Summary

I wanted to let you know that we are making some improvements to the user experience for  Live Assist for Microsoft Dynamics 365. These enhancements are in response to user feedback and also reflect our support for the new Unified Interface and Channel Integration Framework for Dynamics 365.

All users will see these changes in our late October release, whether you are using Unified Service Desk, Dynamics Classic or the new Unified Interface for Dynamics 365.

Background

Unified Interface and Channel Integration Framework

Microsoft has introduced Unified Interface for Dynamics 365. Starting later this month, we expect all new Dynamics trials to adopt this new client interface by default. Users may still access the previous version, now called Dynamics Classic, but Microsoft is encouraging all customers to move to the new metadata driven interface, given its design to ensure a consistent experience across devices and form factors.

Along with a new client interface, Microsoft is also introducing the Channel Integration Framework. At the time of writing, this framework is available in public preview and is scheduled for release in October 2018. 

We have updated our interface in Live Assist to follow the requirements and guidelines defined by Microsoft to interact with this framework and Unified Interface. 

Customer Feedback

We listen to you! As we perform these updates, we have also taken this opportunity to modify the user interface slightly in response to feedback from our customers. These small improvements are designed to streamline the agent experience, making it easier to manage contacts, access omnichannel capabilities and perform other tasks as described below, ultimately driving higher agent efficiency and satisfaction with our solution. 

The Enhancements

Contact Management

All of the contact management functions are now performed in the Live Assist widget as follows.

Contact Creation

We have added a button  to the Live Assist widget that allows you to create a new contact. This button was originally on the sliding out context panel but has now been moved into the widget itself.

Contact Association

Previously you could open a contact record in Dynamics 365 and then click an "Associate to Chat" button. This association is not possible to support in Unified Interface. Instead, when you open a contact record, you can click on the  icon in the Live Assist interface to associate the chat activity with the open contact record.

Contact Search

OK, this function has not changed, but I just wanted to call out that you can still search for a visitor if the user has filled in his or her name in the pre-chat survey. Just click on the name in the widget and Live Assist will automatically launch a search in Dynamics for you. If you don't use a pre-chat survey the standard Dynamics 365 search feature can be used instead.

Opening Contacts

Similarly, if the chat has already been associated with a contact, either through the link button or because the chat was an authenticated chat in the first place, then clicking on the name in the widget will open the correct contact record in Dynamics 365.

Authenticated Contacts

Contacts who have been authenticated before or during a chat session will be identified by a badge added to the user icon. 

Channel Escalation

We have made it easier for agents to start a file transfer during a live chat or escalate to a cobrowse session, as well as initiate a voice or video call if licensed for these capabilities. 

Previously, these icons were located behind a channel selection button. Now, they are available all on the toolbar at the top of the widget, meaning it takes only one click to access these features as opposed to the original two clicks. Twice the productivity!

We have also moved these buttons further away from the "End Chat" button  to avoid accidental button presses.

Context Panel

The sliding out context panel is dead. Long live the chat activity section.

The new Unified Interface does not support the required capabilities for us to slide the context panel out over Dynamics 365. It will be retained in the Dynamics Classic interface, but be aware that when you migrate to Unified Interface, it will no longer be present.

All of the information in the context panel is available in the chat activity section. You can still easily access chat activity details from the widget by clicking on the button under the text area .

Multiple Line Support

Agents often need to send out chat messages that are more than a single line of text.

Our text box can now expand as needed so that agents can easily see all the text they are writing.

The box will expand up to a maximum height and then introduce scroll bars. To insert a new line, the agent will need to press SHIFT + ENTER, as just pressing ENTER will still send the message that has been written.

Audio Notifications Volume Control

To complete the list of new UX features, the agent can adjust the volume level for audio notifications. This option is controlled through the agent settings options in the widget:

I hope this information proves useful and you like the changes that are coming in our release at the end of October.

Don't forget to follow the Tech Talk section of our Support Center to keep up to date on new features and use cases!

Just click on the  button wherever you see it!