This article describes how to activate and deactivate focus mode in the Zendesk Agent workspace. Focus mode enables admins to set conditional routing based on agent activity for voice and chat.
This article includes the following sections:
About focus mode
When activated with the Zendesk Agent Workspace, focus mode allows agents to be online for both voice and chat conversations but only serves the agent one channel at a time. For example, if an agent is on a call, they will not be offered chats until the call and call wrap-up has ended. If an agent is responding to a chat or handling multiple chats (up to the maximum chat limit), then no calls are offered to the agent until all their chats have ended.
By default, agents can get calls and chats at the same time.
When focus mode is activated, an agent working on chats will not receive calls until their chats have ended.
When focus mode is activated, an agent taking a call will not be offered chats until their call and call wrap-up has ended.
Focus mode is excluded for direct call and chat transfers between agents. Agents can transfer a call to another agent who is actively engaged in a chat. Similarly, agents can transfer a chat to another agent who is actively working on a call.
Within the Agent Workspace, focus mode is available only for customers using Zendesk Talk and Chat. It is not supported for Talk Partner Edition, Zendesk messaging, or web and social messaging channels. However, when using focus mode with omnichannel routing, it is available for Zendesk Talk, Chat, and messaging (including web and social messaging channels).
Activating and deactivating focus mode
The Agent Workspace focus mode setting is visible for all the accounts that have the Zendesk Agent Workspace activated, but aren’t using omnichannel routing.
Focus mode is off by default. If you activate focus mode, then later deactivate the Zendesk Agent Workspace, focus mode is deactivated automatically.
To activate focus mode
- In Admin Center, click
Workspaces in the sidebar, then select Agent tools > Agent interface.
- In the Focus Mode section, select Enable focus mode for live
channels.
- Save your changes.
To disable focus mode
- In Admin Center, click
Workspaces in the sidebar, then select Agent tools > Agent interface.
- In the Focus Mode section, deselect Enable focus mode for live channels.
- Save your changes.
43 comments
Lisa Kelly
Hi Andrew,
Focus mode is available only for customers using Zendesk Talk and Chat in the Agent Workspace. Unfortunately, it does not work with custom integrations for incoming calls.
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Bryan Schmitt
Are callback requests excluded from focus mode?
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Francis Casino
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Allie
Is there anything on the roadmap to include something similar to "focus mode" in omnichannel routing? It would really be great to not overwhelm my agents with being served a call when they have the capacity for 2 messaging tickets.
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Shawna James
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Zach Gilbert
Barry Neary can someone on the team either clarify or look into a ticket I have open with support? I’ve got one agent where a ticket has been sitting on awaiting on customer for a few days and the chat ticket is still being counted towards his omnichannel routing when focus is turned on. I worry that this is a bug and if more time is wasted on the “can you try another internet connection” that your team will not see the root cause.
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Francis Casino
I've looked into the ticket you mentioned and I'm happy to inform you that it's already being taken care of by one of my colleagues.
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Zach Gilbert
Francis Casino Thanks for the comment here, but if I can get an update on the ticket itself. I haven't seen anything since the basic troubleshooting steps and I'm worried that if our trigger closes the ticket, Zen won't have the data on why this is happening. It has been in there since Thursday and it was the root cause of the issues when the other ticket Sam made was logged.
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Francis Casino
Thank you for following up! I will work closely with my colleague who is handling the ticket. You can look forward to receiving an update soon.
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Zach Gilbert
Francis Casino I just recorded a loom to show the issue, I need a way of escalation on this as there has been no progress. The issue is server-side with a chat ticket stuck in an agent's capacity. Unless chats in waiting on customer are supposed to be counted towards capacity.
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Francis Casino
Hello Zach!
Thank you for sharing those details with us! I have already worked with my colleague and her manager to arrange a Zoom call to address this as quickly as possible.
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Zach Gilbert
Francis Casino I sent a loom video that clearly shows the issue. I'm not sure why this hasn't been escalated. I' ready to just set the ticket solved and move on. Then Zendesk won't have the data they need to fix this issue if it happens to other customers. But this has been a week-long issue that no one seems to take with a sense of urgency. I've tested it myself, if a messaging conversation is set to waiting on customer, that conversation is removed from the agent's capacity. This particular ticket is stuck in the agent's capacity. Nothing on the client side, it is the server side. If I don't have an update on this today with a clear course I will solve or voice the ticket with our customer and move on. cc: Barry Neary
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Francis Casino
Hi Zach,
We understand your frustrations, and I wanted to let you know that my colleague Jefrel is currently working on escalating the ticket to our senior engineers. To ensure effective communication let's continue our discussions through the ticketing system. Unfortunately, troubleshooting via this channel is not feasible.
Thank you for your understanding.
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