Routing Messages from eCommerce Website Chat Widgets and Social Media Accounts
What’s on this page?
Retailers can route customer chat requests received at the brand’s social chat accounts to sales associates located in stores near the customer. There are two types of routing methods available: manual routing based on customer input and automated routing based on customer geolocation data.
Manual routing
Retailers can configure LiveConnect to route customer-initiated chat requests based on the customer’s input. The following table lists the relevant configuration.
| Field | Configurable Elements |
|---|---|
| Messages |
|
| Zone | Enable/disable an automated response with a list of countries, regions, and/or cities |
| Stores | Enable/disable an automated response with a list of stores |
| Synonyms | Keywords/values to associate with a specific store, so customers are not required to type out the entire store name |
| Chatbot flow | Can be disabled to route all customer messages to a Chat Request queue visible to all store associates |
Automated routing using geolocation
Retailers can configure LiveConnect to automatically route customer-initiated chat requests based on the customer’s geolocation.
Note- Geolocation-based chat routing is available for LiveConnect web chat mode only.
- A customer needs to allow sharing of their location for the geolocation-based chat routing feature to work. If a customer doesn’t share their location, there are two possibilities:
- If a customer is using the Twilio chatbot they will go through a chat flow to be assigned to a store based on the general location they provide through the chat prompts.
- If a customer isn’t using the Twilio chatbot, they will be added to all stores queues.
Available configurations
Default search range
Retailers can modify the default search range to specify the maximum distance from a user’s location that will be searched for an available store associate. This search range can be specified in either kilometers or miles.
Note: If there are no associates available in the search range, the conversation is added to all store queues.
Routing strategies
Retailers can choose from two routing strategies: Availability First or Closest Store First.
Let’s say the dots in the diagrams are existing stores. The stores are labeled alphabetically based on their proximity to the user, with store A being the closest store. The red circle denotes the default search range. Any stores that are within the search range, will be searched for an available store associate, while any stores outside of this range will be automatically ignored. The green outlined circle means that an associate from that store has accepted the chat request.
Availability First routes the chat to the first available store associate within the routing range selected by the retailer.
- If the routing priority setting is set to Availability First, it will search the entire range for an available associate. This routing priority sends the chat request to all stores with at least one available associate, no matter the proximity of the store, as long as it is within the search range. All available associates will receive the chat request in their queue, but the conversation is not assigned to them until they accept the request. Once an associate accepts the chat request from their queue, the conversation is routed to that associate.
- For example, if stores C and E both have available associates, then all associates at both stores will receive the chat request in their queue. If the associate at store E accepts the chat request first, the conversation would be routed to this associate.
Note
Closest Store First routes the chat to the closest store with an available store associate. The search begins by checking the store with the closest proximity to the customer for an available associate. If there are no associates available at this store, then the search proceeds with the store with the next closest proximity to the customer, and so on. This search continues until the customer is connected with an available associate.
- If Closest Store First has been selected as the routing priority, the search will start by routing to the closest store, store A, to check for an available store associate. If there’s no available associate at store A, the routing proceeds to check store B, which is the next closest store. If there’s no available associate at store B, the routing proceeds to store C, and so on. If store C has an available associate, the customer would be matched to the associate at store C.
- In this diagram both store C and store E have available associates, however, since store C is closer to the customer and the associate accepts the chat request, the routing doesn’t have to continue the search since it found an available associate at store C.
NoteHow-To: Configure geolocation based chat routing
In the Admin Console, go to Connect > Liveconnect under the Chat Settings tab to configure the following.
Disable geolocation routing
- On the LiveConnect Chat Settings page, select
to open the Routing Settings sidebar. - To disable the geolocation routing, clear the checkbox next to Geolocation routing, and then click Save .
Enable geolocation routing
- On the LiveConnect Chat Settings page, select to open the Routing Settings sidebar.
- To enable the geolocation routing, select the checkbox next to Geolocation routing, and then click Save.
Change the default search range
- On the LiveConnect Chat Settings page, select to open the Routing Settings sidebar.
- To change the Default search range, enter your desired radius, select km or mile as the unit of measurement, and then click Save.
Change the routing priority
- On the LiveConnect Chat Settings page, select to open the Routing Settings sidebar.
- To change the Routing priority select either the Availability First or Closest Store First option, and then click Save.