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Chat unavailable when there are no agent sessions available
Answer ID 6369   |   Last Review Date 09/26/2018

Why is chat unavailable when there are no agent sessions available?

Environment:

Customer Portal, Chat

Issue:

I would like my customers to be able to launch chats and wait in queue for the next available agent if there are no agents available at the time the chat is requested. However, chat unavailable when there are no agent sessions available.

Resolution:

If you would like your customers to be able to launch chats regardless of whether or not there is an agent available, and if necessary wait in queue for the next available agent, consider adjusting the parameters of the ConditionalChatLink widget.

The min_sessions_avail parameter defines the minimum number of open agent sessions that must be available in order for the link to be actionable. If the parameter is set to 0 it is disabled. When the setting is set to any number above 0 there will need to be at least that number of available sessions in order for a customer to launch a chat. When set to 1, for example, there must be at least 1 session available in order for the link to be available to your customers.

If you would like to disable this setting to enable your customers to launch chats regardless of whether there are agent chat sessions available, adjust the ConditionalChatLink widget so that min_sessions_avail is 0.

Displaying a wait time is dependant of this information being available to the server. The average wait time is calculated based on samples gathered from chat activity. Until the required number of samples have been gathered, the widget will be unavailable when no agents sessions are available regardless of what min_sessions_avail is set to. The required number of samples can be altered by modifying the AVERAGE_WAIT_TIME_SAMPLES configuration base.


For more information regarding wait times, refer to Answer ID 2819: Chat estimated wait time information.