Create a Routing Strategy

General Settings

Name

Enter a name for the strategy, such as US Holiday or Weekends. You can’t edit this field after saving the strategy.

Enterprise Name

Shows the tenant name.

Status

Select Active if you want the strategy to become effective on the start date you specify in the Start Date field.

Select Not Active if you want to save the strategy for future use or as a draft to continue working on later.

The status is always active for chat and email routing strategies as you can configure only one routing strategy per entry point or queue.

Call Distribution (only applicable to queues)

Add Group

If this is an inbound queue routing strategy, specify the teams that you need to associate with this strategy and organize them into groups. See Specifying Call Distribution Settings for details. In addition, do the following (as described in Assigning Teams and Skill-Relaxation Settings to Groups):

• If the routing type is Load Balance, assign percentage spreads or capacities to each team in Group 1. You can add more groups, but you can’t assign percentage spreads or capacities to the teams in those additional groups.

• If the routing type is Priority, assign priorities. A specific priority is assigned to only one team within the strategy (for example, only one team can have a priority of 1 assigned to it).

• If the routing type is Skills-Based, specify skill relaxation settings if appropriate.

If this is a routing strategy for an outdial queue, you must specify a team in the Call Distribution section. The specified team is only a placeholder and will not be used. In addition, be sure to create only one group for an outdial queue routing strategy.

Entry Point

This field shows the entry point for which you’re creating the strategy. Select the entry points or queues that are associated with this routing strategy.

Queue

This field shows the queue for which you’re creating the strategy. Select the entry points or queues that are associated with this routing strategy.

Time Settings

Start Date


End Date

Click in each of these fields and use the calendar controls to specify the start date (the date strategy becomes effective) and end date (the date strategy expires).

Start Time


End Time

Enter in 24-hour format (0000–2400) the time of day you want the strategy to start and end.

Day of Week

From the drop-down list, select All Days if you want to schedule the strategy for every day or Weekdays if you want to schedule the strategy for Monday through Friday only.

-OR-

Select each icon that represents a day on which you want to schedule the strategy.

Advanced Settings

Music on Hold

Select the name of the audio (.wav) file to play for calls when they arrive or are waiting in queue. This isn’t applicable for email and chat routing strategies.

Maximum Time in Queue

If this is a standard Webex Contact Center queue routing strategy, enter the length of time, in seconds, after which a queued call should be distributed to the overflow destination number provisioned for the queue. Cisco recommends setting this to 1800 (30 minutes) or to three times the average queue length during busy hours.

If this is an email routing strategy, set this to a high value to avoid overflow.

By default, this field is set to the value provisioned for the queue.

Retries within the Team

If this is a standard Webex Contact Center queue routing strategy, specify the maximum number of times an attempt will be made to send a call to a team before the call is routed to the next available team. No further attempts will be made to send the call to that team again.

Exceptions:

• This setting doesn’t apply to Skills-Based routing strategies. For Skills Based routing, if the call is in the last group, the call overflows if no matching agent is found. If the call is in any other group, and if it’s sent to an agent who doesn’t answer, the system continues to try other matching available agents any number of times, without regard to this setting.

• In a load balance strategy using percentage allocation, a call isn’t distributed to a second team when the first team is unavailable. Instead, the system retries the first team's DN for the number of times specified for the strategy and then overflows the call.

Flag as Default Routing Strategy

-or-

Update as Default Routing Strategy

This setting is available only if you’re creating a new strategy or copying an existing one.

Set to Yes if you want this to be the default routing strategy for the specified time interval for this entry point or queue.

Set to No if you’re creating an exception to the default schedule, such as a holiday. A strategy that isn’t flagged as default overrides the default strategy. That is, the system first checks for a strategy that isn’t flagged as default, and if none exists, the default strategy is used.

Call Control

Control Script

Select a call control script from the drop-down list. Every strategy must have a control script associated with it, which defines how calls are handled. If appropriate, change the script's default parameters in the fields displayed. For more information, see Assigning Call Control Scripts and Parameters.

Call Distribution

Business Metrics & Queue Escalation (applicable only to cross-ACD entry points)

If this routing strategy is for a cross-ACD entry point, organize the queues that will be served by the entry point into one or more groups and specify the call routing algorithm and applicable parameters as described in Specifying Call Distribution Settings.

Queue

Select the queue that you plan to associate with this routing strategy.

Routing Type

This option is not available for proxy queues:

• Longest Available Agent: Calls are routed to the agent who has been available for the longest time over all teams assigned to the strategy in the Call Distribution section.

• Load Balance: Calls are routed to agents based on load-balancing conditions that you set in the Mode and Type fields and in the settings specified in the Call Distribution section.

  • Mode: If you specified Load Balance in the Routing Type field, select one of the following values to specify how the call load will be handled:

    • Percentage: Calls are routed to selected teams based on a percentage allocation that you specify for each team in the Call Distribution section. The percentage spread total must equal 100 across all teams selected for Group 1. For more information, see Specifying Call Distribution Settings.

    • Number: Calls are routed to selected teams based on the value you specify for each team in the Call Distribution section. This value reflects the call capacity for that team. After the specified number of calls are sent to a particular team, no additional calls will be sent to that team. In other words, this strategy allows you to specify an upper limit on the total number of calls that are sent to a particular team. This allows you to meet any contractual obligations not to exceed certain targets.

