Chats

Common scenarios

The following scenarios show how the preferred agent feature allocates conversations in different situations.

Setup

Agent A and Agent B are free and serving in Queue A. The preferred agent feature is enabled for the queue or the requirement comes from EDI or via payload.

Conversation allocation

1. A conversation enters Queue A, with Agent B set as the preferred agent.

2. The conversation is offered to Agent B even though Agent A has been idle for longer time.

3. If Agent B doesn't accept the conversation within the configured queue/channel timeout (the setting Timeout for contacts to be picked or rejected), it's then allocated to the next best available agent.

4. No preferred agent information is shown in the Picklist or History.

Setup

Agent A is free and serving in Queue A and Agent B isn't serving the the queue. The preferred agent feature is enabled for the queue or the requirement comes from EDI or via payload

Conversation allocation

1. A conversation enters Queue A, with the unavailable Agent B set as the preferred agent.

2. Because Agent B isn't available, the preferred agent requirement is ignored.

3. The conversation uses the standard routing process.

4. No preferred agent information is shown in the Picklist or History.

Setup

Agent A is serving in Queue A and ready, Agent B is serving in Queue A and not ready.

Conversation allocation

1. A conversation enters Queue A, with Agent B set as the preferred agent.

2. The conversation is offered to Agent B for the defined maximum waiting time.

3. The Picklist indicates that the conversation is reserved for Agent B and shows the duration of the reservation.

Setup

Both Agent A and Agent B are ready and serving in Queue A but Agent B's chat capacity is full.

Conversation allocation

1. A conversation enters Queue A, with Agent B set as the preferred agent.

2. The conversation is offered to Agent B for the defined maximum waiting time.

3. The Picklist indicates that the conversation is reserved for Agent B and shows the duration of the reservation.

Example: Using preferred agent waiting time

You can control how long a conversation is exclusively offered to a preferred agent before being made available to other qualified agents in the queue.

Setup

Conversation allocation

1. A new conversation arrives for which Agent A is the preferred agent.

2. The system immediately allocates the conversation exclusively to Agent A if available as explained in Max. Waiting Time for Preferred Agent. In the Communication Panel, Agent A is informed that the conversation was allocated to them because they are the preferred agent. The 30-second timer begins.

   

3. 30 seconds elapses and Agent A has not accepted the conversation.

4. The exclusive reservation for Agent A ends. The conversation is removed from Agent A's view and the system now treats the conversation like a standard conversation and begins searching for the next best available agent.

5. Agent B is ready and has capacity, so the system allocates the conversation to Agent B.

6. At this point, one of two things will happen:

   • Agent B accepts: The conversation is connected to Agent B.

   • Agent B rejects it: The conversation remains with Agent A and the system tries to offer the conversation to the next suitable agent in the queue.

Example: How preferred agent affects chat capacity

When a conversation has a preferred agent, the system will prioritize assigning the conversation to that agent, even if it means temporarily exceeding their defined chat capacity.

Setup

Conversation allocation

1. Agent A has two ongoing conversations so their chat capacity is full.

2. A new conversation arrives for which Agent A is the preferred agent.

3. The conversation is allocated to Agent A because the preferred agent requirement overrides the concurrent chat session limitation.