What are the steps when Alcmeon receives a message from a customer? Below are the flows and different statuses a message will take throughout its journey in the Inbox .

List of customer message statuses

Received (Pending)

This is the very first status of a new message sent by a customer and received by Alcmeon. It can be handled by an advisor from the Inbox : they assign the message to themselves by clicking on the “blue arrow” icon.

Assigned

A message has this status when a bot or human advisor acquires a message in order to process it. This status is required before processing a message. Once processed, this status is lost and the message has a new status, which depends on the processing action that was performed.

On Hold

A human advisor can put a message on hold when they feel it is necessary to send an initial response to the customer (e.g., “I will find the answer to your question, please hold”), and keep this message in a dedicated “Waiting for me” folder in the inbox, so that they can easily find it and respond to the customer with a more definitive solution.

Help requested

A human advisor can request assistance from a colleague—most often a supervisor—for a specific customer message by setting that status and composing a question. The customer message will change status, the advisor will no longer be assigned to the message, and it will appear in the “Help Requests” folder in the inbox.

Help request answered

A customer message with the status “Help Request” can only be handled by Alcmeon users with the “Respond to Help Requests” permission. When these users assign themselves such a customer message, they can either respond directly to the customer or answer the advisor’s questions by changing the status of the customer message to “Help Request Answered.” The supervisor who does this will be unassigned from the message, and the advisor who requested help will be assigned this message. If this advisor is not logged in to Alcmeon, the message will be displayed in the inbox, with the status “Received,” for another advisor to handle.

Answered

When an advisor sends a response to a customer, the customer's message receives the status "Replied." This status is usually the last status of that message, and it will appear in the "Replied" folder of the inbox.

If it is not an advisor but an Alcmeon chatbot that answers the customer's message, the message will also get the status "Replied", but bots have the option to "forward to advisor"; by doing this, the message first gets the status "Replied", and right after the status "Received", so that advisors can see the customer's message in their inbox.

Archived

When an advisor decides to finalize a customer's message without responding, they use the "archive" function, which means "decide not to respond." This status is usually the last status of that message, and it will appear in the "Archived" folder of the inbox.

💡A customer message can only have one status, and only one, at a given time.

💡A branded response never has a status; only customer messages do. Similarly, a conversation never has a status either, as Alcmeon is a ticketless conversational system.

Processing a message: typical flow

This flow applies to both a human advisor and a bot.

In the illustration you will find:

• The main flow (solid arrows): an advisor or bot processes a message and ultimately replies to it or archives it.
• The secondary flow (dotted arrows): The advisor also has the option to unassign a message, or move a replied or archived message to the inbox (pending); a chatbot can transfer to an advisor by placing the message in the pending state after replying to it.

Processing a message: “on hold” flow

This flow applies to human advisors only.

In the illustration you will find:

• The main flow (solid arrows): the advisor processes a message, puts it on hold, waits, and then finally responds or archives it.
• The secondary flow (dotted arrows): the advisor has the option to unassign a message or move a replied or archived message to the inbox (in “received” status).

Processing a message: “Help request” flow

The typical workflow applies to human advisors only.

In the illustration you will find:

• The main flow (solid arrows): the advisor processes a message, requests help, waits for a response to this request, and then finally responds to it or archives it.
• Secondary workflow (dotted arrows): the advisor has the option to unassign a message or return a replied or archived message to the inbox (in “received” status).