We are excited to announce that we have added OAuth2.0 support to our Email Inbox Monitoring integrations, which now support Microsoft Outlook and Gmail inboxes. With this new feature, users can now authenticate with their email accounts using the latest industry-standard authentication protocol, OAuth2.0. 

OAuth2.0 is a more secure authentication protocol that provides users with greater control over the access granted to third-party applications. This feature goes in line with Microsoft's decision to deprecate Basic Authentication for all IMAP integrations, ensuring that our users can continue to access their emails securely and without disruption. Users will be able to authenticate using their email provider credentials, eliminating the need for them to share their username and password with third-party applications. 

This new feature provides enhanced security and reliability for our users, ensuring that their email data is safe and secure. We believe that this update will greatly improve the user experience for our customers who rely on our IMAP Email integration. As always, we are committed to providing the best possible service to our customers, and we look forward to continuing to enhance our product in the future.

If you have any questions or feedback about this new feature or any other aspect of our product, please do not hesitate to get in touch with our team. 

Release Date: 03/23/23 

CX Manager

• Added a toggle to the IMAP email integrations to optionally ignore the auto-generated email headers and thus allow auto-generated emails to create cases in your CXME
• Added additional monitoring and alerting on IMAP email integrations to alert teams if an email integration connection fails
• Reduced load times for screens that contain Customer data
• Fixed a bug where custom date fields on the Location Layouts were not always displaying correctly
• Fixed an issue where Automations did not always trigger when the proper criteria were reached
• Updated colors throughout the application from teal to blue

Knowledge

• Updated the way you select multiple Articles on Knowledge home screen. You no longer have to click the Select button to make checkboxes appear. They will always be visible as long as you have a specific Library or Label selected.
• Updated the user workflow for adding Comments to an Article
• Added an "Articles" header above the list of Articles when you are viewing a page in the external library that has both labels and Articles listed
• Added the ability to include alt text when uploading an avatar to your external knowledge library
• Fixed a bug where changing multiple Article's Access Controls with the multi-select action did not properly change Internal Articles to Public
• Fixed a bug where labels containing public Articles would disappear after a User logged into the external library
• Fixed a bug where error messages were being displayed when attempting to insert legitimate image files into the body of an Article
• Fixed a bug where article stats were no longer updating properly

Integrations & APIs

Added extended standard field and custom field support to the Case Created and Case Updated Webhooks

Virtual Assistants

Added the ability to create a lead in Salesforce directly from the Virtual Assistant conversations. When enabled in a Flow, your Virtual Assistant can capture the user information and send it directly to Salesforce to create a new lead.

Admin & Settings

Fixed a bug on active Custom Fields that showed the Field Type field as editable even though it was not editable

Release Date: 03/07/23

CX Manager

• Enhanced the performance of loading customer profiles, including the Customer panel of the Case screen
• Fixed an issue where a user wasn't properly navigated to the correct Case when using Global Search from My Work
• Fixed an issue where the conditional logic on the Case Layout was not working when setting a field to Show when X is not Empty
• Improved the performance of running Automations
• Fixed a bug where Custom Fields were not showing up in Case Layouts unless the Ecosystem box was checked
• Fixed a bug where the Custom URL Field type did not open URL links
• Fixed a bug where Users were being suggested Internal shared Articles in Cases 
• Fixed a bug where you had to delete a Case twice in order for it to be properly deleted

Knowledge

• Drafts will now automatically be saved whenever the Session Timeout Warning modal appears so any changes you make get saved before you are logged out for being idle in the platform
• We updated the functionality of Tokens to allow multimedia and more rich text options
• We added Inter as the default font option when creating a new library. We also added Roboto and Montserrat as font options
• Fixed an issue related to sub bullets in numeric and bulleted lists. You can now indent sub bullets as well as change the list type in a nested list
• Fixed a bug where tagging Search Terms to a Knowledge Article would prevent that Article from showing up in search results
• We fixed a bug where inserting a token into an Article would cause a line break that put the token text on a separate line

Integrations & APIs

We added new GET and POST API endpoints for Automations, which will enable teams to get all their existing automations as well as trigger Automations via API. These new APIs will be available in our API documentation at developers.goboomtown.com/api.

