This document provides a clear, logical framework for managing the entire customer conversation lifecycle, detailing the synergistic relationship between the automated Chatbot and the agent-powered Inbox. By understanding these core components and the rules that connect them, your team can deliver efficient, organized, and exceptional support.
1.0 Foundational Concepts: Managing Users and Teams
1.1 Understanding User Roles and Permissions
A clear understanding of user roles is the foundation for security, operational efficiency, and the proper delegation of responsibilities within the platform. Assigning the correct role to each team member ensures they have the access they need to perform their duties without being granted unnecessary permissions.
BusinessChat User Roles
Role | Key Responsibilities & Capabilities | Key Limitations |
Owner | The primary account holder with full administrative control. Possesses all Admin privileges. | Cannot be deleted by any other user. |
Admin | Manages all operational aspects of the account, including adding/removing users, creating teams, modifying settings, and accessing all conversations and reports. Can create assets like WhatsApp templates, saved replies, and topics. | Cannot delete or modify the Owner's account. |
User | The standard agent role, primarily responsible for handling assigned customer conversations. | Cannot create templates, saved replies, or topics. Visibility is limited to their own conversations and those of their assigned teams, based on permissions. |
Users' Special Permissions
Beyond the standard role definitions, an Owner or Admin can grant specific, powerful permissions to any user, allowing them to handle tasks that extend beyond typical conversation management.
Campaigns Permission: Grants access to the platform's marketing sections, enabling the user to manage and launch marketing campaigns and automations. This, however, doesn’t mean they can create new templates; they would still need an admin to create the template to be used.
Subscription Management Permission: Allows a user to manage the account's billing information, including accessing invoices, handling payment methods, and paying for the subscription.
Note: Users with no marketing permissions will not be able to see the marketing or automations icons and pages on the platform.
With a clear structure of user roles and permissions in place, the next step is to organize these individuals into functional groups, or teams, to streamline operations.
1.2 Adding new users
To add a new user to the BusinessChat platform, you must be an Owner or an Admin. The platform allows you to add as many users as you need, though your subscription plan determines how many are free (usually a minimum of 5 users) versus paid additions.
Follow these steps to add a new user:
Navigate to Settings: Click on your profile avatar in the bottom corner of the screen and select Account Settings.
Access Users Menu: Click on Users.
Initiate Addition: Click on the New User button.
Enter User Details: You will need to provide the following information:
◦ Name: First name and Last name (Surname).
◦ Email: The user's email address.
◦ Phone Number: The user's mobile number, including the country code.
◦ User Role: Select whether they will be an Admin or a User (see role definitions above).
Teams: Select which team(s) this user belongs to.
Send Invite: Once the information is filled out, click Send Invite.
What happens next? The new user will receive an email containing a link to confirm and activate their account.
Important Considerations: Subscription Limits & Costs for users:
• Your plan includes a specific number of free users. Check how many users are you allowed to add before attempting to add any new users.
IMPORTANT NOTE on displaying or hiding agent name: the user name will be visible in the chats when the user is replying after escalation from the bot. If you want to hide the agent name you need to deactivate this option from the chatbot settings. Navigate to Chatbot > Settings > Bot name > and toggle off the option to show employee name.
1.3 Deleting users
You cannot delete a user from the BusinessChat account. Users would usually have important data linked to them such as the assigned conversations and reports, hence you cannot delete a user to preserve this data. You can instead deactivate a user through these steps:
Navigate to Settings from your profile avatar
Select Users from the general settings
Click the Edit button next to the user you want to deactivate
Click Deactivate user and confirm by clicking deactivate again from the small popup.
=> Once you deactivate a user, they will no longer be assigned to any new conversations.
Note: Deactivating a user frees up a license. This allows you to add a new agent while staying within your plan's user limit. Example: If your plan includes 5 users and you deactivate one, you'll have 4 active users and can now add one new agent.
1.3 Organizing for Success: How Teams Work
In the BusinessChat ecosystem, "Teams" are the primary mechanism for routing conversations, managing workloads, and enabling collaboration. They are functional groups (e.g., "Sales," "Support," "Returns") that allow you to direct customer inquiries to the correct set of experts and manage their capacity effectively. Every user on the platform must belong to at least one team.
Organizing users into teams provides several key benefits:
Targeted Routing: Allows the chatbot to direct specific types of customer inquiries to the correct group of experts automatically. You can choose this routing to be based on inbound inquiry type, location, etc. It all depends on how you've divided your teams and where you want each conversation to be routed.
Shared Inbox: Gives all team members access to a shared queue of conversations, enabling collaboration and ensuring no customer query is left waiting.
Workload Management: Enables settings like "Working Hours" and "Assignment Limits" to be applied to an entire group, helping to manage team availability and prevent agent burnout.
1.4 How to Add a New Team
To add a team on BusinessChat, you must be an Admin or Owner. Follow these steps to create a new team:
Steps to create a team
Navigate to Settings: Click on your profile avatar at the bottom of the screen and select Account Settings.
Open General Settings: Click on Teams.
Create Team: Click the Add Team button.
Name the Team: Enter a name for the team (e.g., "Sales" or "Support"), add an icon if you want and click Save.
Once created, you can click the Edit button (pencil icon) next to the team name to configure its specific settings.
Team Settings Explained
Team settings allow you to control how work is distributed, when the team is available, and what data they can see.
Member Management
• Add/Remove Users: You can add specific users to the team. Every user on the platform must belong to at least one team.
• Impact: Members of a team share a common "Team Inbox," allowing them to collaborate and pick up unassigned conversations routed to that specific group.
