In addition to bringing agents together and controlling access privileges, groups can also be used to assign incoming tickets and requests to different agents that are part of it. This can either be done manually in a more targeted way and also automatically without any intervention from a dedicated manager who is taking care of requests.
Usually, tickets are either assigned to a group or an agent individually. This is done by one of the members of the team or based on predefined rules or conditions created using Workflow Automator. For example, all your high impact queries can be assigned directly to one of the experienced agents in your team, and tickets that come in during the night can be assigned to people in that shift.
However, note that when a ticket gets assigned to a group, it does NOT mean that it was assigned to an agent in the group (either randomly or by any means). It just means that any of the agents in that group can assign it to themselves or have a supervisor do it for them.
Here are a couple of ways for you to automate this entire process.
Method 1: Automatically assign every ticket in Round Robin
The second method is simple and very easy to setup. For every group in your helpdesk, you can turn on the "Automatic Ticket Assignment" option and everything will take care of itself. The tickets will get distributed to all agents in the group, in a round-robin order. That way, every agent has an equal number of tickets to answer.
All you need to do is go to Admin > User Management > Agent Groups.
If your account has more than one workspace:
To modify global workflows, navigate to Admin > Global Settings > User Management > Agent Groups
To modify workspace-level workflows, navigate to Admin > Workspace Settings > {Workspace Name} > User Management > Agent Groups
Now, open up the group for which you want to turn on the round-robin assignment and click on the Automatic radio button.
You can find detailed instructions on how to do this here.
How to turn on the round-robin?
Click on the profile icon > Enable Auto-assign tickets.
Method 2: Auto-assigning tickets using Workflow Automator
This method is particularly useful when you have a group of agents in your support team, each of whom works well in specific domains. It is sensible to create Workflows rules and give them tickets based on their expertise. You could assign tickets to them based on the subject or description of the ticket, looking up keywords from their area of expertise.
This is a great way to handle things when your support team is handicapped to handle only a few types of issues. It might be hard to set up depending upon the number of agents in the group because you will have to create specific Workflow rules manually.
There will be no guarantee that your agents will have an equal number of tickets to resolve. But if you give it a little thought and time, you could pull out some auto-assign magic that has been fine-tuned to your team’s strengths.
Note: You need to use the Workflow Automator to initially assign tickets to the group, or do the same when you set up your support email. If not, the auto-assign feature will not work. This functionality only works with the round-robin function and doesn't exclude the agent from manually assigned tickets.
Faq
1. Is there any way for us to log/notify when an agent is enabled for round-robin assignments?
We don't have the option to notify login and the availability of the agent at the moment.
2. Auto-assign tickets not working, how to resolve this issue?
Ensure that auto-assign settings are enabled for the respective agent group ( Admin / Respective workspace > Agent Groups ) and that agents have the "Auto-assign tickets" checkbox activated in their profiles.
3. How can I check if one of my agents has 'Auto-assign tickets' or round-robin enabled? How do I grant someone access to add or remove users from ticket auto-assignment?
This action requires Admin-level permissions with assigned manage agent availability access for an agent.
Go to your dashboard and click the three dots > Edit > Select the agent availability widget > Choose the group where round-robin is enabled > Save.
When you click on more info in the created widget, you will be able to manage the round-robin of the agent individually.
4. When an agent logs in, does it reset their automated ticket assignment/round-robin status?
No, when an agent logs in, it does not reset their automated ticket assignment status in Freshservice. The status remains as it was prior to logging in, ensuring continuity in the assignment process. They can manually have the Round-robin enabled or the Admin will be able to perform this from the Dashboard if you have the Agent availability widget configured.
5. Can I assign tickets to observer agents of a group?
Observers can only view a ticket and cannot be assigned to it.
6. Is it possible to assign a 'task' to an agent group, and let the auto-assignment route that ticket to the next available agent?
Currently, round-robin assignments are only available for tickets and not for tasks.
7. How can I manage (enable or disable) the agent's availability?
Kindly navigate to the dashboard and click on the agent availability widget where you will be able to enable or disable the round robin. ( Refer to faq 2 for permissions)
