Reservation Sales Team Chat
Team Chat is a feature that allows reservations teams to communicate to each other via Instant Message. Any user logged into HUB can utilize Team Chat, streamlining communication within your team.
How to Utilize Team Chat
Accessing Team Chat
Team Chat can be accessed through the Revinate platform through two different paths. Follow the below steps to access Team Chat.
- To access Team Chat from the Main Menu choose, Products > Reservation Sales, then go back to Products > Reservation Sales > Team Chat.
- To access Team Chat from HUB, go to the Agents tab within HUB, and click on the green chat icon next to any of the names on the list to open. Clicking on the green chat icon will trigger the Team Chat application to open. Please note, that clicking on the green chat icon will not take you to a chat with the person you chose from HUB.
Starting a New Chat
- Team Chat will open in a new tab, and from here a new chat can be sent by clicking on New Chat.
- A new window opens, and from here you can search or select the person/people you wish to chat with.
- Select the person from the list. A green circle means the person is available, gray means they are currently offline.
- Start typing the name in the Invite Participants search field.
- To chat with multiple people, add each name you would like in your group. Each name will appear in the Invite Participants To delete a name from the list, simply click on the ‘x’ next to the name.
- In order to chat with someone that is outside of your team, you will use the furthest right dropdown to find the account, which is listed by name then by account number.
- Once all participants have been chosen, click Go to start the conversation.
FUN FACT: Upon clicking Go, the person(s) will not be notified that you have added them to a conversation. They will only be notified about the new chat once you send them a message.
Chatting
- After clicking Go, you will be taken back to the Team Chat main page. Here you will see your new chat window is waiting for you to initiate your conversation with the person(s).
- Off to the left, your conversations will be listed out by name in most recent message order.
FUN FACT: To identify which chat you are currently messaging, you will see the person’s name in the message list on the left side will be slightly bigger with a shadow behind it.
- To start chatting, simply write a message in the lower bottom field where it says, Write a message…
- When finished writing, hit the ENTER key, or click on the Send Mail Icon in the lower right-hand corner of Team Chat. You now have initiated the chat.
- When the person responds back to you:
- You will 1) receive a notification within the Team Chat tab in your web browser noting that a new unread chat is available to read, and 2) receive a notification via a pop-up in the lower corner of your desktop. Please note that no sounds or emails will alert you to this new message.
Tab Notification:
Pop-Up Notification:
- Your chat will show that a new message has been received in the message list.
- To respond, click on the person’s name, then start writing them back.
- In order to close a conversation, simply click on the settings icon to the left of the conversation and click on Close Conversation.
- If the person starts chatting you back after you close the conversation, a new chat will appear in your chat list at the top.
- If you both close your chat windows, and then decide to re-chat this person again, upon starting a new chat the chat window will bring up any historical conversation you had before closing the conversation.
How to Utilize Team Chat Channels
Channels are another functionality that can be used in the Team Chat platform. What differs among channels versus chats is that the channels are dedicated to a specific, long-term topic, department, or project.
Below are some guidelines for creating a Team Chat Channel.
- Team Chat Channels can only be created among your team. A client cannot be involved in the channel you create.
- You cannot have more than one channel with the same name within the account.
- If you are added to a new channel, a new channel will appear in the left-hand column.
- To create a new channel:
- Click on the arrow to the right of the New Chat button and click on New Channel.
- Invite participants and give your new Channel a name. Click Go.
- Invite participants and give your new Channel a name. Click Go.
- If you leave a channel, the only way to be invited back into the channel is to have the owner of the channel add you back in.
- If you manage the channel, you can add or remove people from the channel and/or rename the channel by clicking on the settings icon next to the channel and clicking Manage channel.
- You can also delete the channel permanently by clicking on Delete channel. WARNING! If you delete the channel permanently, all history will be deleted from that channel.
Team Chat Appear Offline vs. HUB Away Status
Please read, this piece is critical to remember. If you put yourself in an Away Status in HUB, you will not automatically be put in an away status in Team Chat. When you go to lunch, take a break, etc., please make sure to put mark yourself as Appear Offline within the Team Chat functionality. If you leave for the day, you can either logout of Team Chat or simply close the window or Team Chat tab.
In order to Appear Offline in or Logout of Team Chat, click on your initials in the upper right-hand corner of Team Chat to reveal the below box. Click on the box next to Appear Offline or click on Logout.
Other Team Chat FUN FACTS!
Below you will find some other fun facts about Team Chat.
- If you hover over any circle with initials within Team Chat, the person’s name, current online status, Revinate access rights, account number, and account name will appear.
- When choosing a new person or group to chat, only one client account can be selected at a time from the Client dropdown, in addition to your own account. This is in place to help avoid confusion when choosing the correct person(s) from an account.
- Team Chat saves up to the last 100 chats within a conversation.
Team Chat Logs
You can access the team chat log in Reservation Sales by going to Account Settings - Instant Message Logs.
From there you can sort by date and agent to view their chat history.