FAQs: Assignment Rules
1. What is an assignment rule and why do I need it?
Assignment rule is an automation tool that lets the support administrator automate the process of assigning tickets to agents.
Customer support is a crucial job, and timely and effective resolution of tickets is essential to maintaining customer trust in your business.
Customer satisfaction is directly proportional to the efficiency with which customer issues are managed. If a ticket is received but not processed on time, such as if it is a pending assignment to an agent for a week, it will directly impact the overall customer experience. This can lead to customer distrust and lost revenue.
The automation rule helps to efficiently manage the ticket assignment process by routing tickets to agents based on their skills, departments, and specializations.
For example, if you receive thousands of tickets daily, it is not feasible to handle and assign them manually. The drawbacks of manual assignment include tickets being assigned to the wrong agent with the wrong skill set, or when they are unavailable, tickets being missed due to human error, tickets taking a long time to resolve, and agent productivity being hampered.
If an assignment rule is configured, tickets will be checked against the criteria that is set and assigned to the appropriate agents, ensuring immediate attention and quick resolution. This will result in fewer backlogs, faster resolution, higher efficiency, and a reduced risk of tickets going unattended or unresolved.
Users with Profile permission to manage Help Desk Automation can activate or deactivate the assignment rules. When you deactivate a rule, it will be labeled as Inactive. Assignment rules can be reactivated, when needed.
2. How do I auto-assign tickets to agents or teams?
There are two ways to auto-assign tickets to agents:
Direct Assignment
Tickets are assigned based on specific criteria (e.g., ticket priority, department, or keywords) to a particular agent, or team.
To set up a direct assignment rule
Navigate the Setup > Automation > Assignment Rules > Direct assignment
Click New Direct Assignment
Enter a Name and Description
Mark it Active
Choose when this assignment rule needed to be executed
Ticket Create - Execute the rule immediately after the ticket is created
Ticket Update - Execute the rule after the ticket undergoes a field update
Click Add Target
Choose the Department .
Under Criteria, select the field and values to filter out tickets.
If you want this specific tickets to move to another department, you can choose the destined department under Move ticket to
Select the specific Assignee or the specific Team.
Click Save.
Round robin assignment
Tickets are distributed among the selected agents.
To set up a round robin assignment rule
Navigate to Setup > Automation > Assignment rules > Round robin assignment.
Click New Round Robin Assignment.
Choose the Department.
Enter a Name and Description.
Choose the execution criteria:
Ticket Create - Execute the rule immediately after the ticket is created.
Ticket Update - Execute the rule after the ticket undergoes a field update.
Click Add Target
Under criteria, select the field and values to filter out tickets.
Select the Round robin type:
Load Based Assignment - Assign tickets to agents based on their load until everyone receives the set threshold.
Sequential Assignment - Assign tickets equally among agents, in a sequential manner, in a round-robin fashion.
Skill Based Assignment - Assign tickets to agents according to their designated skills.
Select the option to assign the ticket to an agent or team.
Select the list of assignees or teams.
When selecting teams, check the Exclude Agents checkbox and select the agents you want to exclude from being assigned tickets through this assignment rule.
Click Save.
Round robin configurations can be done by clicking the options (three dots) next to the New Round Robin Assignment.
3. What is the difference between a direct assignment rule, a round robin assignment rule, and skill based assignment rule?
A direct assignment rule is organization-specific and is used to assign tickets to agents, groups, or teams directly, regardless of the departments to which they belong. This rule can be used to assign tickets to agents directly and move the tickets from one department to another when needed.
For example, if a ticket is related to order and delivery, it should be assigned to the appropriate department where agents are specialized to handle these cases.
If the support admin has configured a direct assignment rule, the rule criteria can be defined as "subject is orders or delivery," and the keywords can include terms like orders, delivery, shipment, consignments, and so on. Based on this, the tickets will be routed to the department responsible for order and delivery, and the agents or teams within that department will be displayed. The support admin can then select the groups, agents, teams, or both, to assign tickets.
Similarly, a direct assignment rule can be implemented at the organization level to categorize tickets based on the departments and teams responsible for handling them.
