Omni-Channel Routing in Service Cloud
In business today, it’s crucial to give great customer service. It’s needed to stay ahead. Customers reach out in different ways, like email, phone, chat, and social media. Handling these conversations well is key. That’s where Omni-Channel routing in the service cloud comes in. In this blog post, we’ll talk about Omni-Channel routing. We’ll cover skill-based and queue-based routing.
Legacy Case Routing and its challenges
Below are several challenges related to case routing in the service cloud ecosystem:
- Agents spend excessive time on the case list and assign cases to themselves.
- Some agents tend to focus on low-priority issues. This leaves high-priority cases in the queue.
- Some agents are overwhelmed with their workload, while others have available capacity.
The Omni-Channel solution addresses these agent work routing issues.
What is Omni-Channel Routing?
Omni-channel routing is a strategy that empowers businesses. It helps them to manage and distribute customer interactions. They can do this across various channels and agents. This strategy ensures that each interaction is directed to the most suitable agent. It’s based on their skills, availability, and workload. This approach elevates customer satisfaction by connecting them with the appropriate agent. It also optimizes agent productivity. It ensures they handle the cases in which they are most proficient.
There are three types of Omni-Channel routing. In this blog, we will focus on the setup steps for queue-based and skill-based routing.
Queue-Based Routing
Agents are assigned to a queue in Queue-based routing. A queue typically represents a single skill. It is best suited for smaller organizations that support a limited no of products.
Steps for setting up queue-based routing:
- Enable Omni-Channel: From Setup, enter Omni-Channel Settings in the Quick Find box. Select Omni-Channel Settings. Enable Omni-Channel to activate the feature. This setting allows you to leverage Omni-Channel functionalities within your Salesforce organization.
2. Create a service channel: They let you turn most Salesforce objects, such as a case or lead, into a work item.
- In setup, navigate to “Omni-Channel” and select “Service Channels.”
- Click “New Service Channel.”
- Choose the object type (e.g., Case, Lead, order, etc.) to turn into a work item.
- Save the service channel.
3. Create routing configuration: It assists in prioritizing work items and assigning capacity to handle them.
- In setup, navigate to “Omni-Channel” and select “Routing Configurations.”
- Click “New” to create a Routing configuration.
- Define routing rules based on criteria like priority, Routing model, or custom fields. Refer to image (3) for field values.
- Configure capacity (Units of capacity field) for agents. This involves specifying the maximum workload or number of work items each agent can handle simultaneously, like 1 or 2.
- Save the routing configuration.
4. Associate the above routing config to the respective queue: Navigate to setup from Quick Find and follow the below steps:
- Navigate to “User” and select “Queues.”
- Edit the queue to which you want to associate the routing configuration.
- In the “Routing Configuration” section, select the appropriate routing configuration.
- Save the queue.
5. Create presence config: It decides if a user can decline cases assigned to them. They can provide a reason.
- In setup, navigate to “Omni-Channel” and select “Presence Configurations.”
- Click “New Presence Configuration.”
- Configure settings related to agent availability and work item decline options.
- Save the presence configuration.
6. Create presence status and assign it to the profile: Define Status Options for the agent to flag. e.g. Available, Busy, Away.
- In setup, navigate to “Omni-Channel” and select “Presence Status.”
- Click “New Presence Status.”
- Define status options (e.g., Available, Busy, Away).
- Save the presence status.
- Assign the presence status to relevant user profiles.
7. Include Omni-Channel in the service console app: Follow the below steps to include Omni-Channel in App Manager.
- In setup, navigate to “Apps” and select “App Manager.”
- Edit the Service Console app.
- In the “App Options” section, enable “Omni-Channel.”
- Save the app.
Whenever a case arrives through any channel phone, email, or web-to-case, it is assigned to a designated queue. Agents (selected based on availability) receive a popup notification through the Omni-Channel. Agents can accept the case. Upon acceptance, it appears under ‘My Work.’ More options exist in the Presence Configuration. It includes the possibility of auto-accepting cases. Explore these options in your organization.
