LAT - Chat Assignment & Routing

Overview

Chat assignment and routing in Live Agent Transfer refer to the methods used to allocate incoming chat requests from end users to available Live Agents. This functionality ensures timely and effective support by directing chat requests to the right agent as quickly as possible. There are two primary methods for this:

Broadcast: The chat request is simultaneously sent to all available agents, and the first agent to accept it takes the chat.
Auto Assignment: An algorithm automatically directs the chat to a specific agent based on criteria such as location, skill level, or current workload.

Choosing the appropriate chat assignment and routing method helps optimize response times and enhances the overall customer support experience.

User Persona

Admin / Analyst

Benefits

Chat Assignment Types

Broadcast

Broadcast chat assignment means transmitting a chat request to all available Live Agents at the same time. When an End User initiates a chat transfer request for Live Agent support, Digital Agent broadcasts the chat request to all the available Live Agents. The Live Agents can view the request and accept the chat.

Agent mapping and chat assignment criteria

Under broadcast chat assignment, the chat requests are broadcasted to all the available Live Agents as per the pre-defined criteria like location.

Auto Assignment

When an End User initiates a chat transfer request, Digital Agent employs an algorithm to automatically assign the chats to Live Agents based on pre-defined criteria like Routing method and location.

Agent mapping and chat assignment criteria

For Auto assignment, the chats are assigned to the available agents in order of their arrival time. The oldest chat request is assigned to the available Live Agent first. The chat is only assigned to an available Live Agent who isn't already handling the maximum number of chats.

If all Live Agents are busy, the chat request is placed in a queue. Once any Live Agent becomes free, the chat is automatically assigned to the respective Live Agent identified through the Routing Mechanism in the order of the arrival of the chats.

Note:

When a Live Agent Transfer request is in queue, and all the Live Agents are busy, then Digital Agent displays the message ‘Sorry, all our human agents are busy at the moment. Would you like to continue?’ to the End Users.

Figure: End user - message

If the End User clicks Yes and continues to wait for the Live Agent, then the chat request remains in the queue. In case the End User ends the chat by clicking No, then the chat request is removed from the queue.

Chat Routing Mechanism

The chat routing mechanism in Digital Agent facilitates the transfer of chats to available Live Agents seamlessly. When an end user initiates a chat transfer request to Live Agent, Digital Agent uses predefined criteria to determine the appropriate Live Agent for handling the query.

The chats are routed based on the following criteria:

Based on Location

Upon chat transfer requests from end users, the chat requests are broadcasted/auto assigned to Live Agents belonging to the location to which the end user belongs.

Multi chat Limitation for Live Agents

You can configure the maximum number of chat requests handled by Live Agents at a time. The multi chat limitation functionality is applicable to both broadcast and auto assignment chat transfers.

Notes:

If a Live Agent is handling the maximum number of chats configured, then that specific Live Agent will not fall into the Agent availability queue.
If a Live Agent is handling chats which are less than the configured value, then the specific Live Agent will fall into the Agent availability queue.

Chat queue management

Chat queue management involves organizing and prioritizing incoming chat transfer requests to ensure efficient handling by available Live Agents. As the End Users initiate chat transfer request to Live Agents, Digital Agent places them in a queue based on the predefined criteria.

The management of chat queue varies, depending upon the Chat Assignment type.

Chat queue management for Auto Assignment

When Live Agent Transfer requests come in, they're queued based on their arrival order. If a Live Agent is available, the request is automatically assigned to them and appears in their "My Active Requests" section.

If no Live Agents are available, the chat transfer requests remain in the queue. They are prioritized based on the order of their arrival. Each request in the queue includes a timestamp, chat content, and user details.

Notes:

In Auto Assignment type, the chat requests assigned to the Live Agents are not visible in the New Requests section.
Chat transfer requests which are initiated by VIP users are given high priority over other end users. Chat transfer requests from VIP users are assigned first to the Live Agents.

Chat queue management for Broadcast

When Live Agent Transfer requests come in, they're queued based on their arrival order. The chat transfer requests are broadcast to all the Live Agents. Live Agents can accept the chat and start conversation with the end user.