Virtual Assistants

• Sentiment Analysis is now available as part of Virtual Assistant Analytics. Your Virtual Asissant will now be able to classify user responses into the following sentiments: Positive, Neutral, Negative.
• Made some small styling enhancements to the bot builder to add a bit more space for the bot builder interface
• Updated the background color of the selected left navigation item in the Bots section
• Updated the interface to minimize the main Settings navigation when in the Bots section
• Fixed an issue where embedded flow nodes all contained the text, "invalid" after initital creation
• Improved the performance of deleting Virtual Assistants

Reporting

• Fixed a bug where not all users could see all Folders under Reports.

Release Date: 2/10/23

CX Manager

Cases

• Fixed an issue where the conditional logic on the Case Layout was not working when setting a field to show when X is not Empty
• Fixed an issue where the Location Name was missing from the Location overlay on the Case screen
• Fixed an issue where if an organization has Custom Ecosystem Fields in their Case layout, users in their ecosystem but outside of their organization could not see these fields when they are creating a new Case
• Updated the tab name from Integrations to Connectors on the Solutions panel of a Case

Communications

• Fixed an issue where users would see a message with a snippet of code in the communications panel when a customer clicked End Chat in Messenger

Knowledge

• Fixed an issue where the page would sometimes fail to load when creating a new Article while actively editing another Article

Virtual Assistants

Virtual Assistant Connectors

We made the Virtual Assistants more actionable by adding the ability to capture and send user data through connectors/API integrations during conversations. Users can add connector actions on their Virtual Assistant flows to send data from conversations to third-party connectors. As part of the first release, we are launching lead generation on Salesforce through these conversations. With connector actions, the Virtual Assistants can now act as a single access point connecting different services internally and externally.

• Added a Connectors Icon on the Virtual Assistant Builder Canvas to add and connect connector actions on Flows. Supported connectors that are integrated and authenticated on OvationCXM platform will be available for the users to choose from the connector list.
• Added functionality to directly create a new lead on Salesforce from the Virtual Assistant conversations. Available for organizations having Salesforce connector pre-authenticated and integrated on their OvationCXM platform.
• Added ability for users to map entities/customers/locations/cases/manual input to the following fields (Channel, Name, ,Email Address, Phone Number) for "Create a new Lead" action with Salesforce connector
• Added the ability to display the required and optional fields that can be sent to perform the selected action from the selected connector. Users can map entities, locations, cases or customers to these field or can add a static manual input
• Added the connector fields to the reporting data for Virtual Assistant analytics
• Added the functionality to test a connection while "Create a new Lead" on Salesforce as action for a Virtual Assistant flow. Test Connection button will create a dummy lead object with dummy values on Salesforce for users to verify the connection link and field-object mapping.

Additional Updates

• Fixed an issue that prevented Virtual Assistant from getting initialized and responding to the messages coming from the SMS channel
• Added Sentiment Analysis as part of Virtual Assistant Analytics. Virtual Assistants will be able to classify user responses into the following sentiments: Positive, Neutral, Negative.

Reporting & Dashboards

• Fixed an issue where the MID field wasn't being updated on report data after being updated from its original value

Admin & Settings

• Fixed a bug where changing information on a Team in the Platform would remove that team from any Custom Alert Templates previously used by that Team
• Fixed an issue where the link sent within the password reset emails was not always working

We have made a bunch of new and exciting updates to the way you edit an Article in Knowledge. We not only streamlined the user interface but also introduced some new features that improve the overall experience and workflow. 

New Features & User Experience Enhancements

View State

You are no longer taken to the Edit State of a Draft when you click on one from the main Knowledge view. Similar to clicking on a Published Article Card, you will now be taken to the View State of the Draft. We also unified certain actions available so you can perform them whether in View or Edit State, depending on permissions. (e.g. Publish, Unpublish, Discard Draft, Comment, etc.)

Versions

We reworked the concept of Revisions. The Revisions picklist is now visible in the View State and will allow you to select what we are now calling Versions: Published, Draft, or Previously Published (formerly known as Revision). This will allow you to review different Versions individually and take appropriate action. When you unpublish a Published version, it will now convert to a Previously Published version. This not only gives you an audit trail but allows you to review the Previously Published version if you need to copy content from it. The timestamp for Draft versions is the last time the Save button was clicked. We moved the timestamp to the version picklist so you can quickly see when things were updated. The timestamp for Published and Previously Published versions is the date/time they were published.

