Queue priority and delay examples to help you load balance Connect Customer contacts
This topic provides several example priority and delay settings for queues, and explains how contacts are routed in each scenario. Use these examples to load balance contacts using the priority and delay features.
Example 1: Different priority but same delay
For example, one group of agents is assigned to a Sales routing profile. Since their primary job is sales, the Sales queue is Priority 1 and Delay is 0. But they can help with Support too, so that queue is Priority 2 and Delay is 0. This shown in the following table:
| Queue | Priority | Delay (in seconds) |
|---|---|---|
|
Sales |
1 |
0 |
|
Support |
2 |
0 |
If there are no contacts in the Sales queue, then the agents will be presented with contacts from the Support queue.
Example 2: Same priority but different delay
Say you set the Support queue to Priority 1 and Delay of 30 seconds, as shown in the following table:
| Queue | Priority | Delay (in seconds) |
|---|---|---|
|
Sales |
1 |
0 |
|
Support |
1 |
30 |
These agents will always get contacts from the Sales queue first because the delay is 0. However, when a contact in the Support queue ages past 30 seconds, it will also be treated as priority 1. The agents will then be presented with the contact from the Support queue.
Example 3: Different Priorities and Delays
Here's a more complicated example for a Support routing profile:
| Queue | Priority | Delay (in seconds) |
|---|---|---|
|
Tier 1 Support |
1 |
0 |
|
Tier 2 Support |
1 |
0 |
|
Tier 3 Support |
2 |
20 |
|
Tier 4 Support |
3 |
80 |
This routing profile prioritizes the Tier 1 Support and Tier 2 Support queues equally because each is priority 1.
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Agents might take contacts from the Tier 3 Support queue when:
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Customers for Tier 3 Support are waiting for 20 seconds or longer.
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And no contacts are in the Tier 1 Support or Tier 2 Support queues.
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Agents might take contacts from the Tier 4 Support queue when:
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Customers in the Tier 4 Support queue have been waiting 80 seconds or longer.
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And no contacts are in the Tier 1 Support, Tier 2 Support or Tier 3 Support queues.
Priority takes precedence. (You might think that agents take contacts from Tier 4 Support when contacts are in Tier 1 Support, Tier 2 Support, or Tier 3 Support and waiting 80 seconds or longer, but that's not right.)
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Example 4: Same Priority and Delay
In this example a routing profile has only two queues, and they have the same priority and delay:
| Queue | Priority | Delay (in seconds) |
|---|---|---|
|
Sales |
1 |
0 |
|
Support |
1 |
0 |
For this routing profile, Connect Customer routes the oldest contact first. If the available agents aren't handling any contacts, Connect Customer routes it to the agent who has been idle for the longest time. If the agents are handling different numbers of contacts, Connect Customer routes it to the agent who is handling the fewest. For an example, see Example 7: Both agents are available, but one is already handling contacts on another channel.
Example 5: Agent is idle and Contact is in 30 second delay queue
Let's say the agent is idle and the contact is in delay (for a 30 second delay queue, the contact is 15 seconds old). What happens?
The Delay setting in the routing profile means that X seconds must pass before this contact can be offered to agents with this routing profile. Whether the agents are idle or not isn't taken into account. So in this case, this agent isn't offered the contact until the contact is at least 30 seconds old.
Example 6: Different routing profiles, same queues, different priorities
For example:
| Agent | Priority | Queue |
|---|---|---|
|
Agent A |
1 |
1 |
|
Agent B |
5 |
1 |
-
Both agents are available. Who will get the call? It depends ...
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When the available agents aren't handling any contacts, routing attempts to route to the longest available agent first.
Agent A has a profile with Priority 1 for Queue 1, and Agent B has a profile with Priority 5 for Queue 1. Contact Z is added to Queue 1 while both agents are available and neither is handling a contact. In this case, Connect Customer always routes Contact Z to the agent who has been available for longer. If Agent B has been available longer, Connect Customer routes Contact Z to Agent B.
If the agents are handling different numbers of contacts, Connect Customer offers the contact to the agent who is handling the fewest. Connect Customer compares time available only to break a tie. For an example, see Example 7: Both agents are available, but one is already handling contacts on another channel.
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Priority for queues is relevant to searching for queues for an individual agent. It does not determine which agent out of multiple available agent will be routed contacts.
Let's say Contact Y is in Queue 2 and has been there longer than Contact Z in Queue 1. Agent A will be routed Contact Z even though it is newer. This is because Queue 1 has a higher priority in the agent's profile.
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Do Priority 5 agents get calls only when agents with higher priorities are not available?
No. Priority 5 agents receive calls from that queue only if their other priority queues are empty. One agent's priority setting for a queue does not impact when the queue is routed a contact relative to other agents, but relative to other queues in the agent's profile.
Example 7: Both agents are available, but one is already handling contacts on another channel
In this example, two agents share a routing profile that is set up for cross-channel concurrency. This means Connect Customer can offer them a voice contact while they handle email. Both agents are available, but they aren't handling the same number of contacts. Contact Z is added to the voice queue.
The following table shows how many contacts each agent is handling and how long each agent has been available.
| Agent | Contacts being handled | Time available |
|---|---|---|
|
Agent A |
0 |
1 minute |
|
Agent B |
2 emails |
10 minutes |
Connect Customer routes Contact Z to Agent A, even though Agent B has been available longer. When Connect Customer chooses between agents who can both take the contact, it first compares how many contacts each agent is handling across all channels. It then offers the contact to the agent who is handling the fewest. Connect Customer compares time available only when the agents are handling the same number of contacts.
Connect Customer doesn't exclude Agent B from routing, and there is no misconfiguration. Connect Customer offers Agent B voice contacts again after Agent B is handling the same number of contacts as the other available agents, or fewer.
Note
The comparison counts contacts on all channels, not only the channel of the contact that Connect Customer is routing. Connect Customer offers a voice contact to an agent who is handling one email before an agent who is handling two emails. This is true even if the agent who is handling two emails has been available longer.
For instructions on how to set priority and delay for a routing profile, see Create a routing profile in Connect Customer to link queues to agents.
