The 28th release of the year brings further new features to Webchat, security improvements, and many more!

New Webchat features​

Previously Webchat featured a call to action functionality, which we call an Invitation message. This allows the administrators to entice the users to click on the widget and initiate a chat conversation. We are now adding another type of functionality, similar to the Invitation message, that we call a Welcome message.

• Added welcome message support to the chat widget.
• Admins can now specify the behavior by selecting between Invitation Message, Welcome message, and None. Please note that you may not use 2 of the options simultaneously for the same channel.
  • Invitation message: The widget shows a notification bubble, the message is loaded when the webpage is opened.
  • Welcome message: Widget does not show a notification bubble, the message is sent to the customer when the customer clicks the widget bubble.
  • None: No action. A customer has to make the first move.
• Fixed an issue where under high load, the webchat widget was sending multiple invitation messages.
  • Revamped the way the connection between the customer and our server is established.
• Suggested replies are no longer clickable after being selected, however, they remain visible for the user to be able to see the choices available at that time.
• Fixed an issue where suggested replies would disappear after a page refresh.
• Removed migration-related code from Webchat.
  • This was used to migrate from a non-localized widget to a localized widget without any disruption to our end users.

WhatsApp integration progress update​

We are progressing well with our new direct WhatsApp integration. Here's what we achieved so far:

• Built and tested backend services needed for the WhatsApp integration.
• Introduced WhatsApp channel provisioning. The flow is similar to Facebook channel provisioning.
• Fully tested WhatsApp integration end-to-end within our QA environment.

What's left:

• We are currently in the process of obtaining Meta's approval for our WhatsApp integration, once that is done, you may provision WhatsApp channels easily.

Portal Features​

We introduced a new batch of Quality of Life enhancements to our new portal. Here's the list:

• Email channels now use the same provisioning pattern as any other digital channel (Facebook, Viber).
• We introduced email channel opening hours. While email channels are open all the time, this setting will help us determine business hours and closed times for email conversations in Odata Feed 2.0. (Coming soon)
• Added the option to re-order suggested replies. You no longer have to remove them all and recreate them, simply click the left/right arrows to re-order.
• Ordered attributes for the Queue node alphabetically instead of by ID for better visibility.
• Added additional validation around Completion Codes creation.
• Reduced memory usage when opening Queue Reports while having many queues on the screen. This would at times make the browser run out of memory on low ram computers and laptops.
• Fixed an issue where scripting URL was mandatory when creating Voice Channels 2.0.
• Fixed an issue where the cursor might jump around when using the multi-line editing feature of Workflow 2.0.
• Fixed an issue where an error was wrongly displayed after successfully deleting a campaign.

Other changes​

• Migrated our login & authorization server to .NET 6 to benefit from the latest performance and security features.
• Modernized the login page for Agent Client as well as the administration portal.
  • Blue background.
  • Modern buttons for tenant selection.
  • Modern sign-in with Microsoft buttons.
• Added support for consult/transfer for Voice channels 2.0.
• Added ConversationID to a voice-related system event to make tracing and debugging easier for our team.
• Fixed a technical issue in our Voice server. This issue had no known end-user impact.
  • 'VEC does not disconnect after REFER was accepted by far end' bugfix.
• Added ConversationID to the list of supported variables that can be used with Workflow 2.0.
• Fixed an issue where idle timeout would not properly work under certain circumstances.
• Fixed an issue where under rare circumstances an agent received a second call while already on a call.

Buzzeasy Release 27 of 2022 brings further data for our brand new Odata feed 2.0 (Public Beta), Workflow editor enchancements and more!

Odata 2.0 Public Beta​

• Added Workitem reporting to Odata 2.0, available for Email and Chat media groups.
• Fixed an issue where local timestamp was not added to Chat conversation level data.
• Fixed an issue where tenants without a timezone would trigger an exception.

Portal and editor​

• Added the option to line break in Message, Menu Selection and Custom Question nodes.
• Added an option to change all business hours easily.
• Ordered attributes alphabetically on the queue node.
• Added an option to re-order suggested replies across the portal. Click the arrows to move a suggested reply to the left or right.
• Fixed an issue where some channels would trigger an error when editing their business hours.
• Fixed an issue where search would not work for Voice Channels 2.0 Public beta.
• Fixed an issue where portal reports were displayed with incorrect timezone calculations when drilling into a particular KPI.
• Fixed an issue where campaign opening hours could not be editted.
• Fixed an issue where Bulk import was not working properly.

Buzzeasy Release 26 of 2022 brings further data for our brand new Odata feed 2.0 (Public Beta), Agent assist 2.0, Workflow editor enhancements, and more.

