Set up queues for chat inquiries

This information is primarily for administrators and/or people who manage Zylinc solutions

Chat queues are in many ways similar to e-mail queues. However, because chat is more real-time that e-mail, chat queues also have some settings that you're probably familiar with from voice queues.

Compared with e-mail queues, chat queues have:

  • Opening hours, and consequently also open/closed and failover settings

  • Queue limits

  • Announcements

  • Skype for Business: In the Administration Portal menu, select NETWORK > SfB Configuration, and then click SETUP in the top right corner of the page.

You then need to verify that the agents that you want to work on the chat queue are able to use the settings:

  • In the Administration Portal menu, select USERS > Agents, click the name of the required agent, go to the Agent - Other Channels section, and verify the chat settings are set to Default. Repeat as necessary for other agents.

    If you use Internet Explorer on a Windows server, Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration can cause lists of users and groups to take a very long time to load in the Zylinc Administration Portal. While the lists load, you'll see a loading indicator, like this:


    If it's allowed in your organization, you should switch off Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration. The way you do that varies depending on your server version. Do a Google search for Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration to learn how to do it on your server version.

    Alternatively, you can of course use another browser, for example Chrome or Firefox.

  1. In the Administration Portal menu, select QUEUES > Chat Queues.

  2. At the bottom of the page, click Add Chat Queue.

  3. Under Basic Settings, give the queue a Name and (optionally) a Queue Display Name.

    Make sure that you give the queue a carefully considered name that you're not likely to change later. If you later change the name of the queue, it can affect your organization's statistics. Also, if you change the name while there are chat requests in the queue, those chat requests may be left unanswered.

    Tip from experienced Zylinc administrator: “Use a consistent queue naming scheme. When you're an administrator, that helps you maintain a good overview of your organization's queues. You can always change the queues' display names later, if you need them to make more sense to the users.”

  4. Select the Queue Type.

  5. Then enter the User of the queue. That's the user name that'll identify the queue as a specific endpoint. You can enter the SIP URI for an endpoint. This is similar to when you enter a phone number for a voice queue.

    Example: sip:chatqueue1@example.org

    If you later change the user while there are active chat sessions, those chat sessions will be dropped.

  6. If required, select a Color Code that agents can use to quickly identify the queue in their clients.

  7. Select whether the queue should be a Public Queue or not. If you make the queue public, it'll be visible in all clients that support queues. If you don't make it public, it'll only be visible to agents who subscribe to it.

    If you're testing your queue setup, you can hide your test queues by not making them public.

    What's the difference between a public queue, a personal queue, and a private queue?ClosedA public queue is a queue that all agents are able to view in their clients, regardless whether they subscribe to the queue or not. If a queue is not public, agents can only view it if they subscribe to it, but that fact doesn't make the queue personal or private.
    A personal queue is only available for phone inquiries: it catches direct calls to a particular agent's phone, so that you get queue features for handling the call in a smarter way than if the call just went to the agent's phone directly.
    A private queue is a type of queue that you can't set up. It's automatically created when necessary, and it simply stores inquiries that wait for a specific agent. An inquiry is typically placed in a private queue if one agent (A) answers the inquiry, and then transfers it to another agent (B). The inquiry will then be in agent B's private queue.

  8. In the Call Distribution section, specify how incoming chat requests should be distributed to agents:

    • Distribution: Agents can work in manual mode (where they themselves select the chat requests that they want to handle) or in automatic mode (where chat requests are automatically assigned to them). This setting controls how to distribute chat requests to agents who are in automatic mode:

      • Longest idle: Give next chat requests to the agent who has been idle (that is ready to answer chat requests) for the longest time

      • Round robin: Give chat requests to each agent in circular order, so that all agents take turns, regardless of how long they've been idle

    • Weight: The weight of a queue decides the priority with which the Zylinc solution distributes chat requests from a queue to agents who are in automatic mode (where chat requests are automatically assigned to them).

      Example: Queue A has a weight of 2, and Queue B has a weight of 6. Both queues have a chat request that's been waiting for 10 seconds. The chat request from Queue A will have a total weight of 20 (2×10), and the chat request from Queue B will have a total weight of 60 (6×10). That means that the chat request from Queue B will be distributed first.

      Chat requests in queues with no weight are always served last, regardless of waiting time.

    • Historical Routing: Makes it possible to distribute a chat request from a given person to the agent who handled the previous chat with that person, provided that the agent is logged-in and active on the queue.

      You enable this feature in the On Address field. If you select -default-, it'll use the settings defined under CLIENTS > General Settings, in the Queue Default Settings section's Number/Address fields.

      You can specify a Limit for how many minutes back in time the system should look for the agent. A limit of 0 means that there's no limit.

      Chat requests that are distributed with historical routing take priority over other chat requests that wait in the queue.

    • Standby User - Calls: Standby agents are agents who help out if the situation on the queue gets critical. Specify threshold values for how many chat requests should wait in the queue for standby agents to be activated and deactivated. A value of 0 in the Activate field disables the threshold. If no other agents handle the queue, standby agents are always activated, regardless of this setting.

