The engagement report has two families of columns that sound similar but count different things:

Turns = Back-and-Forth Cycles

A "turn" only counts when the visitor replies right after the agent or bot was the one speaking. If an agent sends five messages in a row and then the visitor replies once, that whole exchange counts as one turn, not five.

Turns measure the rhythm of the conversation: how many times did the two sides actually go back and forth.

Messages = Raw Count

The message columns count every individual chat line, one for one. Using the same example, an agent sending five messages in a row before the visitor replies, that's five toward Agent Messages, even though it was only one turn.

Messages measure volume: how much each side actually typed and sent.

Why Both Matter

These numbers are meant to be different, and reading them together tells you more than either one alone:

• A conversation with many messages but few turns usually means one side (often the

agent or bot) is sending several short messages per reply instead of one longer message.

• A conversation with turns and messages close together usually means each side is

typically replying with a single message before waiting for the other side.

Neither pattern is automatically good or bad — it depends on your team's messaging style and what your bot flows are designed to do. These columns just give you the raw numbers; they don't tell you what to do about them.

Where to Find These Columns

Available as columns in the standard engagement report (Reports → Engagements → Columns). Add them to your report layout like any other column.