A round robin assignment rule is department-specific and is used to assign tickets to agents, groups, or teams within a department. Round robin ticket assignment works on the basis of load sharing by agents. The round-robin assignment rule will distribute and assign the incoming tickets equally amongst a group of agents. In order to not overload the agents, the support admin can set a threshold for tickets, which is the maximum number of tickets that can be assigned to each agent at a time. So, tickets are assigned to the least loaded agent first and are then distributed to other agents in the group until they reach the threshold you’ve set.
The skill-based assignment rule is a part of the round robin assignment rule, which assigns tickets to agents based on their skills. For example, if there is a ticket referring to a technical issue, the agents assigned to it should possess technical knowledge to understand the issue. In that case, the skill requirement for the agent will be technical. Similarly, if the ticket is from a specific country and there are agents who work in that specific time zone and are familiar with the language, the tickets will be assigned to agents with the corresponding language as a skill type. Here, language is the skill, such as English, German, or French.
4. What is the difference between workflows and assignment rules?
- Workflow:
Workflows automate multiple actions, such as sending alerts, updating fields, and assigning tickets based on specific criteria.
For example, a workflow can send an email alert to the manager when a high-priority ticket is created, assign the ticket to a senior agent, and set the status to "Urgent."
Workflows can be triggered by multiple criteria but do not support round-robin distribution. So if you're looking to automate multiple actions beyond just assigning, and you don’t need even distribution among agents, workflows are the way to go. - Assignment Rule:
Assignment rules only handle ticket assignment by automatically assigning tickets to agents or teams based on specific conditions. Here are the different ways you can assign tickets to agents. - Team-Based Assignment - All sales inquiries are assigned to the Sales team.
- Round-Robin Within agents - Distribute finance support tickets evenly among selected agents using a round-robin sequential assignment.
- Round-Robin Within a Team - Distribute technical support tickets evenly among agents using round-robin.
- Skill-Based Assignment - Tickets about “JavaScript” are routed to agents who have JavaScript listed as a skill.
- Load-Based Assignment - Assign tickets to agents with the lowest current ticket count to avoid overload.
Assignment rules are triggered only by assignment-related conditions. More importantly, Assignment Rules support round-robin distribution, which helps in balancing the workload across available agents.
5. Difference between direct assignment and round robin assignment?
Direct Assignment | Round-Robin Assignment |
Tickets are assigned to a specific agent or team based on the criteria. | Tickets are distributed among multiple agents in a rotating manner. |
This ticket is assigned to the same agent or team every time the conditions match. | Tickets are assigned in rotation to the agents or a team. |
Best for specialized agents or specific teams handling certain ticket types. | This would be best for balancing workload and fair ticket distribution. |
6. What are the different types of round-robin assignment rules?
Round-robin assignment distribute tickets among agents. When creating an assignment rule, you can select the "Assign To" option, choose a team, and enable the "Round Robin" setting. This automatically assigns incoming tickets to agents in the team in a rotation. There are three types of round robin assignment rule:
- Load Based Assignment - Assign tickets to agents based on their load until everyone receives the set threshold. For example, if three agents in a team, such as A with 5 tickets, B with 9 tickets, C with 3 tickets, and there is a new ticket that arrives, the load base round robin rule will assign the ticket to the agent C until they reach 5. After C reaches 5, the system will start to assign tickets to both agent A and Agent C until they reach 9 tickets. Meanwhile, agent B has higher number of tickets, so the system will not assign any ticket to them.
- Sequential Assignment - Assign tickets equally among agents in a sequential and round-robin fashion. For example if three agents (A, B, C) are in the team, and six tickets arrive, the system will assign them in this order: Ticket 1 → A, Ticket 2 → B, Ticket 3 → C, Ticket 4 → A, Ticket 5 → B, Ticket 6 → C, and so on. This ordering will happen based on the alphabetical order of the agent's name. However, for the first time, agents will be assigned ticket based on the order on how the agents were added in the agents field.
- Skill Based Assignment - Assign Tickets to agents according to their designated skills.View Skills. For example, if a customer submits a technical issue, the ticket is automatically assigned to an agent with technical skills rather than a general support agent.
7. How do I configure a direct assignment rule?
Users with Profile permission for managing Help Desk Automation can create assignment rules.
To configure a direct assignment rule:
- Navigate to Setup > Automation > Assignment Rule
- On the Direct Assignment Rules List page, click New Direct Assignment
- On the New Direct Assignment Rule page, do the following:
- Enter the Rule Name.
- Specify the Execution Criteria for the rule.