Workflow editor​

The workflow editor was released officially a couple of releases ago, however, we continued to improve it. We received feedback that cloning is extremely helpful for the quick creation of new workflows. We took it to the next level and added two layers of cloning.

• Added workflow cloning. You can now press the clone button to clone a workflow. The user will be asked to provide a new name, and all the nodes from the original workflow will be copied over.
• Added the option to clone a node. Creating multiple nodes with similar data is common, especially for complex routing scenarios, we added the option to clone a node to speed up the process. You can now simply click the Clone button on a node to create an identical copy of it. Please note that while the details are copied over, no inputs or outputs are filled in by default to give the flexibility back to the user to place the node wherever the user wants.

Voice channels 2.0 BETA​

Earlier this year we teased that Voice channels will find their way onto the portal. We completed that step and added Voice channels 2.0 to the new portal. The provisioning experience is the same as for our digital channels. We are now in the test drive phase, once completed we will officially announce Voice channels as being day-to-day use ready.

• Added Voice channel provisioning to the new portal.
• Added a description field for scripting.
• Added the option to search a channel by phone number.
• Added the option to mark a channel as default for outbound through the settings page.
• Added visual to show which channel is set as Default for outbound.

In addition to that, we are currently working on the User Experience for Voice workflow and Queue Treatments. You should expect those to appear in the portal over the coming months.

Agent Assist 2.0​

Agent assist, or Question answering for agents, was in a difficult spot offering little flexibility in terms of configuration. We created a brand new one with a significantly improved user experience.

• Agent Assist is now configured on a Queue level. This is exclusive to workflow 2.0
• You can now specify a different QnA configuration for your Agent Assist than for your QnA as it will not be inherited from your existing workflow QnA setup. This brings the advantage of using the QnA bot node and Agent assist in the same workflow but with different configurations as they serve different types of users. In addition, QnA Configurations allows you to define different confidence threshold for each of your QnAs. Agent assist will no longer have a default 50% confidence score.
• Agent experience slightly changes. If QnA cannot find an answer, then the agent will be presented with your QnA option set by the administrator in case there is no answer. By default, this is the "No answer" suggested action.

Odata 2.0 Public Beta changes​

OData 2.0 is our next big thing, as such, we continued to add data to the existing data.

• Added Chat conversation level data. Learn more about Odata 2.0 public beta and available data here.
• Added local timestamps to all available entities. This will reduce the processing done by Power BI. The local timestamp is set according to your timezone settings specified on the Teams level.
• Added channel name lookup. This can be used for filtering purposes and to create better reports. Please note that only channels created through the new portal are visible here.
• Custom question bot finish info has been added. Previously, custom questions did not provide any information for reporting purposes. We are adding that data to be able to analyze your customer responses to improve your suggested actions or menu selections.
  • Please note that we collect up to 100 characters from a customer's reply to a custom question. This data is not aggregated under any category, raw data is available, however, based on your requirements, you may group and categorize this data as per your preference.

Other changes​

• Fixed an issue where activity history would display the same data when the agent had multiple tasks from multiple.
• Added the option to customize the Bot subheader text. You can now personalize the text that will be shown to your users when using our new webchat widget.
• You can now configure the SLA threshold, Abandoned Threshold, and visual thresholds for Queues in the same place. Navigate to Reports > Queues and click the edit icon to do so.
• Various User Interface improvements.

What's next?​

• We are designing a brand new Whatsapp provisioning experience, code name WhatsApp 2.0.
• We are working to bring email channel provisioning on par with our latest channel provisioning experience.
• Workitem reporting for chat and email will enter development shortly.
• We are designing voice queue treatments and workflows in order to be able to bring them to the new portal over the coming weeks.
• Portal user experience improvements.

Buzzeasy's 25th release of the year brings localization support for the webchat widget and changes to various voice related services as preparation for the next major Buzzeasy release.

Change log​

• Webchat widget now supports localization for widget elements. Supported languages on release: English, Hungarian, Serbian, Bulgarian. More languages will be added in the future.
  • Navigate to your webchat channel > Widget configuration and select the language for your widget.
• Added limits on concurrent Facebook conversations per tenant. The amount of concurrent conversations is tied to your agents seat. Agent seat * 10 = your maximum parallel conversations. Buzzeasy will offer ways to increase the bandwidth in the future.
• Preparing voice services for upcoming major Buzzeasy release.

What's next?​

What you should expect in the next Buzzeasy releases:

• Odata 2.0 public beta updates: New entities, local timestamps
• Voice channels 2.0
• Voice workflows 2.0
• Voice queue treatments 2.0
• Workflow & node cloning

We are pleased to announce the change log of Buzzeasy's 24th release of 2022. This release brings the official release for Chat Workflow 2.0, email workflow 2.0, OData 2.0 public beta, and many more!

