The first step to understanding the difference between these two aspects of the Zailab platform is to understand what each of these are and how they function.
Conversations - A conversation is a collection of individual interactions that are linked to a saved contact on the Zailab system.
The conversation will continue to accumulate interactions with said contact until the conversation has been closed. This means that a conversation could have 1 interaction or 100 interactions linked to it. Once the conversation has been closed, any new interactions made or received to that specific contact will generate a new conversation until that new conversation is subsequently closed as well.
As you can see in the below images, conversations can hold a multitude of different interactions, no matter the channel of said interaction. They can also display the timeline of the interactions had in the conversation.
The below displays all of the different interactions had on this singular conversation
A conversation with a singular interaction
Interactions - An interaction is a singular exchange with a customer on the Zailab system. This does not only apply to saved contacts.
An interaction applies to any channel used to begin an exchange with a customer. In other words, interactions can be calls, emails, SMS’s, etc. Interactions also only hold information specific to that singular exchange. If an agent is beginning a new interaction with an unsaved client, the system will put that singular interaction into a new conversation. Until the contact is saved on the system, any further interactions with an unsaved client will continue to generate conversations that will stay unlinked until the contact is saved.
As displayed in the below images, interactions are singular and can be had over any channel as long as the agent qualifies for the appropriate channel they wish to make use of.
An interaction that is not linked to any contact will create an unlinked interaction.
The below is a single call interaction in a conversation.
The below is a single email interaction on a closed conversation.
The difference? - The difference between a conversation and an interaction can be simplified into two main distinguishing features:
- Conversations are a collection of multiple exchanges between agents and customers on the system. Interactions are singular exchanges between agents and customers.
- Conversations are mostly associated with saved contacts. Interactions can be had with contacts that are both saved and not saved on the system.
With these two facts in mind, you will now be able to properly distinguish between an interaction and a conversation.