NOTE: TO add a new user to a team after you've created a team, you can choose the team to which that user will belong to when you first create an invitation to that user. While to delete a user from a team, go to the Teams section from Settings > choose the team and click the Edit icon > Click Members > Choose the user you want to remove from the team and confirm by clicking Remove From Team. This action will only remove the user from this specific team, it will not remove the user from the account itself.
Assignment Limit (Workload Control)
What it is: This setting lets you cap the maximum number of "Open" conversations a user can handle simultaneously.
How it works: If a user reaches their limit (e.g., 3 chats), the system will stop assigning new chats to them until they close an existing one. The remaining incoming conversations will be available in the Unassigned View. Any user can reply, and they will be assigned immediately, regardless of currently assigned conversations. If disabled, the system assigns chats evenly to all available users regardless of their current workload.
Benefit: Prevents agent burnout and ensures faster response times.
Cumulative Limits Logic: If a user belongs to multiple teams, the assignment limit applies to each team separately. Implication: The system does not look at the user's total global limit, but rather the limit per team. (e.g., If Team A has a limit of 3 and Team B has a limit of 3, a user in both could theoretically receive 6 active chats).
Working Hours
• What it is: You can define specific operating hours and holidays for each team.
• Impact on Chatbot: If a customer requests this team outside of these hours, the Chatbot will trigger an "Outside Working Hours" message, informing the customer when the team will be back online. The outside of the working hours message can be set up from the Operator.
How to determine a team's working hours: Choose the team to edit its working hours by clicking the Edit Pen next to its name > Click team working hours > Set the working hours and copy it to all working days. Toggle to mark a day as a "Day Off."
NOTE: You can set different shift for the same day. To do so, click Shifts> set the time for the first shift > Click Add New Shift and set the time for the second shift. you can add up to 4 shifts.
IMPORTANT NOTE: check the account's Time Zone settings, from the General Settings to ensure the working hours match the local time.
Conversation Access (Permissions):
This setting dictates what conversations team members can see in their inbox. There are generally four levels of visibility:
• Level 1 (Default): Users see their own chats, the team’s shared chats, and bot conversations. This doesn’t require changing this specific feature to grant default access to all conversations.
• Level 2 (Restrictive): Users see only the conversations assigned specifically to them.
• Level 3: Users see their own chats and the team's shared chats, but cannot see Bot conversations.
• Level 4 (Broad): Users can access conversations from their team and other specific teams you select.
Mandatory Topic Selection
• What it is: You can force agents to select a "Topic" (e.g., "Complaint," "Inquiry") before they are allowed to close a conversation.
• Benefit: This ensures accurate reporting on why customers are contacting you.
1.5 Can teams be deleted?
You cannot delete teams created on the BusinessChat platform, this is a measure to preserve your data since there are conversations and reports built around alll teams.
You can, however, archive a team if you no longer need it. To archive a team, follow these steps:
Go to Settings from your profile avatar
Click on Teams from the General settigs menu
Click the Archive (red button) next to the team you want to archive
A pop up will appear to prompt you to reassign the conversations of this team to a different active team. Choose a team and confirm archiving.
This might create an overload of conversations assigned to the current active team and you should be ready to handle that as all conversations that were assigned to the archived team will be routed to the new team you chose.
You can un-archive a team: to restore a team follow these steps: Go to "Archived" tab from the teams section -> Click Un-archive icon.
This organization of users into teams is the prerequisite for the platform's intelligent rules that govern how conversations are assigned.
2.0 The Automated Frontline: Mastering the BusinessChat Chatbot
2.1 Core Chatbot Architecture and Initial Setup
The BusinessChat Chatbot serves as your 24/7 frontline support, designed to handle repetitive queries automatically and escalate more complex issues to human agents. Its primary goal is to provide immediate answers to common questions, freeing up your team to focus on high-value interactions that require a human touch.
IMPORTANT: The basic chatbot offers single-level interaction only. Once a customer selects an option and receives a response, they cannot navigate deeper into a submenu or decision tree. To continue interacting, they must either return to the main menu or select a specific action you have provided in the reply (e.g., 'Contact Support').
The Basic Chatbot components are the following:
Menu Message: The first message a customer sees after selecting their language, which presents the main options for interaction.
Bot Path & Buttons: The interactive journey you design for the customer. The bot can have up to 10 main menu buttons, each directing the customer down a specific path.
Button Actions: The specific outcomes tied to each button, such as sending a message, transferring to a human team, or ending the conversation.
Initial Chatbot Setup
Follow these steps to set up the basic chatbot:
Click the Chatbot icon from the BusinessChat main page, and then click Settings
Adding Languages: The chatbot can communicate in up to three languages. For each language added, you must provide a friendly welcome message. The language selection prompt will only appear to customers if more than one language is active.
Naming Your Bot: In the settings, assign a "Bot Nickname." This helps customers easily distinguish between automated responses from the bot and messages from a human agent.
Displaying or Hiding Agents Names: A simple toggle allows you to choose whether the specific agent's name (First + Family Name) is displayed when a human takes over a conversation, adding a personal touch to the interaction. You can choose whether to display or hide the agent name from the conversation by toggling this button on or off.
With the basic configuration complete, you can begin designing the interactive journey your customers will experience.
Important
The chatbot can be activated exclusively on the BusinessChat platform and does not support integration with social media messaging platforms, for example. If you wish to redirect conversations from social media platforms such as Instagram to BusinessChat, you can add a WhatsApp link to your social media accounts. When clicked, customers will be redirected to the WhatsApp channel and will interact with the chatbot you have launched on BusinessChat.
2.2 Architecting the Customer Journey
A well-designed conversation flow is intuitive, efficient, and guides the customer to a resolution with minimal effort. Once you’re in the Chatbot interface, click Chatbot to start designing the flow:
Crafting Your Main Menu Message
This is the first message a customer sees after the welcome/language selection. It should be clear and concise, explaining what the bot can help with and how to navigate the options.
