Search & Preview Records Interface

Search & Preview Records (formerly known as Contacts) is where cases and contact records are located, as well as a search bar that allows you to sort through them quickly and easily. The following is an overview of what you will see in this section of Agent Desktop.

Note: The Bulk Export/Import Contacts feature available in this section prior to release 5.3.2 was removed and added to the Contact Center Administrator application, section Contact Import & Export.

Main Page

The main page of Search & Preview Records comprises the three features of the section: the search bar, contacts, and cases. Below these features, you will see your saved contacts, which can be accessed by highlighting a record and clicking the Open button or double-clicking on the record. Additionally, you may add a contact by clicking the Create button or remove a contact by clicking the Delete button.

Search Bar

Located at the top of the section, the search bar allows you to search through cases and contact records; it is accessible whether you are on the main page, looking in a contact record, or at cases. For more information about the types of searches you can conduct, see Advanced Search.

Contacts

The Contacts section is where contact records are located. Contact records are the entries in your contact center's database containing customer information. When you open a contact record, you can view the contact's interaction history with your contact center as well as any saved personal data. This information is organized and separated by tabs.

Contact records contain the following buttons, which are accessible from any contact record tab:

• The link button copies a shareable link of the contact to the clipboard, allowing you to paste the link elsewhere; this makes it possible for you to share the contact with other agents or supervisors in your contact center. Note that links may be pasted into your web browser's search bar or into the search bar to access the case. When a contact link is pasted, it will be presented in the format <domain>/agentdesktop/contact/id/<id number>/<tab within case> (e.g., http[s]://YourCompany.brightpattern.com/agentdesktop/contact/id/5c6dadc9d04fd75a777bdcfa/details). For more information regarding how to manually alter this link, see Using URL Variations To Access Case and Contact Information.
• The Edit button allows you to edit the details of the contact record.

Details Tab

When a contact record is opened, the Details tab is the default view; it is where the contact's personal information is stored. Note that the types of information stored here will vary per contact center.

If your contact center is integrated with an external database (e.g., NextCaller), it is possible to merge matching customer contact information by clicking the Augment button. Note the setting that allows augmentation must be configured by your administrator in order to work. For more information, see How to Add to an Existing Contact.

Activities Tab

The Activities tab displays all activities that happened in your contact center related to a given contact; logged activities display information such as the time an activity occurred, what agent was involved, any disposition (i.e., including email dispositions), if it included an agent using Remote Assist, as well as subject and/or notes. For more information, see Activities.

Pending Tab

The Pending tab displays any cases that have not been assigned the Resolved or Closed states. Additionally, it is possible to select the link button in order to copy and paste a link to the case (i.e., in the Case area and not the Contact area). For more information about case states, see Case State. For more information about the link button, see Link button.

Cases Tab

The Cases tab displays cases that have been created for the contact. Additionally, it is possible to select the link button in order to copy and paste a link to the case (i.e., in the Case area and not the Contact area). For more information about cases, see Cases, Email, and Threads. For more information about the link button, see Link button.

Cases

Cases are instances of customer service that are created to track all communications related to a specific customer request. Cases can be created manually in your contact center or automatically if they arrive there as email. Note that not all interactions that happen in your contact center will be considered cases; however, if an interaction has been made a case, it can be found here. For more information about cases, see Cases, Email, and Threads. The Cases interface contains the following buttons and filters.

Spam button

The spam button removes the selected cases from this section. Note that this button does not function as a spam filter; spam filters are managed by your contact center's administrators.

Trash button

The trash button deletes cases. Note that this button is available for supervisors only.

Link button

The link button copies a shareable link of the case to the clipboard, allowing you to paste the link elsewhere; this makes it possible for you to share the case with other agents or supervisors in your contact center. Note that the case link button can be found in the Contact's Pending tab and Cases tab.

Note that links may be pasted into your web browser's search bar, into the search bar, or the Contact Search shortcut found at the top of the screen to access the case.

When a case link is pasted, it will be presented in the format <domain>/agentdesktop/case/id/<actual id number> (e.g., http[s]://YourCompany.brightpattern.com/agentdesktop/case/id/5ca2f3eed04fd756afcca6c6). For more information regarding how to manually alter this link, see Using URL Variations to Access Case and Contact Information.

Create a follow-up case button

The Create a follow-up case button is available for cases with a Closed state only. Clicking this button allows you to create a new case. For more information, see How to Use Cases to Send a Follow-up Outbound Email.

Static Elements

Shown

The Shown element is the searched-for or displayed number of cases out of the total number of all search results.

Case Filters

The following filters are available for cases.

Case State

The Case State filter allows you to sort cases per assigned State. For more information, see For more information, see Case State.

