Assigning Tickets in Round-Robin Order

Assigning Tickets in Round-Robin Order



Simply put, Round Robin is a rotation through a group. In Zoho Desk parlance, Round Robin is a method of assigning tickets to agents. The round robin rule will distribute and assign the incoming tickets equally amongst a group of agents. For example, you might have four agents, and as an administrator, you want to assign all the new tickets equally among them. So when you receive 20 new tickets, the agents are assigned five tickets each.

A Round Robin assignment rule will assign tickets automatically without any manual intervention. It ensures that your agents don't indulge in cherry-picking and rather put the tricky tickets on the back burner.

Load Balancing

Round Robin rule ensures that it balances the ticket load of your agents in Zoho Desk. That is, tickets are assigned to the least loaded agent first. The load balancing will continue until all of your agents are assigned an equal number of tickets. After that, tickets are distributed to agents in the Round Robin fashion.

Note:
  • Users with Profile permission for managing Helpdesk Automation can access this feature.

Creating a Round Robin rule involves two steps:
  1. Create a Round Robin rule
  2. Specify the target
    • Rule Criteria
    • Agent group

Round Robin Glossary

  1. Target: A Round Robin target will specify when the rule should be triggered (criteria) and the actions (assignment) that will be executed immediately when the rule is triggered. You must list out the criteria to filter out tickets that meet the criteria. Round Robin rule is triggered to these tickets. Besides the criteria, you must also specify a group of agents to assign tickets.

  2. Ticket Threshold Per Agent: Agents can only close a certain number of tickets over a period. Not to bog them down in a mound of tickets, you can specify the maximum number of tickets that will be assigned to your agents.

  3. Assign Backlogs: When you set the above limit, any surplus tickets received in your Zoho Desk are added to a queue (backlog). You may choose to assign these tickets in bulk. You can disable this option and assign the backlogged tickets manually.

  4. Backlog Limit: The backlog tickets can be assigned based on either their created time or due period. Simply put, the tickets that were created first can be assigned first and in that order. You can also assign tickets starting with the shortest due periods followed by the longest.

Creating Round Robin Rules

Users with profile permission to manage Helpdesk Automation can create Round Robin rules in Zoho Desk.
To create a new rule:
  1. Click the Setup icon (  ) in the top bar.
  2. Click Assignment Rules under Automation.
  3. Click Round Robin under the Assignment Rules sub-menu.
  4. Click New Round Robin Assignment in the upper right area.
  5. On the New Round Robin Rule page, specify a Name and Description for the rule.
  6. Specify when the rule should be executed.
    You can choose Ticket Create, Ticket Update, or both.
  7. Click Add target.



  8. In the Add Target page, do the following:
    • Specify the Criteria for the rule.
      You can use the AND / OR operators to add more than one condition.
    • Select Round Robin as the Assignment Method.
    • Specify the list of agents that should be assigned tickets. You can select one of the following:
      • Agents: Select the assignees from the drop-down menu.
        You may click the         Select all agents option to quick-add every agent in the department.
      • Team: Select a team from the drop-down menu to add all of their agents.
        You can exclude agents within a team by checking the Exclude agents from this assignment option.



  9. Click Save.
A new Round-Robin assignment rule has been created. You can click on the agents' silhouette ( X ) to remove them from the target. Also, you can delete a target by clicking on the Delete icon (  ) corresponding to it.

Note:
  • You can associate up to 5 targets per round robin rule.
  • You can create a maximum of 10 rules and 15 rules per department in the Professional and Enterprise editions, respectively.
  • Round Robin rule will assign tickets as soon as they are received in your help desk.
  • The rule will not re-assign tickets that were assigned via other automation.
  • By default, tickets get assigned to agents who are Online for the Mail channel. However, you can choose to include Offline agents under Round Robin Preferences.
  • An entry will be added to the ticket's history when it gets assigned via a Round Robin rule.