Building Your Menu Buttons
You can create up to 10 main menu buttons, which you can reorder using a simple drag-and-drop interface. For each button, you define its name and the automated response that is sent when a customer clicks it. When configuring a "Menu Message" button, you can attach Images, Documents, or Location pins along with the text response.
Crucially, the bot does not support exact text matching. If a button is named "Support," a customer typing the word "Support" will trigger the "Incorrect Input" rule rather than activating the button's path. Customers must click the buttons to navigate.
Defining the Automated Response
When a customer clicks a menu button, the system sends an Automated Response. This is a message you craft that can include text, images, or documents to provide information or guide the customer.
Attaching Action Buttons
In addition to the automated response to be sent based on the customer’s choice, you can attach up to three action buttons to guide the customer's next step. The available actions are:
Talk to a team: Transfers the conversation to a human support team. You need to specify which team the conversation will be assigned to from the dropdown menu of the Talk to a team button.
Return to main menu: Restarts the conversation flow from the beginning.
Go to a menu button: Jumps to the path of another main menu button without restarting.
End the conversation: Formally closes the bot interaction.
Smart Routing & Categorization
To fully automate your triage process, you should configure "Actions" behind every button. This ensures that when a customer makes a choice, the system immediately organizes the conversation before an agent even sees it.
Auto-Assign to Teams (Routing):
How to setup: When adding a "Talk to a Team" action button, you will be prompted to select a specific team from your dropdown list (e.g., Select "Sales Team" for the "Buy a Product" button). * Result: This bypasses the general queue and routes the chat directly to the agents best equipped to handle that specific topic.
Auto-Tagging Conversations (Topics):
How to setup: In the button settings, look for the "Add Topic" option. Select the relevant Topic you created earlier (e.g., assign the "Returns" topic to the "Return an Item" button).
Result: The conversation arrives in the Inbox already categorized. This saves agents time and ensures your "Conversation Topics Report" is accurate without manual data entry.
Integrating Order Tracking
A special "Track Order Status" function can be assigned to a button. When selected, the bot will prompt the customer for their order number. It then retrieves the current order status directly from your connected e-commerce store (Shopify, Salla, or Zid) and displays it to the customer. When your ecommerce platform is not connected, this button will not work properly and will not retrieve the customer’s order status correctly.
If the bot cannot find the order number provided by the customer, it allows them to retry entering the number or offers an option to Talk to the Team.
IMPORTANT NOTE: For accounts on Zid ecommerce platfrom, you can add a custom field ({URL})for the tracking link in this chatbot option. However, for Salla stores, this option is not available, you can only add the order status custom field.
Note: A clarification that the Chatbot's order tracking is a separate feature from the "Order Status Automation" (which sends proactive updates).
Test and launch the chatbot
Once you finish setting up your flow, you can test the chatbot to make sure everything is according to what you need. Simply click Test Chatbot, scan the QR code, and interact with the bot on your phone in real-time. Once satisfied, click Launch to go live. Make sure you launch the chatbot before you move to the Operator section, as the flow will not be saved automatically.
Warning
You cannot temporarily disable or pause the chatbot. You can only delete it. Deleting the chatbot permanently removes the entire designed flow (buttons and steps), forcing you to rebuild from scratch if you want to reactivate it later.
While this main flow handles standard interactions, the Chatbot Operator is essential for managing the exceptions that inevitably arise.
2.3 Fine-Tuning with the Chatbot Operator (المقسم)
The Chatbot Operator is the rulebook that governs how the chatbot handles exceptions and non-standard scenarios. It ensures a smooth customer experience even when interactions fall outside the predefined button paths. It also outlines the rules for when a conversation is handed over from the chatbot to the team.
The Operator includes several key automated rules:
Idle Customer:
If a customer stops responding to the bot for one hour, this rule automatically routes the conversation to a human team for follow-up. This is why you might see conversations get assigned to users and appear in their inbox view long after the customer’s last interaction. Please note that although the rule states the chatbot waits an hour to assign idle conversations, it might actually take a bit longer.
When routed to a team:
if activated, you can write a message to let the customer know that they have been transferred to a human agent and someone will be assisting them soon.
Incorrect Input:
When a customer types a message that the bot doesn't recognize (instead of clicking a button), this rule triggers a message that gently guides them back to using the menu options. You can activate transferring the conversation to a teammate if the customer continues typing multiple times, which indicates they’re unable to handle the chatbot.
The "Incorrect Input" rule (handling invalid customer text) is mandatory and cannot be turned off
Outside Hours:
If a customer requests to speak to a team outside of their configured working hours, this rule sends an automated message informing them of the team's availability. This relies on the working hours being correctly set in the team's settings.
If a customer messaged a user after being routed by the bot:
If a conversation is escalated to a team but an agent has not replied yet, this message can be configured to reassure the customer that they are in the queue and will be attended to shortly. This message will trigger each time the customer types something, while the agent is yet to reply. IMPORTANT NOTE: This rule will trigger even when the customer reaches out outside of working hours. Meaning that if a customer reached asked to talk to customer service outside of working hours, first the Working hours rule will trigger informing the customer that they've contacted you outside of your working hours. Then if the customer types someting again, the agent busy rule will be triggered informing them that they've been transfered to the team.
Conversation Rating:
This rule automatically sends a satisfaction survey to the customer 10 minutes after the conversation closes, providing valuable feedback on agent performance. While the emojis are fixed in the rating message, you can edit the rating message itself. Note that the rating request will be sent only after the conversation is closed by the agent. However, if the agent closes the conversation after the 24 Hour Meta window, the rating message will not be delivered.
