Setting up automatic chat routing

You can specify how incoming chat requests are automatically distributed to agents with chat routing settings.

This article includes the following topics:

• Understanding and configuring basic routing options
• Configuring chat limits
• Configuring additional settings for Assigned routing
• Monitoring chat routing data in Analytics (Professional and Enterprise)

Understanding and configuring basic routing options

There are two options for how incoming chats are sent to your agents:

• Broadcast: All agents get notified of all relevant chats, and the agent has to click on Serve Request to start serving the chat. This is the default setting.
• Assigned: Chats are evenly assigned amongst online agents, such that only one agent is notified of each incoming chat at any time.

  Incoming chats are assigned to the online agent currently who's been available (i.e., not serving a chat) for the longest time. If all agents are actively serving chats, the chat is assigned to the agent currently serving the fewest chats. If multiple agents are tied for the fewest chats, the chat is assigned to one of those agents in a round robin fashion.

  Assigned chats appear in animated tabs at the bottom of the dashboard.

  

Note: Customers on Team accounts can enable these routing options, but cannot cusotmize them further. Professional and Enterprise accounts have a number of customization options, described later in this article.

To configure the chat routing method for your account

1. From the Chat dashboard, select Settings > Routing > Settings tab.
2. In the Chat Routing section, select a routing method.

   

   Note: For Professional and Enterprise plan customers, if you select Assigned chat routing, you can also enable skills routing here. See Routing chats based on agent skills for more information.
3. Click Save Changes.

Configuring chat limits

Limit the number of concurrent chats each agent in your account can take at once. The way the limit works depends on your routing method:

• Broadcast: When agents are at the specified chat limit, they will no longer be notified of incoming chat requests, and they will not be able to serve chats through the Serve Request button.
• Assigned: Agents will be routed incoming chats only up to their chat limit, unless you also enable Hybrid Assignment Mode (see Configuring Hybrid Assignment mode).

You can select from the following two types of chat limits:

• Account: Set one limit that applies to all agents in your account.
• Agent: Chat limits are configured in each agent's profile. You can specify whether only admins can edit agents' chat limits or agents set their own limits.

Note: Chat limit settings have no effect on your widget or its online status. Even if all agents are at their limits, visitors can still initiate chats, which are then queued until an agent becomes available.

To enable chat limits

1. Go to Settings > Routing > Settings tab.
2. Next to Chat Limit, select On.
3. Next to Limit Type, select Account or Agent.
4. If you selected Account, enter a value in the Maximum Chats field.

   

5. If you selected Agent, chat limits are configured in each agent's profile:
   • With the Assigned routing method, select the Personal Limits check box that appears for agents to set their own chat limits in their profiles.

     

   • If you're using the Broadcast routing method or using Assigned but don't select the Personal Limits check box, set a chat limit for each agent's profile. Select an agent to edit under Manage > Agents and enter a value in the Chat Limit field.

     

6. Click Save Changes.

Configuring additional settings for Assigned routing

If you selected Assigned routing method, there are additional settings you can configure.

Configuring skills routing (Professional and Enterprise)

If you're using Assigned routing and are on the Professional or Enterprise plan, you can set up skills routing. For details, see Routing chats based on agent skills.

Configuring Hybrid Assignment Mode

This setting applies only if chats are Assigned and chat limits are enabled.

Hybrid Assignment Mode gives agents the option of serving additional chats once they've reached their chat limits. Agents will have the option of clicking the Serve Request button to pick up additional chats. If this option isn't enabled, agents can see incoming requests but aren't able to click on the button.

To enable Hybrid Assignment Mode

1. Go to Settings > Routing > Settings tab.
2. In the Hybrid Assignment Mode section, select the Allow Hybrid Assignment check box.

   

3. Click Save Changes.

Configuring reassignment

This setting applies only if you're using Assigned routing.

With this option enabled, if an agent doesn't respond to an assigned chat for a while, the chat will be automatically reassigned to another agent. If this option is not enabled, (if Reassignment is set to Off), once a chat is assigned to an agent, it is not automatically reasssigned to another agent.

To enable reassignment

1. Go to Settings > Routing > Settings tab.
2. Next to Reassignment, select On.
3. Enter a number of seconds in the Reassignment Timeout window. For example, if you want chats to be reassigned after 15 seconds with no response, enter 15.

   

4. Click Save Changes.

Configuring automatic idle settings

This setting applies only if you're using Assigned routing and have enabled Reassignment above.

Enable this setting to automatically set chat agents' status to Away or Invisible after a specified number of chats are automatically reassigned. Agents are notified when their status is changed.

To enable automatic idle status

1. Go to Settings > Routing > Settings tab.
2. Next to Automatic Idle, select On.
3. Enter a value in the Chats Reassigned field.

   

4. Select a status option next to Idle Status.

   

5. Click Save Changes.

Monitoring chat routing data in Analytics (Professional and Enterprise)

On the Professional and Enterprise plans, you can analyze chat routing data in Analytics with two statistics:

• Acceptance: the percentage of assigned chats that were served by agents out of all the chats routed to the agent
• Capacity (beta): The estimated amount of chats that can be served by the account in a given period of time. The capacity is a function of 1) the number of agents logged in, 2) the average chat duration of an account and 3) the chat limit set by the agent.

For more details about where to view these stats, see Monitoring chat activity with Analytics (Professional and Enterprise) and Monitoring chat capacity (beta).