Zendesk Omnichannel Routing is an advanced feature that automates the assignment of customer inquiries to agents, based on real-time availability and skills. This creates an efficient workflow that improves agents' customer service experience and working conditions.
What is Zendesk Omnichannel Routing?
Unlike traditional routing, where tickets are manually assigned to groups or agents through filtering, Zendesk Omnichannel Routing optimizes the process by automatically assigning inquiries. This is done based on agents' availability, skills, and capacity rules, allowing agents to efficiently handle tickets from various channels, such as email, chat, and phone.
Key features
Agent statuses: Agents can set their status as "Online," "Away," "Transfer only," or "Offline," indicating their availability for new tickets. It’s also possible to add customized statuses to meet specific needs.
Capacity rules: To prevent agent overload, capacity rules define how many tickets an agent can handle simultaneously. For example, agents working with complex inquiries may have a lower capacity than first-line agents.
Skill-based routing: Agents can be assigned tickets based on specific skills, such as language or technical expertise. This ensures that the most relevant agents handle tickets they are qualified to solve, improving the quality and efficiency of customer service.
Queues: In times of high volume, queues can be created to ensure that important tickets are prioritized. If agents become overloaded or unavailable, tickets are rerouted to a fallback team, ensuring continuity in customer service.
Advantages of Omnichannel Routing
1. Improved response time: Tickets are assigned to agents with available capacity, leading to faster response times. This provides customers with a better experience as their inquiries are handled more quickly.
2. Optimal workflow: By matching agents with tickets they are comfortable or experienced with, both productivity and agent satisfaction increase.
3. Flexibility and scalability: Omnichannel routing is easy to build upon and adapt as the business grows or needs change, making it ideal for companies experiencing growth or fluctuating demand.
Frequently asked questions
Are all tickets automatically routed? No, only tickets tagged with an auto-routing code are automatically assigned via omnichannel routing.
Do all agents get agent status? Yes, but it is optional to use the agent status function for those not utilizing omnichannel routing.
What happens when an agent becomes inactive? If an agent is inactive or absent, their status will prevent new tickets from being assigned to them. If a fallback team has been set up, the tickets will be rerouted to this team. Once the agent becomes active again, the next tickets in the queue will be assigned to them.
Get started with Zendesk Omnichannel Routing
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