Article Information Panel

We combined the 2 panels into 1 collapsable and resizable panel to give you more room for updating the content of the Draft. We also reorganized the Details tab and removed the individual Change/Done functionality for all of the fields in it. You can now update any of the fields directly without having to click Change first, then simply click the Save button. 

To Do Tab

We created a To Do tab for adding and resolving comments and for future improvements and features such as Article Approvals. 

Events Tab

We moved the Stats to the top of the Events tab and introduced a Load More Events button at the bottom. 15 event logs will load by default and 15 (or less depending upon the total number of event logs) will load every time you click it. We also cleaned up the logs themselves by getting rid of duplicate logs, removing extraneous information, and updated the verbiage to match the interface (e.g. Teams are listed by their actual name instead of their ID). 

Labels

We updated the way you add Labels to an Article by mimicking the way Labels are displayed in the main Knowledge view. You can now search or simply click through the same style tree and check the boxes next to the Labels you want to add to the Article. This makes it easier to find the label you are looking for, especially if you have multiple sub-labels with the same or similar names.

Search Terms

Keywords are now known as Search Terms. Adding Search Terms will now behave more like adding Tags or Products. A removable badge will be added for every Search Term you enter. You can also add phrases for exact specific searches to improve search results.

Main Action Buttons

View State

Edit State

We moved the main buttons from the bottom right to the top bar with the Version picklist. This brings the most frequent actions you perform front and center of the editor. We broke out Publish into its own button to make the publishing process easier and faster. We also introduced a 3-Dot Menu for less frequent actions and to introduce more functionality in the future.

Cancel Button

We updated the behavior of the Cancel button. When you click Edit on a Published version that has no Draft, a new Draft gets created based on the Published version. If you don’t make any changes or click Save, clicking Cancel will discard the Draft for you and take you back to the View State of the Published version. If you do make any changes to a Draft and don’t click Save, you will receive a popup asking if you want to save your changes.

Discard Draft

You will now be presented with a confirmation popup when you click on Discard Draft to avoid accidentally deleting something you shouldn’t have.

Refresh or Close Tab/Window

If you refresh your page or attempt to close the tab/window you are working on while you have unsaved changes, you will be prompted by your browser. 

Code View Saving

You can now Save any changes you make while in Code View without having to switch back to the standard view first. 

File Manager

We added an option to the toolbar while you are editing an Article called File Manager. This will allow you to upload files you wish to reuse in multiple Articles throughout your entire library. Clicking on the thumbnail will insert the file into the article you are editing. Clicking the Replace icon will allow you to swap out the file and it will automatically update any Articles using the file without changing the Article status. Clicking the Delete icon will allow you to remove the file just from the File Manager itself or remove it from any Articles it is in.

Create Article Modal

We updated the way new Articles are created. When you click on Create > Article, you are now presented with a modal where you can enter the Title of your Article, select the Library it will be nested under, and optionally choose a Template. This streamlines the creation process and ensures Articles are also created in the Library they belong to.

Export to PDF

We added an option in the Three-dot Menu to export Articles to a PDF version whether you are in the View or Edit State. 

If you are interested in using the new knowledge editor, email product@ovationcxm.com. 

Release Date: 01/20/23

CX Manager

• Made an update to automatically refresh the Case List View when clicking the back button from a Case Four Panel back to a Case List View to ensure the most up-to-date information is shown on the Case List View
• Updated the Case Layout logic to make the Owner Team field on any Case or Work Order Layouts required to save or resolve the Case
• Fixed an issue where the correct Resolution Status was not always showing
• Fixed an issue where the expand/collapse button on the Case Panel (Panel 2) of a Case was not collapsing the panel back to its original size
• Fixed an issue where clicking Cancel during the Change Customer flow on a Case was brought back to the Case List instead of remaining on the Case
• Fixed an issue where the Escalated icon did not display on a Case until after a user refreshed their browser
• Fixed an issue where clicking the Edit and/or Resolve button on the Journey Tab of a Case didn't work
• Fixed an issue where Section and Blank Spaces on Layouts were not showing on our updated Case Management screens
• Fixed an issue where the Location card in Panel 1 of a Case was blank if the Customer had more than one location associated to it
• Fixed an issue where creating a Case from the Customer Card ellipses menu > Create Case or Create Work Order didn't display the Case Events or Case Details on Panel 2 of the Case until you manually refreshed your browser

Knowledge

We fixed a bug where adding a word in between curly brackets was not showing up in the external article because it was being confused for a token.

