Sangoma CX Technical Note - Agent Levels Queue Strategies and Prioritization

Agent Levels (Skills Based Routing)

Setting a Level for Agents on a per Queue basis provides the ability to deliver calls to your top ranked Agents. This is useful for Skills Based Routing. For example, setting an Agent to Level 1 in a Queue ensures that the Agent receives calls first, regardless of the type of Queue Strategy. The lower the level number is, the higher the Skill/ Agent ranking is.

Typically, the highest skilled Agents would be set to Level 1 for the relevant Queue and lesser skilled Agents to a number greater than 1 e.g., 10. The number range could be as great as 1 - 100 or more.

It is important to understand that setting an Agent level for any of the following queue strategies ensures that the higher skilled Agents receive calls first and the lesser skilled pool of Agents are reached by the queue strategy placement of calls.

For example, consider a group of 10 highly motivated inside sales people that form part of a team of 30 Agents. The top 10 sales Agents could be set at Level 1 and the remaining 20 Agents could be set at varying levels greater than 1, or all set, for example, at 5. Operationally, with the remaining 20 members of the team set at 5 all ten of the Level 1 Agents would need to be on calls or unavailable before they receive calls using the queue strategy selected.

Queue Strategies

Sangoma CX provides five queue strategies to choose from: Round Robin, Sequential, Agent with Fewest Calls, Agent with Least Talk Time and Longest Idle Agent.

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Round Robin Strategy

In a Round Robin queue, calls are directed to each Agent in turn. The first call is directed to an Agent. The second call is directed to the next Agent in rotation, unless busy. The third call is directed to the next Agent in rotation, unless busy. This process continues in “Round Robin” manner remembering the last tried Agent.

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However, if the Agent Level is set to a higher skilled Agent, e.g., the lowest level “1”, those Agents receive calls first, out of the normal sequence.

Sequentially by Agent Order Strategy

Using this strategy, Queue calls ring Agents sequentially by order. The “Order” is as Agents appear in the Contact Center / Management / Queues / Agents screen, i.e. alphabetical.

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However, if an Agent’s level is set to a higher skilled Agent, e.g., the lowest level “1”, those Agents receive calls first, out of the normal sequence.

Agent with Fewest Calls Strategy

Queue calls are directed to the Agent that has handled the fewest number of Queue calls.

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However, if the Agent Level is set to a higher skilled Agent e.g., the lowest level “1”, those Agents will receive calls first out of the normal sequence.

Agent with Least Talk Time Strategy

Using this strategy, Queue calls are directed to the Agent that has accumulated the least amount of talk time on Queue calls.

However, if the Agent level is set to a higher skilled Agent, e.g., the lowest level “1”, those Agents receive calls first, out of the normal sequence.

Longest Idle Agent Strategy

Queue calls are directed to the Agent that has been in an Idle state for the longest period of time. However, if that longest-idle Agent does not answer or declines a Queue call, a penalty period of 5 seconds is applied to the Agent and the system tries the next Agent in line. A missed call sets the Agent’s idle time to 1:01:05 and counts down to 1:01:00. The idle time then reverts back to 00:00:00, which makes them the least idle Agent.

However if the Agent level is set to a higher skilled Agent e.g., the lowest level “1”, those Agents receive calls first, out of the normal sequence.

Queue Prioritization

Queues can be set with a Priority. Priorities can be a value of 1 - 10, with 10 being the highest and 1 being the lowest. A Queue can also be set with the option “No Priority”. A call in Queue that has a Priority of 10 would be presented to available Agents before a Queue call of a lesser Priority, e.g., 5.

A typical use case could be a medical facility with Agents handling multiple Queue calls for patients. One of the Queues could be specifically for Doctors to call in. The facility might want to have Agents answer the Doctors’ calls as a Priority over other calls, so the Doctors’ Queue would be set with a higher Priority.