    • Standby User - Sec: Specify threshold values for how many seconds chat requests must have waited in the queue for standby agents to be activated and deactivated. A value of 0 in the Activate field disables the threshold. If no other agents handle the queue, standby agents are always activated, regardless of this setting.

  9. In the Threshold Values section, specify settings for acceptable queue length and waiting times:

    • Queue Limit - New Calls: The maximum allowed number of chat requests in the queue. If the number exceeds the maximum, new incoming chat requests are handled according to the Failover - Queue Open settings (see one of the following steps in this process).

    • Service Goal: The queue's service goal is used to indicate (in clients, on Wallboard, and in statistics) if chat requests in the queue have waited longer than acceptable.
    • Warning Level: A threshold for how many chat requests should exceed the service goal before clients display a warning. If you specify 0, clients will not display a warning.

  10. In the Timers section, specify how chat requests should be kept under specific circumstances:

    • Public: The amount of time that chat requests should be kept in the queue after the last agent has logged out of the queue.

    • Private (Moved): The amount of time that chat requests that have been placed in an agent's private queue should be kept in the private queue before being made publicly available to other agents on the queue. A chat request is typically placed in a private queue if one agent (A) answers the chat request, and then transfers it to another agent (B). The chat request will then be in agent B's private queue.

    If you select - default -, the Zylinc solution will use the global timers that you can manage under CLIENTS > Global Timers.

  11. In the Announcements section, specify settings for the those of the queue's text announcements that aren't position-related:

    • Language, Primary: The queue's primary language, that is the language in which the queue will display text announcements.

    • Welcome text: Specify the text announcement that inquirers should see when they first enter the queue.

      You can use the variable $caller$ to insert the inquirer's name in a personalized welcome message.

      Example: Hi $caller$, Please wait for an agent to become available.

    • Connected text: Specify the text announcement that inquirers should see when they're getting connected to an agent.

      You can use the variable $agent$ to insert the agent's name in the message.

      Example: You're now being connected to $agent$.

    • Disconnected text: Specify the text announcement that inquirers should see when they get disconnected

  12. In the Position Announcement section, you can enable text announcements that repeatedly inform waiting inquirers about their position in the queue.

  13. In the Estimated Wait section, you can enable the ability to inform inquirers about the estimated time that they need to wait before an agent answers their chat request:

  14. In the Failover - Queue Open section, specify how the queue should handle exception scenarios during its opening hours, for example if the number of chat requests in the queue exceeds the limit that you specified in the Thresholds section, or if there are no agents on the queue:

    • Unmonitored Queue: What to do if there are no longer any agents on the queue, even though the queue's supposed to be open. Select Failover Action to display one of the texts that you can specify in the following fields. Select Queue Calls to keep chat requests in the queue and not display any of the texts.

    • Queue Full Text: Specify the text announcement that inquirers should see if the queue has reached the maximum allowed number of chat requests.

      You can use the variable $queue$ to insert the queue's name in this text announcement and the text announcements described in the following.

      Example: There are too many chat requests waiting in $queue$ right now. Please try again later.

    • Unmonitored text: Specify the text announcement that inquirers should see if there are no agents on the queue.

  15. In the Failover - Queue Closed section, specify how the queue should handle exception scenarios outside of its opening hours, for example if someone calls the queue when it's closed.

    • Closed text: Specify the text announcement that inquirers should see when the queue is closed.

  16. Click Save.

Once you've added a queue and defined its basic settings, you get access to more settings:

That's a group of Advanced settings about how to look up details about inquirers, a group of settings called Users about which agents should work on the queue, and a group of settings about the queue's Opening hours.

If you've set up the lookup feature under SYSTEM > Call-Lookup, the Zylinc solution can automatically look up inquirers in an internal or external database, directory, or phone book, so that agents can view details about inquirers in their clients when they work on the queue.

  1. In the Administration Portal menu, select QUEUES > Mail Queues, and click the name of your queue. Then click the ADVANCED link in the top right corner of the page.

  2. In the Call Lookup menu, select the lookup configuration that you want to use.

  3. If an inquiry has come from another queue, you can choose to use the lookup settings from the original queue if you select Use from Original Queue.

  4. Click Save.

This is where you add agents to your queue:

  1. In the Administration Portal menu, select QUEUES > Voice Queues, and click the name of your queue. Then click the USERS link in the top right corner of the page.

    If you use Internet Explorer on a Windows server, Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration can cause lists of users and groups to take a very long time to load in the Zylinc Administration Portal. While the lists load, you'll see a loading indicator, like this:


    If it's allowed in your organization, you should switch off Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration. The way you do that varies depending on your server version. Do a Google search for Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration to learn how to do it on your server version.

    Alternatively, you can of course use another browser, for example Chrome or Firefox.

  2. In the Available section, select required agents, and then use the arrow buttons to move the agents to the Primary, Secondary, Standby, or Owners sections as required.

    Note that you can also select groups of people to be agents on a queue. If you've already selected a group, and you get a new colleague who should be an agent on a queue, all you need to do is to make sure that your Active Directory administrator includes the new colleague in the relevant group.

