Auto-Pilot Endings for Agent Desk

​

Feature Release

This is the announcement for an upcoming ASAPP feature. Your ASAPP account team will provide a target release date and can direct you to more detailed information as needed.

​

Overview

Agent Desk can now automate the end-of-chat process for agents, allowing them to opt-in to an Auto-Pilot Ending flow that will take care of the entire check-in and ending process so that agents can focus on more valuable tasks. Agents can turn Auto-pilot Endings on and off globally, edit the message, and personalize it with data inserts (such as ‘customer name’), cancel the flow, or even speed it up to close the conversation earlier.

Auto-Pilot Endings running in Agent Desk with Initial Message queued.

​

Use and Impact

Customers often become unresponsive once they do not need anything else from the agent. To free up their slots to serve other customers waiting in the queue, agents must confirm there is nothing more they can help the customer with before closing the chat. To ensure the customer has a grace period to respond before being disconnected, agents follow a formulaic, multi-step check-in process with the customer prior to ending the chat. In these situations, Auto-Pilot Endings is intended to free up agents’ attention for more active conversations, leading to greater agent efficiency.

​

How It Works

Watch the video walkthrough below to learn more about Auto-Pilot Endings:

Auto-Pilot Endings enables agents to configure the ending message that is delivered in sequence. Each message is meant to be automatically sent to the customer when they become unresponsive:

​

Messages

• Initial Message - Asking the customer if there is anything else that needs to be discussed.
  Example: “Is there anything else I can help you with?”

• Check-in Message - Confirming whether the customer is still there.
  Example: “Are you still with me?”

• Second (Closing) Message - A graceful ending message to close out the conversation. ASAPP can embed the customer name in this message.
  Example: “Thank you ! It was a pleasure assisting you today. Feel free to reach out if you have any other questions.”

​

Procedure

For each conversation, Auto-Pilot Endings follows a simple sequence when enabled:

1. Suggestion or Manual Start: Agent Desk will suggest to the agent to start the ending flow, through a pop-up banner at the top of the middle panel, when it predicts the issue has concluded. Agents can also manually start it from the dropdown menu in the header before a suggestion appears.

2. Initial Message Queued: Once Auto-Pilot Ending is initiated, Agent Desk shows the agent the initial message that is ready to send to the customer. On the right-hand panel, the notes panel will appear showing agents the automatic summary and free-text notes field. An indicator will show on the left-hand panel chat card along with a timer countdown showing when the initial message will be sent.

3. Initial Message Sent: Once the countdown is complete, the initial message is sent and another timer begins waiting for the customer to respond.

4. Customer Response: Agent Desk shows a countdown for how long it will wait for a response before sending a Check-in Message. It detects the following customer response types and acts accordingly:

   Customer Response Type	Action
   A. Customer confirms they don’t need more help	Closing Message is queued and sends after its countdown is complete; the chat issue ends. The agent can also choose to end the conversation before the countdown completes.
   B. Customer confirms they need more help	The Auto-Pilot Endings flow is canceled; the conversation continues as normal. A “new message” signal is sent to the agent to inform him that the customer returned the interaction.
   C. Unresponsive customer	A Check-in Message is sent and another timer begins. If the customer remains unresponsive, the Closing Message is sent and the chat issue ends. If the customer responds with any message, the Auto-Pilot Endings flow is canceled and the conversation continues as normal.

​

Agent Capabilities

Manually Ending Auto-Pilot Endings Flow
At any time, an agent can click Cancel in the Composer window to end the Auto-Pilot Ending flow and return the conversation to its normal state.

Manually Sending Ending Messages
Any time a message is queued, an agent can click Send now in the Composer window to bypass the countdown timer, send the message, and move to the next step in the flow.

Managing Auto-Pilot Endings
Under the Ending tab in the Responses drawer of the right rail of Agent Desk, agents can:

• Enable or disable AutoPilot Endings using a toggle at the top of the tab.
• Customize the wording of the Closing Message; there are two versions of the message, accounting for when Agent Desk is aware and unaware of the customer’s first name.

​

Feature Configuration

Customers must reach out to their ASAPP contact to configure Auto-Pilot Endings globally for their program:

Global Default Auto-Pilot Ending Messages

• Initial Message
• Check-in message
• Closing Message (named customer)
• Closing Message (unidentified customer)

Global Default Auto-Pilot Ending Timers

• Main timer: The time to wait before sending both the initial and closing messages.
• No-response timer: The time to wait to send the check-in message if there’s no response from the customer after a check-in message is sent.

​

FAQs

1. How is this feature different from Auto-Pilot Timeout?
   Auto-Pilot Timeout is meant for conversations that have stopped abruptly before concluding and is only recommended in those instances. When an agent enables and completes Auto-Pilot Timeout, the flow concludes with a customer being timed out. A timed out customer can resume their conversation and be placed back at the top of the queue if their issue hasn’t yet expired. Auto-Pilot Endings is meant for conversations that are clearly ending. When an agent enables Auto-Pilot Endings, the flow concludes with ending the conversation. If the customer wants to chat again, they will be placed back into the queue and treated as a new issue.

2. How does ASAPP classify the customer’s response to the Initial Message to determine whether they are ready to end the conversation or still need help?
   When a customer responds to the Initial Message (asking whether they need more help), ASAPP classifies the return message into two categories:

   • A positive response confirming they don’t need more help and are done with the conversation
   • A negative response confirming they need more help

   ASAPP uses a classification model trained on both types of responses to make the determination in real-time during the Auto-Pilot Endings flow.