| Phase | Announced on | Rollout starts | Rollout ends | Status |
| Phase 1 | June 19, 2023 | September 2023 | December 2023 | Complete |
| Phase 2 | January 13, 2024 | April 2024 | May 2024 | Completed |
| Phase 3 | August 5, 2024 | October 2024 | October 2024 | Not started |
What is changing?
Zendesk is automatically turning on omnichannel routing for eligible accounts. Using omnichannel routing to route tickets directly to agents can improve service levels, and more accurate reporting on agent statuses can help inform agent training and resource planning.
When omnichannel routing is activated, agents will be notified that omnichannel routing has been turned on and asked to update their status.
Why is Zendesk making this change?
As the volume of customer requests increase, customer support operations are expected to continuously improve on service levels and maximize agent productivity. Omnichannel routing is designed to address this. Specifically, omnichannel routing can help with:
- Improving key service level metrics, such as first response time, by assigning work directly to agents. Eliminating the need for agents to search through views to find tickets to work on saves time and effort.
- Increasing agent productivity by assigning work directly to the agent with the right availability, capacity, and skill set.
- Improving future resource planning, agent training, and performance assessments by analyzing what agents actually spend their time doing.
What do I need to do?
To use omnichannel routing after it's automatically activated
If your account is eligible and you intend to use omnichannel routing, follow the steps in Activating and configuring omnichannel routing to finish setting up the feature and start using it.
If you plan to report on your agent's status, instruct agents to start setting their unified agent status as soon as omnichannel routing is turned on. After they begin using unified agent statuses, admins can view the live agent status information on the Explore real-time dashboard, the Omnichannel agent state and activity dashboard (EAP), or see a history of your agents' status using the Explore historical agent status report.
To not use omnichannel routing after it's automatically activated
No action is required. Your existing views, triggers, and other workflows will continue to work exactly the same way. The only difference will be possible inaccuracy in the agent status data displayed in the Explore agent status reports. If you don't want to report on your agents' status, agents can ignore the status picker. If you want to turn off unified agent statuses, too, turn off omnichannel routing in Admin Center.
To ask questions or get help
If you have questions, product feedback, or feature requests based on this announcement, visit our community forum where we collect and manage customer product feedback.
Other frequently asked questions
How do I use omnichannel routing?
To understand how omnichannel routing works, see About omnichannel routing.
Because omnichannel routing has already been turned on for your account, you can start using omnichannel routing as soon as you create a routing tag and a routing trigger to apply the routing tag to tickets. You can use the initial routing configuration as-is or you can modify it to better meet your needs. For details, see Activating and using omnichannel routing.
How can I report on my agent status?
Explore has an omnichannel dataset that includes agent status and activity information. This dataset can be used to create reports and dashboards. Additionally, after agents begin using unified agent statuses, you can view the live agent status information on the Explore real-time dashboard, the Omnichannel agent state and activity dashboard (EAP), or see a history of your agents' status using the Explore historical agent status report.
Can I turn omnichannel routing off?
Yes. Omnichannel routing can be turned off at any time. See Turning off omnichannel routing.