Live Chat is Showing Offline

There are times when SmarterTrack administrators may see that the live chat link on their SmarterTrack portal, or any custom live chat links placed on a website, appears as offline. Here are a few suggestions for troubleshooting why live chat may show offline.

Make sure your business hours and default time zone are in sync

Often times, live chat will appear offline for customers because their default time zone is set to one thing but their business hours are set to something else. For example, a customer in Sydney, Australia has their default time zone set to Mountain Standard Time in the U.S., but their business hours are set for their actual business hours in Sydney.

An easy way to test this is to enable live chats outside of your business hours. To do this, log in as an administrator and go to Settings >> Configuration >> Live Chats.  In the Options tab, uncheck the Disallow new chats outside of business hours setting. This removes the business hours restrictions for live chats. If you live chat shows Online from the portal, then this is your issue.

To check your default time zone

  1. Log in to SmarterTrack with an administrative account.
  2. Go to Settings >> Configuration and click on Languages and Locale.
  3. On the Options tab, make sure the Default Time Zone is set to your current location.
  4. Make sure to click the Save button to save the settings.

To set your business hours

  1. Log in to SmarterTrack with an administrative account.
  2. Go to Settings >> Manage >> Brands and edit the appropriate brand.
  3. Select the Business Hours tab and make sure that they correspond to the days and times you want live chat to be available.

Make sure Live Chat is enabled for the Department

  1. Log in with an administrative account.
  2. Go to Settings >> Configuration >> Live Chat.
  3. Click on the Departments tab.
  4. Double click on the Department you want active in live chat.
  5. On the Options tab, select the desired role from the New Chats in Portal dropdown.
  6. Make sure to click the Save twice button to save the settings.

Make sure there are Agents active for live chat

Method 1: Use the Department dashboard

One way to do this is to open the Department dashboard (the Dashboards dropdown is on the top, right of the management interface). Look for the Department and make sure that there are active chat agents. If the Chat Agents column shows something like 0/5, that means that there are no chat agents active in chats out of 5 possible agents.

Method 2: Review the Group

Another way to make sure agents are active in chat is go take a look at the Group that is set up to accept live chats

  1. Go to Settings >> Manage >> Groups.
  2. Double click on the group you want to review.
  3. Click on the Agents tab.
  4. To add live chat to an agent, double click on the agent username.
  5. Once the Agent-Group Relationship page is opened for the agent, make sure that Enable live chat is checked and click OK to save the setting.

 

Learn more about the SmarterTrack online help desk and how you can improve your overall customer service.