Availability

Permission Required

Users who have the Help Desk Automation permission enabled in their profile can create workflows and assignment rules.

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Assigning tickets using Workflows

1. Navigate to Setup > Automation > Workflow Rules.
2. Click Create Rules.
   
3. Select the Tickets module from the drop-down and enter the Rule Name.
   
4. Click Next.
   
5. Select Execute On, Create, Edit, or Customer Reply, then click Next.
   
6. Select a Criteria if needed, then click Next.
   
7. Under Actions, select Assign Ticket.
   
8. In the Assign Ticket page, enter the Name and select an Asignee (Agent, Team, or Agent in a team).
   
9. Click Save.
   

Assigning tickets using Assignment rules

Direct assignment

1. Go to Setup > Automation > Assignment Rules > Direct Assignment.
   
2. Click New Direct Assignment.
   
3. Enter the Rule name and Description, then select Execute Rule on Ticket Create and/or Ticket Update.
4. Click Add Target.
   
5. Under Tickets coming to, select any department or a specific department.
   By default, the department in which you are creating the rule will be displayed here. You can change this, if necessary.
6. Enter a Criteria.
   
7. Under Move Ticket To, select a department, if needed.
   
8. Assign To an Agent, or leave the ticket unassigned.
   
9. Click Save. 
   

Round-robin assignment

1. Load based - This rule optimizes the ticket load of each agent. Tickets are assigned to the least loaded agent first. The load balancing will continue until all of your agents are assigned an equal number of tickets. After that, tickets are distributed to agents in the round-robin fashion.
   
2. Sequential - Tickets are assigned to agents in the order in which they are added during the configuration. For example, if John, Ben, and Amy are added to a rule in this order, then the tickets will be assigned first to John, then Ben, and subsequently to Amy. If all agents or a team are chosen, then the agents will be assigned tickets in alphabetical order (Amy, Ben, then John).
   
3. Skill based - Agents who have domain expertise, language proficiency, or negotiation abilities can be handled tickets based on their skill-sets. This will ensure that the customers get the best service from the experts.  

Types of Round-robin rules

Load based assignment rule

Sequential assignment rule

Skill based assignment rule

Load based assignment rule

Despite adapting effective triaging and routing methodologies, support teams can feel overwhelmed when a large volume of tickets arrive. Every customer request requires a dedicated response from the agent, and it's important for the business to maintain a high quality of standard. To prevent burnout and ensure ticket resolution guidelines are adhered to, orgs can consider distribution of tickets through load management.

Load balancing ensures every agent has tickets within the threshold limit at any point in time. The remaining tickets are added to the backlog and will again be assigned in the round-robin manner to agents as they continue closing the existing tickets. 

Sequential assignment rule

This rule ensures that tickets are assigned to agents following the sequence in which they were added to the rule during configuration.

For example, if John, Ben, and Amy are added to a rule in this order, then the tickets will be assigned first to John, then Ben, and subsequently to Amy. If all agents or a team are chosen, then the tickets will be assigned to the agents in alphabetical order (Amy, Ben, then John).

Sequential assignments can be helpful for teams that are specialized in handling specific types of issues. The senior team members and SMEs added at the beginning will ensure that customer problem are inferred correctly and the proper solution is provided. 

Note:

1. Adding or removing agents - If any modifications are made to the list of agents in the "Assign Tickets To" field by adding or removing, then the round-robin sequence will reset. It will start assigning tickets from the first agent on the list. Note that this reset does not apply when the tickets are assigned to teams.  
   
2. When choosing all agents or a specific team, in cases where agents share identical names, then the user IDs (auto-generated by the system when a user is added to Zoho Desk) will be used as unique identifiers. The agent who was added first to the Desk account will be first in the sequence followed by other agents. After that, the alphabetical order will be followed.
   
3. When agents transition between online and offline status, or when they reach a predetermined threshold leading to their exclusion from sequential assignment, they are marked as "SKIPPED" and positioned at the end of the queue. This decision is made by administrators who choose not to assign tickets through sequential assignment in scenarios where agents are offline or have met a specified threshold.

Skill based assignment rule

Agents may have expertise in a particular domain, fluency in specific languages, or be a subject matter expert with good analytical and problem solving skills. Agents who have these skills can be associated with specific skill sets, which will ensure tickets are routed to the right team and the resolution is provided quickly.