Live Agent availability pool

The pool of Live Agents is maintained based on the chat assignment type.

Auto Assignment type

The pool comprises Live Agents who are available to handle incoming chats according to the maximum capacity set for handling chats. The Live Agent who logged in first and is available is added in the pool and will first take up any incoming chat transfer request.

Live Agent who has less chat counts are considered as the next available agent. In case multiple Live Agents have same number of chat counts, the order of assignment is considered as the deciding factor to assign the next chat. If all the Live Agents in the pool are available, the chat is assigned according to the last chat order of assignment.

Broadcast assignment type

Incoming chat transfer requests are stored in the pool according to their order of arrival. The chat transfer requests are broadcast to all available Live Agents. A Live Agent who matches the pre-defined criteria accepts the chat and starts the conversation.

Unsuccessful chat assignment

If chats cannot be assigned to Live Agents for any reason, such as technical issues, etc., the following message is displayed to the end user:

Figure: message to end user

Configuration of Chat Assignment & Routing

User Persona: Admin

Chat Assignment & Routing configuration in Workbench allows you to customize how incoming chat transfer requests are assigned and routed to the Live Agents. This setting enables you to define parameters such as assignment type, routing type, maximum number of chats handled by the Live Agents, and prioritization criteria for handling chat requests efficiently.

To configure Chat Assignment & Routing type for Live Agent Transfers, perform the following steps:

Login to Workbench.
From the left panel, select Chats Assignment and Routing from custom module. By default, Canned Responses is selected. The following configuration screen is displayed:
Figure: Chat Assignment and Routing – Workbench

You can also use the search bar to find Chat Assignment and Routing configuration screen.

Refer the following table for the different fields and sections present in the configuration screen along with their description:

Field	Description
Assignment Type	Choose which type of assignment you want to configure for allocating Live Agents to the incoming chat transfer requests. There are two options: Broadcast Auto Assign By default, Broadcast is selected.
Routing Type*	Chats are assigned or routed to appropriate agents based on the location. Figure: Routing type menu The following option is there for Routing Type: Location: The chats are routed to Live Agents based on the end user’s location. Be default, Location is selected.
Enable Multi Chat	Toggle the switch next to Enable Multi Chat option to activate multi chat functionality for Live Agents and set the maximum limit of chats that they can handle at a time. When you enable multi chat functionality, then the Live Agent can chat with multiple end users at a time.
Set Chat Limit for Agents	When you enable the Multi Chat option, you can restrict how many chats Live Agents can handle at a time under Set Chat Limit for Agents. Provide a count in this field. The count should be more than 1. If you provide a value less than 1, then the following error message is displayed: Figure: Set chat limit
Algorithm*	When you select Assignment Type as Auto Assign, then you need to select the Algorithm for auto assignment chat transfer type. Figure: Algorithm selection By default, Round Robin is selected.

An asterisk (*) represents a mandatory field.

Each of the above fields has an icon. When you hover over it, it displays more information about the respective field in a tooltip. A sample screenshot is shown below:

Figure: Tooltip information

Click Save to save the changes and configure the Chat Assignment and Routing mechanism for Live Agent chat transfers. The following message is displayed:
Figure: Success message

Click Cancel if you do not want to save the configurations and revert to the default changes.

Round Robin Algorithm

Auto Assignment type chat transfer uses Round Robin algorithm to assign the chats automatically to Live Agents. The Round Robin algorithm operates under the principle that incoming chat requests are assigned to available Live Agents in the order they are received.

The chat assignments proceed in a continuous cycle. This ensures equitable distribution of chats among Live Agents and helps maintain efficient handling of customer concerns over time.

How Round Robin Algorithm work?

Incoming chat transfer requests are enqueued into the queue based on the order of their arrival.
The system checks the availability of Live Agents based on the pre-defined criteria such as maximum chat limit, chat routing mechanism, and other criteria.
If a Live Agent is available to accept a chat, then the oldest chat request which arrived first at the queue is assigned to them.
In case no Live Agent is available then the chats will wait in the queue.
As soon as a Live Agent is free and matches the pre-defined criteria, then the oldest chat transfer request which came to the queue first will be assigned to the Live Agent.
The second oldest chat will be assigned to the next available Live Agent.

