Article updated: September 14, 2021
Sparkcentral release notes
September 2021
Option to require topic selection to resolve conversations
Admins can now enable an option that requires agents to specify a topic when resolving a conversation. To enable or disable this option in Settings, select Agent Workspace, expand Topic Required to Resolve, and then select the toggle.
Dark posts embedded in conversations
When a customer comments on a dark post, the content of the ad is now embedded into the conversation in Conversation View. Agents can expand the image to see the entire content of the post.
Team assignments for Knowledge Base responses
Admins can now assign Knowledge Base responses to both channels and teams. Responses assigned to a particular team will only appear for agents who are members of that team. Now, when adding or editing a Knowledge Base collection, admins will see a new Apply to Teams section under the Apply to Channels section.
Instagram direct messages and mentions in Sparkcentral
Sparkcentral now supports Instagram messaging and story mentions for all Instagram accounts. This means that, in addition to other message sources, you can now view and engage with messages sent from Instagram, as well as mentions of your brand in users' stories and user reactions and replies to your stories.
To start seeing Instagram messages in Sparkcentral, you’ll need to do two things:
Reconnect your Instagram accounts in Sparkcentral
Make sure that you are an administrator of the account and that you are logged in to the correct Facebook account in a separate browser window.
In Sparkcentral, on the Settings tab, expand Channels & Business Hours, and then select Channels.
Select Add Channel, and then select Facebook.
In the dialog box that appears, select Continue.
Make sure message access is turned on in Instagram
In your Instagram mobile app, open Settings.
Select Privacy, and then select Messages.
Under Connected Tools, make sure Allow Access to Messages is toggled on.
August 2021
Bug fixes and platform stability improvements
- We have fixed a bug that prevented conversation ownership from being removed from an agent when the agent was removed from a channel.
- When an agent who does not have channel access attempts to log in to Sparkcentral, they will now see an error message instructing them to contact an administrator for channel access.
Advanced skill set configuration for routing
Sparkcentral now supports advanced skill set configuration to enable administrators to further customize routing rules for teams. This feature allows you to create specific team skill sets to define advanced routing of messages to the appropriate teams. For example, if you have teams that provide different levels of support, you can use specific keywords, topics, visibility, and customer segments to route messages to the appropriate team.
Skill set configuration supports complex Boolean operators, including AND/OR, Any of, All of, and None of, and multiple rules can be applied to a single skill set. Admins can also add routing rules based on message visibility (public vs. private messaging).
Previously, skills-based routing was limited to topics and customer segments, and it was configured when adding or editing a team. This functionality has been replaced by a new set of advanced operators that are configured in Routing & Automation settings.
Existing customers with Team configurations will automatically see the new skill set settings. All of your existing team configurations will be maintained within the new skill set configuration.
Skill sets are designed to work with the existing automation functionality, and they can be used in conjunction with automations. For example, you can create an automation for specific text to apply to a topic, and use the same topic with a skill set configuration.
To add a new skill set:
- In Sparkcentral, on the Settings tab, expand Routing & Automation, and then select Skill Sets.
- Select Add skill set.
- In the window that appears, add the name for your skill set.
- Create a rule or rules for your skill set:
- For topic configuration, select Topic, select an operator (any of, all of, or none of), and then select a previously defined topic.
- To add additional rules, select the + button and create a new rule using any of the following:
- No topic (no topic defined)
- Customer segment (select from existing customer segments)
- No customer segment (no customer segment defined)
- Visibility (message is public or private)
- To combine multiple sets of rules using the and and or operators, select Add filter group.
- In the new grouping created beneath the previous set of rules, you can add additional rules.
- When the skill set configuration is complete, select Save.
Skill sets are enabled by default, but they must be applied to one or more specific teams. When a skill set is saved, a table appears where you can apply it to one or more teams.
Default fallback teams
Previously, if a message was not routed to a specific team, it would automatically reside in a “No team” view by default.
Based on customer feedback, we have added a “fallback” configuration for messages that don’t have a defined skill set configured for routing to a team. This ensures that no messages will be lost or missed if they don’t match a specific automation or routing configuration.
To configure default fallback teams:
- In Sparkcentral, on the Settings tab, expand Routing & Automation, and then select Skill Sets.
- Select Configure default fallback teams.
- In the dialog box that appears, select one or more teams to apply the default fallback to.
- Any teams you select are saved by default, and settings take effect immediately.
July 2021
Instagram direct messages and mentions in Sparkcentral
Sparkcentral now supports Instagram direct messages and story mentions.* This means that, in addition to other message sources, you can now view and engage with direct messages sent from Instagram, as well as mentions of your brand in users' stories and user reactions and replies to your stories.
