Should I use the department, department status, or visitor department condition in my Chat trigger?

Question

What is the difference between department, department status, and visitor department in the Chat trigger conditions?

Answer

These Chat trigger conditions refer to the department feature in Chat. You can add agents to specific departments based on their skills and specializations. Visitors can choose a department or be assigned to the department with the right agents.

Determine the correct department condition for your Chat trigger:

• Department
• Department status
• Visitor department

Department

Department is the name of the department a visitor chooses on the pre-chat form. It refers to the chat information the visitor selects. The visitor can choose to chat with a specific department on the pre-chat form.

• Require visitors to select a department on your Chat dashboard under Settings > Widget > Forms > Pre-chat forms. Select Require department.
• Department is only available if you select Run trigger: When a visitor requests a chat

The department condition fires the trigger when the department the visitor selects matches the condition. For example, the trigger fires if a visitor selects department 1 from the pre-chat form and your trigger condition is Department | Equals | department 1.

For advanced customization, see Can I hide the department field on the pre-chat form?

Department status

Agent availability determines the department status. It refers to the online, offline, or invisible status of any agent in that department. The department status condition fires the trigger if any agent in the department has the selected status.

Visitor department

Visitor department is set by trigger actions or the JavaScript API. It refers to the department you assign to the visitor without the visitor's knowledge. The visitor department condition fires only if:

• Another trigger already set the visitor's department
• You use the JavaScript API to assign a visitor to a department based on the visitor's characteristics

To set the visitor department automatically with a trigger, see Automatically route chats to departments

Consider these points when you use these conditions:

• Proactive Chat triggers bypass the pre-chat form on your site. As a result, the visitor does not have a chance to select a department. If you often use proactive Chat triggers, remember that triggers with the department condition do not fire on proactive chats.
• The department status and visitor department conditions can fire before the chat starts. The department condition requires the customer to select a department and start a chat.
• If your chats route to the wrong department, see Department routing is not working correctly in chat

For more information, see How do I set or change the department of a chat?