Help Desks

A Help Desk groups contact channels, availability, form fields, and escalation settings. An Organization can connect one Help Desk to multiple Assistants.

Current channel behavior

Only configure a channel after you test its complete Visitor path.

Create a ticket

The Create a ticket channel files a record in the system that the Help Desk names as its ticketing target. Set the target before you add the channel.

Set the ticketing target

1. Connect Salesforce or ServiceNow under Knowledge → Applications. The connection must belong to the Organization. A personal connection is not shown.
2. Open the Help Desk.
3. In Ticketing Integration, select Choose a connection.
4. Select the connection.
5. For ServiceNow, enter the Table. The default is incident. You can also enter a Requester email column. It cannot be description or short_description, because those columns hold ticket content.
6. Select Save.

Field mapping

The channel form starts with three fields: Email, Subject, and Description.

Other fields that the Visitor fills in go into the description as Label: value lines. If the channel's Conversation Data includes the full chat history, the transcript follows the description. A Salesforce Case gets the origin Web.

The subject limit is 255 characters. The description limit is 32,000 characters, including form values, the summary and the transcript. Ciele asks you to shorten an oversized request before it files a ticket. It does not cut off the text. The external system can enforce lower limits.

Permissions

• Salesforce: the user who connected the application must have the Create permission on Cases. The connection needs no new scope.
• ServiceNow: the user who connected the application must be able to create records in the target table.

Results

• The Visitor sees the confirmation message, the ticket number and a View ticket link. The external system can require sign-in.
• The Inbox shows the ticket number in the Escalation panel, with a link to the record. A ticket submitted before the first chat message creates a Conversation there too.
• If the browser retries the same submission, Ciele does not file a second record. A request still in progress stays on the form. Select Submit again to check its status.
• If Salesforce or ServiceNow refuses the record or does not answer, the widget shows the other channels of the Help Desk. The Conversation is not marked as escalated. If a response is lost, the record may exist in the external system. Ciele does not repeat that submission. Contact the Help Desk before you submit a new request.
• After a failure, an Integration alert names the connection and the error. The alert clears when the next ticket is filed.

ServiceNow with a password

Earlier, a Help Desk could connect ServiceNow with a username and password. That integration no longer files tickets. A Help Desk that still has it shows an alert. Connect ServiceNow under Knowledge → Applications and select that connection as the ticketing target.

Chat summary

The Conversation Data tab of an Email, API endpoint or Create a ticket channel has a Chat summary setting. When it is on, Ciele writes a short summary of the Conversation when a Visitor escalates. The summary tells your team what the Visitor asked and what the Assistant already answered.

• An email escalation shows the summary above the form fields. If Full chat history is also on, the transcript comes after the form fields.
• An API endpoint escalation sends the summary in the summary field of the payload.
• A Create a ticket escalation appends the summary to the ticket description, followed by the transcript when requested.
• The Inbox details of the Conversation show the summary.

Ciele uses the AI Provider connections of the Organization for the summary, never the personal subscription of a Member. Ciele records the call in the AI usage of the Organization. If the Visitor sends the same escalation again, Ciele uses the same summary and does not call the model again.

If Ciele cannot write the summary, the escalation still goes out. The email shows the line "Summary unavailable". The API payload has summary set to null and summaryNote set to "Summary unavailable". An escalation before the Visitor sends a message has no summary.

Live operator channel

A Live operator channel lets a Visitor ask for a person without leaving the chat. The channel has a name, an optional form, an availability schedule and a wait timeout. The default wait timeout is 5 minutes.

When a Visitor selects the channel:

1. The Visitor fills in the form, if the channel has one.
2. The Conversation goes into the Waiting list at the top of the Inbox. The oldest wait is first, and each row shows the wait time and the Help Desk.
3. The Inbox navigation item shows how many Visitors are waiting.
4. The chat window tells the Visitor that a person will join. The Assistant does not answer while the Visitor waits, but it saves each message.
5. A Member selects the Conversation and selects Take over. The wait stops, and the Member answers in the same chat. Refer to Inbox.

If nobody takes over before the timeout, the chat window tells the Visitor. The Assistant answers again, and the chat window shows the other channels of the Help Desk.

Operators and status

A Help Desk with a Live operator channel has an Operators section. Select the Members who answer this channel. Each operator has a capacity, which is the maximum number of Conversations that the operator holds at the same time. The default capacity is 3.

Each operator sets Available or Away with the status button in the top bar. Ciele keeps the status when you reload the page. When you sign out, your status changes to Away.

Ciele shows the Live operator channel to a Visitor only when at least one operator of the Help Desk is Available. A Visitor does not wait in a queue that nobody watches.

Assignment

When a Visitor starts to wait, Ciele assigns the Conversation to one operator of the Help Desk:

• The operator must be Available and below their capacity.
• Ciele selects the operator with the fewest Conversations. A Conversation that the operator holds or that waits for them counts.
• If two operators have the same number, Ciele selects the operator who got an assignment least recently.

The assigned operator gets a persistent Member Notification in the console. It stays in Notifications until read, archived, or deleted. The Waiting list shows Assigned to you for that Conversation. The assigned operator or any other Member who can answer Visitors can take it over.

If no operator is free, the Conversation stays in the Waiting list without an assignment. Ciele assigns it when an operator releases a Conversation or changes to Available.

Ciele records the escalation on the Conversation like the other channel types. The Inbox details show the channel name and the form values. If the Help Desk creates Improvements on escalation, this channel does that too.

Escalation selection

An Assistant can show an always-available Contact support action. Ciele can recommend a connected Help Desk from its description and Conversation context.

The Visitor selects one available channel. The widget then shows the configured form or contact action.

A Visitor can also write @ in the message box. The chat window shows the Help Desks that this Assistant can recommend. When the Visitor selects one, the chat window removes the @ and shows that Help Desk. The text is not sent to the Assistant.

A Help Desk with no active channel does not show in this list.

Create a Help Desk

1. Open Help Desks.
2. Create a Help Desk.
3. Enter a name and routing description.
4. Add one supported channel.
5. Configure availability and form fields.
6. Connect the Help Desk to an Assistant.
7. Test the escalation in Preview.

Console presence

The console renews Available while the signed-in operator remains connected. Closing every console tab or losing the session makes the operator Away within two minutes.

Reloading an active console preserves the status. A heartbeat never changes an explicit Away back to Available. Select Available to receive assignments again.