Getting started

What is Chat Desk?

Chat Desk is an easy-to-use web-based application that enables real-time communication with your customers via a single web interface. Your clients can contact you via multiple channels while your customer service agents can respond and manage these conversations from one convenient virtual service desk. Chat Desk also makes monitoring queries, chats and agent performance easier so you can ensure your customers are receiving the best and most efficient service.

Activating the Chat Desk product gives you access to the following:

• Chat Desk Dashboard – Supervisors can monitor agent performance and customer engagement behavior, configure various settings, set up and manage departments, download chat transcripts, and launch the Supervisor Desk and Agent Desk
• Supervisor Desk – Supervisors can monitor agent chats and activities, route/assign chats and tickets, and add comments to live chats to assist agents in real-time
• Agent Desk – Agents can communicate with customers across multiple chat channels, tag and transfer chats, send and receive rich media communication (e.g. PDF, images, locations, voice notes), capture customer profile information, add notes and comments to chats, and retrieve end-users’ chat history

Getting started with Chat Desk

Step 1: Register your Clickatell account & log in to portal

Sign up and create your free Clickatell account. Once you’ve verified your account, log in to the Clickatell portal. From the Products & Services tab, you can activate the channels and products that you want to utilize. The My Workspace tab provides access to all the channels and products you have activated on your account and allows you to configure and manage each. 

Step 2: Activate Chat Desk

To activate Chat Desk as a product on your account, click the Chat Desk icon under Products on the Products & Services tab. Click on the ‘+Activate product’ button. This will add Chat Desk as a product under the My Workspace tab.

In the My Workspace tab, select the Chat Desk card and click the ‘Enable Chat Desk‘ button.

Step 3: Add channel

Step 4: Launch Chat Desk

Launch the Chat Desk Dashboard in a new tab. From here you can access various settings, and launch the Supervisor Desk and the Agent Desk. 

For detailed information on how to use the Chat Desk product itself, see the Chat Desk User Guide.

Step 5: Add agents (optional)

You can grant access to the Chat Desk to as many users as you want. Only one agent can be logged in at a given time per agent seat you purchased. You receive one free agent seat by default. To add more agent seats, click the ‘Upgrade‘ button and following the prompts. 

Invite more users by navigating to the profile icon in the top right of the portal and selecting User Management. Click ‘+New User’, enter the user’s details, and assign the relevant role(s). Click the ‘Invite user‘ button. This sends an email invitation to the user with instructions to set their password and access the account.