How can I ensure that Vonage Contact Center routes an interaction to a specific agent?

If you want to ensure that a specific agent handles an interaction, configure your interaction plan to route the interaction to the agent's personal queue. For more information about personal queues, see Personal queues.

You set up personal queues in a Skill Tagger applet. For information about Skill Tagger applets, see Skill Tagger applet.

Before you can set up the personal queues, you must create three data sources. These data sources are placeholders for actual values collected during the call. Each data source contains one of the following values:

• The ID of the target agent. This ID is the agent's Vonage Contact Center account ID. Or the ID is the Salesforce ID that corresponds to the agent's Vonage Contact Center account if using Vonage Contact Center in Salesforce.
• The logged in timeout. The time in seconds for which Vonage Contact Center will try to route the interaction to the specified agent when the agent is logged in to Vonage Contact Center. After this time, Vonage Contact Center will route the interaction as configured in the interaction plan.
• The logged out timeout. The time in seconds for which Vonage Contact Center will try to route the interaction to the specified agent when the agent is logged out of Vonage Contact Center. After this time, Vonage Contact Center will route the interaction as configured in the interaction plan. This timeout is less relevant for calls than other types of interactions. If an agent is not logged in, a caller does not want to wait for long for an agent to answer their call.

The Skill Tagger applet will use data in these data sources to determine which agent to route an interaction to, during the call.

After you have created the three data sources, to configure a personal queue, perform the following steps:

1. Create a Skill Tagger applet. For information about creating an applet, see Creating an applet. A new Skill Tagger applet appears.
2. In the Personal Queue Data Sources section, provide the following information:
   • In the Agent Id list, select the data source that will contain the ID of the target agent collected during the call.
   • In the Logged In Timeout list, select the data source that will contain the value of the logged-in timeout collected during the call.
   • In the Logged Out Timeout list, select the data source that will contain the value of the logged-out timeout collected during the call.
   • If you want Vonage Contact Center to route personal queue interactions to agents if they are in an 'Away' or 'Extended Away' state, select the Interrupt Agent in 'Away' state check box.
     
3. Optionally configure skill requirements in the Skill Requirements section. For information about setting up skill requirements, see Tagging interactions with a skill or skills.
4. In the Next Applet list click the applet that Vonage Contact Center routes the interaction to next.
5. To save your changes, click Update.

You can now continue to configure your interaction plan.

Your Skill Tagger must be part of a complete interaction plan that ends with an Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) applet. This ACD applet must behave as a skills based router, that is, a Universal Contact Distributor (UCD) applet. For information on UCD applets, see Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) or Universal Contact Distributor (UCD) applet.

Example interaction plan

The following visualization shows an interaction plan that routes calls to the specified agent's personal queue:

The plan includes the following applets:

1. Collect agent ID (IVR Collect Digit String)

This applet prompts the caller to type the ID of the agent they want to speak to on their telephone keypad. The applet stores the value the caller provides in an IVR slot (Agent ID). Vonage Contact Center routes the call to the specified applet (Set logged in timeout).

2. Set logged in timeout (IVR Set Menu String)

This applet sets the logged in timeout value in an IVR slot (Logged In Timeout) to the default value of 30. Vonage Contact Center routes the call to the specified applet (Set logged out timeout).

3. Set logged out timeout (IVR Set Menu String)

This applet sets the logged out timeout value in an IVR slot (Logged Out Timeout) to the default value of 10. Vonage Contact Center routes the call to the specified applet (Personal Queue).

4. Personal queue (Skill Tagger)

This applet sets the values of Agent Id, Logged In Timeout, and Logged Out Timeout to the values in the corresponding IVR slots (Agent ID, Logged in timeout, Logged out timeout) and enables Vonage Contact Center to route personal queue interactions to agents in an 'Away' state. Vonage Contact Center routes the call to the next specified applet (Basic UCD).

5. Basic UCD (ACD)

This applet is an ACD applet that behaves as a skills based router, or a Universal Contact Distributor (UCD) applet. The applet has and needs no other configuration settings. Vonage Contact Center routes the call to the agent's personal queue, timing out according to the timeout settings.

How do I enable agents to decline calls in their personal queues?

To enable an agent to decline a call that is waiting in the agent's personal queue, you must configure an Agent Decline Breakout.