Chat workflow 2.0​

We are pleased to announce that Chat workflow 2.0 is now officially available. Here are some changes we've added since the Public Beta.

• We added the Queue node. You can now route conversations to agents.
• We retired the redirect to channel node for Chat. Buzzeasy offers various digital channels and redirect would not make for a great customer experience in this environment, however, we plan to take a deeper look at a different redirect option for chat workflows in the future.
• We added the option to use {Agent.DisplayName} for Queue node's connect message.
• We added a read-only mode for queue timeout. You no longer have to go to your queue treatment if you're interested in the queue timeout.
• We added the QnA node to Chat Workflow 2.0.
• We enhanced the customer identification bot. If the customer is identified by email or phone number, the bot will skip the rest of the questions.

To learn more about Chat Workflows, please visit this article.

Question Answering​

Microsoft is dropping support for qnamaker.ai, blocking the creation of any new QnA through the mentioned service. Buzzeasy has made significant efforts to bring an integration point towards Microsoft's new Question Answering service.

• Added a new entry in the new portal > Integrations. This is called QnA bots. Here is where you will administer your QnA configuration.
• Select a QnA configuration in your QnA node for Chat workflows.
• Added support for Follow-up prompts.

To learn more about Buzzeasy's new Question Answering integration and how to migrate your old qnamaker.ai, please visit this article

Chat queue treatments​

Chat queue treatments are moving to Buzzeasy's new portal with an enhanced user experience.

• New section was added under Buzzeasy Portal > Chat, called Queue treatments.
• Configure your chat-only queue treatment here.
• Added drag & drop support.
• Added smart detection for Go TO steps. Should you re-order your send message steps, the GO TO step will automatically make the required changes for you.

To learn more about chat queue treatments, please visit this article.

Email Workflows 2.0​

Email workflows are now part of Buzzeasy's new portal. Navigate to the New Portal > Email section > Workflows.

We removed the irrelevant nodes present in the generic workflow designer on our legacy portal and scoped down the node types relevant to the email channel only.

To learn more about email workflows, please visit this article.

Webchat and widget​

• Removed Widget's default font. Website developers can now specify the font family for the chat widget according to their own marketing needs. The widget may inherit the font family from the HTML header as well if left unspecified.
• Bumped the color customization options from 3 to 10.
• Added new provisioning and editing experience for the Webchat channels.
• Added limit for concurrent chat tenants per tenant. You may have up to Agent seat * 10 concurrent webchat conversations at any given time.
• Custom bots can now set avatar URL and agent display name dynamically.
• Added QoL changes to the widget.

To learn more about Webchat and Widget, please visit this article.

Odata feed 2.0 Public Beta​

New channels mean new reporting! We are excited to kick off the OData feed 2.0 for historical reporting with the first 2 tables:

• Added BotSegments table containing various data about the usage of your bots.
• Added BotSteps table, containing bot IDs, their name, and their type.

To learn more about odata feed 2.0 public beta, please visit this article.

New Portal enhancements​

• Added collapsible categories to Beta Portal, phase 1. You can now collapse and expand General, Reports, Email, Voice, Chat and Integration categories. Based on usage telemetry, General and Reports section are expanded by default.
• Introduced search for the reports section. Search by queue name, bot name, or team name. This will also act as a filter if there is only one match.
• Introduced various sorting capabilities to Reports.
  • Queues: Name, Service Level, Current LWT, Waiting, Connected, Completed, Abandoned.
  • Teams: Name, Logged in, Busy, On break, Available, Tasks Handled, Tasks Missed.
  • Bots: Name, Success rate, Processing, Completed, Abandoned, Failed.
• Introduced Local settings for Portal users. Click your profile, then click the Settings button. Those settings and preferences are only applied to you.
  • Enable / Disable dark mode. The portal will determine which theme your browser uses, however you can overwrite that setting. Additonally, Portal now supports dark mode.
  • First day of the week. This will re-arrange the order of the days in business hours configuration.
  • Elapsed time format. Selected between: 1:01:01 and 1h 1m 1s.
• Added name of the section to the browser tab name. This is useful when sharing portal links with your colleagues as most of modern desktop messaging apps such as Microsoft Teams will use the name to display a preview, as well as for power user with multiple portal tabs open.
• Added scroll bar to lists, such as Agent, Users, channels, etc.

Other changes​

• Fixed an issue where custom bot data was wrongly sent as additional data.
• Fixed an issue where queue reports were shown if there was no team association.
• Fixed an issue caused by Facebook where they would sometimes fail to send over attachments.
• Fixed various web chat connectivity issues.