Round Robin Preferences

You can set your preferences for the Round Robin rules like ticket limit per agent, backlog assignment, etc.
To set Round Robin preferences:
  1. Click the Setup icon (  ) in the top bar.
  2. Click Assignment Rules under Automation.
  3. Click Round Robin under the Assignment Rules sub-menu.
  4. On the Round Robin page, click the More icon (  ) in the upper-right hand corner.



  5. In the Round Robin Preferences menu, do the following:
    • Enable the Include Offline Agents option
      This will also assign tickets to the agents who are Offline for the Mail channel.
    • Specify the Threshold per Agent
      This will be the maximum number of tickets that can be assigned to an agent at a time.
    • Enable the Assign Backlogs option
      This will bulk-assign tickets that were created when agents were unavailable.
    • Specify the Backlog Limit per Agent
      This will be the maximum number of backlog tickets that can be bulk-assigned to an agent.
    • Select the basis for assigning the backlog tickets.
      You can choose to bulk assign backlog tickets by their Created Time or Due Date.
    • Select how you would like to handle the new incoming tickets.
      You can select between Assigned to agents or Added to backlog option. The former will assign new incoming tickets to available agents, whereas the latter will add them to the backlog queue, i.e., it works in the FIFO fashion.
  6. Click Apply.
The Round Robin preferences will be saved successfully. Note that these preferences will also apply to the skill-based assignment method.

Reordering Rules and Targets

When there are multiple Round Robin rules, the system checks if a ticket matches the criteria in a rule in the same order in which it is listed. By default, the round Robin Rules are listed in chronological order, with the first rule created, on the top of the list. If a ticket meets the criteria of more than one rule entry, it will trigger assignment based on the first rule entry that it matches. So based on your requirements, you can reorder the Round Robin rules. The same is the case with the targets within a Round Robin rule.
To reorder Round Robin rules:
  1. In the Round Robin page, the rules for the department will be listed.
  2. Move your mouse pointer over a rule and click the Reorder icon (  ) corresponding to it.
  3. Drag and drop the rules on the order that you want.
  4. Click Save order.


Similarly, you can drag and drop the targets within a rule.

Deactivating Round Robin Rules

You can deactivate Round Robin rules based on your help desk needs. If you enable the rule again, the targets will remain unchanged.
To deactivate an individual rule:
  1. In the Assignment Rules page, click Round Robin from the left panel.
  2. In the Round Robin page, hover your mouse pointer and click the Deactivate icon (  ) corresponding to the rule.
    The rule will be deactivated instantaneously.
Also, the deactivated rule will be added to the Inactive list. You can click the Activate icon (  ) to reactivate an inactive rule.

To disable all rules:
  1. In the Assignment Rules page, click Round Robin from the left panel.
  2. In the Round Robin page, click the toggle to OFF from the top of the page.
    All the rules will be disabled instantaneously.

    • Related Articles

    • What happens to incoming tickets once agent threshold is met for a round-robin rule?

      The round-robin assignment rule will distribute and assign the incoming tickets equally amongst a group of agents. Not to overload your agents, you can set a threshold for tickets, i.e., the maximum number of tickets that can be assigned to each ...

    • Creating Ticket Assignment Rules

      Assignment rules help you automatically assign the tickets that are received in your Zoho Desk. The rule based on certain specified conditions can route tickets to the appropriate department and further assign ownership to it. While this makes sense ...

    • Setting up Skill-based Ticket Routing to Agents

      Skill-based ticket routing is an advanced routing strategy that routes tickets to customer support agents who are best qualified to reply to the incoming tickets. It works by matching the skills required to answer a ticket with those assigned to the ...

    • Ticket Assignment for Zoho Desk

      Assigning tickets to the correct agent results in a faster response from the right person. To accomplish this, you need to know which agents are available, so you can assign tickets to agents who can provide the right response immediately. You also ...

    • Assign Tickets Manually in Zoho Desk

      A new ticket received in your Zoho Desk will stay unassigned. The support manager can assign them to you or your team. You could also pick them up by yourselves. Tickets can be assigned from the List View or the Detail View.  To assign a ticket from ...