Manage Customer Queries from External Messaging Channels on the Mobile App

When customers reach your team through an external messaging channel, you can respond and work each conversation from the Cloud Voice App on your mobile device. This page walks through the everyday actions an agent performs on a session, from claiming an incoming chat to closing it out.

Every task below starts from the same place in the app: open Chat, then tap External Chat.

Before you begin

Confirm the following with your system administrator and on your own device.

Your Cloud Voice system

• Runs version 84.20.0.128 or later.
• Is on the Enterprise or Ultimate plan.
• Has at least one messaging channel configured.

Your mobile app

• Cloud Voice App version 5.19.7 or later.

Claim an incoming session

If you belong to a message queue, new conversations that arrive in the queue appear so that any agent can take them. You claim one by picking it up.

Note

Pickup is only offered when your queue’s chat assignment mode is set to Manual Pickup or Auto-Pickup.

• Manual Pickup: you pick up each session yourself before you can reply.
• Auto-Pickup: the session is assigned to you automatically the moment you send the first reply. You can still pick it up manually first if you prefer.

1. Go to Chat > External Chat.
2. Open the queued session and tap Pick Up at the top.

Once you pick up a session it belongs to you alone: no other agent can see it or reply to it, and a confirmation prompt lets you know the handoff succeeded.

Hand a session to someone else

While you are working a conversation you can pass it to a colleague or to another message queue. If your administrator has connected Cloud Voice to an outside message analytics service, you can route the session there instead for extra processing or automation.

Note

The option to transfer to a third-party message analytics platform appears only when your administrator has integrated that platform with Cloud Voice through its API (Application Programming Interface, the connection two systems use to exchange data). If you do not see the option, that integration is not set up.

1. Go to Chat > External Chat and open the active session.
2. Tap the more (three-dot) icon in the top-right corner.
3. On the Chat Information page, tap Transfer.
4. Search for and select the colleague, queue, or analytics platform, then tap Confirm in the pop-up.

The session leaves your external chat list and moves to the chosen destination together with its full message history.

Call the customer from a chat

When a conversation is easier to resolve by voice, you can dial the customer straight from the session.

Note

Placing the call requires outbound calling permission. Ask your administrator to confirm you have it.

1. Go to Chat > External Chat and open the session.
2. Tap the call icon in the top-right corner.

The app dials the customer’s number right away and routes the call through Cloud Voice.

Save the customer to Contacts

You can add the person you are chatting with to your contacts without leaving the conversation.

1. Go to Chat > External Chat and open the session.
2. Tap the more (three-dot) icon in the top-right corner.
3. At the bottom of the Chat Information page, tap Add to Contacts.
4. Choose how to save them:
   • Tap New Contact and fill in the customer’s details, or
   • Tap Add to Existing Contact, pick the record, and update its details as needed.

Review session details

Open a session’s details to see information such as the source channel and the channel number it came in on.

1. Go to Chat > External Chat and open the session.
2. Tap the more (three-dot) icon in the top-right corner.

The Session Details section lists the conversation’s details.

Tip

If the customer is already saved in your contacts, tap their name to jump straight to their contact record.

Archive a session

Archive a session when the customer has gone quiet or when you simply want to set it aside and return to it later.

1. Go to Chat > External Chat.
2. In the chat list, press and hold the active session, then tap Archive.

The session moves from the Recent list to the Archived list.

Note

Sending a new message in an archived session reopens it automatically and moves it back to the Recent list.

End a session

When you have finished helping a customer, close the session out.

Caution

Closing is not the same as archiving. A session you archive reopens the moment a new message arrives, but a session you close stays closed: you cannot reply in it again. If the customer writes in later, Cloud Voice starts a brand-new session instead. Archive rather than close if there is any chance you will need to continue the same conversation.

1. Go to Chat > External Chat and open the active session.
2. Tap the more (three-dot) icon in the top-right corner.
3. On the Chat Information page, tap Close.
4. Tap Confirm in the pop-up.

The session closes and moves to the Archived list.

Remove a session

To take a session off your chat list entirely, do the following.

Caution

Delete removes the session from your chat list on every device where you are signed in to the Cloud Voice App, not just this phone. Unlike archiving or closing, this leaves no entry to return to. If you might need the conversation again, archive or close it instead.

1. Go to Chat > External Chat.
2. In the chat list, press and hold the session, then tap Delete.

The session disappears from your chat list across every Cloud Voice App you are signed in to.

Work campaign sessions

If your administrator runs message campaigns that send bulk messages and assigns those campaign sessions to your extension or to a queue you belong to, you can view and reply to them here.

1. Go to Chat > External Chat.
2. Tap Campaign Group to list every session created by message campaigns.
3. Tap any session to read and reply to the customer’s responses.