LiveAgent

LiveAgent can consolidate channels, but consolidating them is an operational project: migrate addresses carefully, test chat placement and phone routing, and decide how old conversations and consent records are retained.

The vendor advertises a 30-day trial without a card. Use a small test queue with one email address, chat widget, internal note, knowledge article and two agents; verify routing, duplicate-reply prevention, notifications and the customer-visible result.

LiveAgent describes HTTPS, two-factor authentication and regional hosting choices. Customer tickets may contain personal details, so review retention, access roles, selected data region and vendor terms with the organization's privacy requirements before migrating real conversations.

If ticket history matters when leaving LiveAgent, agree the export scope before canceling. Its guide describes CSV exports in some agent-panel sections, paged ticket retrieval through the API, and a raw database dump offered only to paying customers leaving the service. It says data held in S3 is supplied separately as files and folders. Ask which route covers the ticket messages and files you need, then inspect a representative export; a panel CSV or raw dump should not be assumed to be a complete, ready-to-import archive.

Before merging real LiveAgent tickets, rehearse with two harmless test conversations. The vendor says Merge Into cannot be reversed: it moves the source ticket's messages into the destination, while tags and recipients are optional merge choices. The source ticket becomes deleted and blocked from independent undelete or purge, though its ID remains referenceable. Verify the destination, tag and recipient choices, and resulting history before training agents to merge customer cases.

Before splitting a customer ticket with two separate issues, rehearse with a harmless test message. LiveAgent says Split automatically creates a second ticket containing the same selected message and content, after which the two issues can be assigned to different agents or departments. Check both ticket histories, owners and customer-visible replies so the duplicated message does not cause two teams to answer the same issue. Record which ticket the customer should use for each follow-up before applying the action to a live case.

When deciding whether to resolve or close an email ticket, send a harmless follow-up to test tickets in each status. LiveAgent says replies to Closed or Deleted tickets always create new tickets, even with matching email headers or ticket ID. A reply to a Resolved ticket joins the existing ticket when Reopen Resolved Ticket is enabled (the stated default); with it off, the reply creates a new ticket. Verify that setting and who monitors the new-ticket queue before defining the follow-up process.

When recording internal handoff context, choose the LiveAgent note type carefully. The vendor says inline ticket notes are visible to agents, move with a transferred ticket, and cannot later be edited or deleted; ticket, customer and company notes can be changed. Rehearse the note-versus-public-reply controls with a harmless ticket and check content for mistakes or sensitive detail before saving an inline note.

Before promising LiveAgent ticket recovery or permanent erasure, distinguish ordinary Delete from Purge. LiveAgent says Delete moves tickets to Trash and Undelete can restore them, while Purge removes them permanently. Its customer-removal guide warns that related tickets left in Deleted status remain accessible until purged; it also describes optional automatic purging after a configured period or by rule. Have an authorized admin inspect the current purge settings and test recovery with a harmless ticket before setting a retention procedure.

Before promising a LiveAgent SLA, set the SLA level's timezone, working hours and excluded holidays, then test an after-hours ticket. LiveAgent says nonworking periods extend the due date, while the displayed SLA countdown shows real time remaining rather than pausing. An SLA rule applies when a ticket is created; assigning a level later needs a separate rule or time rule. Check the sample due date against staffed hours on the chosen SLA-enabled plan.

Before postponing a LiveAgent ticket, inspect its status and SLA due dates. LiveAgent says Postpone does not pause running SLA times: in its New-ticket example, First answer and First resolve due dates stay unchanged. For an Answered ticket, First resolve has already paused at answering; postponement does not cause that pause. When the delay ends, postponed tickets return to Open, except tickets postponed from New return to New. On a plan with SLA access and the required permissions, rehearse harmless New and Answered tickets and compare due dates, remaining times and wake-up status before relying on Postpone.

LiveAgent ticket tags can be private for agents or public in the customer portal. Its support guide says public tags appear in a customer's My Tickets list, but opening that ticket does not display its tags; private tags remain agent-only. Before using tags for internal triage or customer-facing labels, have an authorized agent add clearly named test tags to a harmless ticket and view My Tickets and the ticket detail through a test customer login. Confirm the selected portal is enabled and that public tag names reveal only what the team intends.

LiveAgent can put a direct ticket link in a customer email template with {$conversationLink}. Its support guides say the separate My tickets 'Require authentication' setting controls whether opening that link needs a login; with the requirement off, anyone holding the unique link can read that ticket's history. Requiring login to submit a new ticket is a different form setting. Before sending ticket links to real customers, have an authorized admin inspect the configuration and open a fictional ticket's link in a logged-out browser to check the intended access.