Channels are the most important concept to understand in CloudRadial Chat. Everything else, Responders, PSA integration, and Live Chat, builds on this foundation.
The idea is straightforward: your clients and your agents should not be forced into the same interface. Clients should reach support from the tools they already use. Agents should work from the tools they already use. Chat sits in the middle, connecting the two sides without requiring anyone to learn something new.
That is why Chat has two types of channels: Client Channels, where your clients start conversations, and Service Channels, where your agents handle them. They are connected by Chat, but they are independent. A client can be chatting from Teams while the agent responds from Slack. A client can send an SMS while the agent works in Teams. Chat handles the translation between platforms. Channels are available on all Chat versions (Chat Starter, ChatAI Professional, and ChatAI Enterprise), though the number you get and the options you can configure depend on your plan.
What Channels Are
A channel is a single path that chat messages travel along. You manage all of them from the Channels tab in the admin console, which is split into two sections: Client Channels and Service Channels. Together, they connect the people starting conversations (your clients) with the people answering them (your team).
Client Channels
Client Channels are where your customers access CloudRadial Chat. They are external-facing and can be deployed to your CloudRadial UCP, a Web Widget on your site, Microsoft Teams, or Slack. Each can carry its own branding, ticket routing, and live chat hours:
- CloudRadial UCP: built into the Unified Client Portal. Authentication: UCP login.
- Microsoft Teams: deployed as an app in the client's Teams tenant. Authentication: tenant identity (SSO).
- Slack: deployed as an app in the client's Slack workspace. Authentication: workspace identity.
- Web: a JavaScript snippet embedded on your website or support page. Authentication: email or SMS verification.
- SMS: text-based via Twilio. Authentication: phone number verification.
You do not have to pick just one. Many MSPs deploy Chat within CloudRadial UCP for a fully integrated portal experience, then add Teams or Slack for clients who prefer to stay in their collaboration tools. Each channel can be configured independently.
Per-client configuration
UCP and Web channels are reusable: you set one up and it serves all your clients. Teams and Slack channels are bound to a specific client's tenant or workspace, so each client gets their own deployment. At Pro tier and above, you can customize individual channels further by applying custom branding, routing conversations to a specific PSA board, or directing Live Chat escalations to a dedicated agent team.
Authentication and contact matching
Chat requires every end user to be matched to a valid PSA contact before a conversation can proceed. With UCP, the end user is already authenticated through their portal login. With Teams and Slack, the end user's identity is known from their tenant or workspace, so Chat verifies them against your PSA contacts automatically. With Web, Chat has no prior context, so it prompts the end user for an email or phone number and verifies the contact exists in your PSA before continuing.
What the client sees
Regardless of which channel they use, the client experience is a chat conversation. They describe their issue in natural language, interact with the Responder (Dialog or ChatAI), and can escalate to a live agent if needed. The platform may look different, but the conversation flow is consistent.
Service Channels
A Service Channel is where your agents receive and handle chat conversations. Chat supports two Service Channel platforms: Microsoft Teams (agent app installed in your MSP's Teams environment) and Slack (agent app installed in your MSP's Slack workspace).
The key principle: agents do not learn a new tool. They work in Teams or Slack, the same tools they use for internal communication. Chat shows up as notifications, queue updates, and group chats within that existing environment.
How agents interact
When a client escalates to Live Chat, agents see a notification in their Service Channel. Depending on your queue configuration, agents either:
- Self-select: view the queue and pick which chat to handle.
- Round-robin: get automatically assigned the next chat.
- All-hands: all available agents are notified (useful for smaller teams).
When an agent picks up a chat, the system creates a group conversation between the client, the agent, and Chat. The agent sees the full conversation history, everything the client said to the Responder and every troubleshooting step attempted, so there is no re-asking "what is the problem?"
Agents interact with Chat through commands that are invisible to the client. Common commands are available as buttons on Adaptive Cards in Teams, and agents can type /help to see the full list of available commands.
Multiple simultaneous chats
Agents can handle more than one chat at a time. This is a natural advantage of chat over phone: while waiting for a computer to restart or a process to complete in one conversation, the agent can work on another.
How they connect: the group chat model
When a Live Chat starts, the three participants each see something different.
- The client sees a conversation with their support team. They can send text, screenshots, and attachments. They do not see Chat's interactions with the agent.
- The agent sees the full picture: the client's messages, Chat's prior conversation with the client, and Chat's responses to commands. They have full context without asking the client to repeat anything.
- Chat handles the plumbing: relaying messages between platforms, updating PSA tickets, fetching information on demand, and managing the administrative overhead so the agent can focus on the problem.
This model also enables natural escalation within the agent team. An agent can add another team member directly into the group chat. The new agent sees the full history and can jump in without a separate handoff conversation.
Cross-platform bridging
Client Channels and Service Channels do not have to be on the same platform. Chat translates between them: client on Teams to agent on Slack, client on SMS to agent on Teams, client on Web widget to agent on Teams, client on Slack to agent on Teams. Your clients use whatever platform they prefer. Your agents work in whatever platform your MSP standardizes on. Nobody compromises.
Planning your channel deployment
When setting up Chat for the first time, you do not need to deploy everything at once. A common approach:
- Start with one Client Channel. If you have CloudRadial UCP, deploying Chat there gives your clients an integrated portal experience. Teams is the most common standalone choice. A web widget is the fastest to deploy if you want a quick test.
- Set up one Service Channel, whichever platform your agents primarily use.
- Test with a pilot client: deploy to one or two clients, run through the conversation flow, and verify tickets land in your PSA correctly.
- Expand: add more clients and Client Channels as you see results.
The onboarding wizard walks you through this process step by step.
In short: a client channel is how a conversation comes in, and a service channel is where your team picks it up.
Channels by Plan
Plan |
Client Channels |
Service Channels |
Chat Starter |
2 |
1 (Slack or Teams) |
ChatAI Professional |
5 |
2 |
ChatAI Enterprise |
10 |
5 |
Additional channels are $65/mo each on the paid plans.
Please see the Chat pricing page on our website for the most up-to-date pricing and entitlements.
Note that on ChatAI Professional and Enterprise, you can enable AI responses per client channel, mixing AI-powered and standard channels as needed; Chat Starter cannot enable AI.
Managing and Deactivating Channels
From the channel list you can open any channel to see its details and configuration. Each channel also has an Active toggle on the right. Switching a channel off disables communication over it immediately.
For a Web channel, deactivating it hides the chatbox from any site where the HTML snippet was added.
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