Visual Scoring: the emoji scoring system: 😞 (0% - Unsatisfied), 😐 (50% - Neutral), 🤩 (100% - Satisfied)
Bulk Close Exclusion: The survey is not sent if the conversation was closed using the "Bulk Close" feature.
Reconnect with Same Agent (Sticky Agent):
When enabled, this feature routes a customer who replies within 24 hours of their last conversation directly back to the same agent who previously assisted them, bypassing the chatbot entirely for a more continuous experience. Note that if the agent is not active at the time of the second assignment, the conversation will remain assigned to them, it will not be assigned to another active agent.
Once these rules are configured and the flow is designed, the final steps are to test the experience thoroughly and launch it for your customers.
2.4 Handling External Support Numbers (The Redirect Strategy)
In some operations, your Customer Service team may use a separate WhatsApp number (e.g., a standard WhatsApp Business App on a phone) that is different from the API number connected to BusinessChat. Since the platform cannot "transfer" a live chat to a different phone number directly, you must set up a "Redirect Workflow" using a smart link. This ensures customers know they need to click a button to reach your agents.
1. Creating the "Click-to-Support" Link: First, you need a direct link to your support number.
Format: Use the standard WhatsApp short link format: https://wa.me/ followed by the number in international format (no zeros or +). Or use this online free tool to create a lin automatically: https://www.businesschat.io/free-marketing-ressources/whatsapp-link-generator?
Example: https://wa.me/966500000000
2. Configuring the Redirect message: first, you need to remove all the standard "Talk to a Team" buttons from the bot options.
Step 1: First, remove all standard "Talk to a Team" buttons from the bot options.
Step 2: Add a Customer service menu option and write a message informing customers that they need to click the link to talk to support, and paste the wa.me link you created earlier into the message.
Step 3: Edit your operator rules for when a customer is transferred to a human agent, when the customer types after being transferred, and the working-hours message to accommodate this scenario.
Note: you cannot add the wa.me link as a button; it must be added to the message body.
3. Managing the "Ghost" Ticket When a customer clicks the link, they leave the BusinessChat bot, but the conversation technically remains open in your dashboard unless you close it.
Manual Clean-up: instruct your team to bulk-close these conversations in the "Unassigned" view using the Bulk Actions tool to keep your analytics clean.
4. Limitations to Note
Analytics Split: Conversations that happen on the external number will not appear in your BusinessChat reports (Response Time, CSAT, etc.).
No Re-routing: You cannot transfer them back to the main bot automatically; they would need to message the main number again.
3.0 The Human Hub: Mastering the BusinessChat Inbox
3.1 Navigating the Inbox Views
The Inbox is the central command center for all live, human-to-human interactions. Its structure is logically organized into distinct views, allowing your team to quickly find, manage, and collaborate on customer queries escalated from the chatbot.
My Conversations: This is the agent's personal workspace, showing only the conversations that are explicitly assigned to them.
Chatbot Conversations: This view provides a complete log of all conversations currently being handled by the automated chatbot, which will include inbound customer conversations that weren't escalated to human support, bulk campaign messages, and automations messages.
Unassigned: This is a crucial queue that holds all conversations escalated by the chatbot that are awaiting assignment to a human agent.
Teams: These are shared inboxes accessible to all members of a specific team (e.g., "Sales," "Support"). This view is ideal for Admins and supervisors monitoring overall team activity. Warning: Standard users should avoid replying from this view, as it can cause confusion about who owns which conversation.
Conversations by Topic: This filtered view allows you to see all conversations that have been tagged with a specific topic (e.g., "Returns," "Billing Inquiry"), making it easy to analyze trends. If not enabled by default, you need to click the three dots next to the Topics View and click the name of the topic you wish to view conversations listed under.
Automations views: while all automations messages can be found in the chatbot view, this divided view allows you to see sent messages by automation type.
Conversation Status Tabs (Open vs. Closed): Within each of the views above (e.g., "My Conversations" or "Teams"), you can toggle between two primary states: Open: Active conversations currently requiring attention. And Closed: Historical conversations that have been resolved.
Note: In a single-user account, the "Team" and "My Conversations" views will be identical. However, in a multi-user environment, the "Team" view shows the aggregate of all conversations for that team, while "My Conversations" shows only those assigned to the individual agent.
Understanding this layout is the first step to efficiently managing the lifecycle of a conversation within the Inbox and how conversations are distributed between users.
3.2 How conversations are assigned to users
Conversations are automatically assigned to logged in users as per the assignment conditions set up on your account and the systems' general rules.
3.2.1 Bot-to-User Conversation Assignment Guide
1. Automatic Conversations Assignment Logic
The platform automatically routes incoming chats based on the following hierarchy:
Team Routing: Chats are routed to the specific team linked to the Chatbot button selected by the customer (e.g., "Complaints" button routes to the Complaints Team).
Availability Check: Only Online (logged in ) users within that team are eligible.
Watch Mode Exclusion: Users in Watching Mode are skipped. (Note: owners and Admins have their Watching Mode on by defaut and need to manually deactivate if they wish to handle conversations. Users have thei Watching mode Off by default)
Assignment Limits:
If a user reaches their configured Assignment Limit, they receive no new chats.
If limits are disabled, chats are distributed equally.
Priority: The system assigns the chat to the user with the fewest open conversations once they have capacity.
2. Overflow Handling (No Agents Available)
If the system cannot assign a chat (e.g., all agents reached their limit):
The chat remains in the Unassigned inbox.
Agents can manually pick these chats by simply replying to the conversations they want from the Unassigned inbox.
The system continuously monitors the queue and will auto-assign the chat as soon as an eligible agent becomes available.
