Advanced Features
Live Chat Escalation
While AI chatbots excel at handling general inquiries, there are instances where human intervention becomes necessary. This could involve tasks like issuing refunds, modifying orders, or addressing queries beyond the chatbot's knowledge base. In such cases, enabling human escalation within the chatbot interface offers a smoother experience compared to redirecting users to email support. This guide outlines how to set up live chat escalation using Chat Data, enhancing your customer support capabilities.
Setting Up Live Chat Escalation
Live chat is not enabled by default but is freely available for both Standard and Professional plan users. Entry plan customers can also purchase the Live Chat package separately. Once Live Chat is part of your plan, access the Live Chat section under Settings to activate the Live Chat button, as illustrated below: 
Several parameters can be configured for live chat, including:
- Live Chat Button Trigger: This button appears to users after an AI-generated response. It offers an escalation path to human support for users dissatisfied with the AI response or in need of further assistance.
- Email Notification: Upon escalation, we'll send an email containing the chat history and relevant metadata to a designated address, keeping you informed of the escalation.
- Zendesk Notification: For those with a Zendesk integration, an escalation will automatically generate a support ticket. For integration details, see Zendesk integration.
- Live Chat Waiting Message: This message informs users that their request for human support has been acknowledged and advises them to await a response.
Lazy Live Chat Triggering
In some cases, you don't want to trigger the live chat escalation immediately. For example, you might want to wait for the user to send a few messages before deciding whether to escalate the conversation. In this case, you can use the Lazy Live Chat Triggering feature. With this feature, the live chat escalation will only be triggered after the conversation has met some conditions set by you. For example, you can allow the live chat to be available if the chatbot doesn't know the answer to the user's question. Or you can allow the live chat to be available if the user explicitly asks for human support.
Lazy Live Chat Triggering Set-up
You can set up lazy live chat triggering by going to the Live Chat section under Settings and then turning on the Lazy Live Chat Triggering toggle button. Optionally, you can modify the default lazy live chat triggering condition, as shown below: 
Lazy Live Chat Triggering Effect
As shown below, the live chat escalation won't be triggered for normal questions and is only triggered when the user explicitly asks for human support, which meets the default condition set in this chatbot. 
Handling Live Chat Escalation
Upon a user initiating a live chat escalation, you'll be notified via email or Zendesk ticket. Future updates will introduce SMS and app notifications for even more immediate alerts. Access your live chat dashboard through https://www.chat-data.com/chatbot/{chatbotId}/dashboard/live-chats to manage live chats as depicted below: 
The dashboard enables you to:
- Retrieve chat history within a specified date range.
- Filter chats by status (escalated, unassigned, in progress, or ended) or view only ongoing conversations.
- Understand conversation statuses:
- Unrequested: The customer has not sought human support, and the AI chatbot manages the conversation.
- Unassigned: The customer has requested escalation but no active conversation with support has commenced.
- Open: An active conversation between support and the customer is underway, bypassing the AI chatbot.
- Ended: The conversation is marked as concluded, though it can be reopened if either party resumes chatting.
- Directly initiate conversations without requiring a formal escalation request from the customer, immediately setting the status to Open.
The dashboard also displays each conversation's online status, with a green dot indicating an active customer and a red dot signifying they are offline. Customers can also see your availability status, enhancing transparency. Additionally, you can view customer IP addresses, countries, and submitted lead information.
Notification
We currently support email and Zendesk notifications to ensure timely management of live chat escalations. For immediate alerts, consider enabling push notifications for your designated email or through the Zendesk app. While email notifications are plan-dependent, Zendesk ticket creation is unlimited. We are also developing SMS and app notifications to further streamline the notification process, though this requires intricate design and development efforts.
Live Chat Email Notification
When a live chat escalation is requested, we will send an email notification to the designated agent email address with details of the conversation, as shown below: 
New Message to the Customer
When the agent responds to a message and the customer has left the chat widget, we will send an email notification to the customer’s provided email address with the new message from the agent. (Currently, only email notifications are supported, but we plan to add SMS notifications in the future.) Example: 
New Message to the Agent
When the customer responds to a message and the agent has left the admin chat portal, we will send an email notification to the agent’s notification email with the new message from the customer. Example: 
New Message Handling
Agent
The agent can use the uniquely constructed URL provided in the notification to handle the live chat in a dedicated admin portal for the conversation, as shown below: 
This portal does not require login and can be white-labeled to your own domain.
Customer
The customer can use the uniquely constructed URL provided in the notification to handle the live chat in a dedicated customer portal for the conversation, as shown below: 
This portal does not require login and can be white-labeled to your own domain.