Conversation properties are a valuable way for businesses to track conversation metrics. Businesses can utilise these properties to govern conversation workflows via SLAs, assignment rules, etc. and get data insights for actionable outcomes.

Group, Agent, Status, and Priority are default conversation properties available on account creation 

(included as part of the Free Plan)

In addition to the default properties, businesses can create custom conversation properties. 

Custom Conversation Properties are available from Growth onwards.

The field types that can be defined are shown below:

Total conversation properties that can be in Freshchat instances is 50. 

How to define conversation properties for your business?

• Go to Admin Settings -> Conversation Properties

• Select the type of field you want to add.

• Add a label. An internal name is automatically generated when labels are added. It can be changed during property creation if necessary. Internal names are used to update conversation properties via widget code or public APIs.

• Properties can be made mandatory on resolve. This is useful if businesses are keen on tracking specific conversational metrics for their support operations. The agent cannot resolve these conversations until mandatory properties are filled.

• The properties can be reordered to ensure they are shown to the agents in the order of their preferences.

Pre-populating conversation properties 

If businesses want to pre-populate conversation properties to ensure the conversations get assigned to the right group and the agent handling the conversation has sufficient context. 

This can be done in three ways: 

1. Chatbot: 

The conversational chatbot can collect details from the end user and update conversation properties. On handover to the agent, the conversation will have all relevant properties updated by the chatbot. 

Learn how to set custom properties in bot builder

2. Widget Code: 

Businesses can pre-populate the conversation property via the Freshchat widget script. This is useful when the business has this context available on the website and would not need an agent to get this information manually from the customer.

Learn more

<script

src='//fm-staging-us-app-cdnjs.s3.amazonaws.com/crm/900******/4***9.js'

chat='true'>

</script>

<script>

window.fwcrm.on('widget:loaded',function(){

       window.fcWidget.conversation.setConversationProperties({

          cf_sample: "Example",

          cf_multi_choice: ["Choice1","Choice2 one"],

          cf_multi_line_text: "This is a multiline text",

          cf_number: 33,

          cf_decimal: 3.5,

          cf_date: "2023-03-12",

          cf_checkbox: true,

          cf_drpdn: "one",

          priority: "Low"

          });

    });

</script>

3. Agents:

Once conversation properties are created in the admin settings, these properties will be visible to the agent in the right pane of the inbox. Agents can use the widget to update the conversation property values. 

If an agent tries to resolve a conversation property marked as mandatory by the admin, a slider will open in the right pane to prompt the agent to populate the mandatory properties to proceed with resolution of the conversation. 

Agents can also update conversation properties via the Freshchat mobile app in three ways:

1. Agents have the option to edit properties on Chat

 2. The agents will have to fill mandatory properties set by admin to resolve the conversation.

3. The agents will have to fill mandatory properties set by the admin to append to the ticket. 

Admin Workflows where conversation properties can be leveraged

SLAs - assigning SLAs based on conversation type, priority, or any other field

Learn more about SLAs

Assignment rules - handling conversation routing based on the property values

Learn more about Assignment rules

Advanced Automation(coming soon) - automating workflows based on conversation property events or updating conversations based on other product events.

Learn more about Advanced Automation

How can I report on conversation properties? 

We have curated reports in Freshchat analytics to view conversation property related metrics. Additionally, admins can use the conversation property in "filters" and "group by" section in analytics to derive the right insights.

Permissions to manage conversation properties?

Admins will be able to define which of their agents will get the privilege to manage conversation properties by clicking on admin settings->roles

How can conversation properties be updated using bots?

Bot Flow->configure->custom properties

In this module, admins can add new properties. If the admin wants to create new conversation properties, they should be rerouted to the conversation properties page in a new tab. 

A quick guide to setting up custom properties in bots

Use cases:

• To track the conversation metrics for bot conversations

• To provide agents with sufficient information to enable quicker resolutions

• Conversation properties can be set in bots by clicking on actions, Properties->Conversation properties. All the conversation properties the admin defines in the settings would be listed here. If the bot admin wants to create a new conversation property, they will be redirected to the conversation properties settings page.

• The values set for the conversation property should match those defined in the conversation property settings. Please note that the values are case-sensitive. If an incorrect property value is set, the bot flow will fail, and the conversation will be moved to the agent queue in Freshchat.

• Bot Admins can track the reason for bot failure in bot->conversation logs.

• Conversation properties can also be used as placeholders in bot flows to communicate relevant conversational details to the end user.