3. Implicit Assignment Triggers
A conversation is automatically assigned to a specific user if that user:
Replies manually to a bot conversation.
Re-opens a previously closed conversation.
Closes a conversation (they retain ownership).
4. Manual Re-assignment
Users with access can manually re-assign chats via the assignee dropdown menu inside the conversation:
To a User: Transferred immediately.
To a Team: The chat moves to the team's queue, and the system auto-assigns it to the member with the fewest open chats.
3.2.2 Sharing Conversations
Team members can share conversations among themselves if they need assistance. To share a conversation:
Method: Copy and send the browser URL of the conversation.
Requirement: The recipient must have a BusinessChat account and the necessary permissions to view that specific conversation/team.
Of course this is useful for one time sharing, however, if your team needs to share conversations frequently, using topics tagging for instance is a much better way to do so.
3.3 The Conversation Lifecycle and Agent Actions
Every customer query handled in the Inbox follows a structured workflow, from the initial message to the final resolution.
Identifying and Prioritizing Messages
A blue line appears next to any conversation with a new, unread message. This indicator is only visible in the My Conversations view.
Any conversation that receives a new message from a customer automatically moves to the top of the list, ensuring that active queries get priority. However the events within the conversations might trump the priority and moves the conversation with the new event to the top of the list.
Fallback Logic for Sorting Open Conversations: If a conversation has no messages from the customer, it is ordered based on the last time it was opened.
Filtering for Efficiency: Use the "Show Unread Only" button to filter your queue instantly. This hides all read messages and isolates only those requiring an immediate response, allowing you to clear your backlog faster without distraction. This is available only in the My Conversations view.
Replying to Customers
Within the open 24-hour window since the customer messaged your business, agents can type free-form messages or use powerful tools for efficiency. Saved Replies allow for fast, consistent answers to frequently asked questions.
Note: If two agents attempt to reply to the same conversation simultaneously, the conversation stays assigned to the first agent it was automatically or manually assigned to.
Collaborating with Internal Notes in the Inbox
Internal notes are a vital tool for team collaboration. These messages are highlighted in yellow and are visible only to your team members—they are completely hidden from the customer.
Use notes to share context, ask a colleague for help, or leave a reminder for the next agent.
To add a note to a conversation, simply click the "Notes" button within the reply box and it will change to yellow. Write your note and click "Add note".
You can search within the same conversation using the Search box from the bottom left side panel of the conversation (The box under the customer orders list).
You can also search within all conversations using the Search bar from the top of the page; click the Search icon next to the word Inbox, a small box will appear, type your keyword and click enter and all conversations that include that keuword will appear.
Limitation: The platform does not send automatic alerts when a user is mentioned in a note.
Tracking Conversation Events
The specific tip that admins should use the conversation event log (which displays time-stamped updates for status changes, assignments, and ratings) to verify/debug if the bot is distributing conversations to the team correctly and other potential issues.
Categorizing the Conversation (Topics):
Applying a topic is essential for the "Conversation Topics Report," which helps the business understand why customers are contacting you. Click the Topic icon from the top of the conversation interface and choose the correct topic; it will be added to the conversation. When looking for the conversations tagged by a certain topic, look in the Closed and Opened views.
IMPORTANT NOTE: A conversation is removed from the "Topic View" if the conversation is closed and then reopened (by a user or customer), or if the topic is manually removed or archived. However, the conversation will still be visible in the Conversations Topics report.
Closing a Conversation
It is critical to distinguish between two types of "closure":
BusinessChat Closure: This is an organizational action taken by an agent to signify that a customer's issue has been resolved. Closing conversations keeps the inbox tidy and, most importantly, allows the chatbot to re-engage if the customer messages again. To close a conversation, the user needs to click the Close icon from the top of the conversation box and the conversation will be visible on the Closed conversations view.
Explicit Sorting Logic for Closed Conversations: Closed conversations are sorted specifically by their closing date, with the most recently closed conversations appearing at the top.
Meta's 24-Hour Window: This is a platform rule from WhatsApp. A messaging session automatically expires 24 hours after the customer's last message.
To help manage this deadline, a visual SLA Indicator circle appears next to conversations:
🟡 Yellow: 20–21 hours have passed.
🟠 Orange: 21–23 hours have passed.
🔴 Red: Final hour (23–24 hours).
Critical Note: The Chatbot is muted as long as a conversation is open and assigned to a human agent. The bot only resumes control after the agent formally closes the conversation.
6. Re-Opening a closed Conversation
A conversation can be re-opened, but the method depends on Meta's 24-hour window:
6.1 How to reopen a conversation Within the 24-hour window and closed by BusinessChat:
When a conversation is still open from Meta but closed by BusinessChat, and the conversation will appear in the Closed view. An agent can simply re-open the conversation from the "Closed" tab and continue sending free-form messages. Just click the reopen icon and the conversation will be reopened and transfered to the Open conversations view.
6.2 How to reopen a conversation After the 24-hour window has expired (closed bt Meta):
When a conversation is closed by Meta, meaning the 24 hours window has expired, free-form messages are blocked. The agent must use an approved "Utility" message template to re-engage. This template costs 0.4 SAR to send, per Meta's pricing, and the 24-hour window only restarts if the customer replies to it.
How to create a customer service template: Admin Configuration:
To use a Utility Template for the agent to re-open a closed 24-hour conversation, an Admin must create a template:
Go to: Account Settings > WhatsApp Templates.
Create New: Select category "Agent Response”, which is the equivalent of customer service.
Draft Message: Write a clear re-engagement message (e.g., "Hello {{1}}, we have an update regarding your ticket. Please reply to continue."). Or better yet, choose from the Agent response template samples to ensure it gets approved as Utility.