- You can choose either Ticket Creation or Ticket Updation or both.
- Click Add Target.
- On the Add Target page, do the following:
- Ticket coming to department: Select the department where you would receive the tickets.
- Criteria: Enter criteria for the rule. You can associate up to 25 criteria using AND/OR operators.
- Move ticket to: Select the department were you want the tickets to be moved.
- Assign ticket to: Select the agent who should be assigned as the owner of the tickets.
- Click Save.
8. How do I configure round a robin assignment rule and a skilled based rule in my desk account?
Round-robin ticket assignment is a department-specific rule that distributes incoming tickets equally among a group of agents. To prevent overloading agents, the support admin can set a threshold for tickets, which is the maximum number of tickets that can be assigned to each agent at a time. The threshold can be set from 1 to 200. Tickets are first assigned to the least loaded agent, and then to other agents in the group until they reach the threshold.
If all agents have reached their threshold and incoming tickets cannot be assigned, the support admin can toggle on "Assign Backlogs" and set a threshold for backlog tickets from 1 to 50. Once agents resolve tickets, the round-robin rule will check for and assign backlog tickets to agents with available threshold.
Your support admin can choose whether to assign backlog tickets based on the due date or the date it was created to available agents. They can also define whether the incoming tickets should be assigned to agents or added to backlogs.
Round robin assignment rules can be assigned to teams or agents. In the case of a team, the tickets will be assigned to the agents in that team according to the load.
The skilled based rule is similar to the round robin rule. The only difference is that the tickets will be assigned to the agents having the skill set defined in the criteria to handle tickets.
The skilled based rule is similar to the round robin rule. The only difference is that the tickets will be assigned to the agents having the skill set defined in the criteria to handle tickets.
Users with the profile permission to manage Help Desk Automation can create assignment rules.
To configure a round robin assignment rule:
- Go to Setup (
) > Automation > Assignment Rule.
- Click Round Robin under the Assignment Rules sub-menu.
- On the Round Robin Rules list page, click New Round Robin Assignment.
- Select the department from the available departments drop-down for which you want to create this rule.
- On the New Round Robin Assignment page for the selected department, complete the following steps:
- Enter the Rule Name.
- Specify the Execution Criteria for the rule.
- You can choose either Ticket Creation or Ticket Updation or both.
- Click Add Target.
- On the Add Target page, complete the following steps:
- Criteria: Enter criteria for the rule. You can associate up to 25 criteria using AND/OR operators.
- Assignment Method: You may choose an assignment method from Round Robin assignment and Skill Based assignment.
- Assign ticket to: Select the agent who should be assigned as the owner of the tickets.
- Click Save.
Similarly, while creating a round robin assignment rule, if you choose assignment method as skills, select Skill based Assignment as the Assigning Method. Specify who should be assigned to tickets based on their skills.
You can select between:
- Agents: Select the assignees from the drop-down menu.
- 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.
Note:
- The rule will not reassign tickets that were assigned via other automations.
- The rule will not assign more tickets than the number specified under threshold.
9. What modules are supported in automation rules?
Workflow rules and Schedules are supported by all the system-defined modules in Desk. Rest all other automation rules, such as Assignment rules, Skills, SLA, Macros, and Notify, are only supported for tickets module.
10. What happens when criteria overlap in automation rules?
In general, automation rule criteria do not overlap. However, it is possible that the criteria defined in different rules may interfere with each other, such as assignment rules and workflow rules.
If there is overlap of criteria in automation rules, the order of precedence will be followed during execution. The first rule that matches the criteria will be triggered, followed by the next rule, and so on.
Once a rule has been applied to a record, it will not be triggered again by that rule unless the record's criteria change. In other words, a record will only be processed by each automation rule once.
For example, if an assignment rule is applied to a ticket and the ticket's department is changed, the assignment rule will not be triggered again for that ticket. This is because the criteria for the assignment rule have changed.
The only exception to this is the supervise rule. Supervise rules can be triggered periodically, even if the record's criteria have not changed.
Note: In the case of Blueprint execution, tickets will undergo blueprint transition before supervise or macros can be applied to them.
11. Can I deactivate or delete an assignment rule?
Yes, you can deactivate or delete an assignment rule.
To deactivate assignment rules:
- Click the Setup icon (
) in the top bar.
