Telegram in the messaging pool

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Overview

This article is part of the Messaging pool series. It focuses on the Telegram channel. For the general overview of the pool, see Messaging pool in the Banner.

Telegram is one of the messaging channels handled in the Banner. Customers write to you from their Telegram app, through one of your Telegram bots, and their messages are handled exactly like the other messaging interactions: they appear in the messaging pool, where advisors can view, pick up, reply to, transfer, close them, or attach them to CRM elements. If you need help to set up your Telegram bot, please click here.

Telegram is an asynchronous channel relayed by Telegram: the customer can reply minutes or hours later, and the conversation stays open for the duration of a configurable session window (see section 7).

1. How a Telegram message arrives in the pool

Every Telegram bot is linked to a Smart Routing. When a customer writes to the bot, the message always enters through that Smart Routing, which can:

• qualify the request automatically,
• send automatic messages (text, links, and choice menus rendered as Telegram buttons),
• then distribute the conversation to the appropriate queue, where it appears under Messages pending.

From there, the interaction is either presented to an available agent or picked up manually from the pool.

Note: if a bot has no Smart Routing linked, its incoming Telegram messages are ignored. A Telegram conversation can later be transferred to a specific agent, queue or Smart Routing.

2. The incoming Telegram popup

When a Telegram interaction is distributed to you, a notification popup appears. It shows:

• the interaction type (Messages),
• the sender (the customer’s Telegram name, or an anonymous identifier),
• the queue name and the time already spent waiting in that queue,
• transfer details, if the interaction reaches you through a transfer,
• the associated script, if one is attached and you have the right.

Accept the interaction with the check button, or decline it with cross. A countdown shows the time you have left to decide before the interaction stops being presented to you. If your profile is configured for auto-accept, an “Acceptance in…” countdown accepts it automatically. Some profiles also use a preview mode, which lets you review the interaction before answering.

3. Picking a Telegram message from the pool

You can also serve yourself from the pool instead of waiting to be presented an interaction:

1. Open the Messages pending tab.
2. Spot the Telegram rows using the Source column (Telegram tag and icon).
3. Click the hand button, Take this conversation, on the row you want.

The pool list shows, for each interaction: Wait time, Source (channel), Sender, From (reception time), Queue, Session duration and Forwarded status. An interaction can only be handled by one agent at a time: once you take it, it is yours until you close, end or quit it.

4. The Telegram conversation interface

The conversation opens in the same interface used by the other messaging channels, organised in three areas: an info panel on the left, the central tabs (conversation, CRM card, case, script, and so on), and the reply area at the bottom.

The message thread shows:

• Customer messages, left-aligned;
• advisors messages, right-aligned;
• Smart Routing automatic messages sent before the hand-off;
• system notifications (events on the interaction).

Telegram messages support file attachments, images, videos, audio and documents, up to 2 GB per file.

Note: the live typing indicator and read receipts are features of the synchronous Chat channel; they are not surfaced for Telegram. Telegram profiles also have no avatar, so the sender is shown by name (or an identifier) without a picture.

5. Available actions during the conversation

• Reply — type your message, attach files (from your computer or the documents centre), insert emojis, or send a private (advisor-only) message that the customer does not receive.
• Transfer — from Open the transfer options, route the conversation to a User, a Queue, a Smart Routing, or a Directory.
• CRM card and Case — from the Options menu, create or attach a CRM card or a case to the interaction.
• Payment — from the Options menu, request a secure payment (requires the billing/payment right).
• Custom buttons — any buttons your organisation has configured for interactions.

To finish the conversation, you have three distinct actions:

• Close — you have answered and are waiting for the customer; the interaction moves to Messages pending customers (see section 8).
• End — the exchange is over; the interaction is terminated and archived.
• Quit — you hand the interaction back; it returns to Messages pending in the queue it came from, for another agent to take.

6. Conditional actions

These actions appear only when their conditions are met:

• Qualification — available when a qualification form is configured on the queue and you have the qualification right.
• Script — available when a script is attached to the interaction and you have the script right.
• Start video call — available when video call is enabled on the queue and you have the right; The customer receives a link in the Telegram conversation and joins the video call by opening it in their browser (the call runs as a web session, not inside Telegram).

7. The session window

Because Telegram is asynchronous, a conversation is kept alive for the duration of a session window configured on the bot. The window is reset every time the customer sends a new message. Its length is set per bot, up to a maximum of 72 hours (3 days).

If the customer sends nothing before the window expires, the interaction is closed automatically. When the customer writes again after that, a new interaction is created and routed again through Smart Routing.

8. Messages pending customer reply

When you Close a Telegram conversation while waiting for the customer, it leaves your active interactions and moves to the Messages pending customers tab. As soon as the customer replies, within the session window, it comes back automatically to Messages pending, ready to be picked up and continued.

9. Notifications

Sound and visual notifications for the messaging flow are configurable in your user notification settings. For Telegram (as for the other messaging channels), you can be alerted:

• When a message arrives in one of your active conversations;
• When a new message arrives in a queue;
• When a message exits a queue;
• when the messaging has just ended;
• when a participant has left the messaging.