[ACD] Skills Based Routing
- Kathleen Glica
The content in this article is appropriate for: Administrators and Supervisors
All campaigns have one of two available Call Distribution Types: Rank Based Routing and Skills Based Routing.* Below are the step-by-step instructions for configuring SBR on an existing campaign.
*For information on Rank Based Routing, click here.
Verify Campaign Type
Skills Based Routing can only be used on inbound campaigns. To check the type of campaign being used:
Browse to Programs/Clients > Program Name > Campaigns > click on the Campaign Name that will be configured
On the Details tab: Type should be set to Inbound
💡Keep this is mind during campaign creation!
When a campaign is created, the following four options are available:
Inbound Only: creates a single IB campaign that can use Skills Based or Rank Based Routing
Inbound with Outbound Followup: creates an IB campaign that can use SBR or RBR and an associated OB (followup) campaign that can only use RBR
Outbound with Callback Followup: creates an OB campaign that can only use RBR, and an associated IB campaign which can use either.
Outbound Only: creates a single OB campaign that can only use RBR
Create\Edit Agent Ability
Click Agent Management in the left-hand navigation bar and then click Manage Abilities
For complete details of the Ability Management page, click here.
Create a new ability:
Click +New Ability
Ability Details tab:
Name: delete the default text and write in a name for the ability
Description (optional)
Affiliate (optional): click the drop down and choose from available Affiliates
Suspended (defaults to No): Leave as-is. Because abilities can not be deleted, you can return here at any time and set to Suspended=Yes to take it out of service.
Click Update to save the ability
You can also Clone an existing ability, then make any necessary changes
Add Agents to Ability
On the Agents tab: (Here, agents can be added to the ability as soon as it is created. Agents can also be added at a later time, either individually or in bulk)
Create a New assignment by clicking the Choose an Agent dropdown and selecting an agent from the alphabetical list
Assign a Weight by typing a number in the text box
The higher the weight, the more this ability will factor for the agent when they are part of a Skills Based campaign that utilizes this ability
💡 Weights are normally rated 0-100, however the maximum value permitted here is 999.99
Click Update to save the ability or repeat the above steps to assign to additional agents.
💡The above steps outline how to add agents to an ability. That method is useful when a single ability is created and needs to be assigned to multiple agents.
This process can also be done in reverse, allowing for a single agent to be assigned multiple abilities:
From the Agent Management node, click Manage Agents:
Click the Agent number to access their settings
Click the Abilities tab
Choose an ability from the dropdown to assign it to the agent
Assign a Weight
The higher the weight, the more this ability will factor for the agent when they are part of a Skills Based campaign that utilizes this ability
Click Update to save the Ability assignment
Repeat the steps above until all abilities are assigned.
Create Skill
Once abilities are created and configured, they must be added to a skill before they can be used in a campaign.
From the Agent Management node, click Manage Skills in the list of options
For complete details of the Skill Management page, click here.
Create a new skill:
Click +New Skill
Skill Details tab:
Name: delete the default text and write in a name for the skill
Description (optional)
Affiliate (optional): click the drop down and choose from available Affiliates
Suspended (defaults to No): Leave as-is. Because skills can not be deleted, you can return here at any time and set to Suspended=Yes to take it out of service.
Click Update to save the skill
You can also Clone an existing skill, then make any necessary changes
Add Ability to Skill
Now that abilities have been configured, agents have been assigned, and skills have been created, the abilities must now be added to a skill.
🤔 What is the difference between an ability and a skill? Think of it this way: Cooking a lasagna is a skill. Food shopping, boiling pasta, chopping vegetables, and assembling the ingredients are some of the abilities that make up that skill.
On the Abilities tab:
Click the Choose an Ability dropdown and select an ability to add to this skill
Assign a Weight by typing a number in the text box
The higher the weight, the more this skill will factor for the agent when they are part of a Skills Based campaign that utilizes this ability
💡 Weights are normally rated 0-100, however the maximum value permitted here is 999.99
Click Update to save the skill or repeat the above steps to add more abilities
You can also Clone an existing skill, then make any necessary changes
Add Skill to Campaign
When all of the above steps are completed, the configured skill is ready to be added to a campaign.
This article assumes that a campaign already exists. For more information on how to create a new campaign, click here.
Browse to Programs/Clients > Program Name > Campaigns and click on the Campaign Name that will be configured with the above skill.
On the Details tab:
Scroll down and set the Call Distribution type to Skills Based Routing
*By default, all campaigns are set as Rank Based Routing
Scroll down and click Update to save the change
Once you update the campaign to Skills Based Routing, a new option will appear in the middle of the page:
Skills Based Routing Sub Type
CAT: (Cascaded Ability Telemetry) employs an alternate type of skill hierarchy that utilizes a top-tier skill and tiebreakers
*For details on configuring CAT, click here.SBR [default]: (Skills Based Routing) calls are distributed based on the weight values that are assigned to agents when they are added to an ability
On the Skills tab:
Choose a Skill from the dropdown to assign it to this campaign
Assign a Weight to the completed skill
Click Update to save the campaign settings
You can also come back here to Delete Skills from the campaign
💡Now that the skill is assigned to the campaign, calls will be routed only to the agents that have the abilities that make up the skill. It is a good idea to verify that the proper agents are assigned to the campaign. This can be done in the Agent Management Panel.