Page Title and Content
An article using the Assisted Service template displays its page title and content as per the Default template. This includes standard related assets and inline content.
Customer Interaction Panel
This panel lets an agent record a new interaction. It also displays a list of an agent's paused interactions. While recording an interaction, the panel is hidden.
Interactions create a record of what an agent is doing. It's possible to assist users without creating a log of interactions too.
The Interaction Logging with Assisted Service articles have more information about interactions.
Title and Description
The title and description of the panel can be set in the article extras.
Begin Interaction
The "Begin interaction" button links to the form selected in the "Form to start interaction with" field in the article extras (if you don't pick a form the button won't appear). The button text is the form's description.
An interaction is a history record of what an agent is doing, and typically records the name of the user being assisted, channel, service, and time spent. When an interaction starts, information about it appears in the assisting banner (see below).
The standard form is called "Begin interaction" and the standard workflow process is called "InteractionLog".
You can also set up the template to automatically start an interaction as soon as you start assisting a user.
Paused Interactions
An interaction can be paused using the pause button in the assisting banner. Paused interactions are listed in the interaction panel. Each item in the list shows the last user recorded against the interaction, the name of the interaction, when the interaction started, and a resume button.
Resuming an interaction restarts the timer. If a user was recorded in the interaction when it was paused, resuming will also restart assisting that user.
User Search Panel
The user search matches search terms against usernames, user descriptions, and any element from a user's profile set as searchable in your site user profiles. As standard these include a user's name, first line of address, postcode, email address and telephone number.
The panel's title, description and search bar placeholder text can be set in the article extras. You can also choose to hide the search bar (and just search using the refined search inputs described below).
Groups to Search
In the article extras use the user group picker to select the groups that will be searched. This will let you search for any users in these groups and any nested child groups within those user groups.
The "Exclude users who are members of the following groups" list will stop a user being returned if they are a member of one of these groups. This would allow you to select "staff" in the include list, but prevent "managers" from being found.
Business Key Search Behaviour
It's possible to search using a process business key. Enter the sixteen digit reference number (with hyphens) to display a list of users who have been involved with that process. The results include all users who appear in the userId fields of the history event log. Note that this is a search of histories and history events, not instances in the workflow engine. A search is performed against history labelb values which, by convention, store the process business key. The key must be in the format 1234-1234-1234-1234.
Refined Search
In the article extras you can set up additional search inputs.
These do two things:
- They create extra search inputs below the main search bar which will only search on the specific field selected (eg create a search field that will only search postcodes)
- Any search fields which match columns in the results table can be used to filter results by values in that column
In the extras, build up a list of inputs by picking the field you'd like to search, and entering the label and placeholder text that will appear on the article:
To add a new input, press the "Add button" then complete the row. You can choose between a text input, or a drop-down field, which will let you build up a series of options.
The "Field name" drop-down lists all of the searchable fields in your user profile form, plus the fixed fields (shown in lowercase) that are always searchable. In the default form the searchable fields are:
| Search Field | Description |
|---|---|
| OBJECT_C_FIRSTNAME | First name |
| OBJECT_C_LASTNAME | Last name |
| OBJECT_C_PREFNAME | Preferred name |
| OBJECT_C_FULLNAME | Full name |
| OBJECT_C_DISPLAYNAME | Combined name, username and email address |
| OBJECT_C_JOBTITLE | Job title |
| OBJECT_C_ADDRESS1/2/3 | Address lines |
| OBJECT_C_TOWN | Town |
| OBJECT_C_POSTCODE | Postcode |
| OBJECT_C_UPRN | UPRN |
| OBJECT_C_TELEPHONE | Landline |
| OBJECT_C_MOBILE | Mobile |
| OBJECT_C_EMAIL | |
| OBJECT_C__searchableFields | The combined searchable fields in the user profile |
| OBJECT_C__icmCreatedBy | The username of the user who created this user |
| OBJECT_C__icmLastUpdatedBy | The username of the user who last updated this user |
| OBJECT_DT__loginuserlastloggedin | The date and time of the last login |
User Action Buttons
Create a New Account
At the bottom of the search panel a button to create a new user can be displayed. This will open the user registration form.
Pick the form you'd like to use to register a new user in the "Form to register user with" drop-down in the article extras. The button text is the form's description.
If you don't pick a form, the button won't appear.
Our standard form, called "Create an account" (CSASIMPLESIGNUPDD) uses the platform's Machine Learning worker to look for possible duplicate accounts while the form is being filled out. It will also automatically add newly created users to the groups you pick in the "Allocate to groups" article extras.
Assist User without an Account (Anonymous Request)
The Anonymous Request button lets you log a request for a user who doesn't have an account, or a user you aren't able to identify. Assistance works in exactly the same way as it does for a named user, but all interactions are logged against the platform's "anonymous" user (there's information about the anonymous user in the security article).
Assisting the anonymous user can be disabled, and the text used for the button changed, in the article extras.
In the article extras, use the "Start assisting article" article picker to also turn this button into a link to your chosen article (as well as starting to assist). If you don't pick an article, you'll stay on this Assisted Service article.
Search Results
Search results are displayed in a table. The information that appears for each user is set in the article extras, where you define the table's columns.
If a column matches a search input, a search box will appear at the top of the column which can be used to refine the results.
Columns are created in the article extras, in the same way as the search inputs described above:
Custom Columns with Tooltips
Custom columns let you compile fields from a user's profile into a single column. We find it most useful for names.
The fields used to build custom columns are defined in the Assisted Service configuration end point - see Assisted Service Technical Information. If a column has been configured, its name will appear as an option in the "field name" drop-down. The other options, like the label, are set in the configuration.