*This feature is currently available to Sparkcentral accounts that have Instagram profiles with between 1,000 and 100,000 followers. All remaining profiles will have access to this feature by the end of September 2021. Sparkcentral customers who have any Instagram accounts with fewer than 1,000 followers will have access to Instagram direct messages and mentions by the end of September.
To start seeing Instagram messages in Sparkcentral, you’ll need to do two things:
Reconnect your Instagram accounts in Sparkcentral
- Make sure that you are an administrator of the account and that you are logged in to the correct Facebook account in a separate browser window.
- In Sparkcentral, on the Settings tab, expand Channels & Business Hours, and then select Channels.
- Select Add Channel, and then select Facebook.
- In the dialog box that appears, select Continue.
Make sure message access is turned on in Instagram
- In your Instagram mobile app, open Settings.
- Select Privacy, and then select Messages.
- Under Connected Tools, make sure Allow Access to Messages is toggled on.
Contact attributes search
A Search box has been added to Contact Attributes so that admins can quickly find attribute names by searching for them.
June 2021
Additions to conversation reports
Show conversations with topics applied
In the Volume - Topics report, you can now select a topic in the Top Topics chart to see a list of all conversations that have this topic applied.
You can also select a user in the User / Team - User Overview report to see all conversations the user has added topics to.
The conversation audit trail shows who added a topic and when:
"Billing" topic was added to the conversation by Kai Wong - June 23, 2021 11:01
Show conversations with a specific CSAT score
In the User / Team - User Overview report you can now select the numbers in the CSAT column to open the conversations with that particular score for an individual user.
Copy and paste images or files in the reply box
You can now copy and paste files in the reply box. Simply right-click a picture in your browser or a file on your desktop, select Copy, and paste it in the reply box.
After you paste an image or file, an icon and the number of attachments added appear below the message.
Customer segment - ANY OF operator
A new operator, “ANY OF” has been added to give you further options when defining a customer segment. This operator allows you to create a list of values to include for a customer segment.
For example, use ANY OF to:
- Route customers from a specific region (such as city or postal code) to a local team
- Prioritize conversations with silver and platinum members
- Mark contacts as VIP if their job title matches any value in the list
CSAT surveys
Many of our customers have enabled CSAT surveys (see Customer segments in Sparkcentral) to measure the experiences of their customers after a conversation on social media or messaging channels.
The survey capability allows you to ask for a rating (on a scale of 1 through 5) and a follow-up question. You can now enable or disable the follow-up question per rating. For example, if you only want to ask for additional feedback for lower ratings, you can.
In this example, a follow-up question is asked after the customer responded with “Unsatisfied” to the survey.
In this example, no follow-up question is asked after the customer responded with “Very satisfied” to the survey.
May 2021
Routing enhancements
We have added the following changes to our routing capabilities:
- Agents can be part of multiple teams: From now on, you can add agents to multiple teams.
- Conversations can only be assigned to one team: If a conversation can be assigned to multiple teams (based on topics or customer segments), it will now be visible to one team only. Agents can still manually re-route conversations to another team if needed.
- New Team Overview report: We've added a new Team Overview report that provides an overview of all your teams and their metrics, such as handle times, CSAT scores, and message volumes. You can access the Team Overview report by selecting the Analytics tab, selecting Reports, and then selecting User/Team.
See messages for top tags
When looking at the top tags, you can find out what types of messages have been tagged by exporting all messages. You can also select the name of a tag in the Top Tags chart to browse through all messages that have been tagged.
Select the tag name to open a window that displays all messages with a particular tag.
Real-Time Insights: New metrics average handle time and customer satisfaction scores
Agents can use two new metrics in Real-Time Insights. To access these new metrics, go to Settings, and then select Real-Time Insights under Agent Workspace.
- Avg. Handle Time: The average time that agents are spending in conversations.
- Avg. CSAT Score: The average feedback score from customers who have filled out a CSAT survey, updated immediately.
Admins can show or hide all metrics for users by using the Show Insights to the Users toggle.
April 2021
Group agents in monitoring
In the Real-Time Agents monitoring dashboard, you can now define groups of agents you would like to monitor. Groups are available to all users who have access to real-time monitoring.
To access this feature:
- On the Monitoring tab, select Agents under Real-Time.
- Under Filters, expand the Select Agents list.
- Select the +Group link, enter a group name, and select the agents you want to add under Members. You can also make changes to existing groups.
Navigate to any conversation
To find all conversations assigned to a specific agent, on the Monitoring tab, select Agents under Real-Time, and select the agent’s name. Then select the Conversation link to open the Conversations tab.
