Online status and live offers

What does being online mean?

Being online tells Zuzana you are at your desk and can take live work now: chats and calls. You set it per market and per live channel, so you can be online for Danish chat and Swedish calls and offline for the rest.

It only matters for Chat and Voice. Email and social messages are never pushed to anyone: they wait on the board and in the Flow Queue until someone picks them up. There is no "online for email".

The status button in the helpdesk top bar

At the right of the helpdesk top bar, the status button reads Online, Away or Offline. Click it to open Where are you available?

• The grid 🟢 One row per market, one column each for Chat and Voice. Click a circle to switch that cell between Available and Offline. A dash means your access rules do not cover it.
• Go online everywhere / Go offline everywhere Every cell in one click. Going offline everywhere also covers other brands you are online on.
• I'm away ⏸ Pauses work everywhere without clearing your cells. Switch it off and anything waiting is offered to you straight away.

Next to it, the team button shows who is online, away or on a call, and on which markets. It is read only.

Why can't I go online?

• There is no status button. Has Live Agents is off for this brand. An admin turns it on in the Live Agents settings below.
• "No markets configured yet for this team." Either the brand has no markets, or your access rules give you no live channel. A strict or routing rule that only covers email leaves nothing to switch on, and a preference rule never adds a cell. Ask an admin to add Chat or Phone to your rule (see Capabilities).
• It is after closing time. You can still go online, but with Allow Online Outside Business Hours off no new chats are offered until you open. Calls are not affected.
• Chat Mode is AI only. You can switch Chat on, but chats are never offered to agents. Requests for a human become email handovers.

How a live chat or call is offered

When a chat is handed to a human or a call comes in, Zuzana picks the least busy agent who is online for that market and channel, connected and not on a call, and shows them an Incoming conversation card with a countdown.

• Claim takes the conversation. For a call, Connect takes it and connects you in one click.
• An offer lasts 45 seconds.
• Missing it ⏱ It goes to the next agent. With Go Offline When An Offer Rings Out on (the default), you are also set offline everywhere.
• Pass Sends it to the next agent and always sets you offline everywhere, whatever the settings.
• The only agent online 🙋 Pass is greyed out ("You're the only agent online") and there is no countdown: claim it or go offline. It still runs out after 45 seconds. With Go Offline When An Offer Rings Out on that sets you offline; with it off it rings you again.
• One call at a time 📞 No second call rings while one is ringing, and nothing is offered while you are on a call. Chat cards can stack.

Chats and calls that waited while nobody was online are offered as soon as someone goes online.

Why a live chat moves to another agent

A claimed chat stays yours while you are present. Each time the customer writes, Zuzana checks. If you are no longer present and a colleague is available, your claim is released and the chat is offered to them. If nobody else is available, it stays with you.

Present means your browser is connected and you are online for that chat's market and channel. Offline or away, you keep the chat as long as you have typed or used the mouse in the last 5 minutes, so finishing a chat after switching off is safe. A chat usually moves because you were set offline (missed offer, idle prompt, Pass) and then stepped away, or your browser closed.

Note: Auto-unclaim after inactivity, on the Automation tab of the Helpdesk settings, is a separate rule that releases conversations held by someone who has had no Zuzana tab open for the time you set.

Idle detection: "Are you still there?"

With Force Unavailable When Idle on (the default), the helpdesk watches for mouse and keyboard input while you are online. After the Idle Threshold (2 minutes by default) without any, it asks Are you still there? Click Yes, I'm here or press a key. Do nothing for 30 seconds, or click Go offline, and you are set offline everywhere.

• Only the helpdesk tab counts. Work in another tab (a dashboard, settings) for longer than the threshold and the helpdesk tab asks, then sets you offline 30 seconds later. Look back at it now and then, or ask an admin for a longer threshold.
• Several helpdesk tabs each watch their own input, so an unused one can ask while you work in another. Answering in one clears the rest.
• On a long call the prompt can appear if you do not touch the computer, but it never sets you offline while the call is live.

With the setting off, nobody is prompted or set offline for being idle. Missing an offer has its own setting, Go Offline When An Offer Rings Out.

Require Live Browser: tabs, closing the browser, leaving the helpdesk

With Require Live Browser For Routing on (the default), chats and calls only go to agents whose browser is connected to Zuzana right now. Any open Zuzana tab keeps you connected, so a dashboard in one tab and the helpdesk in another is fine. Keep the helpdesk tab open: that is where offers ring.

• Closing the browser or the laptop 💻 You stop being offered work within about 90 seconds, and your cells are switched off soon after (the idle threshold plus 30 seconds). Go online again yourself next time.
• Connection lost If your tab cannot reach Zuzana for about 90 seconds while you are online, a red banner says so.
• Leaving the helpdesk A link out of the helpdesk asks Leave the helpdesk? and Go offline and leave sets you offline. Cmd or Ctrl click opens it in a new tab and keeps you online.

With the setting off, the status button alone decides: calls ring through even when nobody is at the computer.

Online on several brands at once

Yes, you can be online on several brands at once. In a workspace, pick the workspace in the brand switcher at the bottom left of the helpdesk. The status button then lists each brand with its own Go online and Go offline, plus Go online on all teams. Offers come from every brand, and the card names the brand.

Switching to a single brand does not change your status on the others, and their work can still be routed to you. The status button shows Also online on N cells of teams not shown here, with Go offline there.

Forgetting to go offline at the end of the day

With the default settings, Zuzana catches it:

• Browser or laptop closed: offline within a few minutes.
• Helpdesk left open: the idle prompt sets them offline.
• Chat closes at closing time anyway: with Allow Online Outside Business Hours off, no chats are offered after closing, even with someone still online. Calls follow your IVR and overflow settings instead (see Phone).

If your team has switched these settings off, nothing sets anyone offline automatically.

An admin cannot set a colleague offline. There is no button for it in the team list or in Users. Ask the colleague to switch off, or rely on the rules above.

Notifications and the desktop app 🔔

• Browser notifications Click Enable in the bar at the top of the helpdesk and allow notifications. Offers then pop up as a system notification when the helpdesk is not in front. Only live chat and call offers notify this way. If blocked, the bar explains how to allow them from the lock icon in the address bar.
• Sounds Calls ring until claimed, passed or expired; chats play a short chime. The tab title counts waiting offers.
• Desktop app If your team uses the Zuzana desktop app for Mac, offers and conversations assigned to you arrive as native notifications. The app counts as a live browser.

The Live Agents settings

Admins find these under Settings → General → Helpdesk, on the Live Agents tab. They apply per brand.

How the chat widget shows live agents

With Chat Mode AI + live agents or Live agents only (Settings → Chat, Behaviour tab), the widget checks every 30 seconds whether anyone is on duty: online for Chat in that market, not away and, unless Allow Online Outside Business Hours is on, within business hours. If so, it can show up to three agents' pictures with their Public Alias or first name.

Outside business hours, with Allow Online Outside Business Hours off, nobody counts as on duty, even an agent who forgot to go offline. The widget shows no agents and the AI tells a customer who asks for a person to expect an email reply.

In AI only the widget never shows agents, so make your welcome text match: "ask for a colleague during opening hours" makes customers think they are in a live chat. See Chat.

Good to know

• Business hours never set anyone offline. They only stop new chats being offered.
• A phone transfer to a named colleague does not need them online for Voice: helpdesk open and not away is enough.
• The IVR Agents Online check counts anyone online for Chat or Voice, and Treat away agents as online counts away agents too.
• The green dot on the chat button means the chat answers, not that a person is online, except in Live agents only.