Customer Service Workspace – Multiple Browsers

Have you tried loading Microsoft’s, customer service workspace in multiple browsers? If you are working with Dynamics 365 Contact Center and haven’t tried recently you might want to experiment with it!

In the past, if an agent loaded customer service workspace in a second browser, they would see a “friendly” yellow notification bar warning them that it was open in multiple places. Meaning multi-screen setups were not supported.

But that notification has gone. Which is REALLY cool! I’m very excited about this?

WHY??? …..  most contact centers I work with are busy. Their agents often juggle multiple conversations concurrently. The multi session / tab interface found in the customer workspace really helps. But some will also benefit from using multiple monitors.

I wanted to experiment / demo this feature, below you can see my home office. I am lucky to have three monitors. Meaning I have the ideal setup to test this out.

First, I loaded the customer workspace in three browser windows. Positioning one in each of my monitors.

Already this was great, as when working as a supervisor I might load the real-time dashboard in one, monitor conversations in another etc etc.

I have taken a screenshot of my three browsers and shown below. Hopefully it is clear!

I then waited for an incoming chat. When it arrives I see a notification on all my screens!

Below you can see that my conversation opens on the screen I accept it in. And as I accept the conversation the notifications in the other screens close.

Tip: Notice my presence. On screen one and three it is showing as busy. On screen two I am showing as available. I have found that it can take a few seconds for the presence control to refresh on all my screens. As far as I could tell this was just a display “issue” and not something which caused me any problems.

Next, I started a second chat, again I got a notification on all screens. But this time I accept the conversation in a different monitor. Now I could chat with two customers and monitor each simultaneously.

You might need to be aware that juggling multiple screens does (in my opinion) create an extra challenge for the agents. As they do need to be trained to ensure sessions are still closed correctly. It could be very easy to forget to close a session! But that training requirement is a small price to pay for having the flexibility to use multiple monitors.

As I was experimenting, I did try to “break” this feature! I found one limitation which you might need to brief agents on. As explained when a conversation request arrives I see a notification in all my browsers. Accepting the conversation closes the other notifications almost instantly. BUT, if you quickly accept on two screens I did manage to open the same conversation twice. I have shown a screenshot of this below.

To be honest I had to try quite hard to make the conversation load twice. And even when I’d “achieved” this both conversations stayed in step. Meaning if an agent did accidently do this they could easily just close one of the sessions. The customer wouldn’t be unaware!

All in all, I think this is a great feature. And one I am excited to see, as despite the need to ensure agents use this wisely it remains an extremely useful addition. Enjoy.

Original Post https://neilparkhurst.com/2024/09/26/customer-service-workspace-multiple-browsers/