After you've spent some time observing chats and trying some with supervision, you can be approved as a full helper. Approved helpers don't have to wait to be invited to chats with users and will be prompted immediately as soon as a chat comes in. They can also follow the queue status. This article explains what we're looking for before we grant full privileges to a Live Chat contributor.

We believe that a quality helper:

Interacts well with users

• Is polite - regardless of the user's behavior. It's important that you remain calm, composed and well-mannered even if the user is abrasive or even abusive.
• Spells and punctuates replies properly - as much as possible. While many people today understand internet shorthand, many others don't and not all of the users we help are native English speakers.
• Maintains communication with users - We expect that you will greet users at the start of a chat, informs users before moving away to look things up or handle other chats, and check on users when there's been no response after a long while
• Does not drop users - Rather than dropping chats when you leave or if you're overwhelmed, you should transfer users or ask for help. If no one else is available to help, you should politely ask users to come back at a later time or try other support options such as the forum.

Asks questions

• Clarifies the issue before beginning a solution - Even if the problem seems clear, we would like helpers to ask a question or two to be sure they've correctly identified the problem and that they're understanding the user correctly.

• Gets confirmations while walking a user through steps - Users don't always know what should happen after completing a step, confirming the results of each step helps them follow along and prevents confusion.

• Requests assistance from other available helpers before resorting to basic troubleshooting or giving up - Support is a team effort and other helpers may know the solution to a problem or have good suggestions. It's important to take advantage of this group knowledge as much as possible. People are often available in the #sumo and #firefox channels on IRC if other helpers aren't available on Spark.

Provides support using the Knowledge Base

• Successfully finds existing answers in the Knowledge Base - Many problems users experience are documented in the Knowledge Base.

• Can guide users through documented solutions on all major OSes - Our Knowledge Base articles include easy to understand instructions - and in many cases screenshots - from all 3 OSes. Helpers should be able to break down and explain documented instructions for common problems.

• Can explain and use basic troubleshooting for undocumented issues - If you can't get a solution from the Knowledge Base or by asking other helpers, you should be able to guide a user through the basic troubleshooting steps to narrow down, isolate or fix an issue.

• Respects user data - Solutions that result in a user losing data are undesirable. First try solutions that minimize the amount of resetting or deletion that is done. When it is unavoidable, warn users when steps will cause them to lose bookmarks, cookies, history, saved passwords, open browser sessions or other data. Offer to back up the relevant files first.

Understands and follows our policies

We don't expect you to have had many chats that require application of the following policies, but we do expect you to be aware of them just in case.

• Doesn't accept personal information from users - This includes passwords, phone numbers and files with identifying information. If asking users for a screenshot or pastes of information from their browser, remind them to remove names and other sensitive data.

• Has reviewed and understands our procedure for handling trolls/abusive users - Our policy can be reviewed in the #Other issues.

• Has reviewed and understands our procedure for handling media enquiries - Direct them to press at mozilla dot com.