Case details

The case details filter allows you to sort emails by pertinent details; this filter includes a further option to organize by ascending/descending order by clicking the grey triangle . For more information, see My Cases Interface.

Services

The services filter allows users to search cases by service if a user has the See other agents’ cases privilege enabled. The two available filter options are Team’s Assigned Services and All. The Team’s Services filter, when selected, restricts the cases found to those that belong to the user’s team only, including all cases where the logged-in user participated. If the user has no See other agents’ cases privilege, neither selectors are displayed and the search results only include the cases where the logged-in user participated.

Teams

There is an additional filter for supervisors called Teams Selector that permits the supervisor to select a team from the list of teams they supervise. If you are a supervisor, you may also see a filter that allows you to limit the search to cases assigned to a specific team (i.e., as opposed to all teams that you are assigned to supervise).

Case Properties

Case content properties display case-related data (e.g., State, Data, SLA, etc.). You may choose which properties are displayed by selecting the desired data element checkbox in the Show/hide drop-down menu. Note that the selection checkbox as well as the contact/subject property are not removable.

The configurable properties are as follows.

All

Displays all configurable content properties, specifically:

• Category
• Location
• State
• Date
• SLA
• Last Service
• Disposition

Contact

Displays the contact's name and title; this property is not removable

Location

The location element is where the case is located; the location is displayed inline per case. If the case is in an agent's personal queue, the agent's name will be displayed; if the case is located in a specific team queue, the name of the corresponding email service will be displayed.

State

Displays the current case state.

Date

Displays the date associated with the option selected in the case details filter

SLA

Displays the target time bar, which is a visual indicator of SLA

Last Service

Displays the name of the service associated with the most recent interaction of the case

Disposition

Displays the name of the disposition of the last activity associated with the case

Restore Default

When selected, the displayed configurable properties will be restored to the system default; the default properties are as follows:

• Location
• State
• Date
• SLA

Search & Preview Records Overview

Agent Desktop's section Search & Preview Records is where case and contact information is stored and can be searched for. Note that prior to Bright Pattern Contact Center version 5.3.0, Search & Preview Records was known as Contacts.

Note: The Bulk Export/Import Contacts feature available in this section prior to release 5.3.2 was removed and added to the Contact Center Administrator application, section Contact Import & Export.

Articles

The following is a list of articles in this section:

• Search & Preview Records Interface

Tutorials

Learn more about using the Search and Preview Records features in this guide's Tutorials section.

• Advanced Search
• How to Create a New Contact
• How to Add to an Existing Contact
• How to Create New Cases
• Using URL Variations to Access Case and Contact Information

Advanced Search

As you work with more customers and fulfill their requests, you will accumulate an extensive collection of cases and contacts. Utilizing advanced search features, you can search through your customer information easily in any language.

Note the privilege to search cases and contacts must be enabled by your contact center's administrator.

Where to Make Advanced Searches

Advanced searches are made in Agent Desktop, section Search & Preview Records, in the search term field. You can search for a wide variety of case and contact information including email addresses, names, date of birth, case numbers, email addresses, and so forth. In the search results, the first 200 cases/contacts are displayed, with the newest entries displayed first.

About Search Strings and Keywords

Search strings are any combination of letters, characters, and numbers entered in the search field with the intent of finding matching information. Search strings are used in conjunction with keywords to conduct advanced searches.

Keywords are words that precede search strings and act as filters to help you find specific kinds of content quickly.

Operators such as AND and OR allow you to combine multiple search conditions. For examples, see the "How to use it" and "Example search" notes for each keyword below.

Search Results

Search results are displayed below the search term field, indicating the shown number of matches.

Available Keywords

The following is a list of recognized keywords; they are organized by either case or contact.

Case Keywords

category

What it does: The category keyword filters cases by category.
How to use it: The search string can be enclosed in double quotes; however this is optional. Without double quotes, only the first word will be associated with the keyword's search.
Example search: category: "My Team's Service"

created

What it does: The created keyword filters cases by creation date.
How to use it: The keyword and search string can be separated by the following: =, <, >, >=, <=; the search string shall correspond to the most preferred language/country combination set in your browser. For example, if your preferred combination is English (United States), the expected format will be mm/dd/yyyy, whereas for English (New Zealand) it will be dd/mm/yyyy. The ISO 8601 date format yyyy-mm-dd is supported for all language/country settings.
Example search:

