Setting up custom support queues that autoroute

Standard support queues are used to match individuals or teams to subjects in which they have expertise. You can set up custom support queues that autoroute based on information in the self-service user's People record. For example, you might have separate support queues based on site or region. To set up custom support queues that autoroute, you must perform the following procedures:

1. Determine the ID number for the field on which you are autorouting.
2. Configure the Self Service Portal to use the selected field for autorouting.
3. Create support queues.
4. Assign agents to support queues.
5. Set support queues to ignore standard routing, and refresh the servlets.

Priority of how self-service users are routed to support queues

Because there are multiple methods for routing self-service users to support queues, the priority determines which method is used:

To determine the field number for the field on which you are autorouting

You can autoroute by any field on the CTM:People form. The following table lists two field ID numbers that you might choose to use:

Only an administrator with access to Developer Studio can look up other field ID numbers.

In Developer Studio, open the CTM:People form. Locate the field on which you wish to autoroute, and take note of the field ID number.

To configure the Self Service Portal to use the selected field for autorouting

1. From the From the IT Home page, select Virtual Agent > Virtual Agent Administration Console.
2. Select Self Service Portal > Configurations.
3. Open Forms - Standard.
4. Search for each of the following three sections:
   
   1. <request_alias>userprofilebyloginid</request_alias>
   2. <request_alias>userprofilebypeopleid</request_alias>
   3. <request_alias>userprofilebyemailid</request_alias>
5. In each of those sections, modify <supportqueue></supportqueue> to insert the field by its ID, as in <supportqueue>[cns:getfield id='260000001']</supportque>.
6. Save your changes.

The following illustration shows one of the sections customized for autorouting on the Site field.

To create support queues

You must create support queues for each value of the field for which you are autorouting. If you omit a value, some self-service users might be autorouted to the general queue. For example if you have 10 sites, but specify queues for 8 sites, self-service users from the remaining 2 sites are routed to the general queue.

1. From the Virtual Agent Administration Console, choose General Settings > Support Queues.
2. Activate support queue functionality as follows:
   1. Select the Support Queues and Use Topics check boxes to enable the support queue feature.

   2. (Optional) Set a queue timeout (in minutes). If an assigned agent does not respond to the chat within the specified timeout period, the chat is released to the general support agent queue. If there is an escalation queue defined for the topic queue, then at the timeout period, the chat is released to the escalation queue. The default value is 10 minutes.

      Tip

      If you do not want chats to be released to the general queue, specify an exceedingly long queue timeout, such as 1,000 minutes.

   3. Click Apply to save the changes.
3. To create a new support queue, click Create in the Support Queues section.
4. In the Support Queue dialog box, perform the following steps:
   1. Type the queue name. If you are not creating the VIP or VIPX support queue, this name must exactly matches a value of the field on which you are autorouting.
   2. Select a status of Active or Inactive.

   3. Select a company from the menu.

      For the VIP and the VIPX support queues, you must select a specific company. For other support queues, you can select either a specific company, or the Global company.

   4. (Optional) Select an escalation queue.
      

      If you want chat sessions to be escalated to the VIP queue, type VIP. 

      Note

      Do not type VIPX as the escalation queue.

   5. Click Save to save the new queue.
      The new queue appears in the Support Queues box on the console.

5. Restart Apache Tomcat for these changes to take effect.

To assign an agent to a support queue

1. Select the queue in the Support Queues box.
2. In the Support Queue Agents box, click Add.
   The Add Agent ID dialog box appears.

3. Type the logon ID of the agent and click Save.
   The agent appears in the Support Queue Agents box in the console.

To set support queues to ignore standard routing, and refresh the servlets

By ignoring standard routing, you can use the custom automatic routing that you configured.

1.  From the Virtual Agent Administration Console, select Integrations > Incident Management.
2. For Chat Queue Assignment, select Ignore.
3. Click Apply.
4. Choose Self Service Portal > Configuration.
5. Refresh the servlets, as described in  Refreshing the registered servlets .

Multitenancy and support queues

In a multitenant environment, agents can have access to one or more companies and are responsible for providing support to those companies. Self-service users belong to a specific company. Agents can assist users who belong to any of the companies that the agent supports.

If you set up a support queue for a specific company, you can assign support agents who support that company.

If you set up a support queue for the Global company, you can assign any support agents to the support queue. The agent sees queries only from self-service users who belong to the company that the agent supports. Let's look at an example in which you set up a Hardware queue for the Global company. Francie supports the Calbro company, and Bob supports both Company A and Company B. Both Francie and Bob are assigned to the Hardware queue. If Joe belongs to Calbro and asks a question on a hardware topic that is assigned to the Hardware queue, only Francie would be assigned Joe's question. Because Bob does not have access to Calbro, he cannot see Joe's question. 

If you set up a support queue for the Global company, you can also set up a support queue with the same name for a specific company. When a self-service user belongs to the specific company, that user's queries are routed to the queue for the specific company and not to the queue for the Global company. Let's consider an example that builds on the previous example. If you set up a Hardware queue for the Calbro company, Joe's hardware questions get routed to the Calbro Hardware queue and not to the Global Hardware queue. If Francie is assigned to the Global Hardware queue, but not to the Calbro Hardware queue, she will not see any Calbro hardware queries.

To set up VIP or VIPX queues in a multitenancy environment, you must set up the queues for each company that requires a VIP or VIPX queue, and you must assign support agents to each VIP or VIPX queue.