Allocation Priority Calculations
The principles of allocation priority calculations are described in the following sections. For more information about priority, see Priority.
Selecting a Contact for an Agent
When an agent becomes free to take a new contact, and there are unallocated contacts in the queues that the agent is logged onto, the allocation priority is calculated in the following way:
Contact allocation priority = [skill value] * [Importance of Skill Matching] + ([contact waiting time]/[queue priority])* [Importance of Contact Waiting Time]
where:
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The queue Priority value can be defined in , see Configuring Queue's Contact Management Settings, or for the extension in , see Defining Queue Numbers and Addresses. The default priority value is 1.
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Skill value is the contact’s skill requirement. For more information, see Skills.
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Importance of Skill Matching and Importance of Contact Waiting Time are weight values defined for each channel in , see Configuring Channel Settings.
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For contact waiting time calculation, see the table below.
The call with the highest call priority value is allocated to the agent, providing the agent meets the skill requirement.
Calculation for the Contact Waiting Time
A contact’s priority value, that can be considered to be a target service time
, affects the calculated contact waiting time. The table below describes how the waiting time is calculated.
|
Contact |
Priority |
Waited (seconds) |
Calculated Waiting Value |
10 Seconds Later |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Contact 1 |
5 |
1 |
1/5=0.2 |
11/5=2.2 |
|
Contact 2 |
20 |
10 |
10/20=0.5 |
20/20=1.0 |
|
Contact 3 |
20 |
20 |
20/20=1.0 |
30/20=1.5 |
|
Contact 4 |
60 |
30 |
30/60=0.5 |
40/60=0.67 |
Note the following:
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The calculated order between the contacts (based on the contact waiting time value) changes all the time.
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The calculated value is exactly 1 when the contact has waited for the time (in seconds) indicated by the priority value.
For example, as the priority is 20 for the Contact 3 (it has waited for 20 seconds), its current calculated value is 1.0.
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The calculated value can be greater than 1.
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The moment when the waiting time calculation starts is by default the moment the contact enters the contact center for the first time, and not the time the contact enters the queue. For the voice channel or phone queues, this time can be defined with a parameter Reference Timestamp for Calculating Queueing Time, see Configuring Channel Settings or Configuring Queue's Contact Management Settings.
For example, a contact may have already been allocated and answered by an agent, then forwarded to another queue, where its calculated priority is probably very high.
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In e-mails, the waiting time is based on the calendar time. This means that the time the e-mail queue has been closed according to a schedule is not deducted from the waiting time.
Selecting an Agent for a Contact
When a new contact enters a queue and there are free agents in that queue, the allocation priority of an agent is calculated in the following way:
Agent allocation priority = [skill value] * [Importance of Skill Matching] + [agent waiting time] * [Importance of Agent’s Waiting Time] + [agent priority] * [Importance of Agent’s Priority]
where:
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Skill value is the contact’s skill requirement. For more information, see Skills.
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Importance of Skill Matching, Importance of Agent’s Waiting Time, and Importance of Agent’s Priority are weight values defined for each channel in , see Configuring Channel Settings.
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Agent Priority is the value that can be defined in , see Configuring Contact Settings. The default priority value is 1.
-
For agent waiting time calculation, see the table below.
The call is allocated to a free agent with the highest agent allocation priority value, presuming that the agent meets the skill requirement. If the Required Agent or Preferred Agent function is used, they overrule the priority calculations above.
Calculation for the Agent Waiting Time
When calculating the value for the agent waiting time, the Target Time for Agents with Low Skill Levels parameter defines the target time, see Configuring Channel Settings. The greater the value is, the less important is the waiting time.
|
Contact |
Target Time for Agents with Low Skill Levels |
Agent Waited (seconds) |
Calculated Agent’s Waiting Time Value |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Agent 1 |
600 |
1 |
1/600=0.0016 |
|
Agent 2 |
600 |
600 |
600/600=1 |
|
Agent 3 |
600 |
1000 |
1000/600=1.67 |
|
Agent 4 |
600 |
10000 |
10000/600=16.67 |
Note the following:
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The time agent waited is the time from the end of the latest contact the agent had. All contacts are taken into account, including outbound calls and calls to the agent’s direct number, and manually or automatically rejected contacts.
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When a user logs on to the system, information of a possible previous session is restored and has effect to calculation.
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The calculated value can be greater than 1.