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Route to a Queue
Route work to queues to distribute the workload among a team of support reps.
Required Editions
| View supported editions. |
Omni-Channel routes work through two separate processes.
- First, when a new work item is assigned to an Omni-Channel queue, Omni-Channel attempts to route it to a support rep. Omni-Channel routes work items by the priority of the queue that they’re assigned to, so the most important work items are pushed to reps first. Next, items are routed based on how long they’ve been sitting in the queue. The oldest work items are pushed to reps before more recent ones. (Let’s talk about the details of how that happens in a minute.)
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Second, when a rep’s ability to receive work changes (perhaps they come back from “away” status, or they finish another work item), Omni-Channel tries to find work that can be routed to that rep.
Routing New Work Items
When a work item is created, it gets assigned to a queue. If that queue is associated with a Routing Configuration, it’s added to a list of items that are still waiting to be routed to reps.
Then Omni-Channel determines which reps are available and how much work each rep is working on. This information comes from the UserServicePresence API object, which tracks a rep’s current capacity for work items.
Routing Pending Work Items
When a new work item is added to the list of pending items, Omni-Channel determines whether it can immediately route the work item to a rep.
First, Omni-Channel identifies if any reps are online with a Presence Status that’s linked to the correct Service Channel. Let’s say your organization receives a new case that’s assigned to an Omni-Channel queue. Omni-Channel determines if there’s a Service Channel for cases. Then it checks which reps are online with a status that lets them receive new work items.
| Scenario | What Happens |
|---|---|
| No reps are available. | If there isn’t a rep online who has the right status, Omni-Channel keeps the work item in the list of items that need to be assigned to a rep. |
| Reps are available, but don’t have capacity for new work. | If there are one or more reps who are available, Omni-Channel checks to see if any of those reps have the capacity to take on a new work item. If there are no reps with enough capacity for more work, it leaves the work item in the list. |
| Reps are available and have capacity for more work. | If there are reps that 1) are available and 2) have capacity to work on the item, Omni-Channel checks which rep to send the work to based on your organization’s routing settings. If your routing configuration uses the Least Active routing model, Omni-Channel looks for the rep who currently has the least amount of work compared to other reps who could take on the work item. It then routes the work item to that rep. If your routing configuration uses the Most Available routing model, Omni-Channel looks for the rep who has the largest gap between the maximum amount of work that they can handle and the amount of work that they are working on. It then routes the work item to that rep. But what if there’s a tie between two or more reps? In that case, Omni-Channel routes the work to the rep who received a work item the longest ago. Suppose that Rep A received work 10 minutes ago and closed it 2 minutes ago. Rep B received work 8 minutes ago and closed it 5 minutes ago. In this situation, the work would go to Rep A. |
When a Rep’s Ability to Receive Work Changes
When a rep logs in to Omni-Channel, finishes a work item, or changes status, Omni-Channel checks to see if there is any work that it can route to the rep.
| Scenario | What Happens |
|---|---|
| The rep is away. | Omni-Channel looks for another rep who can take the work. |
| The rep is available, but doesn’t have capacity for work. | Omni-Channel looks for another rep who can take the work. |
| The rep is available and has capacity for more work | Omni-Channel looks at the list of work items that are waiting to be routed to a rep. It checks to see if the rep is qualified to work on any of the objects, based on how much of the rep’s capacity the objects will take up, and the service channel that’s associated with the rep’s status. For example, if the rep is online with a status that makes them available for cases, it checks the list to see if there are any cases. If the list has work items that the rep is qualified to work on, then the item with the highest priority is routed to the rep. If two or more items have the same priority, the oldest one is routed. |
Rerouting a Work Item
Sometimes a rep declines a work item or changes their presence status and are no longer available to accept work. In that case, the work item is rerouted until it finds a qualified rep.
Here’s what happens. First, Omni-Channel automatically changes the owner of the work item to the queue from which the object was originally routed. If a rep (Rep A) declines a work item, then Omni-Channel looks for another rep (Rep B) to route it to. However, the work item can be routed to Rep A again if Rep B declines it.
If a rep changes their status and is unavailable, then Omni-Channel looks for another rep to route the work to.
Omni-Channel repeats this process until the work item is routed to a qualified rep.
Assignment Rules, Auto-Response Rules, Escalation Rules, and Workflow Rules
Automation rules, such as assignment, auto-response, escalation, and workflow rules, aren’t triggered when Omni-Channel routes a work item to a rep and the rep accepts the work.
When a rep accepts the work and then edits and saves the work item record, automation rules are triggered.
- Prepare to Route to Queues
Verify that you’ve completed these prerequisite tasks before you set up rules to route work to queues.
