Configuring live chat hours for support agents

At certain times, such as holidays or evening hours, support agents might not be available for live chat. In the Virtual Agent Administration Console, as an administrator, you can configure when agents are available by setting the days and time under the Live Chat Hours section. If a self-service user opens the Self Service Portal and agents are not scheduled, the Request Live Agent button is not available. You can also display a message on the Self Service Portal indicating that chat is not available. 

Overview of chat schedules

Live Chat comes with a single global schedule. In this global schedule, agents are always available for chat. This schedule includes one chat business time with a Schedule Type of 24x7 with a Chat Application Status of Available.

As an administrator, you can create schedules for agents to indicate their available and unavailable time. You can also display a message for the self-service user indicating the status of the chat service. 

For example, an administrator creates the following schedules to support availability of the agents:

• Available, when agents are available every day from 9:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M.
• Unavailable, when agents are unavailable every day from 6:01 P.M. to 8:59 A.M.
• Global, as a default global schedule when agent are available 24x7 everyday.

To define the support agent chat hours

1. Log in to Mid Tier as an administrator.
2. Select Virtual Agent > Administration Console.
3. Select General Settings > Live Chat Hours, and update the following options:
4. In the Hours of Availability section, to create a new business chat time definition, click Create.
   To change an existing definition, select it from the table, and then click Modify. 

5. In the Chat Business Time UI, update the following information:

   Fields	Description
   Schedule Description	Enter a descriptive name for the chat business time definition.
   Status	Select the status of the chat business time definition. For example, if the chat business time is an active time period, select Active. If the chat business time defined is no longer used, select Inactive.
   In Effect	This field indicates whether the chat business time is currently in effect. The value is set by the application and cannot be modified by the user.
   Company	Select the company to which the chat business time definition applies. For example, Petramco.
   Support Queue	Select the support queue to which the business time definition applies.
   Schedule Type	Select the type of schedule to define. For example, if agents are always available, select 24x7. If you want to define a chat business time for Fridays, select Friday. If you want to define a chat business time for a full week, select Week. If you want to define a chat business time for a specific date, such as a holiday, select Specific Date, and select a date in the Date field.
   Date	If you select Specific Date from the Schedule Type list, select the specific date.
   Start Time	Set the start time of the chat business time. Click the Clock icon to use the time editor.
   End Time	Set the end time of the chat business time. Click the Clock icon to use the time editor.
   Run Priority	Select a priority for the chat business time. The higher the number, the higher the priority. For example, if you define a chat business time with a priority 20 for daily support 8:00 A.M. - 8:00 P.M. and another chat business time with a priority 1 for daily support 8:00 A.M. - 5:00 P.M. The daily support 8:00 A.M. - 8:00 P.M. takes precedence. Important: Since the Global schedule is provided out of the box, the Run Priority for this is 1. If you do not set the priority for your schedule higher than 1, the Global schedule will always take precedence over any other schedules.
   Chat Application Status	Select whether agents are Available or Unavailable during the defined chat business time.

6. Click Save.

   Important

   The Current Server Date and Time reflects the server date and time for the server's time zone. This is for informational purposes only and appears on screens that contain settings that are time dependent.

To create the chat availability message

You can create a message for the self-service user indicating the status of the chat service. This message is displayed when the user clicks the Live Chat Hours link in the Self Service Portal.

1. Under General Settings, click Live Chat Hours.
   The Live Chat Hours configuration pane appears.
2. In the Hours of Availability Messages section, click Create.
   The Chat Hour Availability Message dialog box appears.

3. Type the message in the Message box, by using standard HTML tags to format the message.

   Warning

   To ensure that the data security is not compromised, do not include unsupported HTML tags such as script, upload, and alert in the message. A warning appears if you try to save a message with these tags. Learn more about supported HTML tags.

4. To show how the message appears in the Self Service Portal, click Test.
   The message appears in the box below the Message box. 
   
5. To save the changes, click Save and Close. 

Examples

The following table displays examples of how you can configure the availability and unavailability of agents:

Related topics

Accessing-and-navigating-Self-Service-Portal

Accessing-and-navigating-the-agent-console