Skill-based ticket routing is an advanced routing strategy that routes tickets to customer support agents who are best qualified to reply to the incoming tickets. It works by matching the skills required to answer a ticket with those assigned to the agent. So when a ticket is received, it is routed to the first agent who has all the requested skills and can take the work item. 

Benefits of Skill-based Assignment

1. Ensure high-quality customer support by assigning inbound tickets to competent agents in a department.
   
2. Assign tickets based on skills while simultaneously maintaining the agent threshold to ensure that none of your agents are overburdened.
   
3. Reduce the number of hours support managers and agents spend on manually assigning tickets and finding suitable tickets to work.
   
4. Efficient routing to highly skilled agents will reduce ticket resolution time, and ticket reopen rate.
   

Keywords to Remember

1. Skills : The distinct talent or expertise possessed by each agent on your team. For example, you could define skills for language (French, German, and English) and product knowledge (software and hardware).
   
2. Skill type : A collection of skills that can be grouped into categories, for example, languages. So “Language” is a skill type while “French” is a skill.
   
3. Auto-add skills to tickets : A setting that can be turned on to automatically add skills to tickets when they are created or edited. When turned off, you can only add skills manually or via a workflow rule.
   
4. Skill-based assignment : An assignment method where tickets are assigned to agents who are most proficient in dealing with them.
   
5. Recalculate skills : Removes all the existing skills and reapplies the required ones based on the ticket's current circumstances.
   
6. Reassign ticket by skills : Reassigns a ticket based on their current skills and listing order.
   
7. Remove skills : When used in workflow rules, it removes the requested skills from tickets that meet the rule criteria.
   
8. Add skills : When used in workflow rules, it adds the requested skills to tickets that meet the rule criteria.
   

Skill-based Assignment Scenario

1. Agent 1 : French
   
2. Agent 2 : Danish and German
   
3. Agent 3 : German
   
4. Agent 4 : Danish
   

Setting up Skill-based Routing

1. Step 1 : Add the required Skills and Skill Types
   
2. Step 2 : Set your Skill Preferences
   
3. Step 3 : Create a skill-based Round Robin rule
   

Step 1 : Adding Skills and Skill Types 

1. Click the Setup icon (  ) in the top bar.
   
2. Click Skills under Automation .
   
3. On the Skills page, click Add Skill on the upper-right side of the page.
   
   
   
   
4. On the Add Skill page, perform the following actions:
   
1. Enter a name for the new skill, for example, French.
   
2. Select the Skill Type to be associated with the skill.
   
3. If you haven't added any Skill Types yet, click the   icon, enter a name for the Skill Type, and then click Save .
   
4. Enter an appropriate description for the skill.
   
5. Specify the criteria that will define which tickets should be mapped to this skill. You can specify multiple criteria conditions.
   
6. Select the agents you want to assign to the skill from the drop-down menu.
   
5. Click Save when you are done.
   
   
   

1. Click the Setup icon (   ) in the top bar.
   
2. Click Skills under Automation .
   
   
   
   
3. On the Skills page, select the Skill Types tab.
   
4. Click Add Skill Type on the upper-right side of the page.
   
5. Enter a unique name for the skill type.
   
6. Click Save .
   Repeat these steps for each skill type you want to add.
   
   
   

1. You can add a maximum of 30 Skills and 30 Skill Types in a department.
   
2. An agent can be associated with a maximum of 30 skills in a department.
   
3. The Skills, Skill Types, and Preferences are department-specific .
   

Step 2 : Setting Skill Preferences 

1. Click the Setup icon (   ) in the top bar.
   
2. Click Skills under Automation .
   
3. On the Skills page, click the Skill Preferences icon (   ) on the upper right corner.
   
   
   
   
4. In the Skill Preferences window, do the following:
   
1. Turn off the toggle button for the “ Auto-add skills to tickets " option.
   When turned off, you will only be able to add skills manually or via workflow rules.
2. Select where you would like to add new skills to the ticket. You can choose between the top of the list , the bottom of the list , or based on their order in settings from the drop-down menu.
   
