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What is Web Chat for Service?
Answer ID 12815   |   Last Review Date 08/29/2024

What is Web Chat for Service?

Environment
Chat / Engagement Engine
Oracle B2C Service 23A and newer
 
Resolution
Web Chat for Service (WCFS) is a new modern chat client deployed and configured with Engagement Engine. WCFS is a strategic application with a robust roadmap and offers powerful capabilities not available in legacy chat clients. We recommend replacing Syndicated Widgets and Chat Inlays with this modern chat widget. Please consider watching the Web Chat for Service Implementation Basics (TMM-Dev hot topics) webinar if you are new to Engagement Engine and WCFS.
 
Web Chat can combine assisted service with a human agent and a self-service chatbot in a single chat client for a consistent end-user experience across channels.
  • Web Chat handles chats that can be directly routed and handled by a human chat agent as a more modern and richer alternative than using the previous Chat Inlay deployment.
  • If you are licensed to use Oracle Digital Assistant, you can use that same Web Chat client with DA as an Agent. This treats your intelligent chatbot as a natural extension to service.
Note: Oracle Digital Assistant is not required, but an optional add-on.
 
It's a chat widget that combines native chat capabilities with rich configuration and branding options of Oracle Digital Assistant (ODA) Web SDK into a single widget.  This means that a lot of the parameters you can set for your web chat experience are based on the Oracle Digital Assistant Native Client SDK for Web which makes it a rich experience. Web Chat for Service makes use of a chat session that occurs between an End User and a Chat Agent.
 
Examples of Web Chat for Service
Images:
1) Example of the configurable Web Chat launch button
2) Example of the configurable pre-launch form (optional)
3) Example of an active chat interaction with transfer from DA as an Agent to a human agent
 
What is DA as an Agent?

The Chat Agent can also be Oracle Digital Assistant using the Digital Assistant as an Agent feature.
 
The routing logic for when a chat needs to go to a bot or a live agent is defined in the B2C Service chat business rules. Digital Assistant is treated as any other human agent and is assigned to a digital assistant queue.
 
The benefit of this Digital Assistant as an Agent is the centralized setup and reporting across queues with a warm handover to a live agent. This seamless transfer with full history in the chat transcript guarantees a full 360 view for agents inside the B2C Service Agent Desktop. Seamless transfer from the bot to a live Chat Agent can be configured in your B2C Service deployment and Digital Assistant Skill.
 
Example of an active chat interaction with DA as an Agent
 
Image: 
4) Example of an active chat interaction with DA as an Agent
 
Configuration of Web Chat with Engagement Engine

Web Chat for Service is a code snippet you can deploy on your corporate webpages or Customer Portal pages through the Oracle Engagement Engine single tag.
 
You configure your Web Chat Client in Engagement Engine by creating the web chat component.
  1. Go to Settings → Web Chat, click on Create New Component
  2. Enter Name of the component and choose the latest version
  3. Set the mandatory attribute URI with your B2C instance. Select the appropriate value for the Service attribute.
The format of the URI field is <interface>.widget.custhelp.com. For example site https://rnow-demos.custhelp.com the URI is rnow-demos.widget.custhelp.com

Indicate that the service is B2C, it is a mandatory attribute. You can then define the desired Pre-Launch Form Fields, colors, icons and much more in a very convenient and comprehensive way. Please see Branding the launch button in Web Chat for Service for styling tips. You must add your desired Pre-Launch Form Fields which are located under Functionality Configuration.
 
Configuration of the Web Chat component in Engagement Engine
 
Example of a rule to load the Web Chat component in Engagement Engine
 
Image: 
5) Configuration of the Web Chat component in Engagement Engine
6) Example of a rule to load the Web Chat component in Engagement Engine
 
Additional information:
 
To learn more about Engagement Engine, refer to Answer ID 5833: What is Engagement Engine? If Engagement Engine has not been enabled on your site, submit a Service Request. Once Engagement Engine has been enabled, see the Oracle Engagement Engine Cloud Service Documentation for complete steps for configuring, testing, deploying and best practices for Engagement Engine.
 
To learn more about Oracle Digital Assistant and Digital Assistant as an Agent, refer to: Oracle Digital Assistant Get Started. For information on setting up Digital Assistant as an Agent, refer to the Service Integration chapter in Using Oracle Digital Assistant. Please note that Oracle B2C Service Technical Support provides limited support for Oracle Digital Assistant issues - see Answer ID 12530: Reporting Oracle Digital Assistant issues.