• created = 08/01/2018
• created > 8/1/2018
• created > 8/1/2018 AND created < 8/16/2018

disposition

What it does: The disposition keyword returns cases containing the specified disposition in any of its associated activities.
How to use it: The search string may be enclosed in double quotes (optional) but it is recommended for multi-word searches; without double quotes, the search will use only the first word after the keyword.
Example search: disposition: "Silence"

email_text

What it does: The email_text keyword finds text contained within the body of an email associated with a case.
How to use it: The search string may be enclosed in double quotes (optional) but it is recommended for multi-word searches; without double quotes, the search will use only the first word after the keyword.
Example search: email_text: "broken on arrival"

flagged

What it does: The flagged keyword filters cases that were flagged
How to use it: The search string can contain the following option: "true" or "false"
Example search: flagged: true|false

last_disposition

What it does: The last_disposition keyword returns cases containing the specified disposition in the last associated activity. The search is limited to activity types that may have a disposition (i.e., if the last activity does not have a disposition field at all, the search will be extended to the previous activity).
How to use it: The search string may be enclosed in double quotes (optional) but it is recommended for multi-word searches; without double quotes, the search will use only the first word after the keyword.
Example search: last_disposition: "No answer"

modified

What it does: The modified keyword filters/sorts cases by the last date of modification.
How to use it: Same as created (see above)
Example search:

• modified > 08/01/2018
• modified > 8/1/2018
• modified > 8/1/2018 AND modified < 8/16/2018

<number>

What it does: The number search finds cases by state number; note that the option to search by number does not require the specific keyword number.
How to use it: Entering a search string consisting only of numbers will launch a search for the matching case number.
Example search: 12345

note

What it does: The notes keyword finds text contained in the notes records from a case's activity history.
How to use it: The search string may be enclosed in double quotes (optional) but it is recommended for multi-word searches; without double quotes, the search will use only the first word after the keyword.
Example search: note: "Replacement requested"

pending_reason

What it does: The pending_reason keyword filters Pending cases by the specific Pending reason; note that these will be specific to your call center.
How to use it: The search string can be enclosed in double quotes; however, this is optional. Without double quotes, only the first word will be associated with the keyword's search.
Example search: pending_reason: "Needs manager approval"

reporter

What it does: The reporter keyword filters cases by the name of the customer/ person who contacted your call center.
How to use it: The search string should be enclosed in double quotes. Without double quotes, the search will use the first two words after the keyword. If more than two words are typed in double quotes, the search is split on the first space and will match the rest against the last name. Note that partial names can be entered as well (e.g., name: J D).
Example search: reporter: "John Doe"

service

What it does: The service keyword filter cases by the services of interactions associated with the case.
How to use it: The search string may be enclosed in double quotes (optional) but it is recommended for multi-word searches; without double quotes, the search will use only the first word after the keyword. Additionally, you may include the Boolean operator AND followed by an additional search term; this will find all emails and cases that contain the additional search term in the subject and/or body and are assigned to the service.
Example search: service: "Maintenance Renewal" AND subscription

state

What it does: The state keyword filters cases by their states.
How to use it: The keyword and search string should be separated by a colon (:); multiple values can be separated by OR. Note that in the current version state is case sensitive.
Example search: state: New OR Open

subject

What it does: The subject keyword finds text contained in an email's subject line.
How to use it: The search string may be enclosed in double quotes (optional) but it is recommended for multi-word searches; without double quotes, the search will use only the first word after the keyword.
Example search: subject: "forgot password"

Contact Keywords

address

What it does: The address keyword filters contacts by the contact record fields associated with address; the recognized fields are the following: address line1 or address line 2, city, state/province, and postcode
How to use it: The keyword and search string should be separated by a colon (:)
Example search: address: 123 Fake St.

company_name

What it does: The company_name keyword finds contacts with a matching company name.
How to use it: The keyword and search string should be separated by a colon (:) and the search string can be enclosed in double quotes. Note that partial names can be entered.
Example search: company_name: "Warehousing Inc"

dob

What it does: The dob keyword finds contacts with a matching date of birth.
How to use it: The keyword and search string should be separated by a colon (:). Also, the month-date versus date-month order should be specific to your country (e.g., mm/dd/yyyy for the US).
Example search: dob: 07/30/1983

email

What it does: The email keywords finds contacts with a matching email address.
How to use it:

• Use email: filter, followed by the desired part of the email address, to search for any part of an email address (e.g., email:masha). A search for “email:ma” could return results such as “example@gmail.com,” “masha@example.com,” and so forth.
  
• Include the “@” symbol to find email addresses (e.g., masha@).
  
• Put the email address in quotes to find only complete email addresses (e.g., "masha@gmail.com"). These email addresses can be in the email address fields or anywhere else in text, such as in the email body, the subject line, or in notes.
  