Submit for Approval: Meta must approve the template (usually takes a few minutes to 24 hours).
Note: Meta is strict in categorizing templates, and most likely the template will be categorized as Marketing. While it can still be used in the inbox, as long as the local usage is set to Agent response, it might fail to send due to the "Maintaining a healthy ecosystem" error. If this happens, we suggest that you create a template with the exact body message of the available Agent response templates on the platform to be approved as Utility. Once that’s sent and the customer replies, you can write whatever message you want.
To reopen a closed 24 hours window, follow these steps:
Click the "Select a Template" button from the reply box
From the popup that will appear, search by name and choose the template you just created or the one already available and click send.
3.4 Essential Inbox Tools and Management
The Inbox is equipped with tools designed to enhance agent efficiency and provide administrative oversight.
Saved Replies Management:
While agents use these for speed, only Admins can create them.
To create a saved reply:
Navigate to Account Settings
Click Inbox Settings > Saved Replies
Click "Add New," enter a name (e.g., /refund), and type the full standard response.
Note: you can insert custom fields into the saved reply to customize messages for each customer (e.g., inserting the customer's name automatically). you simply add the custom field when creating the Saved reply, and when sending it from the inbox, click the custom field and write what you need.
To send a Save Reply in a conversation, you just need to click the Saved Reply icon from within the typing box and choose the right Reply and click Send.
Saved replies can be deleted at any time, however they will not be removed from historical conversation where it was already sent.
Replying to specific message:
You can respond to a specific point in the conversation by hovering over the customer's message and clicking the reply arrow. This links your answer to their specific message, providing better context for the customer.
Reply tools inside the inbox:
The reply box supports attachments, including Files, Images, Location pins, Voice notes, and Emojis.
Topic Management:
Topics are tags used to categorize conversations for reporting. While users can use them from the inbox to tag conversations, only Admins can create new topics. To create a topic, Go to Account Settings from your profile avatar > Inbox Settings > Topics. Click "Add New," assign a name (e.g., "Refund Request," "Technical Issue") and save. Note that Topics can only be Archived, tey cannot be deleted to preserve the attached data. Archived topics will no longer be visible to users from the inbox but will still be available in the related Conversation Topics Report. To archive a topic, go to Settings from your profile avatar > Inbox Settings > Topics > Click the Archive button next to the topic's name.
Searching Conversations:
The platform offers two distinct search functions:
The main search bar at the top of the inbox searches for text within internal notes across all conversations. It requires at least four characters to initiate a search.
The search bar in the right-hand panel searches for keywords within the message history of the currently selected conversation.
Customer Details Panel: Located on the right-hand side, this panel displays key customer information, including their name and contact details. If an e-commerce store is connected, it also shows a history of their previous orders. From this panel, you can block a user or sign them out of receiving marketing messages if they request it.
Bulk Close conversations:
This Admin-only feature allows you to manage multiple conversations at once. For example, an Admin can use time, user or team filters to bulk-close all conversations that have been inactive for more than 48 hours for example. To locate the Bulk Close feature, go to Settings from the profile avatar, click Conversations settings, and Bulk close. Closing a massive number of conversations might take a while. You will receive an email once all conversations are closed. Refresh the page after receiving the confirmation email to see the updated results. (NOTE: The bulk close cannot be undone, so pay attention to the filters you're using to close conversations).
These tools, combined with the structured workflow, depend on an underlying system logic that delivers conversations to the right agent in the first place.
3.4 Managing Customer Contacts
While the Inbox manages conversations, the Contacts section allows you to manage the people you interact with. This is essential for initiating new support messages or updating customer details.
1. Searching for a Contact:
Before adding a new contact, always search to avoid duplicates.
Global Search: Go to the Contacts Icon from he main BusinessChat page, locate the search field to search for your contact.
Search Criteria: You can find customers by Name or Phone Number (in international format, e.g., 966...) or with order IDs. Make sure to click the right search criteria from the filter “Search by.”
Results: Clicking a result will open their conversation. If they have an active conversation, it will take you directly to it.
2. Adding a New Contact (Individually) to the platform from a web browser
If a customer contacts you via a different channel (e.g., phone) and you want to message them on WhatsApp:
Step 1: Navigate to the "Contacts" icon
Step 2: Click "Create or upload contacts". And choose “add a new contact.”
Step 3: Enter the required details:
First & Last Name (Required for personalization).
Phone Number (Must include country code, e.g., 9665XXXXXXXX).
Step 4: Once saved, you can immediately send a template message to start the conversation (standard 24-hour rules apply).
2. Adding a New Contact (Individually) to the platform from the Mobile app
If a user is using BusinessChat from the mobile app and want to add an individual contact number, then follow these steps:
Click the Search icon from the bottom of the page
Click the Plus icon
Add the contact details and click Add
4. Bulk Importing Contacts (Admin Only)
For marketing campaigns or migrating from another system, do not add contacts one by one.
Step 1: Go to the "Audience" or "Contacts" section.
Step 2: Click "Import" (usually requires a CSV file).
Step 3: Map your columns: Click the phone numbers column.
Step 4: Click “New Group” or “Add to existing group”
Step 5: Add the country code
Step 6: Click Save
Note on Permissions:
Standard Agents can typically search and add individual contacts.
Admins have exclusive permission to perform Bulk Imports and export customer data.
4.0 The Core Workflow: Conversation Assignment and Synergy
4.1 The Escalation Pathway: From Bot to Human
The seamless handover from the automated Chatbot to a human agent in the Inbox is the core of BusinessChat's powerful hybrid support model. This process ensures that customers who need human assistance receive it promptly and efficiently.
