What is a Request?

Whenever the customer asks a question, or has an actionable tagged to it, our machine learning models identify the relevant message and convert the message into a Request. When a request is detected, you can do multiple things with it:

• Take up the request and let your team know that you are working on it.
• Assign it to a colleague
• Create a Ticket and send it to an external integration.
• Or (and finally), Close the Request.

There are a few ways in which you can be notified of incoming customer requests.

1. Request Notification Channel
   This is an internal channel where the requests notifications are posted. The setting for this is available in configs and you can view/change those by /thena channel config .

1. Webapp Kanban
   If you want a high level view on how requests are flowing through across multiple customer channels. The Kanban is a great place to review and/or change states on the requests.

2. App Home
   On the App Home, you can get see all incoming requests as well as requests that are assigned to you. If you are admin, you can see other view/filters on the App Home as well.

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   Best Practices

   • Teams typically use the Notification Channel to triage requests on a real time basis.
   • Manager/Team leads use the Kanban to get a better sense of how customer requests are flowing.
   • Individuals use the App Home to work through requests in their queue.

Request Actions

When a request is created, it's in the Unassigned state. From there, the following actions can be taken on the request

1. Create New Ticket. A new ticket to be sent to an email based ticketing tool. This option is not visible if an integration is not set.
2. Looking into it When someone wants to acknowledge the request and take it up for themselves.
3. Assign to someoneWhen someone wants to ask a team member to look into the request.
4. Close When the work on the request is complete and someone closes the request.

These actions can be done from either the notification message on the triage channel, the App Home or the Kanban on the Webapp.

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Upcoming Enhancements

• Additional request state to move it to 'Pending / On-hold'

Request Workflow Automations

Request Workflow Automations are designed to keep you and team on-top of all customer requests. Below are all the automations at your disposal:

Auto Assignment

There are a couple of ways in which Requests can be auto-assigned:

1. Auto Assigned to First Responder
   When someone from the customer facing team responds on the request thread, the request is automatically assigned to that user. This helps give the responding users the ability to own the request and action it from within the request thread via Request Actions posted in an ephemeral message on the request thread.
   Note: If the customer facing team member responds on the channel (and not on the request thread), the last open request is assigned to them. If the last open thread was already assigned to someone, nothing happens.
2. Auto Assign to the CSM
   If there is CSM configured to the customer channel, the request is automatically assigned to the CSM.

In both the above cases, the assigned user gets a notification in the DM that a request has been assigned to them. They can also view the request in their App Home.

Set Customer Expectations.

You can let the customer know on the request thread that you are working on the request. This goes a long way in setting expectations and help you deliver the right experience. Here are some ways in which you can do so:

1. Enable and emoji on Request messages (default: enabled)
   When the request is assigned to someone, the emoji will be added to the request message and when the request is completed, a emoji is added. Currently, the emojis are added by Thena. We are working on an enhancing this so emojis are added on behalf of the assigned user
2. Send Status updates on the Request thread (default: disabled)
   Send automatic updates on the request thread when the request status changes.

Advanced Workflow Settings

1. Auto Close Request (default:30 days)
   Automatically close an open request. This helps in keeping the requests backlog clean.
2. Close Nudge Duration (default:1 day)
   Send a DM nudge to the Assigned User to close an open request.

Conversation Grouping

In Slack, a customer can send multiple messages within a channel, instead of threading messages. An example could look like this (where Unmukt is a customer).
If the first message in a group of customer messages is detected as a request, Thena groups the followup customer messages sent within 2 minutes of each other into one request. This is to ensure that you can get the context across a group of customer messages.

How do responses work for a grouping?

If a teammate responds to any one of the messages in the grouping in the customer thread (like the example above, where the vendor has replied to the middle message), then the request containing the grouping of messages will be assigned to that user.

Default Conversational Grouping Window is 120 seconds. You can set it to 0 to turn off the grouping feature completely.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can request detection be turned off across my workspace?

Yes, it can.

Can I assign a customer message that has not been detected as a request?

Use the message actions, and select 'Assign To' to assign the customer message to an individual in your team. This will send a notification to the user who has been assigned the request (like any other request assignment).

Where can I edit the Request Configurations?

To configure requests across your workspace, /thena global config -> Request Management

To configure requests specific to a channel, /thena channel config -> Request Management