- In the Setup Landing page, click Assignment Rules under Automation.
- In the Direct Assignment Rules List page, click to open a rule.
- In the Rule Details page, uncheck the Active option.
- Click Save.
Note: If you don't want to use Direct Assignment Rules that have been configured, you can toggle it to deactivate all rules at once.
Deleting Assignment Rules
Assignment rules can be deleted when not in use. When you delete a rule, it will be permanently removed from your account and cannot be recovered.
To delete assignment rules:
- Click the Setup icon (
) in the top bar.
- In the Setup Landing page, click Assignment Rules under Automation.
- In the Direct Assignment Rules List page, click the Delete icon (
) for the corresponding rule.
- Click OK to confirm.
12. Can I assign a ticket to a team and an agent simultaneously?
No, you cannot assign a ticket to a team and an agent simultaneously. When you assign a ticket to a team, it is available to all agents in the team. However, it will remain unassigned to any specific agent until an agent picks it up or it is manually assigned. When a user assigns a ticket to a specific agent, it is directly allocated to that individual, bypassing the team-level assignment.
13. Why can't I see all the teams when assigning a ticket?
You may not see all teams while assigning a ticket because teams are department-specific. This means that only the teams associated with the ticket's department will be visible during assignment.
For example, if a ticket is created under Department A, you will only see and be able to assign it to teams that belong to Department A. Teams from other departments will not be displayed as assignment options.
14. How can I assign tickets to different agents based on a specific time range?
To create a rule that assigns tickets based on specific days and time ranges, you can use time-based criteria.
Let’s say you want tickets received during Chicago, USA business hours to assign to Agent A, and tickets received between Melbourne VIC, Australia business hours to assign to Agent B. You can set this up using the Ticket Created Time condition in your rule.
Steps to set it up:
- Navigate to Setup > Automation > Assignment Rules.
- Click New Assignment Rule.
- Under Criteria, choose Ticket Created Time - During business hours of - Chicago, USA → Assign to Agent A.
This is useful for managing shift-based agent availability and for a faster response time based on when the ticket arrives.
Time-Based Conditions:
Time-based Criteria | Conditions | Example |
Execution time |
| Execution time - During business hours of - Tokyo GMT+9 The ticket assignment to the Agent A execution will be occurring during the business hours set in the Tokyo time zone GMT+9. |
Created time |
| Created time - between - Custom 17/04/2025 09:00 AM 19/04/2025 12:00 PM Tickets created in between the time frame such as 17/04/2025 09:00 AM to 19/04/2025 12:00 PM will be assigned to Agent B. |
Modified time |
| Modified time - is after - Custom 14/04/2025 09:00 AM Any ticket modified after 14/04/2025 09:00 AM will be assigned to Agent C. |
Ticket closed time |
| Ticket closed time - is before - Custom 13/04/2025 12:00 PM All the tickets that have been closed before 12:00 PM on 13th April 2025 will be assigned to the Agent D. |
15. Can I assign tickets based on specific keywords?
Yes, to assign tickets based on specific keywords, such as, you must create a rule with the following criteria:
For any of the keywords:
- "Keyword contains payment, refund, invoice"
This will assign tickets that contain payment, refund, or invoice to a specific team or agent.
For all keywords together, use separate conditions:
- "Keyword contains payment" AND
- "Keyword contains refund" AND
- "Keyword contains invoice"
16. What happens to incoming tickets once the agent threshold is met for a round-robin rule?
If an agent's threshold is reached, any surplus tickets created in Zoho Desk are held back in a queue (backlog queue). The tickets from this queue are assigned to agents as and when they resolve the tickets that are assigned to them.
17. What are the different criteria I can use to assign tickets?
Criteria is the condition that can be defined in automation rules to determine when and how a rule should be triggered. These criteria help the system filter and identify specific tickets based on their defined properties.
Let's think of criteria as "if this, then that" logic. For example:
Let's think of criteria as "if this, then that" logic. For example:
- If Priority is "High" → Assign ticket to Justin Stewart
- If Description contains "refund" → Assign ticket to Thomas Lewis from the Finance department
These conditions can be based on system fields like ticket properties, contact info, key information, time, and date.
