Queues and Routing

Conversations routing is a process of finding the right queue for new messages from where they can be further processed. The new message is evaluated against each route in routing and when the first route is matched, the message is added to the specified queue. If no route is matched, the message is added to a default queue.
The order of routes inside routing is important because the new message is compared to a rule in a given order in routing to find the first match.

Queues are buckets or folders for conversations. Agents are assigned to pick up work from specific queues.

New conversations are routed based on routing rules called routes. The purpose of queues is to categorize conversations. Supervisors can assign agents to certain queues, so conversations are managed in a timely manner by the most knowledgeable team members.

Routing is a set of rules which determine the assignment of a new conversation to a particular queue executed in a specific order.

Route consists of a set of conditions that determine the destination queue and priority for a new conversation.

Conditions are expressions defined based on the message or customer attributes and conversations tags.

Important

• Both queues and routes can be managed over web interface and API
• Only Supervisors can create and/or change route setup
• Customers can be defined and stored in People. 

Managing Queues over Web Interface

Queue management on web interface is located under Apps > Conversations > Queues.

On the Queues page previously created queues are listed. Here Supervisors can:

• Check list of created queues
• Create new queue
• Manage existing queues

When you click a queue name, the Queue detail page will open. Here you can find more information about the selected queue such as:

• Name of the queue
• List of agents assigned to the queue
• List of routes leading to that queue

For easier management, it is recommended to name the queue according to its purpose. For example, if you have frequent inquiries from premium customers you can name the queue Premium customers.

Managing assigned agents and routes setup is available from the same page.

Create a Queue in Web Interface

A Supervisor can create a new queue by clicking CREATE NEW in the top right corner.

Every new queue is by default named ‘Queue #X’ where X is a random number, but the Supervisor can rename the queue at any point. Agents and routes should be assigned to created queues to make them functional.

When you click ADD AGENT, the list of enabled agents appears on the right side panel and any agent can be added to the queue. To add a route, the Supervisor can choose from the list of existing routes or create a new one and assign it to the queue.

Delete a Queue in Web Interface

To delete a queue, the user needs to go to the List of all queues, click the three dots, and then Delete. Only queues that don’t have an active conversation associated with it can be deleted.

Automatic Assignment

With the automated assignment, you can distribute conversations between available Agents based on their workload and concurrent chat capacity.

The algorithm used is an even workload distribution among agents. New conversations will be assigned to the Agent with the lowest number of running conversations to keep the same utilization of all available Agents. 

The automatic assignment is configured at the queue level. Whenever a conversation is routed to a queue with the automatic assignment, the system searches for available Agents and assigns the Agent to the conversation.

The criteria for agent selection are availability, current workload, and capacity. The Agent with the least number of conversations and biggest idle time will be assigned to the new conversation.

Availability

Agent availability is calculated based on the agent status and heartbeat. Heartbeat represents agent presence in the app (even if the window is collapsed) and is refreshed every minute. If the agent’s heartbeat is higher than 5 minutes, then we consider the agent unavailable and skip as eligible for assignment.

Workload

The current workload is the number of conversations assigned to the agent with the status: open.

Capacity

Capacity is the maximum defined opened conversations for an agent by channel; default capacity for all agents or default system capacity for live messaging is 5 concurrent conversations.

For voice calls capacity is always one since one agent can talk to only one person at any given time. This default value cannot be changed on system or agent level. 

Default Capacity

To setup the default capacity for all agents go to Apps > Conversations > Capacity. Capacity represents the maximum number of concurrent conversations that can be assigned to one agent over the automatic assignment.

Instant Messaging stands for a group of channels: SMS, WhatsApp, Viber, or Facebook Messenger channels.

Default capacity is taken into account only when not defined at the agent level.

Agent Capacity

To set up agent capacity go to Apps > Conversations > Agents and then select the agent you want to edit.

Agent capacity is considered first. In case it’s not defined, default capacity is considered for new conversations assignments.

Setup

To enable Automatic assignment, go to Apps > Conversations > Queues, select the queue and switch the Automatic Agent Assignment toggle to ON.

You can select any available agent for the assignment or select to prioritize the assignment to the agent who last interacted with the customer. The system will attempt to find the last agent but in case they are not available it will assign the next available agent at that moment in time.

Managing Queues over API

The purpose of queues is to categorize conversations and organize your team. New conversations are routed into queues based on business rules. Queues have agents assigned based on topic, channel or any other business need, so conversations are managed in a timely manner by the most knowledgeable team members. 
Queues are buckets or folders for conversations. Agents are assigned to queues in order to pick up work from a specific list of queues.
Conversation distribution to queues is optional, but if you need to manage and organize your communication you can use the following API methods:

Create Queue

Create a new queue. Only the queue name is requested as parameter.

Update Queue

Change queue name.

Delete Queue

Same as on the web interface, you can delete queues only if there are no conversations assigned to those queues.