Here's how a custom column called "Name" appears in the article extras:
User Details
Select a row to display more information about that user.
Below the user's display name, the following appears. The information is configured in the "User Details" section of the article extras.
Profile Information
Read-only profile information is generally displayed using the site user profile form. You don't have to use the user profile form - any form with a "load user profile" field can be used. Select a form using the "Form to display users with" drop-down in the article extras. The standard forms provided with Assisted Service use the "Custom Read Only" view set in the form's settings.
Start Assisting
This button will start assisting the chosen user. The agent will now be acting on behalf of the user and be able to interact with forms and processes as if they were the user themselves. In the article extras you can choose whether or not assisting a user will also automatically start to record an interaction log if one isn't already being recorded.
In the article extras, use the "Start assisting article" article picker to also turn this button into a link to your chosen article (as well as starting to assist). If you don't pick an article, you'll stay on this Assisted Service article.
Assistance Shortcuts
Any number of links can appear in this section. Select the articles you'd like to link to using the "Shortcut articles" picker in the article extras. Following an article link will automatically start assisting the selected user.
The Assisting Banner
The assisting banner appears on every page of the site when an interaction log is active or a user is being assisted (or both).
It can be set to appear at the top or bottom of the page in the article extras.
The article extras control whether the banner displays icons (as in the screenshot above), or text and icons.
Search
If an agent begins an interaction, but is not currently assisting someone, the banner displays a search box. The search behaves as described above. Results are displayed on the Assisted Service article.
User
The user's name is displayed using the preferred name template set in iCM's User Settings configuration. The tooltip (i icon) next to the user's name displays the user's full name, email address and unique account ID when you hover over it.
Stop Assisting
To stop assisting a user, click on their name, then press the "Stop Assisting" button. The current interaction will remain active, but the user will be removed from the interaction log.
Begin Interaction
If an agent is currently assisting a user, but not recording an interaction, "Start Interaction" in the banner takes the user to the "Begin Interaction" form.
Edit, Complete or Add Notes to Interaction
To edit an active interaction, click the ✔ icon next to the name of the interaction. This will take you back to the Assisted Service article and display the "Complete Interaction" form set in the interaction log workflow. The standard form lets you add notes, edit the type of interaction, and record the outcome. For more information about this form and the workflow, see the Interaction Logging with Assisted Service article.
Pause Interaction
The behaviour of the pause button varies, depending on where you are on the site.
While navigating around the website, pressing pause stops the timer of the current interaction. Pressing the play button starts it again.
Pausing an interaction while viewing the "Complete Interaction" form removes it from the banner, stops the timer, and returns the interaction to the interactions panel.
In both cases, if a user is currently being assisted they will continue to be assisted, even though the current interaction is paused.
Assisted Service Home
Press this button to return to the Assisted Service article. If your site has more than one article using the template, it will return you to the one from which the current interaction was started.
Google Analytics
Articles using this template will not include the Google Analytics snippet. This is because user details can appear in the URL, which should not be recorded by Google. Tag Manager can be used as normal.
Article Extras
| Field Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| BANNERPOSITION | Drop-down list | The position of the assisting banner. Either top or bottom |
| BANNERICONS | Drop-down list | Whether the banner displays text or icons |
| INTERACTIONPROCESSNAME | Drop-down list | A list of deployed workflow processes. Select the one to use when assisting a user. Recommended: "InteractionLog" |
| STARTINTERACTIONFORMID | Drop-down list | A list of all published forms. Select the one to start the interaction log with. Recommended: "Begin interaction" |
| INTERACTIONTITLE | Text input | The title of the interaction panel |
| INTERACTIONDESCRIPTION | Text input | The description of the interaction panel |
| ALWAYSINTERACT | Drop-down list | Whether or not starting to assist a user will also start an interaction log |
| SEARCHTITLE | Text input | The title of the search panel |
| DISPLAYKEYWORDS | Drop-down list | Whether or not to display the main keyword search |
| SEARCHDESCRIPTION | Text input | The description of the search panel |
| SEARCHPLACEHOLDERTEXT | Text input | The search bar placeholder text |
| USERMEMBEROFGROUPS | Asset lookup - multiple user groups | Only users in the selected groups will return in the search to be assisted |
| EXCLUDEGROUPS | Asset lookup - multiple user groups | Users in the selected groups won't be returned in the search |
| THRESHOLD | Text input | Used by the Machine Learning worker to look for existing accounts. Default: 0.68 |
| REGISTERFORMID | Drop-down list | A list of published forms. Select the one to use to register new users |
| JOINGROUPS | Asset lookup - multiple user groups | Used by the CSASIMPLESIGNUPDD user registration form. When a new account is created, it will be added to the chosen user groups |
| ASSISTANONYMOUS | Drop-down list | Whether or not users should be able to assist the anonymous user |
| ASSISTANONYMOUSTEXT | Text input | The text to display on the "Assist Anonymous User" button |
| REFINESEARCHFIELDS, REFINESEARCHDATA and REFINESEARCHFIELDSSELECTOR | Various | These fields build up the table of search fields |
| RESULTCOLUMNS, RESULTSCOLUMNSDATA and COLUMNSELECTOR | Various | These fields build the custom columns in the results table |
| USERFORMID | Drop-down list | A list of all published forms. Select the one to use to display profile information. Recommended: "Site User Profile Form" |
| SHORTCUTS | Asset lookup - multiple article | Select the articles that will appear as shortcuts to the agent in the user details view |
Subsite Configuration
The configuration settings of each subsite should identify the assisted service article. This allows functionality, like the Assisted Service form fields, to check the assisted service article context for things such as user permissions.