• Enter the email address without quotes to get the widest possible search (e.g., masha@gmail.com). Without quotes, the search treats periods and the "@" sign as whitespace. Without quotes, the search splits the email address into individual words and tries to find emails/cases with the most matching words. Such a search, for example might even bring up another contact's email because some matching words appeared in the case history.
  
• Place an asterisk (*) in front of partial email addresses to search for matches (e.g., *masha@). The asterisk serves as a wildcard.
  

Example search: email: john@doe.com, email:john, john@, "john@doe.com", john@doe.com, *john@

first_name

What it does: The first_name keyword finds contacts with a matching first name.
How to use it: The keyword and search string should be separated by a colon (:). Note that partial names can be entered.
Example search: first_name: John

last_name

What it does: The last_name keyword finds contacts with a matching first name.
How to use it: The keyword and search string should be separated by a colon (:). Note that partial names can be entered.
Example search: last_name: Doe

name

What it does: The name keyword finds contacts with a matching first and last name.
How to use it: The keyword and search string should be separated by a colon (:). The search string should be enclosed in double quotes. Without double quotes, the search will use the first two words after the keyword. If more than two words are typed in quotes, the search is split on first space, matching the rest against the last name. Note that partial names can be entered as well (e.g., name: J D).
Example search: name: "John Doe"

phone

What it does: The phone keyword finds contacts with a matching phone number.
How to use it: The keyword and search string should be separated by a colon (:).
Example search: phone: (415) 555 1212

position

What it does: The position keyword finds contacts with a matching position.
How to use it: The keyword and search string should be separated by a colon (:). Note that partial words can be entered.
Example search: position: Engineer

segment

What it does: The segment keyword finds contacts with a matching segment.
How to use it: The keyword and search string should be separated by a colon (:). Note that partial words can be entered.
Example search: segment: gold

title

What it does: The title keyword finds contacts with a matching title (e.g., Mr., Mrs., Miss).
How to use it: The keyword and search string should be separated by a colon (:).
Example search: title: Mr.

URL

What it does: The URL keyword finds contacts with a matching company URL.
How to use it: The keyword and search string should be separated by a colon (:). A substring can be typed (i.e., "example" must match "www.example.com"). Note that the keyword is not case specific.
Example search: url: "www.example.com"

Using URL Variations To Access Case and Contact Information

In Search & Preview Records, you may notice the link button . This button copies the URL of case or contact information to the clipboard, making it possible for you to paste and share the URL with other agents or supervisors in your contact center.

It is possible, however, to bypass using the link button and instead manually enter the same URL information or variations of it; manually entering such information may allow you to access more specific case and contact information.

The following is a list of recognized URL variations that may be manually entered to allow you access to specific case and contact information. URLs may be entered into your web browser's search bar, into the search bar, or the Contact Search shortcut found at the top of the screen to access the case.

Cases URL Variations

If using the cases link button, the pasted URL will be presented in the format <domain>/agentdesktop/case/id/<actual id number> (e.g., http[s]://YourCompany.brightpattern.com/agentdesktop/case/id/5ca2f3eed04fd756afcca6c6).

The following is a list of recognized URL variations that may be manually entered to access case information:

• <domain>/agentdesktop/case/number/<case number> (e.g., http[s]://YourCompany.brightpattern.com/agentdesktop/case/number/1099)
• <domain>/agentdesktop/case/<case number> (e.g., http[s]://YourCompany.brightpattern.com/agentdesktop/case/1099)

If case links are pasted in internal chats, they may be displayed in the following formats for the most compact view:

• case/id/<id> (e.g., case/id/5ca2f3eed04fd756afcca6c6)
• case/number/<case number> (e.g., case/number/1099)
• case/<case number> (e.g., case/1099)

Contact URL Variations

If using the contacts link button, the pasted URL will be presented in the format <domain>/agentdesktop/contact/id/<id number>/<tab within case> (e.g., http[s]://YourCompany.brightpattern.com/agentdesktop/contact/id/5c6dadc9d04fd75a777bdcfa/details).

The following is a list of recognized URL variations that may be manually entered to access contact information:

• <domain>/agentdesktop/contact/id/<id>/<optional tab within case> (e.g., http[s]://YourCompany.brightpattern.com/agentdesktop/contact/id/5c6dadc9d04fd75a777bdcfa)
• <domain>/agentdesktop/contact/currentcontact/<details|activities|pending|cases> (e.g., http[s]://YourCompany.brightpattern.com/agentdesktop/contact/currentcontact/details)

If contact links are pasted in internal chats, they may be displayed in the following formats for the most compact view:

• contact/id/<id> (e.g., contact/id/5c6dadc9d04fd75a777bdcfa)