How to assign chats to certain operators before others (ranking within department)

Within a department, Premier and Enterprise subscribers can rank operators to determine how chats are assigned.

Ranking is applied at the department level and works in conjunction with Automatic Chat Distribution (ACD).

  1. Create a department, as follows:
    1. From the main menu of the operator client, go to Setup > Account Setup > General > Departments
    2. Click New. The New Department window is displayed.
  2. On the New Department window, go to the Operators tab.
  3. Add operators to the department.
  4. For each operator, assign a rank.
    Remember: A Premier or Enterprise subscription is required!
  5. Option. To change how chats are assigned to same-rank operators, you must override Automatic Chat Distribution (ACD), as follows:
    1. On the New Department window, go to the Chat Distribution tab.
    2. Click Override account-level automatic distribution settings for this department.
    3. Select a method under Among same-rank operators, assign by this method.
      • Least Busy. Assign the next incoming chat to the operator who has the fewest active chats and has waited the longest. Choose this to balance the chat workload between operators.
      • Most Busy. Assign chats to your busiest operators. The next incoming chat is assigned to the operator who is handling the most chats until their limit is reached, and thereafter to the operator who has been idle for the shortest period of time. Choose this option if your operators must manage non-chat tasks along with their chat related work. Those who are chatting will stay busy chatting, while others can stay focused on non-chat tasks. To prevent overload on a single operator, make sure concurrent chat limits are set.
      • Round Robin. Rotate chat assignment among all available operators regardless of waiting time or number of active chats (until their concurrent limit is reached). Choose this option to balance the number of chats assigned per operator. Lower ranked operators will only be assigned a chat if all higher ranked operators have reached their limit.
    4. Under Chats queued for assignment, set an urgency for this department. See How to determine which queued chats are assigned first (Urgency).
  6. Under Visitor queue time upon manual reassigment, tell BoldChat how to place visitors into the queue when they are reassigned by an operator rather than ACD. You can set this option independently for vistors reassigned within a department as opposed to between departments.
    • To place visitors at the end of the queue regardless of how long they have been waiting, select Move to end of queue (time is reset)
    • To place visitors in the queue based on time already spent waiting, select Maintain place in queue (time is preserved)
  7. Save your changes.