Service Provider FAQs

How can I work more efficiently with multiple patrons in LibraryH3lp?

 

There are several tools available in LibraryH3lp to help you work more efficiently with multiple patrons:

 

See how many active chats your colleagues are handling

See the FAQ "How can I see how many active chats my colleagues are currently handling?"

 

Customize your chats layout

You can decide how you would like to layout your chats:

1. Navigate to the Preferences tool in the far left menu

2. See the "Automatically arrange and size chat windows" preference

• If you turn this on, new chats will be automatically resized
• If you turn this off, you can resize new chats as desired

Note: Please leave the "Automatically set me to 'Busy' after this many open chats" set to 99. Altering this setting can interfere with the way chats are distributed and have unintended negative effects for your colleagues. 

 

3. If you have this feature turned on, see the "Automatically expand new chats until I have..."

• This feature allows you to choose how many chat boxes you would like to pop-up automatically as new chats come in
• After the threshold is reached, new chats will arrive minimized in your Current Guests list on the left where you can click to open the chat preview and claim the chat. If another service provider claims the new chat before you pop it open, the chat will disappear from your Current Guests list.

This feature can be hard to explain in words, so the best idea is to test it yourself on your shifts and see which layout you like best!

 

View the patron's status

The icons beside the guest's ID help you understand what's happening on the patron's end:

• Green icon: the patron is online
• Black icon: the patron is offline
• Red circle with a number: the patron has sent you a new message (and number of messages they've sent)
• Arrow in the circle: you've minimized this chat

 

Update the Guest Nickname

The Guest ID / nickname (e.g. "Guest JDBB") can be edited. If you'd like, you can edit this guest ID to give the guest a nickname to provide better context and help you keep track of different questions when you're handling multiple patrons. For example, you could change it to a short description of the topic or the type of question (e.g. APA). Any changes you make to the guest's nickname will not be reflected or stored in the session metadata.

To edit the nickname, hover over the guest ID in your Current Guests list and then click the pencil icon.

This short screencast (30 sec / no audio) shows you how to update the nickname.

 

Minimize chats

You can minimize an open chat by clicking the arrow button in the top right corner of your chat. This will minimize the chat to your current guests list. Minimized chats will have an arrow in the patron status icon. You'll see a notification if the patron sends another message.

Minimizing chats can be helpful to clear up your workspace if you have a chat that you're pretty sure is finished but you want to keep open for a few more minutes in case the patron returns.

 

Highlight chats

You can highlight a chat by clicking the star button in the top right corner of your chat. Highlighting a chat will help draw your attention to it for any number of reasons.

Do you have any other tips for working with multiple patrons in LibraryH3lp? Let us know!