The Auto Assignment functionality works on the order of the Live Agents' availability. Once a chat transfer request is assigned to a Live Agent, the chat is removed from the queue.

The Round Robin algorithm guarantees that chat assignments follow the chronological order of when the requests are received, regardless of the availability status of the Live Agents at the moment of arrival. Even if some Live Agents are not available when a new request comes in, the algorithm ensures that the next available agent will handle the incoming chat in the sequence it was received.

Example:

Three chats arrive in an empty queue in an interval of 5 minutes. Each of them has a timestamp indicating their time of arrival. There are three Live Agents, out of which two are available and one is busy. The maximum chat limit for all the three Live Agents is one.

Step 1 - Chats arrive in the following order:

Chat 1 – arrives first
Chat 2 – arrives second
Chat 3 – arrives third

Step 2 – The chat order in the queue is:

Priority 1 – Chat 1
Priority 2 – Chat 2
Priority 3 – Chat 3

Step 3 – Check the availability of Live Agents based on pre-defined criteria like maximum chat limit.

Agent 1 and Agent 2 are available. Agent 3 is busy with an ongoing chat.

Step 4 – Chat Assignment to available Live Agents

Chat 1 in the queue is the oldest chat request. So, it is assigned to the first available Live Agent based on the pre-defined criteria.

Step 5 – The chat assigned to Agent 1 is removed from the queue.

Step 6 – Queue resets after the oldest chat (Chat 1) is assigned to a Live Agent. Now the chat order in the queue is:

Priority 1 – Chat 2
Priority 2 – Chat 3

Step 7 – The next oldest chat request in the queue (Chat 2) is assigned to Agent 2.

Step 8 – Chat 2 is now removed from the queue.

Step 9 – Queue resets after the oldest chat (Chat 2) is assigned and now the chat order in the queue is:

Priority 1 – Chat 3

Step 10 – Agent 3 is now available after completing the ongoing chat. Chat 3 is assigned to Agent 3.

Live Agent Hub – Auto Chat Assignment

The Automatic Chat Assignment functionality for Live Agents streamlines the process of allocating incoming chat requests to available Live Agents without manual intervention. Live Agents have access to the In Queue section in the Live Agent Hub where they can view the number of chats in the queue, including total, normal and priority chats.

The Live Agent Hub has an In Queue section, and the New Request section is not there if the chat assignment type is Auto Chat Assignment.

Figure: In Queue – Live Agent Hub

The In Queue section displays the counts of the following chat details in the form of number cards:

Total: This card displays the count of total chats waiting in the queue including both Normal chats and Priority chats.
Normal: This card displays the number of normal chats waiting in the queue.
Priority: This card displays the count of chat requests from high priority users like VIP users waiting in the queue.

User Interface of Auto Assignment for Live Agents

Refer the following procedure to understand how the user interface of Auto Assignment works in the Live Agent Hub:

When there is no chat transfer request, then the In Queue section will display no data.
Figure: In Queue section
The end user provides an input in Digital Agent for transferring the chat to Live Agent.
Based on the pre-defined criteria such as, location, Workgroup, skillset, routing mechanism, and maximum limit of chats, the chat request appears under the In Queue section indicating the number of chats in the queue.

Figure: Chat in the queue

When new chat requests are assigned to the Live Agents, then the Live Agents do not receive a notification with Accept/Ignore buttons, as the chat is automatically assigned to them.
1. If the Live Agent is available, then the chat is automatically assigned to the Live Agent and the following message is displayed to the Live Agent.
  
  Figure: Success message
  
  The chat then appears under the My Active Requests section.
  Figure: Chat under My Active Requests section
  
  Subsequently, the chat is removed from the queue and the In Queue section displays no data.
  The chat history related to the end user is displayed in the middle panel. And the End Chat button and user details are also displayed.