How to setup Chat for Dynamics 365 Portal? Part 2 of 2

6 min readOct 8, 2019

hat for Dynamics 365 is an engagement channel that enables chat operators to connect with customers in real-time. Chat can only be used if you have an active subscription of Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Customer Service Enterprise or Customer Engagement Plan in your tenant. This guide explains the steps to help you sign up for a trial of Chat for Dynamics 365.

This article consists of 2 parts and covers such topics:

Part 1. Initial setup
Part 2. Omnichannel chat configuration and testing

By the end of reading it, you will be able to setup the Portal Chat and start using it.

Omnichannel chat configuration

PROVISION OMNICHANNEL FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE APPLICATION

Ensure that you are either a Global Tenant Admin or Dynamics 365 Service Admin of your Dynamics 365 org to be able to provision the Omnichannel for Customer Service application.

In the Dynamics 365 Administration Center, got to the Applications tab, select Omnichannel for Customer Service, and then select Manage.

*Manage Omnichannel for Customer Service*

The Omnichannel for Customer Service option will appear only if you have an active subscription of Dynamics 365 for Customer Service Chat.

2. On the Manage Omnichannel Instances page, select Add Org to add an organization. Omnichannel is set up on the organization instance that you add here.

As an admin, you can configure Omnichannel on multiple environments (instances). You can view the status of all organization instances where the Omnichannel app has been configured in the Manage Instances view.

3. Select the organization in the Organization Selector drop-down list.

Selecting the organization for Omnichannel

You must select the checkbox for Privacy terms, and proceed with the setup.

4. On the Enable Chat with Omnichannel page, select the checkbox to enable the Chat channel for your organization. To proceed with the setup, select the Continue arrow

5. On the Summary page, select the check mark icon to provision Omnichannel in your organization.

The setup can take a few mins. You may close the window and check after some time, or refresh to check if it’s complete. Once the setup is complete, the selected channels are enabled in your environment.

ASSIGN ROLES AND ENABLE USERS FOR OMNICHANNEL FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE

Follow these steps to assign Omnichannel roles to users in the Dynamics 365 web application:

Go to Settings > Security > Users
Select the user or users from the list for whom you want to assign a security role
Select Manage Roles in the menu
In the Manage User Roles dialog box, select a security role or roles that you want to provide to the user, and then select OK

Omnichannel users (agents and supervisors) should be assigned Customer service app access role.

ROLES AND THEIR PRIVILEGES

SET UP CHAT QUEUE

Go to the Omnichannel Administration App > Queues
To create new queue click New button
Fill all mandatory fields and click Save button
Add some user accounts to this queue

CREATE A LIVE CHAT WORKSTREAM

In the Omnichannel site map, go to Work Streams and select New from the command bar
On the Summary tab of the new workstream page, provide the name of the workstream
In the Channel drop-down list, select Live chat as the channel
Select Save to save the live chat workstream

CONFIGURE A CHAT WIDGET

Go to Channels > Chat
Select New to create a chat widget. The New Chat Widget page opens
Fill out all mandatory fields and click Save
Copy the widget snippet code from the Code snippet section. This snippet code will be used in the next step

EMBED CHAT WIDGET IN THE PORTAL

Open Dynamics 365 Portal app
Go to Portal > Content Snippets
Find the Chat Widget Code content snippet and open it

4. On the General tab, scroll down to the Value (HTML) section

5. Paste the chat widget snippet code in the HTML tab

6. Save the changes. The chat widget is now embedded into the portal. By default, the chat widget is displayed in a minimized mode as follows:

PRE-CHAT SURVEY

A pre-chat survey allows you to collect information from the customers. This information can be used to route the chats properly. Chat widget from this example will ask customer one question “What can we help you with?”. This question will be used to set up routing rules.

Go to the Omnichannel Administration App > Channels > Chat
Open your previously created widget
Go to Pre-chat survey tab and click Add question
Fill out all fields as shown on the screenshot and click Save

SET UP ROUTING RULES

Go to Work Streams
Open your previously created workstream
Go to Routing rule items and click Add
Fill out all fields and add the condition as shown in screenshot and click Save

Testing by user roles

TEST IT AS A CUSTOMER

Go to your Customer Portal
On the main page of the portal, in the bottom right corner, you should see the minimized icon of the chat
Start new chat session by clicking on the chat icon
Answer to question

TEST IT AS AN OPERATOR

Log in to Dynamic 365 as a user with Omnichannel Agent role. This user must be in the right queue. For this example it’s Billing queue.
Open Omnichannel for Customer Service app
When a portal customer starts a new chat session you should see the notification:

4. Click Accept

Now you can communicate with this customer as a chat operator

Final thoughts

So now you know how to set up Chat for Dynamics 365 Portal. We covered such topics as how to get a subscription for the Chat, how to enable Chat in your organization, how to configure Chat widget and how to test it.

If you want to dive deeper into this topic, you can check the Omnichannel for Customer Service Guide by Microsoft.

Try this setup guide and let us know what you think.

This article first appeared on the UDS blog by the Team.