Guides

Chat and lead statuses in Looma: how your team never leaves a customer waiting

Which statuses exist, what Looma sets automatically, how "Unanswered" works, how to configure your own statuses and use them every day — for chats and leads.

Looma Team 9 min read

When you handle dozens of chats a day, an agent's main question isn't "what do I reply?" but "who haven't I answered yet, and who is waiting for me right now?" That's what chat and lead statuses in Looma are for: a color-coded bar above the chat list that shows in a second where things are on fire and where all is well. Looma sets most statuses on its own, so agents just work from the top down.

This is a guide to statuses: what they are, which ones are set automatically, how to configure your own, and how your team can use them day to day. Lead statuses get their own section.

The status bar in 30 seconds

Above the chat list sits a bar: "All", then the statuses with their counters, and a settings gear. Click a status to filter the list. "Unanswered" always comes first and is highlighted in pink. These are chats where the customer has been waiting for more than 5 minutes.

When a status appears

A status reflects human work, so it appears the moment an agent takes the chat. While only the AI is handling the conversation, there is no status, and you can't set one manually. Looma will tell you: "A status appears once an agent takes the chat".

Here's how it works in each chat mode:

You can take a chat with the button in the chat, or simply by replying in it, and Looma will assign the conversation to you. Whoever takes the chat becomes the assignee: their avatar shows in the chat list next to the status.

What Looma sets on its own

Agents don't need to click a status after every reply. Here are the rules Looma follows to keep statuses up to date:

Taking a chat again also resets it to New: if a chat is being picked up again, the customer has come back with a new question.

One key principle: automation never overwrites a status an agent set by hand. If you set "Waiting for customer", Looma won't change it to "Answered" after your next message. There's one exception: closing a chat always sets "Done".

Every status change is recorded in the chat history: who changed it, when, and from what to what. Automatic changes are signed as "System".

"Unanswered": how the key signal works

This is the status that makes the bar worth watching. A chat becomes "Unanswered" when all of these are true:

• an agent (not the AI) is handling the chat;
• the customer wrote last, and more than 5 minutes have passed since then;
• the current status is "New", "Answered" or "In progress";
• no one on the team has opened the chat in the last 1.5 minutes. If you're already in it typing a reply, Looma won't nag you;
• no one has changed the status manually since the customer's message.

Automation leaves "Waiting for customer", "Done" and your custom statuses alone. As soon as the agent replies, "Unanswered" switches to "Answered" on its own.

How agents manage the status

The header of an open chat has a status dropdown and the assignee. This is where an agent sets "In progress" or "Waiting for customer" when they see fit, and the same menu opens "Manage statuses".

• Assignee. The owner, administrator and supervisor can assign a chat to anyone on the team. An agent can take an unassigned chat or release their own, and can change the status only of their own or still unassigned conversations.
• Changed the status of an unassigned chat? It's automatically assigned to you.
• Filters. Besides the bar, the filter panel has a separate "All statuses" filter. You can combine it with mode (AI / Agent / Waiting for agent), channel and unread. The bar counters also respect active filters.

Settings: custom statuses, colors, order

There are three ways to open the settings: the gear at the end of the bar, "Manage statuses" in the chat status menu, or the Team → Chat statuses page. Anyone on the team can manage statuses.

• Rename and recolor the built-in statuses. They can't be deleted. If you clear the name, the default one comes back, in each agent's own language.
• Add your own, for example "Awaiting payment" or "Sent to warehouse". Only custom statuses can be deleted; chats with a deleted status move to "In progress".
• Reorder by dragging. "Unanswered" still stays first in the bar.
• Hide from the bar with the "Show in bar" checkbox next to each status. A hidden status disappears from the bar but stays in the chat menu and in the filter, and if it's selected as a filter, it's shown in the bar too.

"Done", auto-close and archive: what's the difference

Done is set when a chat is closed: with the button, by handing the conversation back to the AI, or by auto-close. Auto-close kicks in if the agent has been inactive for 30 minutes; if the agent wrote last, the chat stays open for 2 hours so the customer has time to reply. If the customer wrote last and no one read it, the chat isn't closed but goes back to the "Waiting for agent" queue.

If a customer writes into a chat that's already done, the status stays "Done" until an agent takes the conversation again, and then it becomes "New".

Archive is a separate flag (the ⋮ menu in the chat) and doesn't change the status. The chat simply disappears from the list, and as soon as the customer writes again, it comes back on its own. You can find archived chats with the "Show archived" checkbox in the filters.

Lead statuses

Leads are requests collected by the AI or an agent: name, phone, product, what the customer needs. They have their own set of statuses and their own bar above the list.

• Changed the status of an unassigned lead? The lead is assigned to you, just like in chats.
• Custom statuses, colors, order and "Show in bar" are configured the same way: the gear next to the bar or Team → Lead statuses. Leads from a deleted status move to "New".
• The star above the list is a quick filter for new leads, with a counter.
• The lead history shows who took it, who it was handed to, and how the status changed.

How to work with statuses every day

The simplest rhythm for an agent is to go along the bar from left to right:

1. Unanswered: start here. These are customers who have already been waiting for more than 5 minutes.
2. New: freshly taken chats that haven't had a reply yet.
3. In progress: get back to conversations where the customer has already answered your question.
4. Waiting for customer: check in every few hours, as it may be worth sending a reminder.
5. Done: for reviewing history and quality control.

For a manager, the bar is a control panel: the "Unanswered" counter shows the workload in real time, and the assignee in the list shows who's handling whom. If "Unanswered" keeps growing, you're short-staffed right now, and you can see it without any reports.

FAQ

Why doesn't a chat have a status?

The AI is handling it. A status appears once an agent takes the chat, either with the button or by replying.

Will I get a notification when a chat becomes "Unanswered"?

There's no separate notification. The chat is highlighted in pink and counted in the first status of the bar. Notifications about new messages work as usual.

Can I change the 5 minutes?

For now the threshold is fixed at 5 minutes for everyone.

Who can configure statuses?

Anyone on the team. An agent can change the status of a specific chat in their own and unassigned conversations; the owner, administrator and supervisor can do it in any chat.

Statuses work together with chat modes. We covered how to choose a mode and set up a schedule in our guide "Looma chat modes".