This article will help you understand the logic of different enquiry distribution modes and how the queue works.

• If the enquiry has not been accepted by the agent, it is forwarded to the next agent in the queue.

• If no one in the queue accepted the enquiry, it will be redirected to the beginning of the queue again.

• If an agent that meets the specified criteria is not found, the enquiry will remain undistributed. In this case, the client gets the notification that none of the agents can respond to his/her enquiry. If a new lead or deal is created automatically from the unanswered enquiry, one of the users from the queue is automatically assigned as a person responsible for it.

• If the Check that an agent is online when routing enquiries option is enabled, the system will check if the following criteria are met:

  • The employee is not dismissed
  • The employee is not on leave
  • The employee is online (if the corresponding option is activated)
  • The employee has clocked in and is not having a break
  • The maximum number of enquiries per agent has not been reached (if the corresponding option is activated).
  Read more about this option in the article.

• The wait time before the enquiry is redirected to the next employee is based on the time period specified in the settings. If the enquiry has not been distributed, the system tries to distribute it every 2 minutes.

• When redirecting the enquiry to the employee that is responsible for this client in CRM, the same conditions must be met as when redirecting to an employee from the queue, except for the Maximum enquiries per agent and online/offline conditions.

• The enquiries which were assigned to dismissed employees or employees on leave return to the queue and are distributed again once in 24 hours.

• Enquiries are automatically closed when more than 30 days have elapsed since the last message (even undistributed enquiries).

Features of the Evenly type of distribution

It may seem that enquiries are actually not distributed evenly when the Evenly distribution mode is selected.

The main goal of that algorithm is to provide the customer with an agent's response as soon as possible, not to distribute an even number of enquires between agents in the queue. The algorithm tracks the time since the last response for each agent. Then it passes the dialogue to the agent with a longer period passed since the previous reply and starts tracking time again. This eliminates a constant flow of chats to one agent (considering all other conditions being equal for agents in the queue). If distributing goes only among several agents then there is(are) reason(s) for that.

Exceptions might depend on the Open Channel settings: e.g. passing enquires, redirecting to another agent, going offline, or working day pauses. The main criterion, however, is online/offline status. If agents are online, only they will get new chats, other (offline) employees will not get any incoming sessions. The system will direct chats to all people in the queue only if they all are online/offline.