Routing Missed Chats to Email
This tutorial explains how to configure a chat scenario so that chats which cannot be answered by an agent are automatically routed to email. This ensures that customer messages are captured and delivered for follow-up even when no agents are available.
Open or Create a Chat Scenario
In the Contact Center Administrator, go to Configuration → Scenarios → Chat. Open an existing chat or create a new one. Ensure the scenario is assigned to your chat entry point.
Insert a Find Agent (Chat) Block
Add a Find Agent (Chat) block and, optionally, configure desired skills, priority, and escalation intervals.
Configure Exits to Indicate that a Chat has been Missed
A chat is considered missed when no agent is logged in, the queue limit is reached, or the chat waits too long in the queue. Exits matching the first two scenarios ("No Agents" and "Queue Limit") are built into the Find Agent block and will appear automatically. For the third scenario, if a chat waits too long in the queue, a "Timeout" exit will appear only if escalation intervals are configured. In the following steps, we will use these exits to route the chat to email.
Capture the Chat Transcript
Bright Pattern automatically stores chat history and related metadata in system variables such as
$(item.transcript.text),
$(item.transcript.HTML),
$(item.newMessage),
and fields in
$(item.externalChatData),
so no additional configuration is required for capturing transcript content in emails. See the Bright Pattern Scenario Builder
Variables and Expressions reference for the full list of chat-related variables.
Availability of the visitor’s name and email depends on whether those fields were collected during the interaction (i.e., via a pre-chat form or during the chat). Values entered in a pre-chat form or passed as custom parameters through the chat widget are available in the
$(item.externalChatData) variable and can be referenced using the field or parameter name (for example, $(item.externalChatData.email) or $(item.externalChatData.account_id)). See
Pass JavaScript Variables Through Web Chat for details. For example, $(item.transcript.text) can be inserted directly into the email body to include the full chat transcript.
Add Email Blocks
From each missed-chat exit of the Find Agent block, add an Email block. Configure the email by specifying the To and From addresses, then insert the required chat details into the email body by referencing the appropriate system variables. The following example and screenshot illustrate how chat and interaction variables can be added to the Email block to include visitor details and the full chat transcript.
- Visitor Name:
$(chat.visitor.name) - Visitor Email:
$(chat.visitor.email) - Service:
$(service.name) - Date/Time:
$(interaction.start.time) - Chat Transcript:
$(chat.transcript)
Close the Chat
From each missed-chat exit of the Find Agent block (No Agents, Queue Limit, and Timeout, if configured), optionally add a Send Message block to notify the visitor that their message was received and that they will be contacted later. After the Send Message block, add an Exit block.