18. Can tickets get assigned based on keyword in the descriptions?
Yes, tickets can be automatically assigned to agents based on specific keywords found in the ticket description. For example, if you create an assignment rule with the condition "Description → contains → motherboard" and set the assignee as Vincent, any ticket submitted through the Help Center that includes a matching description like "I want a motherboard replacement" will be assigned to Vincent.
Assigning tickets through description criteria applies only to tickets created via the Help Center. Tickets submitted through the email channel will not trigger a keyword-based assignment, even if the criteria are met.
19. Is there a limit to the number of agents that can be added under round-robin rule?
There is no limit to the number of agents that can be assigned under a round-robin rule. User can add as many agents as needed, and tickets will be distributed among the added agents.
20. Can I assign tickets to multiple agents or teams using direct assignment rule?
No, the direct assignment rule allows assigning a ticket to only one agent or one specific team at a time. If there is a need to assign tickets to multiple agents, you must create separate direct assignment rules for each agent or create a round-robin assignment rule.
21. How do I stop email alerts to the agents for every ticket assignment?
If you don't want to notify the agent when a ticket is assigned to them or the team you can turn off the notification.
To stop email notification
Navigate to Setup > Customization > Notification.
Disable assigning a ticket under Agent Notifications.
22. Who will be assigned to the ticket if no assignment rule has been triggered?
If a ticket does not meet the criteria of any active Assignment Rule, it will remain unassigned and can be manually assigned to an agent or team by another agent or administrator.
Agents can find the unassigned tickets in the ticket module
The ones without a profile picture are considered to be unassigned.
Unassigned tickets can be filtered by selecting the Unassigned open tickets under the View.
23. What happens if multiple assignment rule meet the same criteria? Which one takes precedence?
When multiple assignment rules match, the system applies the first matching rule based on the criteria order. The rules are executed in the order they are listed, and once a matching rule is applied, no further rules are evaluated.
24. Can I use custom field values as criteria to assign tickets?
Yes, you can use custom field values to assign tickets. Once you have created a custom field, it will be displayed under the list of fields in the assignment rule. When creating a rule, you can select a custom field (e.g., "cost of the product") and define conditions, such as "=" or ">." When a ticket meets the specified custom field criteria, it will automatically be assigned to the designated agent, team, or department.
25. Is it possible to reassign tickets to a different department using assignment rules?
Yes, you can reassign tickets to a different department using assignment rules. When creating a direct assignment rule, you can specify the Move Ticket To option to transfer tickets to another department automatically.
26. Can I assign tickets to specific agents based on their skill set?
Yes, you can assign tickets to specific agents based on their skill set using Round-Robin’s Skill-Based Assignment. This method allows you to automatically route tickets to agents who have the required skills for handling specific types of queries.
To do skill-based assignment:
- Navigate to Setup > Automations > Assignment Rules > Round robin.
- Click New Round Robin Assignment.
- Choose the Department.
- Enter a Name and Description.
- Choose the execution criteria:
- Ticket Create - Execute the rule immediately after the ticket is created.
- Ticket Update - Execute the rule after the ticket undergoes a field update.
- Click Add Target.
- Under criteria, select the field and values to filter out tickets.
- Select the Skill Based Assignment.
- Select the option to assign the ticket to Agent or Team.
- Select the list of Assignees or Teams.
- When selecting teams, check the Exclude Agents checkbox and select the agents you want to exclude from being assigned tickets through this assignment rule.
- Click Save.
Tickets will then be assigned only to agents who match the defined skill criteria.
27. How to automatically assign reopened or escalated tickets?
Tickets often require immediate attention or a higher level of expertise, and auto-assignment, which will help in routing them to the right agent or team without delay.
To automatically assign reopened tickets:
- When creating an assignment rule, select the Execute On option as Ticket Update.
- Add a criteria, such as: Status → is → Reopened.
- Under Add Target, select Assign Ticket and choose the desired agent or team.
To automatically assign escalated tickets:
- Add a criteria as: Is Escalated → is → ✅.
- Under Add Target, select Assign Ticket and choose the desired senior agent or the escalation team.
28. What happens if the assigned agent is unavailable or out of office?
By default, if an agent is unavailable or out of office, the ticket remains assigned to them, and no automatic reassignment occurs. However, in Round-Robin Assignment, you can manage this by configuring the Assign tickets to offline agents setting:
- Disabled: Tickets will be assigned only to online agents in the mail channel.
- Enabled: Tickets will be assigned to both online and offline agents.
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