LibAnswers provides several built-in tools that can help you keep on top of your tickets and more quickly reply to common questions.
Dashboard views
Dashboard views are essentially saved filters that allow you to easily customize the list of tickets on your dashboard. If you find yourself applying the same filters over and over again while viewing the dashboard, then using a custom view can save you tons of time.
While any user can create their own personal dashboard views, Admins can create views for users in a specific queue, or all users in your LibAnswers system.
- Create and manage dashboard views
Learn how to create personal and shared dashboard views. - Selecting your default LibAnswers dashboard view
Learn how to choose the default view when you visit the Dashboard. Admins can also learn how to set the default view for another user account. - Dashboard views & filters
Learn how to switch between views on the LibAnswers dashboard.
Ticket macros
Think of a macro as a ready-made reply: it's essentially a reply that you can use over and over again. This can save you a ton of time when you find yourself answering the same handful of questions over and over again. Plus, it helps ensure that you're providing consistent information to patrons, particularly for questions on library policies, services, hours, and technology support.
Macros can also be configured to apply certain tags to a ticket, which can make certain types of tickets much easier to track in your statistics. And if that wasn't enough, you can also configure a macro to update a ticket to specific status (such as Open or Closed).
There are a few types of macros you can create:
- Reply macros: these can be used when replying to tickets submitted via your question forms, widgets, or email. These are rich text macros that can also include template tokens (a token is a placeholder for information contained in a ticket, such as a patron's name).
- Transfer macros: these can be used when transferring a ticket to another queue and/or user. Similar to Reply macros, these are also rich text macros that can include template tokens.
- SMS macros: these can be used when replying to SMS messages, allowing you to have a dedicated batch of macros better suited to the character limit and plain text format of SMS messages.
Any user can create macros. Regular-level users can create their own private macros to use when answering tickets. Admin-level users, on the other hand, can also create macros for specific queues, or share them system-wide.
- Create and manage macros for tickets and SMS messages
Learn how to create personal Reply, Transfer, and SMS macros. Admins can also learn how to share macros with other users. - Replying to a ticket and updating its status
Learn how to send a reply using a ticket macro.
Canned chat messages
If you find yourself answering the same questions over and over, canned messages can help you save time (and keystrokes!). Canned messages are pre-written messages that you can use while chatting. Admins have the ability to create System Canned Messages that can be used by specific departments, or every user in the system. Each individual user also has the ability to create their own personal canned messages that are only accessible to them. These can help staff answer questions quickly and consistently, especially for answers that often includes URLs, phone numbers, or other info that would take time to look up.
- Create and manage system canned messages for LibChat
Learn how Admins can create and share canned messages for all users. - Create and manage personal canned messages for LibChat
Learn how you can create your own canned messages to use while chatting. - How to chat with patrons (using individual or multi-chat overlay mode)
Learn how to chat with patrons, including how to select and send canned messages.