Automation #13 - Auto assign tickets based on agent shift time

This is a monthly series designed to help you get the best out of Desk. We take our cue from what's being discussed or asked about the most in our community. Then we find the right use cases that specifically highlight solutions, ideas and tips to optimize your customer support with the automation capabilities of Zoho Desk.

 

Business working in shifts need to adopt a different dynamic for customer support. For a seamless flow of tickets from one agent to another, it is important to avoid unnecessary delays that make angry customers. A simple two-step automation in Desk will let you ensure your incoming tickets are assigned to agents in the current shift. Giving your customer support teams to work in better co-ordination.

 

To achieve this first the ticket needs to be moved into the unassigned bucket. Then we use a custom function to achieve a round robin mechanism without load balancing to assign these tickets in the current shift.

As always, the first step to making the most of ZohoDesk's automation capabilities is to create a connection to be used in the custom function later. 

To create a  connection, carry out the following steps:

1. Click on Setup > Developer Space > Connections 
   
   
2. Click Create Connection
   
   
3. In the Pick Your Service section, under Pre-Defined Services find and select Zoho Desk.
   
   
4. In the Connection Details section, add zohodesk as the Connection Name and Connection LinkName
   
   
5. In the Choose Scopes list, select all values that start with 'Desk.' and end with '.ALL' and then include Desk.search.READ, Desk.products.READ
   
6. Click Create and Connect
   
7. In the page that appears, click Connect
   

Now move the tickets to the unassigned bucket, by follow these steps:

1. Go to Setup, and under Automation, click Workflows.
   
2. On the left panel, under Workflows, click Rules > Create Rule.
   In the Basic Information section, carry out the following steps:
3. In the Module drop-down menu, select Tickets.
   
   
4. Enter a name and description for the rule.
   
5. If you want to activate the rule right away, select the Active checkbox. Else, you can just create the rule now and activate it later, on the Rules page.
   
   
6. Click Next.
   In the Execute on section, perform the following steps:
7. Select the Create checkbox to execute this rule every time a new ticket is created.  
   
   
8. Click Next.
   In the Criteria section, do not select any criteria and move to the next section.
   In the Actions section, carry out the following steps:
9. Click the + icon and select Custom Functions > New
   
10. Click Edit Arguments
    
    
11. In the Name field type TicketID, and from the Value drop-down list select Ticket Id under Ticket Information.
    In the script window, input the Custom Function you find below:
    orgId = "paste orgId here";
    contactId = "paste contact ID here";
    TicketInfo = zoho.desk.getRecordById(orgId, "tickets", TicketID,"zohodesk");
    departmentId = TicketInfo.get("departmentId");
    agentId = TicketInfo.get("assigneeId");
    Param = Map();
    Param.put("departmentId", departmentId);
    Param.put("limit", "20");
    onlineagents = invokeurl
    [
    url: "https://desk.zoho.com/api/v1/onlineAgents?"
    type: GET
    parameters: Param
    connection:"zohodesk"
    ];
    if (onlineagents.notContains(agentId))
    {
    info zoho.desk.update(orgId, "tickets", TicketID,{"assigneeId":null},"zohodesk");
    } 

Note: navigate to Setup > Developer Space > API > get orgId and replace in custom function.

To achieve the round robin automation without load balancing, follow these steps:

Pre-requisite:

1. In the Contacts Layout, create two fields:
   
1. Add a multi-line field and name it as Agent List
   
2. Add a single-line field and name it Next Agent
   
2. For the values, collect and save all the agentIds in the Agent List and the First Agent in the Next Agent Field. Please note that the Agent List should be a comma separated values. 
   

To create the workflow rule, perform the following steps:

1. Go to Setup, and under Automation, click Workflows.
   
2. On the left panel, under Workflows, click Rules > Create Rule.
   In the Basic Information section, carry out the following steps:
3. In the Module drop-down menu, select Tickets.
   
4. Enter a name and description for the rule.
   
5. If you want to activate the rule right away, select the Active checkbox. Else, you can just create the rule now and activate it later, on the Rules page.
   
6. Click Next.
   In the Execute on section, perform the following steps:
7. Select the Create checkbox to execute this rule every time a new ticket is created. 
   
8. Click Next.
   In the Criteria section, do not select any criteria and move to the next section.
   In the Actions section, carry out the following steps:
9. Click the + icon and select Custom Functions > New
   
10. Click Edit Arguments
    
11. In the Name field type TicketID, and from the Value drop-down list select Ticket Id under Ticket Information.
    
12. In the script window, input the Custom Function you find below: 
    

orgId = "paste orgId here";

contactId = "paste contact ID here";

TicketInfo = zoho.desk.getRecordById(orgId, "tickets", TicketID,"zohodesk");

departmentId = TicketInfo.get("departmentId");

agentId = TicketInfo.get("assigneeId");

Param = Map();

Param.put("departmentId", departmentId);

Param.put("limit", "20");

checkAvail = invokeurl

[

url :"https://desk.zoho.com/api/v1/onlineAgents?departmentId=" + departmentId + "&include=mailStatus,phoneStatus,chatStatus,phoneMode,presenceStatus"

type :GET

connection:"zohodesk"

];

if (!checkAvail.toString().contains(agentId.toString()))

{

stopLoop = "false";

contactInfo = zoho.desk.getRecordById(orgId,"contacts",contactId);

allAgents = contactInfo.getJSON("cf").getJSON("cf_agent_list").toList();

elist = {"1","2","3","4","5","6","7","8","9","10","11","12","13","14"};

for each  agent in elist

{

contactInfo = zoho.desk.getRecordById(orgId,"contacts",contactId,"zohodesk");

nextAgent = contactInfo.getJSON("cf").getJSON("cf_next_agent").toLong();

if(checkAvail.toString().contains(nextAgent.toString()) && stopLoop == "false")

{

assignTicket = zoho.desk.update(orgId,"tickets",TicketID,{"assigneeId":allAgents.get(allAgents.indexOf(nextAgent))},"zohodesk");

if(allAgents.indexOf(nextAgent).toLong() < allAgents.size().toLong() - 1)

{

updateContact = zoho.desk.update(orgId,"contacts",contactId,{"cf":{"cf_next_agent":allAgents.get(allAgents.indexOf(nextAgent) + 1)}},"zohodesk");

}

else

{

updateContact = zoho.desk.update(orgId,"contacts",contactId,{"cf":{"cf_next_agent":allAgents.get("0")}},"zohodesk");

}

stopLoop = "true";

}

else if(stopLoop == "false")

{

if(allAgents.indexOf(nextAgent).toLong() < allAgents.size().toLong() - 1)

{

updateContact = zoho.desk.update(orgId,"contacts",contactId,{"cf":{"cf_next_agent":allAgents.get(allAgents.indexOf(nextAgent) + 1)}},"zohodesk");

}

else

{

updateContact = zoho.desk.update(orgId,"contacts",contactId,{"cf":{"cf_next_agent":allAgents.get("0")}},"zohodesk");

}

}

}

}

Note: navigate to Setup > Developer Space > API > to get orgId and replace it in the custom function.

 

• Topic Participants

• Chinmayee Mishra

  

• SONIC TELESERVICES

• Ash | Zoho Desk

  

• Alvin Enriquez

• Cilia

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