What is a customer service queue and how to set it up?
In this article, you will learn more about what a customer service queue is and how to set it up on the Botmaker platform.
Estimated reading time: 10 minutes
The customer service queue is a feature available on the platform for assigning user conversations to human agents.
The standard setting of the platform defines that all users (customers) are referred to a single attention queue at all times. Agents can have several service queues assigned to them.
In the queues screen, you can monitor/supervise the current status of the service queues. This screen allows you to visualize how busy the queues are, how many users are waiting for assistance and it also allows you to check the agents' performance.
It consists of 2 panels: the queue panel and the selected queue panel.
Queues panel
On the left side, you will find the queues panel, where you choose the queue you want to inspect. It also shows a summary of the status of the queue with the following information:
- Number of users waiting to be served.
- Queue occupancy level:
- In blue, the queue´s assisted users (by agents of this queue).
- In cyan, other queues´ users assisted by agents in this queue.
- In grey, unused slots available to serve new users.
_ Note:* queues are automatically ordered according to the number of users waiting and the percentage of busy slots._
Selected queue panel
This is the panel on the right. It consists of:
- The upper part showing the general status of the queue.
- The lower part showing the activity of the agents in the queue.
General queue status
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Slots: queue occupancy.
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Agents: contrasts between the number of agents assisting a user versus the number of agents assigned to the queue who are not assisting users.
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Users waiting: number of users waiting to be assisted with no agent assigned to them. If there are any users waiting, clicking on the information icon opens a dialog that allows you to go to the conversation.
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Approximate wait for the last user in the queue : estimated time remaining to assist the last user in the queue. For example, if there are 10 users waiting and only 1 agent assisting, with 3 slots and an expected service time of 5 minutes, 3 users will be assisted immediately, while the remaining 7 will have to wait 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35 minutes; then, the remaining time to assist the last user in the queue will be 35 minutes.
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Average time to receive first response: average time from the time an agent is assigned to a user until the agent gives the first response. It is calculated by considering the conversations from the last 3 hours. This data is colored red when the expected average time passes.
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Maximum time of an agent without response: shows the longest time without agent intervention (only takes into account the agents who are not assisting).
Agents' activity
From here, you can monitor the agents' service activity. You will find the following information:
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Device from where he/she is responding (computer or mobile).
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Agent´s name.
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Average time for this agent to provide the first specific response (during the last 3 hours). This data is colored red when the expected average time passes.
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Average response time for this agent (last 3 hours). This data is colored red when the expected average time elapses.
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Time elapsed since the last assignment.
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The maximum time that an agent remains unresponsive.
By clicking on the agent's row, you can browse the users and go to the conversation.
Note : queues are automatically arranged according to the agents´availability. That is, the first one on the list will be the first to receive a new user. If they all have the same availability they will be arranged in order of priority.
User activity
Get to know the user service activity from here. You will find:
User : user being assisted.
Assigned since : time elapsed since the conversation started.
Last message sent by : shows which of the session members sent the last message.
Last message sent : time elapsed since the last message sent (regardless of who sent it).
Last message: shows specifically the last message that was sent in the session.
Queue: queue to which the session belongs.
Assigned by : shows who assigned the conversation.
Conversation: by clicking on the icon, you are redirected to the chat where the conversation is taking place.
Unassign agent : clicking this button unassigns all conversations to this agent. Users are returned to the queue with priority.
Note: in order to access this screen and see all the details, you need a super administrator profile, configurator or role with permission to the queues screen.
How to create a customer service queue?
For more information on how to create a service queue, follow the step-by-step below:
Note: this task can only be performed by a configurator or a Super Administrator profile.
Step 1 : go to the “configuration” option and tap “live chat” (Menu>Configuration>Live Chat).
Step 2 : click on " + new queue" to create a new queue
Step 3 : define the main fields to create a queue
- Queue ID and Queue name : these fields are intended to see what the queue is about. It's important to keep the same names for easier identification.
- Automatic tag (optional): register an automatic tag for that queue.
- Use default values (recommended): use the default slot configuration.
- Slots (recommended): number of people each agent can serve at a time.
Note: in this menu you can disable the bot. This function can be enabled or disabled according to the operation you want to perform, i.e. it is possible to enable or disable the bot's automatic understanding depending on your operation. Disabling the bot makes it 100% manual.
Step 4: click on “Save” to save the changes made.
Written by: Botmaker Team
Last Updated: 09/08/2021