Escalation is triggered in two primary ways: either through an explicit customer request (e.g., clicking a "Talk to an Agent" button) or automatically via the "Idle customer" rule in the Chatbot Operator.
Once escalated, the conversation begins its journey to an agent. It is first routed to the correct team. If no employee of the assigned team is available, the conversation will appear in the Unassigned view, which acts as a central holding queue. Once an agent is available, the system's assignment logic automatically moves the conversation to that agent's inbox.
After assignment, the conversation becomes visible in two places: the agent's personal My Conversations view and the broader Team's view. This pathway is governed by a detailed logic that ensures fairness and efficiency.
4.2 Automated Assignment Logic Explained
The platform uses a precise, step-by-step automated logic to ensure conversations are routed efficiently to the right agent at the right time. When a new conversation is ready for a human, the system follows this three-step process:
Check for Active Users: The system first identifies all users within the designated team who are currently logged in and have their status set to "Active." It ignores any users who are offline or have enabled "Watching Mode."
Check Assignment Limits: Next, it filters out any active users who have already reached the maximum number of concurrent conversations allowed for their team.
Find the Least Busy User: Finally, from the remaining pool of available agents, the system assigns the conversation to the person who currently has the fewest open conversations in their queue.
What if No One is Available?
If all users in a team are offline, in watching mode, or have reached their assignment limit, the conversation is placed in the Unassigned queue. The system continuously monitors this queue, and as soon as an agent becomes available, it automatically assigns the conversation to them based on the standard logic.
Beyond this primary automated flow, Admins can use several settings to control and fine-tune how conversations are distributed.
4.3 Manual Assignments and Special Cases
While the automated logic handles the majority of routing, there are several other ways a conversation can be assigned to an agent, providing flexibility for unique situations.
Manual Reassignment: Any user with access to a conversation can manually reassign it to another specific user or move it to a different team's queue entirely.
Sticky Agent: If enabled, this feature automatically reconnects a customer with the same agent who last handled their inquiry if they reply to a closed conversation within 24 hours.
User Action: If an agent proactively replies to a conversation that is still in the "Bot" or "Unassigned" queue, the system automatically assigns that conversation to them.
These mechanisms work in concert with administrative settings that control overall agent workload and availability.
4.4 Controlling the Flow: Key Assignment Settings
To architect a balanced and sustainable support operation, Admins must strategically manage agent capacity using the following tools at the team level. These settings are designed to manage capacity, maintain service quality, and support a healthy work environment.
Assignment Limits: An Admin can set a cap on the maximum number of concurrent conversations an agent can have open at one time. This is strategically valuable for preventing agent burnout, ensuring an equitable distribution of workload, and discouraging "cherry-picking" of easier conversations.
Working Hours: This feature allows Admins to define specific operating hours for each team. When a customer tries to reach a team outside these hours, the chatbot can trigger an automated message. This protects the business's response time metrics and professionally manages customer expectations. If an agent is available as per assignment rules, a new incoming conversation will be assigned to that agent even if the working hours say it’s outside of official working hours.
Watching Mode: This is a user status that allows an individual to be logged into the platform to monitor conversations and reports without being automatically assigned new chats. It is invaluable for managers and supervisors. By default, Admins and Owners log in to Watching Mode, while standard Users default to Active status. You can control the Watch Mode from the profile avatar by toggling it on or off. If it’s On, the user is not active; if it’s Off, the user is active and ready to handle conversations.
Together, this system of roles, teams, automation, and rules creates a powerful and efficient engine for delivering exceptional customer service.
5.0 Performance Analytics: Measuring and Optimizing Success
Data-driven decision-making is fundamental to improving any customer service operation. The Reports section in BusinessChat is the tool for measuring team performance, understanding customer needs, and identifying operational bottlenecks. Any user with access to these reports will be able to download them, an email will be sent to the email address of the user with the download link.
These reports allow mainly admins and owners to evaluate the performance of teams and employees using specific data segments, as well as understand why customers contact your business and if they are satisfied with the service.
Why you should use Reports instead of the Inbox:
Clarity: The Inbox 'Team View' mixes all conversations together, making it hard to analyze one person's work.
Access: You cannot view a specific user's 'My Conversations' tab unless you log in with their credentials. Reports provide this data without needing access to their account
Important
The exported CSV reports do not contain the actual text/transcript of the messages exchanged. To view the conversation content, the admin must click the specific Conversation Link provided in the report row to view it on the platform.
Conversation Topics Report
What it Measures: The conversation topics report classifies conversations by topic to reveal the most common reasons customers contact you.
Business Benefit: By identifying frequent issues (e.g., "how to return a product"), you can proactively address them by improving your website's FAQ, enhancing chatbot responses, or clarifying product descriptions. This reduces future inquiry volume. You can also use the filtered list of customers from specific topics (e.g., everyone who asked about "Restocking") to create highly relevant Marketing Campaigns.
How to export: Click the Reports icon from the main BusinessChat page (list on the right) > Choose Conversations Reports > Add the filter for the time period tou want to analyze > Group by user or team, and day, week or month > Click the download button in front of the Conversation Topics report card.
Exported Data Includes: Topic, date, user who added the topic, team, customer details, and a link to the conversation.
Analyst's Angle: Export this report along with the CSAT report. A pivot table combining the two can quickly reveal which topics are most correlated with customer dissatisfaction, helping you prioritize areas for immediate improvement.
Conversation Status Report
What it Measures: the conversation status report tracks the total number of conversations opened versus closed over a specific period. It helps understand how many conversations an employee is handling at any given day. This report gives you the opportunity to analyze and see all conversations assigned to any employee.