5. Click Save .
   

1. Skills are auto-assigned to tickets based on the criteria specified in them and their order of appearance on the Skills List page.
   

Step 3 : Creating a skill-based Round Robin rule 

1. Click the Setup icon (   ) in the top bar.
   
2. Click Assignment Rules under Automation .
   
3. Click Round Robin under the Assignment Rules sub-menu.
   
4. On the Round Robin page, click New Round Robin Assignment .
   
5. Enter an appropriate name and description for the rule.
   
6. Select when do you want to trigger the rule. You can choose between Ticket Create or Ticket Update , or both .
   
7. Click Add target .
   
8. On the Add Target page, do the following:
   
1. Specify the Criteria for the rule. The tickets associated with skills will be assigned to agents depending on the criteria specified here.
   
2. You can use the AND / OR operators to add more than one condition.
   
3. Select Skill based Assignment as the Assigning Method .
   
4. Specify who should be assigned to tickets based on their skills. You can select between:
   
1. Agents : Select the assignees from the drop-down menu.
   
2. Team : Select a team from the drop-down menu to add all of their agents.
   You can exclude agents within a team by checking the Exclude agents from this assignment option.
9. Click Save .
   
   
   

Viewing Skills 

1. Go to the Tickets module.
   
2. Choose the desired Ticket list view.
   
3. Open the ticket to view its details.
   Note : Skills cannot be accessed on the Add form or the Edit page.
4. Locate the Skills field in the ticket's side panel.
   The skills applied to the ticket appear here. You can click on the field to manage skills.
   
   
   

Associating and Removing Skills 

1. Open the ticket for which you want to associate a skill.
   
2. Locate the Skills field on the left panel and click on the drop-down menu.
   The Skills panel opens.
   
   
   
   
3. Click Associate Skills and then click the skills you want to associate to the ticket.
   Note : You can associate a maximum of 10 skills with a ticket.
4. Click Save .
   

1. Open the ticket for which you want to remove a skill.
   
2. Locate the Skills field on the left panel and click on the drop-down menu.
   The Skills panel lists the skills associated with the ticket.
   
   
   
   
3. Click the Close  icon ( ) corresponding to the skills you want to remove.
   
4. Click Save .
   

Reordering Skills 

1. Open the ticket for which you want to reorder skills.
   
2. Locate the Skills field on the left panel and click on the drop-down menu.
   The Skills panel lists the skills associated with the ticket.
   
   
   
   
3. Grab a skill by the Reorder icon (  ) and drag-drop it, where required.
   
4. Click Save .
   You may reassign the ticket by skills to reflect the change in their order.

Recalculating Skills 

1. Open the ticket for which you want to recalculate skills.
   
2. Locate the Skills field on the left panel and click on the drop-down menu.
   The Skills panel lists the skills associated with the ticket.
3. Click the More icon (   ) in the top right corner.
   
4. Click Recalculate Skills from the menu.
   
5. Click Continue to confirm your action.
   The ticket will have its skills recalculated.
   
   
   

Reassigning Tickets by Skills 

1. Open the ticket you want to reassign based on skills.
   
2. Locate the Skills field on the left panel and click on the drop-down menu.
   The Skills panel lists the skills associated with the ticket.
3. Click the More icon (  ) in the top right corner.
   
4. Click Reassign ticket by Skills from the menu.
   
5. Click Continue to confirm your action.
   The ticket gets reassigned to an agent based on its skills.

Skills for Workflows

1. Recalculate skills
   
2. Remove skills
   
3. Add skills
   
4. Reassign ticket by skills
   
   
   
   

1. Skill is also available as criteria in other automation rules and custom ticket views . The latter enables you to organize those tickets you are qualified to address quickly.