“Resolved” is a judgment call, not a stopwatch
Teams under metric pressure learn to close chats fast, because a low average handle time looks good on a dashboard. But a chat closed before the customer's problem is actually solved is not a win — it is a future re-contact plus a dent in trust. The status should reflect the customer's reality, not the agent's queue.
When reopening is the right move
- The customer replies after the close saying it did not work — reopen, do not make them start over.
- You promised a follow-up (“I'll confirm once the refund clears”) and now have the answer.
- You closed on an assumption — “that should fix it” — and never got confirmation it did.
- A related issue surfaces that the customer clearly considers part of the same thread.
In each case, continuity is the gift: the customer keeps the context, and you keep the accountability.
When a follow-up beats a reopen
Not every loose end needs the chat itself reopened. If the resolution is genuinely done and you just want to check in, an async follow-up — an email, a proactive message on their next visit — is lighter and less likely to feel like you are reopening a wound. Reopen when the problem is unfinished; follow up when the problem is finished but the relationship deserves a nudge.
The quiet cost of premature closes
Closing too early rarely produces an angry message — it produces silence, a lower rating, and a customer who next time skips chat and just churns or disputes the charge. Because the damage is quiet, teams optimizing for handle time often never see it. Watch re-contact rate alongside handle time; a falling handle time with a rising re-contact rate means you are closing chats, not solving problems.
Make it easy to pick the thread back up
Reopening only works if the history is intact. Agents should be able to see the full prior transcript, who the visitor is, and what was promised — so the customer never re-explains. In MyLiveChat, conversations and transcripts are retained and searchable, and a returning visitor can be recognized, so continuing a thread is a matter of reading the history rather than reconstructing it from scratch.