What type of triggers should I use to route chats to specific groups in Agent Workspace?

Question

Should I be using Support triggers or Chat triggers for live chat group routing if I have Agent Workspace enabled?

Answer

Chat triggers, such as the one described in this trigger recipe, are able to set the department for a chat before the visitor ever reaches out. This ensures the chat will be routed to the appropriate group in Support from the moment the ticket is created, and is recommended for chat routing in Agent Workspace.

Support triggers, on the other hand, cannot run until the ticket has been created. The routing process for live chats begins before support triggers can run on a ticket, so having Support triggers designed to set the group on a chat ticket can cause confusion. While the trigger will fire and change the group, chat routing began before the Support trigger fired, and is already working on finding the appropriate agent(s) regardless of the group set by a Support trigger.

For this reason, when using triggers to route live chats to different groups in Agent Workspace, it is recommended to use Chat triggers. 

If your chat routing needs are more robust than what chat trigger conditions have to offer, the next best method for routing is through the use of the department's API endpoint and custom code. Similar to chat triggers, using the API to set the department on chats will take effect for the chat before a ticket is created. 

For more information, see the article: Zendesk Chat triggers resources.

Note: This article applies to accounts using live-chat in Agent Workspace. To route conversations using messaging, see the article: Routing messaging tickets and notifications.