Why does the Total chats and the total number of Served chats differ in Chat?

Question

When I use Analytics, the number of Total chats on the Chat reports tab does not add up to the combined number of Served chats on the Agent reports tab. Why are my agents' combined served chats higher than the number of total chats?

Answer

The reason why the number of served chats can be higher than the number of total chats is that the number of served chats counts any interaction by a single agent on a chat. This means that any chats that are either transferred or served by more than one agent can be counted more than once with the served chat metric. 

For example, if a customer sends a chat request, and an agent answers the question then leaves the chat, it counts as one served chat. If the customer sends a follow-up question in the same session, and a different agent responds, it counts as one served chat for the second agent. Since the chat is under the same session, it represents as one total chat and two served chats.

For other discrepancies in Analytics, see the following resources:

• Why is there a discrepancy between Accepted vs Served chats?
• Why do Chats Served and Serving Sessions totals differ?
• Why is there a discrepancy in Served chats between Analytics and Explore?