Introduction

Both MaxACD and MaxCS ACM allow for workgroup skill based routing. This feature allows for configuration of a single workgroup that can be used to route callers to agents that are best suited to handle the call. In skill based routing, agents are assigned a skill level (SKL) of 1-9, and inbound calls are assigned a skill level requirement (SKLR). Agents are then determined to be eligible for a call by comparing the SKLs of the agents in the workgroup with the SKLR of the incoming call. This value can be configured per agent, per workgroup, meaning that one agent can have a skill level of 1 in one group and 9 in another. Calls routing in to the workgroup can similarly be tagged with a skill-level requirement (SKLR) of 1-9 (default SKLR is 5). Agents are then rung based on comparing the SKLR to the skill level of the agent.

Skill Coverage Rule

When using skill-based routing, a workgroup can be configured to use one of the following three Skill Coverage Rules to determine agent eligibility for the call:

• An agent is eligible if it's SKL is an exact match to the SKLR of the incoming call.
• An agent is eligible if it's SKL is equal to or lower than the SKLR of the incoming call.
• An agent is eligible if it's SKL is equal to or higher than the SKLR of the incoming call.

Like all other workgroups, an agent must be logged in and available in order for a call to be distributed to them. When using skill-based routing, of the agents that are logged into the workgroup, are available, and eligible, agents with the lowest SKL will be attempted to be rung first, regardless of which skill coverage rule is selected. If there are multiple agents with the same skill level, the agent with the longest idle time will be rung.

When using a skill coverage rule of "equal to or higher than the SKLR of the incoming call", the SKLR of the call can be decreased after predetermined amounts of time in the workgroup queue. Likewise, a workgroup with a skill coverage rule of "equal or lower than the SKLR of the incoming call," the SKLR of the call can be increased after predetermined amounts of time in the workgroup queue. This effectively increases the size of workgroup, by increasing the number of eligible agents.

The key factor when deciding whether to use the "lower than" or "higher than" skill coverage rule is that agents with the lowest SKL will be rung first. The purpose of the workgroup should be considered. If all agents are available, should the most capable agent be rung? If so, the higher skilled agents should have lower SKLs than the less skilled agents, and the skill coverage rule should be set to use the "lower than" option. This works well in groups where all agent's primary function is handling calls from this workgroup. In many other cases however there may be a primary set of agents that handle calls, with a more skilled set of agents that also handle calls as a secondary function. In this case, the more skilled agents should be set with a higher SKL than the less skilled agents.

Examples

Example 1

In this example a workgroup is configured with five members: Alice, Bob, Carol, Dave, and Ernie. Alice and Bob are more skilled then the other three agents. There is no requirement for "fairness" in how calls for this group are distributed - the most skilled agents should receive the call if they are available, however it is more important to quickly route to an agent, so if a higher skilled agent is not available, it is acceptable to immediately route the call to a less skilled agent.

Because more skilled agents should be rung first the "equal to or lower than" skill coverage should be selected. Because all agents should be eligible for the call immediately, the agent SKLs should be set as low as possible. This means that Alice and Bob will have an SKL of 1, and Carol, Dave, and Ernie will have an SKL of 2. Calls route into the group using a DID, so the SKLR of the inbound calls sill be 5. As the agent's SKL is already a lower than the SKLR of the call, there is no reason to set the SKLR of the call on increase with time in queue.

If all agents are logged in and available, incoming calls will route to Alice or Bob, depending on which has been at an idle state longer. As long as Alice or Bob are available calls will not route to Carol, Dave, or Ernie. If a call comes in to the workgroup and is answered by Alice, and another call comes in while she is on the phone, the next call into the group will route to Bob. If Bob completes his call and Alice remains on the phone, and another call comes into the group, that call will also route to Bob. If BOTH Alice and Bob are unavailable (logged out, "Not Ready", handling calls, etc.), then the calls will route to the members of the next skill level tier (Carol, Dave, and Ernie). As long as one of these five agents is available, inbound calls to this workgroup will not queue. This fulfills the requirement that queue times be kept to a minimum while still attempting to route the calls to the most capable agents available.

Example 2

In this example a workgroup is configured with five members: Alice, Bob, Carol, Dave, and Ernie. Alice and Bob are more skilled then the other three agents but have several other tasks that they maintain. While Carol, Dave and Ernie's primary responsibility is handling calls and should therefore be presented the calls first if they are available, it is acceptable to immediately route caller to Alice and Bob inf the other three agents are all unavailable.

Because the less skilled agents should be rung first the "equal to or higher than" skill coverage should be selected. Because all agents should be eligible for the call immediately, the agent SKLs should be set as high as possible. This means that Alice and Bob will have an SKL of 9, and Carol, Dave, and Ernie will have an SKL of 8. Calls route into the group using a DID, so the SKLR of the inbound calls sill be 5. As the agent's SKL is already higher than the SKLR of the call, there is no reason to set the SKLR of the call on increase with time in queue.

If all agents are logged in and available, incoming calls will route to Carol, Dave, or Ernie, depending on which has been at an idle state longest. As long as one of these three agents is available calls will not route to Alice or Bob. If all three agents with SKL 8 are unavailable, then the calls will route to the members of the next skill level tier (Alice and Bob). As long as one of these five agents is available, inbound calls to this workgroup will not queue. This fulfills the requirement that queue times be kept to a minimum while still attempting to reserve the most capable agents available for their other tasks.

Example 3

This example builds on example 1. It has been determined that due to Alice and Bob's higher skill set it is more preferable to have callers wait in queue for one of them for up to five minutes before considering Carol, Dave, and Ernie to be eligible to receive the call. In this case, a DNIS rule, rather than a DID route will be used to route the inbound call, so that the SKLR of the inbound call can be set at 1. In this case, when a call routes into the workgroup, only Alice and Bob (those agents with a SKL of 1) are eligible for the call. If neither of these agents are available the call will enter queue. "SKLR Escalation" is then enabled, and set to increase the SKLR of the call from 1 to 2 after 300 seconds (five minutes). If a call is in queue, and Alice or Bob become available before the call has been in queue for less than 5 minutes, they will be rung. If the call is in queue for more than five minutes, and the SKLR of the call increases, Carol, Dave, and Ernie become eligible, and if any of them are available, they will be rung. This provides the desired balance of preferring to route the call to the more skilled agents, while still providing ability to restrict queue times by increasing the pool of agents that can handle the call over time.