Skill-Based Routing
The skill-based routing approach assesses the skills needed to handle a work item. It then matches them with the skills assigned to agents. It suits large organizations. They have diverse needs. These needs include many languages and skill types.
Most configuration steps for skill-based routing are similar to queue-based routing. However, skill-based routing entails a few additional steps.
Steps for setup skill-based routing:
1. Enable Omni-Channel and skill-based routing: From Setup, enter Omni-Channel Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Omni-Channel Settings.
- Enable Omni-Channel by checking the “Enable Omni-Channel” checkbox.
- Enable Skill-Based Routing by checking the “Enable Skill-Based Routing” checkbox.
- Save your settings.
2. Create service channel: Service channels allow you to turn most salesforce objects, such as a case, lead, or even a custom object, into a work item.
- To set it up, go to “Omni-Channel” from setup. Choose “Service Channels” in the settings.
- Click “New Service Channel.”
- Choose the object type (e.g., Case) to turn into a work item.
- Configure other settings, such as capacity and work item prioritization.
- Save the service channel.
3. Create Routing configuration: Configuration helps you prioritize the work items and give the capacity for the work items.
- From Setup, navigate to “Omni-Channel” and select “Routing Configurations.”
- Click “New Routing Configuration.”
- Define routing rules based on criteria like priority, type, or custom fields.
- Configure capacity settings for agents.
- Save the routing configuration.
4. Create skills: If your company works globally in many regions, a skill can be a language, such as Spanish, English, or French. Your company has different technical expertise. For example, it can solve laptop or mobile issues. The skill can be called “Laptop Expertise” or “Mobile Expertise.” A skill can be any set. It is assigned to service resources.
- In setup, navigate to “Omni-Channel” and select “Skills.”
- Click “New Skill.”
- Define skills based on your company’s requirements (e.g., Language, Technical Expertise).
- Save the skills.
5. Create service resources (agents), assign skills, and activate them: Service resources are agents only. You can include the list of skills on the service resource page layout. You can then assign skills to the service resources. Make sure to activate the agent.
- In setup, navigate to “Omni-Channel” and select “Service Resources.”
- Click “New Service Resource” to create agents.
- Assign skills to each service resource based on their expertise.
- Activate the agent to make them available for work.
6. Create presence status & assign it to the profile: Define status options for the agent to flag, like Available, Busy, or Away.
- In setup, navigate to “Omni-Channel” and select “Presence Status.”
- Click “New Presence Status.”
- Define status options for agents (e.g., Available, Busy, Away).
- Save the presence status.
- Assign the presence status to relevant user profiles.
7. Create an apex class or Flow to trigger the action for skill-based routing: This step is vital. It compares available skills to case requirements. Then, it assigns cases to the best agents.
In the example below, an agent speaks Spanish and is assigned a Spanish case.
You can also use skill-based routing rules. They remove the need for flow or apex. Administrators can configure these routing rules conveniently through quick find. For instance, a case labeled “electrical” should go to an electrical agent. We can use routing rules. This is possible due to the precise one-to-one match between the skill and the case field.
External Routing
External Routing involves third-party routing integration. It routes work items through Omni-Channel to agents in the salesforce service console. The console does the routing. The developer uses API to integrate the partner routing application with Salesforce.
What is an Omni-Channel Supervisor?
The omni-channel supervisor is a one-stop shop. It is for supervisors and managers to check on their call center’s health. You can include this tab. Do this by navigating to the application manager and service console. Then, include the Omni supervisor.
In the Omni supervisor tab, the supervisor can see all agents. They can see their capacity, work items, accepted time, handle time, and more.
Adding Omni-Channel routing to the service cloud changes how customers interact. It makes it easier for agents to help quickly. This system links customers to skilled agents. It uses different channels. This makes service better and operations smoother.
Conclusion
In summary, we looked closely at Omni-Channel routing basics. We also gave an overview of its types. We hope this exploration has explained the details. It has covered this key part of modern customer service. It can help you make smart decisions for your business.