  • Type: If you specified Load Balance in the Routing Type field, select one of the following values in the Type field:

    • Dynamic: Calls routed dynamically result in a single virtual queue. Callers queue for the longest available agent across all associated teams instead of being allocated immediately at the time of call arrival to a team specified in the load balance strategy (based on current call conditions).

    • Static: Calls are routed to specific teams on the basis of a predefined percentage or numeric allocation at the time of call arrival. In static routing, calls are assigned to a team based on the number of calls specified for that team in the Call Distribution section (either a percentage or number of calls). In dynamic routing, calls are assigned to a team based on the current allocation of calls among the teams based on the day's tally.

• Priority Based: Calls are routed to agent teams based on a priority scheme that you set in the Call Distribution section.

• Skills Based: Calls are routed to agents based on skill requirements specified in the Call Distribution section of the routing strategy for the entry point that sends calls to this queue. The Skills Based routing type is available only if your enterprise is provisioned with the optional Skills-Based Routing feature.

  When you select Skills Based as the routing type, two more settings appear for you to specify how to route a call when more than one agent with the required skill set is available:

  • Longest Available Agent: The call will be routed to the agent who has been available the longest.

  • Best Available Agent: When you select this setting, a Skill drop-down list appears. The call will be routed to the agent with the highest proficiency in the skill you select in the drop-down list.

Time Settings (These are read-only for proxy queues.)

Start Date


End Date

Click in each of these fields and use the calendar controls to specify the start date (the date the strategy becomes effective) and end date (the date the strategy expires).

Start Time


End Time

Enter in 24-hour format (0000–2400) the time of day you want the strategy to start and end.

Day of Week

From the drop-down list, select All Days if you want to schedule the strategy for every day or Weekdays if you want to schedule the strategy for Monday through Friday only.

-OR-

Select each icon that represents a day on which you want to schedule the strategy.

Advanced Settings

Music on Hold

Select the name of the audio (.wav) file to play for calls when they arrive or are waiting in queue. This isn’t applicable for email and chat routing strategies.

Maximum Time in Queue

If this is a standard Webex Contact Center queue routing strategy, enter the length of time, in seconds, after which a queued call should be distributed to the overflow destination number provisioned for the queue. Cisco recommends setting this to 1800 (30 minutes) or to three times the average queue length during busy hours.

If this is an email routing strategy, set this to a high value to avoid overflow.

By default, this field is set to the value provisioned for the queue.

Retries within the Team

If this is a standard Webex Contact Center queue routing strategy, specify the maximum number of times an attempt will be made to send a call to a team before the call is routed to the next available team. No further attempts will be made to send the call to that team again.

Exceptions:

• This setting doesn’t apply to Skills-Based routing strategies. For Skills Based routing, if the call is in the last group, the call overflows if no matching agent is found. If the call is in any other group, and if it’s sent to an agent who doesn’t answer, the system continues to try other matching available agents any number of times, without regard to this setting.

• In a load balance strategy using percentage allocation, a call isn’t distributed to a second team when the first team is unavailable. Instead, the system retries the first team's DN for the number of times specified for the strategy and then overflows the call.

Flag as Default Routing Strategy

-or-

Update as Default Routing Strategy

This setting is available only if you’re creating a new strategy or copying an existing one.

Set to Yes if you want this to be the default routing strategy for the specified time interval for this entry point or queue.

Set to No if you’re creating an exception to the default schedule, such as a holiday. A strategy that isn’t flagged as default overrides the default strategy. That is, the system first checks for a strategy that isn’t flagged as default, and if none exists, the default strategy is used.

Call Control

Control Script

Select a call control script from the drop-down list. Every strategy must have a control script associated with it, which defines how calls are handled. If appropriate, change the script's default parameters in the fields displayed. For more information, see Assigning Call Control Scripts and Parameters.

Email Account (You can add only one email account per entry point. You can edit or delete the email account using the icons beside the email account name.)

Add Email Account

Click the Add Email Account button to open the Add Email Account dialog box. Enter the following details:

Email Address:

Enter the email address to contact your organization.

Inbound Server Settings:

Enter the following server details for incoming emails:

• Incoming Protocol

• Incoming Host

• Inbound Encryption

• Inbound Port Number

Outbound Server Settings:

Enter the following server details for outgoing emails:

• SMTP Server

• Outbound Encryption

• Outbound Port Number

Server Authentication:

Enter the username and password to connect to the email account.

Note	Only secure access to mail servers is allowed, such as: SMTP/IMAP/POP over SSL SMTP/IMAP/POP over TLS

Advanced Email Account Settings:

Enter the following advanced settings for the email account:

• Maximum Attachment Size

• Number of Attachment Limit

• Mail Delay

• Maximum Messages/Cycle

Email Routing Rules (You can add up to 20 email routing rules. You can edit or delete the rule by using the icons beside the rule.)

Routing Rule

Click the Add Routing Rule button to open the Add Routing Rule dialog box. Enter the following details to add a rule:

Routing Rule Name:

Enter the name for the rule.

IF Email Subject Contains:

Enter the text in the email subject to set the condition for the rule. You can add upto 10 conditions using the AND or OR operators. However, you can mix AND and OR condition in a rule.

Then:

Select the email queue to which the email is queued if it satisfies any condition.

Default Routing Rule

Select an email queue for the default routing rule in case none of the defined rules satisfy the criteria.

Chat Routing Experience

Chat Template

Chat Reason Mapping Details

Associate the preconfigured chat reasons. For more information, see Create a Chat Template.