Integrations & APIs

Fixed a bug where Notes were not being added to theh Events timeline from the Phone API. Notes can now be added for the AgentAnswer, AgentHangup, and QueueExit API calls.

Messenger SDK

Fixed a bug where the mobile SDK would sometimes hang or crash on the customer rating screen.

Virtual Assistants

• Added the new Sentiment Analysis logs to the Bots Activity Table
• We made Bots Training more consistent in terms of memory usage and time to completion by now training in batches
• Fixed an issue where Bot trainings were failing for large Bots ("Training Timed Out") due to a large load from the confusion matrix
• Fixed an issue where Bots were giving entity type errors when trying to again train the pre-trained entities
• Fixed an issue where Bots were showing the same flow name as two different options when clarifying topics in conversations

Release Date: 12/20/22: 

CX Manager

Cases

• Fixed an issue in the new Cases screens where clicking the resolve button in panel 2 of the case didn't automatically scroll the user down to the Resolution section of the Case Details
• Fixed a bug where clicking the refresh/reload button at the bottom of a Case List that was grouped by something (status, journey stage, etc.) would load a blank Case List
• Fixed a bug where newly created Category tags were not showing in the Category picklist on Cases and all Category Tags were showing for all Teams regardless of if that Category was set to only show for a subset of teams
• Fixed an issue where some of the Advanced Settings on the Case Layout fields (Conditional Logic, Required to Save, and Required to Resolve) were not always working on the updated Case Management screen
• Fixed an issue where Cases created for customers that had multiple locations associated to them didn't display the information on the Location card in Panel 1 of the Case
• Fixed an issue where the Owner Team dropdown was showing unrelated teams from your organization's ecosystem
• Fixed an issue where users could only see the Actions > Add Form button on Cases if they had the Manage Forms permission on their user role. If a user has the ability to edit a case and at least one Form is available to add on a Case, the user can now see the Actions > Add Form button.
• Made an update to automatically refresh the Case List View when clicking the back button from a Case Four Panel back to a Case List View to ensure the most up-to-date information is shown on the Case List View

Communications

Made an update to improve the speed an reliability of messages in the communications panel on a Case

Knowledge

Fixed an issue where users who accessed the external knowledge site via the link on an Article edit screen were automatically logged out of the external site and were forced to log in again

Messenger

• Messenger is now ADA WCAG 2.1 AA compliant
• We fixed an issue where the timezone of the time stamp on the End Chat message was not always correct

Virtual Assistants

We improved the dataset and model for the Anger and Confusion Intents

We're excited to announce the launch of Salesforce Package v2! With this new version, you'll have access to an array of brand-new features, bug fixes, and improved performance.

Features and Updates

• Rebranded the app to OvationCXM.
  
• We're excited to introduce the functionality of mapping any Salesforce Objects (including a custom object) with any of our objects.

• Introducing OvationCXM Dashboards to help you stay on top of sync metrics. 

Setup & Configuration

General

• Added a connection health status within the app. The status will let you know if something needs your attention. 
  
  
• Added UI updates for better notifications and loading screens. 
  
• Extended the OvationCXM error log functionality to show all sync errors. 
• Added the feature to use Initial Sync for Custom Objects. 
• Extended OvationCXM error log support for the custom objects. 
• Added the Last Successful Sync field to each record to track sync status. 
• Updated the app user interface. 
• Added pagination options for the OvationCXM error logs. 

Workflows Tab

• Added defensive validation on the workflow rules. These rules will now be validated while saving any changes. 
• Add default workflows with package installation. 
• Changed the loading process for the workflow tab to load an build workflows faster. 
• Added related and unrelated objects to the workflow builder. 

