Queues

Who should read this article: Administrators, Supervisors

Queues are the point of entry for inbound interactions. Queues hold and distribute inbound interactions to agents assigned to the queue.

Introduction

The Queues page enables you to create and maintain your Queues. Scripts and flows direct inbound interactions to queues, then queues distribute interactions to agents based on configured agent and queue parameters. Configure parameters in the Add queue page.

To display the Queues page, from the Voiso navigation bar, navigate to Inbound > Queues.

The Queues page contains a table listing all your queues. Next to the name of each queue is the number (extension), the strategy, music on hold (MOH), and the number of Skills and agents assigned to the queue. Use the Search field to find a specific queue based on its name or extension. Click the name of a queue to display the Edit queue page. Click Add queue to add a new queue to your contact center.

Add queue

On the Queues page, click Add queue. The Add queue page enables you to specify the parameters for a new queue.

The following subsections describe the contents of the Add queue page. Set up the queue parameters, then click Save.

General

The General section of the Add queue page contains the basic parameters that define how the queue handles an interaction before distributing it to a destination.

Announcements

Queues support three different optional announcements (refer to the table above):

• In-Queue Announcement
• Announce the queue position
• Announce the estimated wait time

If you specify a value for the In-queue announcement time, sec repeat option, the announcements you select are repeated sequentially in the above order.

Strategy

Use the Strategy menu to specify how an interaction is directed to an agent. The Ring all strategy directs the interaction to all agents, and the interaction is handled by the first agent to answer it. For the other strategies, the first available agent meeting the criteria for the strategy receives the interaction first.

The following strategy options are available:

Failover destination

When an interaction waits in queue longer than the duration specified by the Max wait time, sec timeout setting, the interaction is redirected to a failover destination specified by the Failover destination menu.

The following failover options are supported:

Enable callback

Select this option to enable the in-queue Callback feature where a contact is given the opportunity to request a callback from the system when an agent is available rather than waiting on hold in the queue. The use of this feature improves the Call Abandonment Ratio and reduces your cost by limiting the amount of time a contact remains connected to your contact center. The callback occurs only on the number from which the contact called (ANI).

When you select the Enable callback option, the following additional parameters are displayed:

Agents

Users with the Agent role are the routing object for inbound interactions. The queue routes interactions to agents based on their availability. The queue only routes interactions to agents who are associated with the queue. To add agents to a queue, click Edit in the Agents section of the Add queue page. Select agents from the Edit agents in queue panel, then click Save.

Supervisors of queue

Users with the Supervisor or Admin role may be assigned as a supervisor for a queue. When a user is assigned as a supervisor for the queue they may access interactions to that queue in the CDR page.

To add supervisors to a queue, click Edit in the Supervisors of queue section of the Add queue page. Select users from the Edit supervisors of queue panel, then click Save.

Connected channels

In Omnichannel environments, you can include text-based Channels on the queue for routing. To add message channels to a queue, click Edit in the Connected channels section of the Add queue page. Select one or more channels from the Edit connected channels panel, then click Save.

Assign priority to each channel where 1 is the lowest weighting. Interations arriving from channels with a higher priority value are given precedence over those with lower priority values. Channels with the same priority value are handled as first-in, first-out.

Skills

Skill-based interaction routing helps to ensure that interactions are routed to the most qualified person based on their skills and experience. Skill-based routing works by directing interactions to the available agent with the highest skill level. It enhances agent productivity by minimizing the time agents spend handling inquiries outside of their skillset.

To use skill-based routing, follow these steps:

1. Create skills relevant to your organization in the Users > Skills page. Assign the relevant skills and skill value (weight) to each user with the Agent role.
   
2. Add or edit a queue from the Inbound > Queues page:
   1. On the Add queue or Edit queue page, scroll to the Skills section and click Edit.
   2. In the Edit skills in queue panel, select the relevant skills.
      
   3. Click Save.
   4. On the Add queue or Edit queue page, click Save.

Edit queue

You can make changes to queue parameters at any time, including adding and removing agents, modifying the strategy, changing announcement audio files, and enabling or disabling Callback.

To modify queue parameters, click the name of the queue in the Queues page. Refer to the Add queue section for information about queue parameters.

Deleting a queue

You can delete a queue from two different places. From the Queues page, hover your mouse pointer over a queue row, then click Delete (the trash can icon) on the right side. From the Edit queue page, click Delete queue on the bottom left side.