We have recently began testing the use of a skill on one specific workgroup which allows us to route calls to a subset of agents that received specialized training first. This is works to get the calls to the "preferred" agents first, but the problem we are facing is that the calls that have the skill assigned are getting priority over other calls that come in without skills. Is there anyway to use skills without it impacting the distribution of calls in queue? For example: a call with the skill enters queue and is delivered ahead of a call without the skill that has been waiting longer. We'd like to be able to still deliver calls based on longest wait time. We are on 3.0 SU 12.

The formulas used to determine which interaction should be handled next and which agent it should be assigned to are quite complex. An ACD queue doesn't simply look at which interaction has been waiting the longest, but takes into account a number of different variables. Right off, the first value I would check is the Priority setting. Also, with the ACDServer log turned up to 80, you can use SnapShot to see the formulas that are used both on the interaction and agent sides of the equation and why a particular interaction was handled ahead of another one.

We had a very similar issue, we changed the "Weight for Skills" to zero in CustomIVRWorkgroupQueue.ihd This has been working well for us for almost 2 years. We are using "Custom" ACD Queues We are CIC 3.0 SU10

If you are using a Custom workgroup I recommend you look into using Categories instead for those calls. They don't change the scoring, but do require an agent to be in the Category assigned to receive the call. Otherwise, if you are using an ACD workgroup, assign a Proficiency of 1 in the skill to the agents that have been trained. That will only increase the interaction score by one point, which is equal to 30 seconds of Time in Queue, and should have minimal effect on the precedence of those calls if all other scoring factors are equal.

Try unchecking the checkbox "Use availability in skills calculation" its in the Administrator, under People -> Workgroups -> [Workgroup name] ->ACD Tab ->Options. If the availability is excluded from the skills formula, the calls will be distributed based on SKILL, and ofcourse on the First Come - First Served basis. I had to do this to the queues / workgroups that use Skills Based Routing. Speaking of Skills Based Routing.. this is the formula i got from our ININ partner: Agent Score = Agent Cost + Agent avail time + Proficiency Removing checkbox mentioned above, changes this formula to: Agent Score = Agent Cost + Proficiency [a littel easier to manage now] If you did not make any changes to Agent Cost, then its still at default (0 or 1) so now, your formula is very simple: Agent Score = Proficiency Hope this helps Dmitry.

Originally posted by Stibb123;24579
We have recently began testing the use of a skill on one specific workgroup which allows us to route calls to a subset of agents that received specialized training first. This is works to get the calls to the "preferred" agents first, but the problem we are facing is that the calls that have the skill assigned are getting priority over other calls that come in without skills. Is there anyway to use skills without it impacting the distribution of calls in queue? For example: a call with the skill enters queue and is delivered ahead of a call without the skill that has been waiting longer. We'd like to be able to still deliver calls based on longest wait time. We are on 3.0 SU 12.

Hi Stibb123, If you mean those for inbound operation you should follow the below steps to distribute skilled and non-skilled calls; - Create new skill thru IA -> People -> Skills - Assign this skill to the agents individually - Set the parameters for each agent (Desire to use and Proficiency) For example if you route the spanish calls to the specific agents who have a spanish skill you should set the both parameter above to %100 to handle all spanish calls by these agents. Also you should set the both parameter to less comparatively for the other agents to not look for spanish calls. As a summary one agent should have the parameters for the skilled calls %100 and for the non-skilled calls less.. Other agent should have the parameters for the non-skilled calls %100 and for skilled calls less comparatively. Then you can catch all calls within the method FIFO :) Regards Cenk

Late to this thread but hoping someone can help me either via private email or on the forum..... We have been utilizing skills for some time, mostly effective overall. But we have noticed that we have some load imbalances that create some substantial average hold time imbalances, lets say nearly 500 second averages over the course of a half hour block. We set it up, hoping to keep most calls regionalized while maximizing customer experience. But we have seen some calls will sit in our North group, without transferring to our south group if we have a call holding in both because someone skilled in the 90s in North will get the north call even if the call in south was holding substantially longer. Any thoughts? Will moving the skills closer together solve the issue? How close together can they move where we will still keep the majority of the calls regionalized? Thanks for any insight!

Keep in mind that there are quite a few parameters that come into play to make the ACD formulas function. This includes interaction priority, the weight for priority, time in system, time in queue (and weights for each), etc... and that's just for the interaction formula. You may need to follow a couple of calls through the logs (where one call is unexpectedly assigned to an agent before the other) and find out what values, weights, etc. are being assigned to each. The ACDServer log (turned up to 80) can be very helpful with this troubleshooting as it will show you the exact values and formula use to calculate the score for each interaction.