Closing a conversation

After handling a conversation, mark it with the appropriate closing status. The statistics in your dashboard, your reports, and later analysis all rely on how finished conversations are catalogued.

How to close

The Close button is available once you've taken over the conversation (see Taking over a conversation).

1. Open the conversation.
2. In the top bar, click Close.
3. From the menu, choose one of two outcomes:
   • Resolved: the customer got the answer they needed, or the issue was handled.
   • Not resolved: the conversation ended without a satisfactory result (e.g. the customer left, the matter required contact outside the chat, or information was missing from the knowledge base).

The conversation is closed straight away. A system note "{Name} closed the conversation" appears in the conversation history, and the header shows Conversation closed with the chosen outcome. After closing, the AI assigns the conversation a category.

Email tickets are closed differently, by changing the ticket's status; see Email.

When to close

• After a conversation with an agent ends: when a human took over the conversation and saw it through to the end.
• When the customer got everything they needed from the bot: even without an agent stepping in.
• When the conversation has been inactive for a while: the customer disappeared and the matter no longer needs your attention. In that case you'll usually mark it as Not resolved if the issue was only partially handled.

Automatic closing

You don't have to close every conversation by hand:

• A web chat conversation closes automatically after 60 minutes without a new message. The AI then decides whether it was resolved and assigns a category.
• A conversation waiting for an agent closes automatically when the wait time set in Human support runs out. It is then handed to your team by email.

Why the distinction matters

The closing status doesn't affect what the customer sees (the conversation simply disappears from the active ones), but it does affect your reports:

• the share of resolved conversations indicates the overall effectiveness of the bot and your team,
• knowledge base articles often linked to not resolved conversations are good material to improve or expand.

Can it be undone

No. A closed conversation can't be reopened, taken over, or closed again with a different outcome, so pick the outcome carefully.

What's next

If you want the conversation to return to the bot's care (instead of staying in your hands), use Hand back to AI rather than closing it. This is described in the article Live support, ending a conversation.