Closure-Based Attribution in the Conversation Status Report: The system attributes the "Open" and "Close" statistics to the Team and User who performed the closing action.Scenario: If a conversation starts with the Bot => transferred to Team A => re-assigned to Team B => Closed by User in Team B, the report attributes the data entirely to Team B and that specific User.
Business Benefit: This report is a direct measure of team capacity and activity. A large and growing gap between opened and closed conversations is an early warning sign of a backlog, indicating that the team may be understaffed or that agents are not following the best practice of closing resolved chats.
How to export: Click the Reports icon from the main BusinessChat page (list on the right) > Choose Conversations Reports > Add the filter for the time period tou want to analyze > Group by user or team, and day, week or month > Click the download button in front of the Status Report card.
Exported Data Includes: Conversation ID, status (open/closed), open date, assigned user, team, and a link to the conversation.
Analyst's Angle: Group this report's data by "Day" to identify weekly patterns, such as a consistent spike in open conversations on Mondays. This insight can help optimize weekly work schedules.
Conversation Completion Time Report
What it Measures: The conversation completion report calculates the average time (in minutes) from when a conversation is opened until it is closed, also known as Average Handle Time. This report can also be an opportunity to see and analyze all conversations assigned to any employee.
The report only includes data from officially closed conversations. Currently open conversations are excluded from the average calculation to prevent skewed data.
Closing Attribution: The report credits the "Completion Time" data entirely to the User and Team who performed the closing action. Scenario: If a conversation starts with the Bot => Team A => transferred to Team B => Closed by Team B, the stats (opening and closing) are attributed to Team B1.
Business Benefit: It is a key metric for evaluating agent efficiency. You can identify top performers to learn from their workflows and pinpoint agents who may need additional training on product knowledge or internal processes.
How to export: Click the Reports icon from the main BusinessChat page (list on the right) > Choose Conversations Reports > Add the filter for the time period tou want to analyze > Group by user or team, and day, week or month > Click the download button in front of the Conversation Completion Time Report card.
Exported Data Includes: Customer name, assigned user, team, completion duration, and a link to the conversation.
Pro Tip: Don't just look at the overall average. Filter this report by "Topic" to see if certain types of inquiries take significantly longer to resolve. A high completion time for "Billing Issues" might indicate a complex internal process that needs to be simplified.
Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) Report
What it Measures: the customer satisfaction report aggregates results from the post-conversation satisfaction surveys to measure service quality. (Prerequisite: The "request conversation rating" feature must be enabled in the Chatbot Operator).
Business Benefit: CSAT provides a clear, quantitative measure of customer happiness. It helps you track service quality over time, evaluate individual agent performance, and use direct customer feedback to identify strengths and weaknesses. The score is calculated as: 🤩 Satisfied = 100%, 😐 Neutral = 50%, 😞 Unsatisfied = 0%.
How to export: Click the Reports icon from the main BusinessChat page (list on the right) > Choose Conversations Reports > Add the filter for the time period tou want to analyze > Group by user or team, and day, week or month > Click the download button in front of the Customer Satisfaction Report card.
Exported Data Includes: User, team, date, customer info, rating, comments, and a link to the conversation.
Important note: If you notice that the Satisfaction reports doesn't have huge data even though you have significant number of conversations with customers, then check whether your agents are closing the conversations (organizational closure by BusinessChat). If agents are not closing the conversations, the satisfaction survey will not be sent. Also, the survey will not be sent whent he agent closes the conversation after it's already closed from Meta.
Analyst's Angle: The numeric score tells you what the customer felt, but the comments tell you why. Regularly review written feedback to identify specific agent behaviors to praise or process frictions to eliminate. Also, if you cross-reference CSAT scores with Completion Times, this helps identify if agents with the fastest times are achieving high satisfaction (efficiency) or low satisfaction (rushing customers)
NOTE: The conversation satisfaction report is only accurate and comprehensive if your employees are closing the conversations since the conversation rating request is only sent after the conversation is closed. If you notice that this report doesn't have much data despite the high conversations volume then you need to check if your employees are closing the conversations or not.
6. Chatbot Relationship with Automations
It is essential to understand the relationship between the chatbot and other automations (like Cart Abandonment).
Chatbot: Handles direct, real-time conversations initiated by the customer.
Automation Flows: Triggered by behavior over time (e.g., abandoned cart).
All sent messages from the automations or bulk campaigns will appear in the Closed bot view and the specific automation view. If a customer types, the conversations will follow the flow of any other conversation.
Note: If a customer replies to a Marketing Campaign or an automation message, the Chatbot will immediately trigger the Main Menu.
FAQs
Can I pause the chatbot?
=> Once you launch the chatbot, you cannot pause it. You can only delete it.
Can I edit the chatbot?
=> You can edit the chatbot buttons and options as you need. You can follow the same launch steps to edit the flow and then save the changes.
Can I change a customer’s name?
=> Yes, open the customer's conversation and click the pen icon next to their name, type the right name, and click save.
Can I reply to a specific message?
=> Yes, you can reply to a specicif message from a customer, by clicking the arrow icon that will appear when you hover over the specific message.
Can I download an audio message from a customer conversation?
=> No, you cannot download any audio messages from your customers conversations. You can only download videos or files. You should see a download button or icon next to the file or if you click the three dots on the message.
Why is the bot informing customers that they have been transferred to customer support even outside of working hours?
=> You would this behavior in case you have both the "when a customer contacts you out of working hours" rule and "if a customer messaged a user after being routed by the bot" rule. The scenario is as follows: when a customer asks to talk to customer service outside of working hours, first the Working hours rule will trigger informing the customer that they've contacted you outside of your working hours. Then if the customer types someting again, the second rule ("if a customer messaged a user after being routed by the bot") will be triggered informing them that they've been transfered to the team.