Get Queues

Use this method to retrieve the list of queues for your account.

Add or Remove Agent from Queue

To manage agents within specific queues, use these methods to add or remove Agents from a queue.

Get Agents Assigned to Queue 

To retrieve a list of agents assigned to a queue use this method.

Parameters

Response example

{
    "agents": [
        {
            "id": "E83E787CF2613450157ADA3476171E3F",
            "displayName": "Bon Scott",
            "status": "OFFLINE",
            "role": "AGENT",
            "enabled": true,
    				"createdAt": "2019-05-10T07:45:23.777+0000",
    				"updatedAt": "2019-05-10T09:53:58.463+0000"
        },
        {
            "id": "F66D67327326FCCB027BEAA916B94542",
            "displayName": "Phil Rudd",
            "status": "AVAILABLE",
            "role": "AGENT",
            "enabled": true,
    				"createdAt": "2019-05-10T07:45:23.777+0000",
    				"updatedAt": "2019-05-10T09:53:58.463+0000"
        }
    ],
    "pagination": {
        "totalItems": 2,
        "page": 0,
        "limit": 10,
        "orderBy": "id:ASC"
    }
}

For more information about Queues, refer to our Infobip API Developer Hub.

Managing Routes on Web Interface

With route management, you can define business rules according to which incoming customer requests will be assigned to queues and agents for the most effective resolution.

The rules are customizable and can refer for example to:

• Message attributes such as channel, sender, receiver, or message content
• Customer attributes that you specified through the Target module (e.g., name, city, purchase power, etc.)
• Conversation tags assigned manually or through the automated flow
• IVR inputs collected to variable through the automated flow
• Custom data from Web and In App Calls and Video 

Create a Route over Web Interface

With route management you can define business rules according to which incoming customer requests will be assigned to queues and agents for the most effective resolution.

The rules are customizable and can refer for example to:

• Message attributes such as channel, sender, receiver, or message content
• Customer attributes that you specified through the Target module (e.g., name, city, purchase power, etc.)
• Conversation tags assigned manually or through the automated flow
• IVR inputs collected to variable through the automated flow
• Custom data from Web and In App Calls and Video 

Only when all the above-mentioned parameters are defined, you can create a new route. Once the route is created it is shown in the list of all routes.

Any route can be set as Enabled or Disabled (default status is Enabled)

Setting up routes means that when a new message arrives, the system will automatically check if message parameters comply with any of the rules specified within the route and will assign conversation according to the rules that match the defined destination queue.

If message parameters are matched with certain route rules, conversation will get a priority defined within that route setup. According to assigned priority, conversation will be shown in the list of All Conversations. Priority can be changed manually within the conversation details at any point.

Conditions are a set of criteria that will be checked when there is an incoming conversation. Based on those, a conversation will be added to a specific queue.

Conditions work as key-value set of parameters where key is either standard attribute or a custom one. All attributes related to a customer profile need to exist in the Target module to be used within conditions.

Considering that several different routes can be set at the same time, you can set up route ordering.

When there is an incoming message, parameters will be checked, and message will be assigned according to the first route that matches against parameters.

Imagine you need to set two routing rules – one for Spanish speaking customers and the other one for premium customers.

Rule 1:

If the message comes to the destination number 123 and the person sending the message has been marked as Spanish speaking within the Target module, route this message to the Spanish queue.

Rule 2:

If message comes to the destination number 123 and person sending message has been marked as premium customer within the Target module, route this message to the Premium queue.

Now, each queue has team of agents assigned to it:

• Spanish queue – Ten agents that can read and write Spanish but are juniors and don’t know anything about premium customers.
• Premium queue – Three agents who speak Spanish and English and know everything about premium customers.

What you want to make sure is that messages from your premium customers end up in the Premium queue and not in the Spanish queue. That’s why you need to set up the routing priority. The premium route should be priority number 1 and Spanish route priority number 2.

To re-arrange the routes, drag and drop them according to their priority.

All created routes can be enabled or disabled based on user needs. In case a route is disabled, incoming messages will not be checked against conditions in disabled routes.

Configure Routing for Live Chat

This section explains what can be configured for LiveChat in Routing to assign specific requests to certain Agents queues.

Navigate to Apps > Conversations > Routs > CREATE NEW.

Available fields:

• To – Destination to which inbound conversation messages are sent to. This field accepts widgetID for Live Chat routing. Widget ID can be taken from the widget edit page and is unique for each widget configuration.
• Channel – Defines if all inbound conversations from the specific channel shall be sent to a certain queue. For Live Chat applicable value is Live_Chat
• Person attributes – All Person attributes are applicable for Routing, however only if the session is coming from an authenticated (logged in) customer and if we have a Person associated with a key identity (email address, in this case).
• Authenticated customer/ anonymous visitor – can be used to differentiate which customer support queue should take on the on auth. customer or visitors. The parameter is Visitor defines if inbound conversation comes from anonymous visitor. If set to false, then it’s treated as inbound conversation from auth. customer.