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug when the Map Picklist field option did not show any picklist values.
• Fixed a bug where the default Owner and Sponsor team options were not customizable.
• Fixed a bug where a partial Search on workflows did not give a match.
• Fixed a bug where the case URL was pointing to an old subdomain. 
• Fixed a bug where the contact sync was throwing a row lock error. 
• Fixed a bug where Initial Sync threw too many SOQL queries error.
• Fixed a bug where Account sync was throwing a System.NullPointerException. 
• Fixed several performance-related errors including Async Errors, Read timeouts and trigger registration errors. 

We hope that Salesforce Package v2 will make it easier for you to navigate your data and improve your business operations. You can install or update this package using our AppExchange listing. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to our team. We're here to help!

We’re excited to announce the launch of our newest product, Messenger. 

Messenger is the new and improved version of Webchat. We rewrote the application from the ground up in order to deliver better customer experiences.

We re-architected the code base to move from a chat-first approach (the original webchat was chat-only) to a multi-component digital interface. This updated architecture opens new doors for us to add new functionality, improve customer context, and introduce Smart Buttons, contextual on-page deep links, which we’ll talk about in an upcoming post.

Given that live chat is now just one of the many ways for a customer to get the information they need, we changed the name from Webchat to Messenger. Messenger allows knowledge and information to be delivered via chat, browsing or searching articles, email, phone, embedded journeys overviews, form submissions, custom websites, and more. Messenger is the digital interface that connects you with your customers.

As part of this update we added a number of new features and performance enhancements as well as resolved all known issues in the old Webchat product.

Features

Core User Experience

When a customer opens Messenger, they are now immediately routed to the home screen before having to provide their email address. This allows you to provide more information and communication channel options to your customers without adding any friction. Only when they start a chat conversation do we ask for some information so we can identify them early to provide a more personalized experience.

Updated Designs

In addition to the user workflow enhancements, we made a lot of interface design updates as we rebuilt Messenger. These include:

• ADA compliant color, navigation, and other updates
• Updated spacing, buttons, icons, scroll bars, lists, and more
• Added consistent hover states to all active buttons
• Migrated to a new font that is more legible at all text sizes
• Added new loading spinners and screens throughout the application
• Updated timestamps with relative ‘time since’ data that now automatically updates every minute. For example, Nov 1 2022 2:15pm (7m ago)
• In-chat component updates including new layouts for Article previews, Bot button interactions and ensuring selected buttons are sticky, updated chat text and bubble styling, updated composer styling, and more.

New Mobile Screen Optimization

We completely revamped how Messenger works when it is accessed on a mobile screen. We optimized the container so that it is easier to access and expand, but also easier to minimize and get out of the way when it’s not needed. 

Enhanced Chat Notifications 

We added new real-time chat message indicators for when a customer is not in the chat session, but needs to see there are new messages. This could be when Messenger is in a minimized state or even when the customer is on the home screen. 

Hours of Operations

When your chat is set to unavailable, the away message will now show on the home screen so customers still have the ability to get support via other methods provided.

Dynamic Container Sizing

Messenger is much more responsive in real time when it comes to browser size and zoom than Webchat was. Messenger will automatically resize to fix the browser size and will never go off the screen. A customer can also now zoom in to over 400% and the container resizes and is 100% usable at each state.

Updated User Workflows

We optimized the user experience across all core workflows as a customer navigates through chat, knowledge search, form submissions, and more. The navigation actions and language are now more intuitive and customers are less likely to get stuck on any screen.

Copy/Paste From Clipboard 

We added the ability for customers to copy and paste screenshots from their desktop into the Messenger composer to make it easier for customers to share images.

New file upload UI

We added a new file upload workflow to make it easier and more intuitive for customers to load one or multiple files at a time to a single message. Files can also be reviewed, and removed before sending the message for complete control. An updated file progress bar shows the upload process in real time before the message is sent.

Displaying Action Messages when Chats End 

We added action messages in the chat interface for when a chat is ended. Previously it just brought the customer to a rating screen but did not tell them that the chat was closed. We will be adding more action messages in the future. This could include when an agent joins the chat, when the customer goes inactive, when assignment has changed, and more.

Smart Buttons

Finally, Messenger comes with a powerful new feature called Smart Buttons. We will discuss the details of Smart Buttons in a separate post, but in short, they are power contextual elements that can be added to a screen that deeplink the customer to specific knowledge, bots, or forms within Messenger without leaving the current screen to provide faster, more contextual experiences.

