Configure Chat Session (Abandon) Settings

Allow Agents to automatically regain a Messaging concurrency slot whenever a Customer abandons a Chat session, typically by leaving the website or by closing the browser tab, after the configurable rejoin window has lapsed.

What happens when a Customer abandons a chat?

Customers may abandon a Chat before their Conversation is routed to an Agent if wait times are longer than they want to wait, or they may abandon a Chat in the middle of a Conversation, after an Agent has responded.

The Abandoned Chat feature behaves differently in each situation.

• If the Customer abandons the Chat before it has been routed to an Agent – The Contact is auto-ended, and the overall Conversation is automatically closed. The Customer will see a message indicating that the Chat has ended. (This is the “Chat ended by Agent or Rule” message configured in your Gladly Settings > Channels > Chat).

• If the Customer abandons the Chat after it has been routed to an Agent – The contact is auto-ended, which frees up one of the Agent’s concurrency positions.  Unlike in the scenario above, the overall Conversation is not automatically Closed.  Instead, it is moved to Waiting.

Additionally, there is a third, less common scenario, when Abandoned Chats are automatically closed: If the Conversation was routed to an Agent, but then was unassigned from that Agent or moved to a different Inbox, the Contact will be auto-ended, and the Conversation will be automatically closed if the Customer abandons the Chat.

The Agent will see that the Customer has left the chat on the Conversation Timeline.

The Agent then has the opportunity to complete after-Contact work, such as assigning a Task, adding an “Abandoned Chat” or “Do not send CSAT” Topic, before manually closing the Conversation.

The Customer can have between 10 seconds and 5 minutes, depending on the Chat Workflow configuration, to return to the Chat before the Contact is auto-ended.

Automatically end Chat session

1. Click on the top left corner of the screen.

2. Click Settings.

3. Under the Agent Experience category, click Conversation Workflow.

4. In the the Messaging section (which controls chat, SMS, and all social Channels), edit the following:  
   

• Abandoned chat sessions – If checked, automatically close Chat sessions when Customers abandon the chat on mobile or desktop web chat sessions.

  • Tip – Activating this feature allows Agents to regain a concurrency slot so that they can help another Customer after a Customer they're chatting with abandons a chat. For example, if Standard Capacity is set to 5, and the Agent currently has five Chat Customers, when one customer abandons, the Agent will regain an open concurrency slot so that they can immediately start helping a new Customer.

• Chat session rejoin window (seconds) – Enter a value (in seconds) how long a Customer has to return to an abandoned chat before it is ended and the Agent goes on to help another Customer.

  • Tip –  Enter a value between one minute (60s - default setting) and 300 seconds (5 minutes)

    • Gladly expects a minimum of 10 seconds and a maximum of 300 seconds (5 minutes).

    • Customers who rejoin after the window has lapsed are routed to the next available Agent when when re-start their Chat.

View report on abandoned chats

The Contact Export (New) report to review Contact-level data and identify how many Customers are abandoning the Chat.

• Determine how many Chat Contacts were abandoned during a busy period using the Customer Abandoned Contact field.

• Calculate what proportion of abandoned chats were abandoned while in an ANSWERED or UNANSWERED state using the Status field.