Manage Routing over API

With Routing you can define business rules according to which incoming customer requests will be assigned to queues and agents for most effective resolution.
The rules are customizable and can refer to:

• message attributes such as channel, sender, receiver or message content
• customer attributes that you specified through the Target module (e.g. – name, city, purchase power…)
• conversation tags assigned manually or through the automated Flow

Routing is the process of finding the right queue for new messages from where they can be processed further.
Routing can be managed over API through a list of route rules specified as a JSON object defined in a specific format.

Every expression within routing can be constructed with at least one or more available operators. Result of the expression will be a success true only if all results of operations are true. The query will be executed, one expression after another, in the order they are submitted until the new inbound message first matches the expression. Then the message will be assigned to the matched queue.

Example:

{
    "routes": 
     [
        {
            "name": "English Support",
            "queueId": "8772F93BC855D00A1036B771ACA7EC40",
            "priority": "NORMAL",
           	"enabled": true,
            "expression": {
                "$or": [
                    {
                        "$eq": {
                            "customer.country": "United Kingdom"
                        }
                    },
                    {
                        "$eq": {
                            "customer.country": "Australia"
                        }
                    }
                ]
            }
        },
        {
            "name": "Spanish Support",
            "queueId": "A1C93E138A8D831F49D047BC0A5B1D0D",
            "priority": "NORMAL",
           	"enabled": true,
            "expression": {
                "$in": {
                    "customer.country": [
                        "Spain",
                        "Columbia",
                        "Mexico"
                    ]
                }
            }
        }
    ]
}

Bellow is a list of available methods for routing management:

Set Routing

The set routing method creates a new routing setup if it does not exist or replaces the existing setup.

Delete Routing

Use the delete routing method to remove the routing setup.

Get Routing

Use this method to get a list of rules within the routing.

Refer to the Routing article on the Infobip API Developer Hub for more information.

Routing Setup

The new message is compared by each rule (expression) in routing and when the first rule match, the message is added to the matched queue. If no rule has been matched, the message is not added to any queue.
The order of rules inside routing is important because the new message is compared to rules in the given order in Routing to find the first match.

Based on logical operators, every expression can be constructed with at least one or more available operators in combination. The result of the expression will be a success (TRUE) only if all results of operations are TRUE. The query will be executed, one expression after another, in the order they are submitted until the new inbound message first matches the expression. Then the message will be assigned to the matched queue. Because the processing order is crucial, only one operation (SET Routing) can set rules in the appropriate order.

Operators

Operators compare value and return the result of the operation (TRUE or FALSE) except AND and OR operator whichch compare the result of other operations (TRUE or FALSE).

Operands

Customer data is optional data but relevant only if you are using the People service. More information about customer data that can be used as operands can be found under the Body parameters section.

Query

Expression can be a single compare operation or complex compare operations.

Single Query

A single query is a simple expression containing only one compare operator.
The following example target is to route all messages that start with a keyword.
 

"name": "Keyword STOP",
"queueId": "1E54701F74BD86A070B43DB49478D82C",
"priority": "NORMAL",
"enabled": true,
"expression": {
    "$starts_with": {
                "message.content": "STOP"
     }
}	

If the message content is "STOP BOTHERING ME", the result is TRUE (operator $start_with) because the message content starts with the word "STOP" and the message will be routed to the queue name: "Keyword STOP".

"name": "Keyword STOP",
"queueId": "1E54701F74BD86A070B43DB49478D82C",
"priority": "NORMAL",
"enabled": true,
"expression": {
    "$in": {
                "message.content": "STOP"
     }
}	

An equal result can be achieved with the (operator $in) expression. The message content contains the word ''STOP''. Although different than the previous expression, this will also return TRUE if the message content is "PLEASE STOP BOTHERING ME".

Complex Query

For a more complex query, AND and OR operators can be used to combine multiple compare operation results. The following example target is to route messages with the phone number from a Croatian network operator and receive on any channel except Facebook Messenger.

"name": "Croatian Support",
"queueId": "04FAFF86C252478D324CF3F980799C9E",
"priority": "NORMAL",
"enabled": true,
"expression": {
    "$and": [
        {
            "$starts_with": {
                 "message.customerNumber": "385"
            }
        },
        {
            "$neq": {
                 "message.channel": "FACEBOOK_MESSENGER"
            }
        }
    ]
}	

Here operator $and requires that both conditions must be TRUE. The first condition is $start_with so the customer's number must start with 385 which pertains to the Croatian country code. The second operator is $neq which requires that the message channel is not FACEBOOK_MESSENGER. So, every message that comes from Croatian a operator and is sent from any other channel than Facebook Messenger, will be routed to the queue name: "Croatian Support".