC Virtual Chat key that you obtained earlier.
Company	Enter the name of the company in BMC Virtual Chat that you obtained earlier.

Task 2: To add synonyms for the topics

As an administrator or application business analyst, add the synonyms for the topics so that when the end users uses one or more of the synonyms, the chat is automatically routed to an agent expert in the appropriate topic.

Click the Workspace tab.
Select the application in which you have created the chatbot for which you want to configure the topics.
Example: BMC Chatbot
Click the Chatbots tab and select the chatbot for which you want to configure the topics.
Example: IT Bot
Click the Live Agent Settings tab.
From the Available Chat Topics list, select the topics for which you want to add synonyms and click .
Example: Connectivity
In the Selected Chat Topics and Synonyms pane, click the topic that you selected in the previous step.
Example: Connectivity
In the Add/ Remove Chat Synonyms page, in Edit List, click Add Synonym and add words that are related to the Connectivity topic.
Example: Wiki, Access, Connection
Click Save.
To publish the changes to the IBM Watson Assistant Skills, click Publish topics.

The changes are applied to the Chatbot Skills so that chats are routed to the appropriate agent whenever the end user uses these synonyms in the chat conversation.

Tip

You can remove topics from the Selected Chat Topics and Synonyms list. If you want to restore these topics later, do not Publish the topics.