View notifications

Omnichannel for Customer Service offers a suite of capabilities that extend the power of Dynamics 365 Customer Service Enterprise to enable organizations to instantly connect and engage with their customers across digital messaging channels. An additional license is required to access Omnichannel for Customer Service. For more information, see the Dynamics 365 Customer Service pricing overview and Dynamics 365 Customer Service pricing plan pages.

Important

This feature is intended to help customer service managers or supervisors enhance their team's performance and improve customer satisfaction. This feature is not intended for use in making, and should not be used to make decisions that affect the employment of an employee or group of employees, including compensation, rewards, seniority, or other rights or entitlements. Customers are solely responsible for using Dynamics 365 Customer Service, this feature, and any associated feature or service in compliance with all applicable laws, including laws relating to accessing individual employee analytics and monitoring, recording, and storing communications with end users. This also includes adequately notifying end users that their communications with agents may be monitored, recorded, or stored and, as required by applicable laws, obtaining consent from end users before using the feature with them. Customers are also encouraged to have a mechanism in place to inform their agents that their communications with end users may be monitored, recorded, or stored.

A notification is a visual alert that appears each time you get a chat or an SMS conversation request from a customer. When you get the notification, you see the details about the customer with whom you're going to interact. When you accept the request, a session is started, and you can view the contextual information of the customer and case on the Active Conversation page.

Here are some scenarios where you might receive notifications:

• Case assignment if record routing is configured using workstreams for unified routing
• Incoming chat conversation
• Incoming SMS conversation
• Conversation (work item) assignment
• Conversation transfer
• Conversation escalation
• Conversation escalation from a bot

Receive notifications when the app is in the background

Agents can receive notification alerts on their desktop always or only when the Customer Service workspace or Omnichannel for Customer Service app isn't in focus. These notifications help ensure that agents won't miss any conversation requests. Some scenarios where the app isn't in focus might include:

• The agent has minimized the app.
• The agent is working in another browser window.
• The agent is working on another tab of the browser.
• The agent is using two screens, and is on the screen that doesn't have either the Customer Service workspace or Omnichannel for Customer Service app.

Note

The Always(preview) option for Show Desktop Notifications is in preview. To use this feature, it must be turned on and the license terms must be accepted. What are Preview features and how do I enable them?.

You can accept or reject the conversation request by selecting a button on the desktop notification. When you accept the conversation request, the app is made active and displayed to you, and a session is started.

If you select the notification message body and not a button, the app is made active, and the notification is displayed to you in the app. Then you can choose to accept or reject the conversation by selecting the appropriate button.

The wait time that's configured by your administrator applies to the desktop notification but doesn't display on it.

That is, your administrator has configured the wait time as 90 seconds and set the Show Timeout field to No. Now, when you get a notification, the wait time won't be displayed on the notification. However, you have 90 seconds to take action. More information: Manage notification templates and settings

Note

The desktop notification theme is based on the Windows operating system theme and settings.

Allow your browser to show notifications

To get desktop notifications, you need to allow your browser to show notifications. When you get a browser notification, select Allow.

Types of notifications

There are two types of notifications:

• Toast notifications: Also known as a floating notification, is a notification message type where you receive information in a dialog that disappears after a stipulated time. This type of notification appears for conversation (work item) assignments, conversation escalations, and conversation transfer scenarios.

• Alert notifications: A type of notification where a dialog appears with action buttons. When you select Accept, a screen pops up with the active conversation details. You need to take an action within the stipulated time, and the notification disappears when the time is up.

Based on your organization's configurations, you can't reject conversations. The application performs one of the following actions when an incoming notification appears:

• Creates a work item and assigns it to you automatically.
• Automatically accepts the conversation and opens a new session.

Incoming voice call notifications

You'll receive a voice call notification for an incoming call request after an intelligent bot processes the call. For information on how the call is processed and the call controls that are available to you, see Use agent dashboard and call controls in the voice channel.

Incoming chat notifications

You receive a notification for an incoming chat request. When you accept the chat request, you'll see details about the customer in the Active Conversation page. A simultaneous session starts, and a chat window expands so you can exchange messages with the customer.

The details you'll see for a chat channel are as configured by your administrator.

Case assignment notification

If record routing is configured using unified routing and notifications are enabled, then when a case is assigned to you, you'll receive a notification with the open item option. You can't reject the assignment, and irrespective of the notification timeout, the case will be assigned to you.

Incoming SMS notification

When you receive a notification for an SMS conversation request and you accept the SMS request, a session starts, and the communication panel appears in which you can exchange messages with the customer.

The customer is identified based on the Mobile Phone field information stored in the Contact record in Dynamics 365 Customer Service. That is, if the incoming SMS conversation is from a phone number stored in the mobile phone field of a Contact record, the conversation is automatically linked to the record.

The details you see for an SMS channel are as configured by your administrator.

Missed notifications

Important

• The alert is displayed only when the missed notifications feature is enabled by your administrator.
• Missed notification alerts are not supported in Omnichannel for Customer Service on Unified Service Desk.

When you don't respond to an incoming conversation notification, you'll see an alert at the top of your dashboard and your presence status will be set to inactive. You can respond to the alert or change your status. Your presence will be reset to the status that was last defined by the system. You won't be assigned new tasks until your presence is reset to a state in which you can be assigned tasks, which is based on the allowed presence set in the workstream. Your supervisor can also reset your presence.

Notification time-out and rerouting of conversations

When you don't respond to an incoming conversation notification, the notification gets timed out based on the time-out setting configured by your administrator in the notification template and is rerouted.

Sometimes, you might see that conversations have been assigned to you without notifications showing up. This can happen when the notifications are sent by the system but they aren't seen because you closed the browser, navigated away from the app page, or lost network connectivity before the notifications could be displayed. In such a case, while the system might take a few seconds to mark you as unavailable, it assigns the conversations to you. The conversation is rerouted eight minutes after the timeout has expired.

Maximum session limit notifications

When you already have 10 sessions open, which is the maximum multi-session limit, and a new work item comes in, you'll see an alert at the top of your dashboard and your presence status will be automatically set to Do not disturb. You won't be assigned new tasks until your presence is reset to a state in which you can be assigned tasks, which is based on the allowed presence set in the workstream. Your supervisor can also reset your presence.

Agent reject notifications

Important

• This alert is displayed only when the agent reject feature is enabled by your administrator.
• Agent reject notification alerts aren't supported in Omnichannel for Customer Service on Unified Service Desk.

When you reject a work item notification, you'll see an alert at the top of your dashboard and your presence status will be set to Do not disturb. You can respond to the alert or change your status. Your presence will be reset to the status that was last defined by the system. You won't be assigned new tasks until your presence is reset to a state in which you can be assigned tasks, which is based on the allowed presence set in the workstream. Your supervisor can also reset your presence.

See also

View customer information on Active Conversation form
View communication panel
Monitor real-time customer sentiment
Manage presence status
Search for and share knowledge articles
Take notes specific to conversation
View active conversations for an incoming conversation request
Manage notification templates and settings