Performance

Along with the new features included with Messenger, we also made a few performance, security, and reliability improvements. These improvements include:

• We updated our messaging protocol for increase speed and reliability
• We updated all internal libraries to the latest versions for increased performance and security
• We updated how we capture and store cookies in conjunction with the parent page to create a more seamless and reliable customer experience. This also reduces the risk for cross-site cookie blockers interfering with the cross-page chat experience.

Bug Fixes & Small Updates

• Added functionality to hide the welcome pop up bubble when the welcome text is blank in the configurator
• Updated the styling of buttons with long labels to be left aligned instead of center aligned to make it easier to read
• Fixed an issue where only Cases resolved as Completed would proactively end a chat session for a customer in Webchat. Cases resolved as Canceled or Deleted would not proactively end the chat, which caused customer confusion.
• Fixed a bug where ordered Lists within Article Previews sent by a Virtual Assistant did not properly render
• Fixed a bug where Knowledge Articles containing long links would extend the Article preview past the edge of the chat screen
• Fixed a bug where the typing indicator animation was broken when displayed between bot messages
• Fixed an issue where the Title set in the webchat configuration in CXMEngine was not reflected on the home screen of the webchat container
• Fixed an issue with dynamic container resizing where the chat container could go off the top of the screen when a customer changed their browser size while in an active conversation 
• Fixed a bug where Tokens used within Quick Replies sent from a CXMEngine user ignored line spacing when displayed in Webchat
• Fixed an issue where hyperlinks used in Quick Replies sent from a CXMEngine user had poor formatting when displayed in Webchat
• Fixed a bug where Article Previews in chat that contained anchor links displayed with broken URLs in Webchat
• Fixed an issue with download links for images that are uploaded to chat
• Fixed a bug where the hover text on the icon to open a Form in a new tab said, “Read Full Article”
• Fixed a bug where the Phone section on the Webchat home screen did not properly populate the phone number in click-to-call applications on desktop computers
• Fixed a bug where some customers would see a ‘Forgot Password’ prompt when trying to start a chat

If you would like to move from Webchat to Messenger please email us at product@ovationcxm.com.

Release Date: 12/06/22: 

CX Manager

• Fixed a bug where the Clone Case option on the Case Cards was not cloning the Case
• Fixed a bug where the Default Display value on Custom Case Views were not being respected and was always defaulting to the Card display
• Fixed an issue on the new Case screen where selecting the a Category in the Category picklist after you've already selected Case Tags in the Case Tag fields caused the Case Tags field to get cleared. 
• Fixed an issue on the new Case screen where hitting Enter or Return on certain fields when editing a Case caused the page to refresh
• Fixed an issue where certain fields on the Customer Contact layout didn't show when you clicked a Customer Contact card in Panel 1 of a Case
• Fixed an issue where sometimes the Articles Used field would not save article tags that were attached from Panel 4 of the Case
• Fixed an issue with the new Case screen where a user wasn't brought back to the Case List screen once they deleted a Case from the Action menu in Panel 2
• Fixed an issue with the new Case screen where the Owner User filter on the Case List was not searchable
• Fixed an issues in the new Case screen where users were unable to sort by a column when the Case List was in Table View
• Fixed an issue where quickly navigating between Cases sometimes displayed data from the previous case
• Fixed an issue where sometimes a user could not remove a tag from a Case Details field if they had already clicked on that tag
• Updated the Group By functionality on Case Views so teams can now group by Journey Stage
• Updated our Case functionality on the new Case screen so when a user clicks Complete Stage or Previous Stage on the Journey tab of a Case, they are kept on the Journey tab and not rerouted to the Events tab of Panel 2 of the Case
• Updated the My Teams Unassigned Cases default Case View in the new Case list to no longer be grouped by Owner Team
• Fixed an issue on the new Cases screens where customer surveys were not being automatically sent on Case resolution

Knowledge

• Fixed an issue where organizations that used a custom domain on their knowledge base could no longer access their articles through Panel 4 of the Case Management screen
• Fixed a bug where downloading an article you are editing did not contain the entire article in the PDF if the Article contained images.

Virtual Assistants

We improved visibility into bot issues by adding training errors and Bot Builder errors in Test Chat simulator. This will allow builders to more quickly diagnose and resolve issues in real time while they design and buildtheir Virtual Assistants.