    Due to the default synchronization intervals of the four components involved in the user synchronization, it can potentially take up to 198 minutes (3 hours and 18 minutes) before new users added to a group will work in the Zylinc solution. In most cases, however, it'll not take that long. Ask your Zylinc administrator if you're in doubt.

    Remember to check the required agents' settings under USERS > Agents in the Administration Portal.

    When you assign agents to queues, you can define the agents as either primary or secondary for each queue.

    Primary and secondary roles are only relevant when agents work in automatic mode, not if agents manually select the inquiries that they want to answer.

    Zylinc always considers primary agents first. It'll only consider secondary agents if no primary agents are available.

    If an agent becomes available and that agent monitors several queues with waiting inquiries, the inquiry from the queue with the highest priority will be routed to the agent, independently of primary and secondary settings. If several queues have the same priority, then Zylinc selects the queue that hasn’t been attended for the longest time.

    If you use skill-based routing (part of the queue's advanced settings), it'll take precedence over these policies.

    If you define agents as standby on a queue, those agents will only get inquiries from that queue, and subsequently answer them, if a certain threshold is reached. You can base the threshold on any combination of:

    • Number of inquiries that wait in the queue
    • Number of inquiries that have waited in the queue for more than a specified number of seconds
    • The fact that no other agents monitor the queue

    When standby agents are called into action on a queue, they become primary agents on that queue for as long as their help is required.

    If agents are standby on some queues and primary/secondary on other queues, they'll get inquiries from the queues on which they're primary/secondary. Only when the threshold is exceeded, they'll will also get inquiries from the other queues.

    As with primary and secondary agents, inquiries will also be prioritized according to queue priority.

    What if the queue balances on the threshold?ClosedTo avoid that agents go on and off a queue all the time, you can specify an activation threshold as well as a deactivation threshold.

    In Zylinc Contact Center and Service Center agents can themselves select to go in standby mode, in which case they'll go standby on all queues that they subscribe to, regardless of how they've been defined.

    Owners are agents who should be able to

    • Change settings about the queue
    • View statistics about the queue

    even if they're not explicitly defined as Primary, Secondary, or Standby.

    If you don't explicitly define one or more owners, everyone who has access to the queue can view information about it.

  3. Click Save.

Three factors determine when a queue is open:

  1. The queue's regular opening hours

  2. Calendar-specific exceptions, for example around holidays

  3. Queue-specific exceptions

Technically, the Zylinc solution continuously looks at this sequence from the bottom up to determine whether a queue should be open or closed:

  • First it looks for any queue-specific exceptions. If it finds one that applies at the time of looking, it opens or closes the queue accordingly.

  • If it doesn't find a queue-specific exception that applies, it looks for any calendar-specific exceptions. If it finds one that applies at the time of looking, it opens or closes the queue accordingly.

  • If it doesn't find any calendar-specific exception that applies, it uses the queue's regular opening hours to open and close the queue.

You set up opening hours for a queue this way:

If you want to learn this through guided hands-on exercises that also include how to set up exceptions to regular opening hours, see Set up opening hours on queues.

  1. In the Administration Portal menu, select QUEUES > Voice Queues, and click the name of your queue. Then click the OPENING HOURS link in the top right corner of the page.

  2. Select which time zone the queue belongs in. Typically, this is the same time zone as Zylinc system itself (in which case you select Server time zone), but if your Zylinc solution covers multiple time zones, you can select a specific time zone for the queue.

  3. In the Opening Hours section, specify the queue's regular opening hours.

    What if we want to close around midday, and then open again later?Closed If you want the queue to be closed during a siesta or similar, create an exception (see the following steps).

  4. In the Exceptions from schema section, select required calendar-specific exceptions, and use the arrow buttons to add them to the queue. You define the exceptions under QUEUES > Calendars.

    Calendar-specific exceptions are prioritized in the order they appear. Use the up and down arrow buttons to adjust the priorities.

  5. Exceptions on queue section, define queue-specific exceptions, and use the arrow buttons to add them to the queue.

    Unless you specifically select the Open check box when you define an exception, the Zylinc solution assumes that your exception should close the queue.

    Queue-specific exceptions are prioritized in the order they appear. Use the up and down arrow buttons to adjust the priorities.

    What if I want an exception that applies every day?Closed You can only define exceptions for specific dates or days of the week. However, if you want an exception to apply, for example, every day from 12.00 to 15.00, you can define such an exception for every day of the week.

  6. Click Save.

Chatting parties often wait for each other's input. That's why, in order to work efficiently, agents can handle multiple chat sessions simultaneously.

To specify the maximum number of chat sessions that an agent can handle simultaneously before the Zylinc solution will consider them to be busy, select CLIENTS > Settings in the Administration Portal menu. Then, in the Agent Default Settings section, select the required number in the Chats per agent (max) field.

Are you going to create several near-identical chat queues?

If so, create the required queues with the minimum settings (typically just a name and a user) and save them.

Then use the Bulk administration of queue settings feature (you find it below the list of queues when you select QUEUES > Chat Queues) to quickly give all the required queues their common settings.

When done, you can then fine-tune each of the queues if they need some individual settings.