Concepts: Queues priority and delay

Priority and delay are powerful features that allow you to load balance contacts among groups of agents.

Example 1: Different priority but same delay

For example, one group of agents is assigned to a Sales routing profile. Since their primary job is sales, the Sales queue is Priority 1 and Delay is 0. But they can help with Support too, so that queue is Priority 2 and Delay is 0. This shown in the following table:

Queue	Priority	Delay (in seconds)
Sales	1	0
Support	2	0

If there are no contacts in the Sales queue, then the agents will be presented with contacts from the Support queue.

Example 2: Same priority but different delay

Say you set the Support queue to Priority 1 and Delay of 30 seconds, as shown in the following table:

Queue	Priority	Delay (in seconds)
Sales	1	0
Support	1	30

These agents will always get contacts from the Sales queue first because the delay is 0. However, when a contact in the Support queue ages past 30 seconds, it will also be treated as priority 1. The agents will then be presented with the contact from the Support queue.

Example 3: Different Priorities and Delays

Here's a more complicated example for a Support routing profile:

Queue	Priority	Delay (in seconds)
Tier 1 Support	1	0
Tier 2 Support	1	0
Tier 3 Support	2	20
Tier 4 Support	3	80

This routing profile prioritizes the Tier 1 Support and Tier 2 Support queues equally because each is priority 1.

• Agents may take contacts from the Tier 3 Support queue when:

  • Customers for Tier 3 Support are waiting for 20 seconds or longer.

  • And no contacts are in the Tier 1 Support or Tier 2 Support queues.

• Agents may take contacts from the Tier 4 Support queue when:

  • Customers in the Tier 4 Support queue have been waiting 80 seconds or longer.

  • And no contacts are in the Tier 1 Support, Tier 2 Support or Tier 3 Support queues.

  Priority takes precedence. (You might think that agents take contacts from Tier 4 Support when contacts are in Tier 1 Support, Tier 2 Support, or Tier 3 Support and waiting 20 seconds or longer, but that's not right.)

Example 4: Same Priority and Delay

In this example a routing profile has only two queues, and they have the same priority and delay:

Queue	Priority	Delay (in seconds)
Sales	1	0
Support	1	0

For this routing profile, the oldest contact is routed first. It goes to the agent who has been idle for the longest time.

For instructions on how to set priority and delay for a routing profile, see Create a routing profile.