Organizations can add a list of skill sets based on the ticket history, customer requirements, or business perspectives. For example, some skill sets that can be added are:

1. Language expertise - French, German, Japanese.
   
2. Domain expertise - Data science, Designer, Programming language
   
3. Business skills - Finance, Marketing, Sales, Engineering
   
4. Leadership skills - Critical solution provider, planning and strategic thinker, information gathering and research
   

Agents can be associated with each of these skills. Once a ticket is categorized based on the skill set, they will be assigned to the respective team or agent automatically. This significantly reduces the time spent in understanding the requirement, routing it to the right team, and providing a relevant solution. 

The system can identify the skills based on the skill sets that have been added, based on which it will ascribe the skills to a ticket. You can also assign skills manually or via workflows.

To add skills and skill sets

1. Navigate to Setup (    ) > Automation > Skills.
   
2. On the Skill Types tab, click Add Skill Type on the upper-right corner.
   
3. Enter the Skill type and Save.
   
4. Enter the Skill name and select Skill Type from the drop-down list.
   
5. Enter Description, if needed.
   
6. Define the Criteria by selecting fields that will identify the skill in the ticket.
   
7. Select the agents from the available list.
   
8. Click Save.
   

Skill preferences

Allows to define whether skills should be added automatically to the tickets when they are created or edited. If this is toggled, then skills would be added manually or via workflows. Under preferences, admins can choose where and how the new skills will be displayed within the tickets:

Skills can be positioned:

1. Top of the list
   
2. Bottom of the list
   
3. Order in which they are added during settings

To add skill preferences

1. Go to Setup > Automation > Skills.
   
2. Click the Skill Preference icon ( ).
   
3. Toggle Auto-add skills to tickets.
   
4. Choose the location where the skills can be viewed within the ticket from the available options.
   

 Creating round robin rules

Points to remember

1. Round robin rules are department specific. 
2. You can associate up to five targets per round-robin rule.
   
3. If a ticket owner is already assigned via other automations, such as workflow or direct assignment or macro, then the round-robin rule will not reassign owners to those tickets.
   
4. By default, tickets are assigned to agents who are online in the email channel. However, offline agents can also be included while setting the round-robin preferences.
   
5. Unassigned or Backlog tickets will only be assigned in a round-robin manner if the ticket has received a customer response within 30 days.  
   
6. The tickets will be assigned in the following sequence when all the automations are active: Direct assignment > Workflow > SLA > Round robin (sequential > load balancing > skill based) > Blueprint > Notifications.

To create a round robin rule

1. Navigate to Setup > Automation > Assignment Rules > Round-robin.
   
2. Click New Round Robin Assignment.
   
3. Specify the Rule name and Description.
   
4. Select when the rule should be executed: Ticket Create, Ticket Update, or both.
   
5. Click Add target and do the following:
   
1. Specify the Criteria for the rule.
   
2. Select the round-robin method: Load balancing, Sequential, or Skill-based.
   
3. Under Assign To, select agents or teams.
   
4. Check Exclude agents from this assignment, if required, then select the agent.
   
6. Click Save.

Setting up round robin preferences

Including offline agents

Ticket threshold

Assigning backlog

Incoming ticket assignment

1. Go to Setup > Automation > Assignment Rules > Round Robin.
   
2. On the Round Robin page, click the More icon ( ) in the top-right corner.
   
3. In the Round Robin Preferences menu, do the following:
   
1. Toggle Include Offline Agents to assign tickets to all agents.
   
2. Toggle Threshold Limit and select the Threshold per agent from the drop-down.
   
3. Toggle Assign Backlogs and select a value for the Backlog Limit and the choose Assign Based on Due Date or Created Time.
   
4. Click Apply to set the preferences.   
   

Reordering round-robin rules and targets

1. In the Round Robin page, the rules for the department will be listed.
   
2. Hover on a rule and click the Reorder icon ( ) corresponding to it.
   
3. Drag and drop the rules on the order that you want.
   
4. Click Save order.
   

Deactivating round robin rules  

1. In the Assignment Rules page, click Round Robin from the left panel.
   
2. In the Round Robin page, hover your mouse pointer and click the Deactivate icon ( ) corresponding to the rule.
   Click the Activate icon ( ) to reactivate an inactive rule.

1. In the Assignment Rules page, click Round Robin from the left panel.
   
2. Toggle Round Robin Rules from the top panel.