Agent Training

The Chime Agent Plug-in is an add-on to an agent's Sametime^© client that will allow agents to do a number of things, including:

• Accept concurrent chats
• Transfer seekers to another queue
• Add additional agents into a chat
• Create and use standard replies

For a complete user guide of the Agent Plugin, click here » Complete Agent Plugin User Guide

When a chat is routed to an agent, they will receive an IM with a text notification that someone is looking for help, and to press ‘y’ to accept the chat. To accept a chat request using Sametime^©, type ‘y’ and then send. Once the agent has accepted the chat, they will immediately be connected with the seeker.

To decline a chat request using Sametime^©, type ‘n’ and then send. Once the agent has declined the chat, the request will be routed to another agent. If you wait past a predetermined amount of time to accept, it will be counted as ignored and also rerouted to another agent.

The Agent dashboard can be viewed two different ways, but both ways require the agent to login to Chime first. So, enter the Chime URL to access the application, it should look something like: ‘<Your Server>/chime’. You will be prompted to login to Chime. Enter your agent credentials into the username and password fields. Once you login, you will be directed to your agent dashboard. The other way is to select the icon on your Sametime^© client.

In some situations, it might be useful to transfer the seeker to another queue. Click the icon on the toolbar, then select the appropriate queue, and click the transfer button.

Each queue may be optionally configured to render a URL to the agent when the agent accepts a conversation from the queue. The URL may be the location of an enterprise ticketing service, an external CRM system, or the standard URL provided as part of Chime. The context window URL will be transmitted to the agent’s Chime plugin when the agent accepts a conversation from the queue. The context window will be displayed at the bottom of the Sametime^© chat window and will be associated with the Chime session. To show the Context Window, locate and click the icon on the Chime toolbar.

In some situations, it may be appropriate to invite another agent from the current queue into the active conversation. When the icon is clicked, a list of all agents from the current queue will be displayed. Simply select another agent from the queue and click the send button.

While most conversations with a Chime queue are initiated from a web portal or IM client, it might sometime be useful for an agent to ‘invite’ a seeker into the queue. In this case, the Chime queue will send the ‘seeker’ an invitation to participate in a Chime queue session. This is typically useful in the case where the ‘seeker’ potentially ‘timed out’ on an earlier request, and the agent would like to communicate to the seeker via the normal Chime queue platform. So, an outbound request enables the agent to invite a customer into a Chime session, possibly if the customer was not able to connect with an agent in an earlier encounter. To do this, simply click the icon, find the person you need, and click the send button.

The ability to include anyone in the Chime session enables the agent to include any person, who has a Sametime^© account, into a Chime session, even if the person is not a member of a queue or allocated as an agent. When the icon is selected, Chime will display a standard IBM Sametime^© directory selection panel where any user in the Sametime^© directory may be selected for inclusion into the Chime session. When the other person joins the conversation, the conversation will automatically be escalated to a ‘nway’ conversation for both the agent and new participant.

Standard replies enable the agent to leverage both server based, and local, standard messages in order to provide common replies. For server based replies, the standard phrases are managed at the Chime queue level – typically by a manager. For local replies, the agent has the ability to create, and manage, a set of replies that will only be used by the individual agent. To use a standard reply, click the icon and the list of local standard replies, and server based standard replies, will be displayed.

In the case where the agent would like to manage their standard replies, the agent will need to navigate to the Chime preferences panel and edit their standard replies. In your Sametime^© client, click Actions and Preferences and then Preferences. Locate and select Instant Chime in the left column. Click Refresh. Wait for SUCCESS notification. Click Apply, and then OK.

After call work (ACW) provides a short period of time, after the agent completes a Chime session, for the agent to log additional information about the Chime session and complete any other recording keeping that might be necessary to describe the Chime session. When the agent is in ACW mode, Chime will not route waiting sessions to the agent. The agent may automatically be removed from ACW mode after a specified amount of time – that is configured by the Chime administrator. To set ACW state, select the icon and select either ACW mode or active.

For the agent to upload a file to the seeker, simply locate and click the icon on the Chime toolbar. Locate the file in the directory you wish to send and press OK.

In some cases, it might be useful for the agent to quickly copy the entire Chime conversation. Locate and click the icon on the Chime toolbar.

In certain situations, the agent may request that the seeker reboot their machine. This might be required if additional software needs to be installed, or if system level changes were required as part of the Chime session. Locate and click the icon on the Chime toolbar. In this case, the seeker will be placed into a ‘holding’ pattern as part of the Chime queue and they will automatically be reconnected with the current agent when they re-enter the queue (after their reboot). If the seeker does not re-enter the queue in a specified amount of time, the placeholder for the seeker will be removed and the agent will be enabled to accept new Chime sessions.

The ticketing panel provides a Chime context URL to be displayed to an agent – in order to provide additional information about the customer and optionally provide additional services to the agent (possibly provided by the web page – i.e. via the Chime JavaScript bridge)