Assignment and agent capacity
Let EngageOne assign new conversations automatically: round robin per inbox, team auto-assign, assignment limits and capacity policies.
On this page
Auto-assignment hands each new conversation to an available agent, so nothing waits in the unassigned queue.
How auto-assignment works
When auto-assignment is on for an inbox, EngageOne assigns a conversation when it is created, and again when an unassigned conversation is reopened.
- Round robin: conversations go to agents in turn, so the work is spread evenly.
- Online agents only: only agents who are members of the inbox and set to Online are picked. Agents set to Busy or Offline are skipped.
- Already assigned: conversations that already have an agent, or that a bot is handling, are left alone.
- Nobody online: the conversation stays unassigned until someone picks it up or it is reopened.
Tip: Ask your team to set their availability at the start and end of each shift. See Profile and notifications.
Turn on auto-assignment for an inbox
- Go to Settings → Inboxes and open the inbox.
- Open the Collaborators tab.
- Under Agents, add every agent who should handle this inbox, then click Update.
- Under Conversation Assignment, turn on the auto-assignment toggle.
To stop auto-assignment, turn the toggle off. New conversations then stay unassigned until an agent or an automation assigns them.
Limit how many conversations each agent gets
On plans that include it, the Conversation Assignment section also shows Auto assignment limit. Enter the most open conversations from this inbox that EngageOne may auto-assign to one agent, then click Update. An agent who reaches the limit is skipped until they resolve some conversations.
The limit only affects auto-assignment. Agents and admins can still assign more conversations by hand.
Assign within a team
When a conversation is given to a team, EngageOne can pick an agent from that team.
- Go to Settings → Teams and create or edit a team.
- Tick Allow auto assign for this team.
- Save the team.
When a team is set on a conversation, by hand or with an automation such as Assign a Team, EngageOne picks an online team member who is also a member of the inbox. If the current agent isn't in the team, they are unassigned first.
Note: Team auto-assign follows the same rules as inbox auto-assignment: only online agents are picked, and the inbox's assignment limit still applies.
Assignment policies and agent capacity
If advanced assignment is turned on for your account, you get more control under Settings → Agent Assignment. The page has two kinds of policy.
Assignment policies
An assignment policy decides how conversations are handed out in the inboxes you link to it. Each inbox can have one policy.
- Go to Settings → Agent Assignment and open Assignment policy.
- Click New policy.
- Enter a Policy name and Description, and set the status to Policy is active.
- Choose an Assignment order:
- Round robin: assign conversations evenly among agents.
- Balanced: assign based on how much capacity each agent has left. Available on plans that include it.
- Choose an Assignment priority:
- Earliest created: the oldest conversation is assigned first.
- Longest waiting: the conversation that has waited longest is assigned first.
- Under Fair distribution policy, set Assign max conversations per agent in a time window, so nobody gets flooded. The default is 100 per hour.
- Under Skip stale conversations, choose how old an unassigned conversation can be before it is skipped. The default is 7 days. Clear the field to assign conversations of any age.
- Under Added inboxes, click Add inbox and pick the inboxes this policy covers.
- Click Create policy.
You can also link a policy from the inbox itself: open the inbox's Collaborators tab and, under Conversation Assignment, choose Link existing policy or Create new policy. Without a policy, the inbox uses the default rules: earliest created conversations first, round robin distribution.
Note: If you add an inbox that already belongs to another policy, EngageOne asks you to confirm. The inbox moves to the new policy.
Agent capacity policies
An agent capacity policy sets how much work each agent can hold. Each agent can have one policy.
- Go to Settings → Agent Assignment and open Agent capacity policy.
- Click New policy and enter a Policy name and Description.
- Under Inbox capacity limits, click Add inbox, select an inbox and set Max conversations for it.
- Under Exclusion rules, choose conversations that shouldn't count towards capacity:
- Conversations tagged with specific labels.
- Conversations older than a time you set.
- Under Assigned agents, click Add agent and choose the agents this policy applies to.
- Click Create policy.
When an agent reaches their limit for an inbox, they are skipped for new conversations in that inbox until they free up capacity.