Current replying time
We have added a Currently Replying Time metric to the Current Status column in Real-Time Monitoring. This metric is the length of tine an agent has been working on a specific conversation.
When the agent moves to another conversation, the currently replying time is reset.
Sparkcentral by Hootsuite gets a fresh look! ✨
We joined Hootsuite in January, and now we're bringing the Hootsuite look and feel to our platform. We’re still the same, but with more space to grow.
What’s changed and what hasn’t
We’ve updated our logo, colors, and illustrations to streamline our design and work flow. We're committed to continuing to deliver the effortless experience and quality that you know and love.
What’s next
We don’t plan on slowing down any time soon! These design updates pave the way to continually build and innovate moving forward. Please continue to send us feedback on how we can make your job even easier.
March 2021
Goodbye Reports tab
We've removed the Reports tab from Sparkcentral. New and improved reporting is now available on the Analytics tab.
User Overview dashboard improvements
You can now see all messages sent or tagged by an agent. Select Analytics, then Reports, and then select User/Team. In the User Overview dashboard, in the Messages column, select Replies Sent or Tags Added to open a new window showing replies or tags.
Filtering on agents and groups
You can now filter the User Overview dashboard in two new ways:
- Groups: You can create custom groups of agents and save these as a filter, under Agents.
- Teams: If you are using teams, you can filter by team under Teams.
Maintenance release
We have scheduled a maintenance release on Thursday, March 11, 2021.
The updates in this release will not be noticeable or visible on your end. These updates are to prepare for new and upcoming features that we will be sharing more about soon!
February 2021
Real-time monitoring
We have added real-time monitoring to our platform. Real-time monitoring enables managers and supervisors to oversee and track agents’ conversations and performance, moment to moment. This can help you better understand the reality of your business and contact center operatiosn. When day-to-day functions are made more efficient, productivity will increase.
Here’s what you need to know about real-time monitoring:
- Four dashboards (Agents, Teams, Channels, and Topics) provide insights on operational performance from different perspectives.
- Only users with Supervisor access to channels can use these real-time dashboards.
- The dashboards show both real-time metrics and 12-hour average metrics.
- Real-time dashboards automatically refresh every 30 seconds.
- You can use filters to optimize your view. Filter settings are saved even if you log out.
How to access real-time dashboards
Access real-time monitoring and all four dashboards by selecting the Monitoring tab. Only users with Supervisor roles can access these dashboards. Users see only the data for the channels they have supervisor rights for.
Filters
Use the FILTERS settings to focus only on data that is relevant to you. Your filter settings are saved even if you log out.
Auto refresh every 30 seconds
All real-time dashboard data automatically refreshes every 30 seconds. To stop the auto-refresh at any time, select Pause.
Real-Time Monitoring: Agents
In this dashboard, you'll find all agents who are currently logged on and have a status of Available or Away.
- User: All users currently logged in. Select a user to view all owned conversations.
- Current status: Current Available or Away status and time spent in the current status. If a user is currently working with a customer, Currently Replying is added to their status.
- Owned conversations: The total number of conversations owned by each user, in New and Pending queues. Select the user's name to see all conversations in New and Pending.
- Total availability: The availability for each user in the past 12 hours.
- Conversations: The individual performance of each user in terms of resolved conversations, average handle time, and CSAT rating.
- Utilization: The average utilization for each user in the past 12 hours.
Real-Time Monitoring: Teams
If you are using teams and skills-based routing, this dashboard provides insights across all of your teams.
- Team: The team name.
- Skills: The Topics and Customer Segments assigned to each team. Multiple teams can have the same Topics and Customer Segments.
- Online members: The total number of users online per team and their current state.
- Owned conversations: The number of conversations assigned to users on a team.
- Unowned conversations: The number of conversations waiting to be assigned a user.
- Conversations: Team performance over the past 12 hours in terms of resolved conversations, average handle time, and CSAT rating.
Real-Time Monitoring: Channels
In this dashboard, you'll find insights about all your channels and how they are currently managed by your team.
- Channel: The channel name.
- Owned conversations: The number of conversations assigned to users on a team.
- Unowned conversations: The number of conversations waiting to be assigned a user.
- SLA: Channel performance over the past 12 hours in terms of First Response Time, Conversation Response Time, and SLA.
- Conversations: Channel performance over the past 12 hours in terms of average handle time and CSAT score.
Real-Time Monitoring: Topics
In this dashboard, you'll find insights about different topics and how they are handled by your team.
- Topic: The topic name.
- Owned conversations: The number of conversations with this topic assigned to users on a team.
- Unowned conversations: The number of conversations with this topic waiting to be assigned a user.
- Conversations: The number of conversations with this topic that have been resolved in the past 12 hours, average handle times, and CSAT score.