The Queues Page contains a live, updating view of all your queues.
Current Tasks shows how many tasks are in each of your queues. The column splits tasks into Active if they've been accepted by an agent and Waiting if they have yet to be accepted. Longest Current Wait is how long the oldest task in the queue has spent in the queue and Agent Availability shows the split of agents who are eligible for tasks in the queue.
You're also able to see real-time data about tasks that are accepted from each queue. The timeframe over which these columns are evaluated over selectable Average Wait Time is the average amount of time between when a task was created and when it was accepted. Completed Tasks is the number of completed tasks (split by channel). SLA Performance is the percentage of tasks that were accepted within the SLA set on the queue. SLA adherence is calculated by comparing the age of the task when it was accepted against the SLA set on the queue it was accepted from.
Queues Page
Default Queues
Regal accounts come with the following set of default queues.
- Inbound Calls: Where inbound calls are sent.
- Outbound Calls: Where campaign-triggered outbound call tasks are sent.
- Manual Outbound Calls: Where manual outbound calls are sent.
- Callbacks: Where scheduled and ASAP callbacks are sent.
- Inbound SMS: Where inbound sms tasks are sent.
- Outbound SMS: Where outbound sms tasks are sent.
- Quiet Hours: Where tasks unavailable to agents because they're in local quiet hours are temporarily placed.
- Snoozed: Where tasks unavailable to agents because they've been snoozed by an agent are temporarily placed.
- Transfers: Where transfer tasks are sent.
Create Queues
You're able to create your own queues from the Queues Settings page. You're able to see a list of all your queues here and are able to click "New Queue" to create a new queue to use in Routing Rules.
Queue Name and Description
Task Order
For each queue you must determine the order in which you want tasks to be handled. This setting will determine the order in which tasks are routed to agents, and for progressive dialer campaigns, the order in which calls are placed on behalf of agents. With FIFO, tasks are sorted by priority and the highest priority task is assigned first. With LIFO, the most recent task is assigned first regardless of task priority.
Max Reserved Agents
For each queue you can set the number of agents you want to be reserved at the same time for a task. For example, if an inbound call comes into the Inbound Call queue, how many agents do you want that inbound call to ring to? If you set Max Reserved Agents = 1, only one agent will see that inbound call at a time. But to get the call answered faster, you can increase the number of Max Reserved Agents to e.g., 5, and it will ring all five agents at the same time, making it more likely the call will be answered faster.
Don't Set Max Reserved Agents Too High
Setting Max Reserved Agents to too high of a number can create a frustrating agent experience, and a feeling that "my tasks are always disappearing" because they are competing for tasks with other agents. It's common to be more aggressive with Inbound Calls because customers have little tolerance for waiting on the line, so setting that at 3 or 5 agents is reasonable. For Outbound Calls, it's common to be less aggressive and just leave Max Reserved Agents at 1 agent.
Queue Eligibility Expression
An Eligibility Expression determines which agents are eligible to be assigned the tasks in a queue. Teams, skills, email addresses and agent activity status can be used to specify which agents should be in a queue. Below are some examples of common expressions.
| Scenario | Eligibility Expression |
| All agents should be in the queue. | 1 == 1 |
|
No agents should be in the queue. |
1 == 0 |
| Only agents with the Outbound Call skill should be in the Queue. | routing.skills HAS 'Outbound Call' |
| Only agents with on the Escalations team should be in the queue. | teams HAS 'Escalations' |
| Agents that either have the Outbound Call skill or is on the Escalations team should be in the queue. | routing.skills HAS 'Outbound Call' OR teams HAS 'Escalations' |
| Agents that either a) have the Outbound Call skill or are on the Escalations team or b) have the email escalations@support.com should be in the queue. | (routing.skills HAS 'Outbound Call' OR teams HAS 'Escalations') OR email == 'escalations@support.com' |
| Agents that are on the Retention team and are not set to the 'Pause Assignment' status should be in the queue. | teams HAS 'Retention' AND current_status != 'Pause Assignment' |
SLA
Set a Service Level Agreement (SLA) for each of your queues. The SLA defines the target time interval between when the task is created and when the task is accepted. For example, if you are targeting answering inbound calls within 30 seconds, then you'd set the SLA for your Inbound Call queue to 30 seconds.
Performance against this SLA will be shown on the Queues page. If the time between the task being created and accepted is less than the SLA, it's considered to be accepted within the SLA. For example, we'll display 80% if agents are answering 80% of inbound calls in less than or equal to 30 seconds.
If you don't know what to target, here are some SLAs we consider "best in class":
- Inbound Calls: 30 seconds
- Outbound Calls: 5 minutes
- Inbound Texts: 2 minutes
Typically, if you're hitting these 70%+ of the time, you've got the right set up and staffing ratio to deliver a great customer experience.
FIFO vs. LIFO Queues
Queues can be set up as FIFO or LIFO.
- FIFO queues order tasks on a first come, first serve basis. Typically inbound queues that contain inbound calls or inbound SMS are set up as FIFO.
- LIFO queues order tasks on a last in, first serve basis. Often Outbound Call queues are set up as LIFO as you want to optimize for "Speed to Lead" meaning prioritize the "Hottest Lead" that came in most recently since the theory is that they have the highest intent.
You can set local quiet hours for your account to ensure customers are not called at inappropriate hours relative to their local timezone. By default, local quiet hours are set for 8pm to 9am. Outbound Call tasks will be parked in the Quiet Hours queue during the configured local quiet hours window. Email support@regalvoice.com to update the local quiet hours for your account.
Let's say you have 2 queues:
- Acquisition - Outbound Call queue
- Retention - Outbound Call queue
You can set it up so that the Acquisition - Outbound Call queue requires the skill "Outbound Call" and the team "Acquisition Team", whereas the Retention - Outbound Call queue requires the skill "Outbound Call" and the team "Retention Team".
Now let's say you have 4 agents:
- Agent A is on the Acquisition Team and has the skills Outbound Call and Inbound Call
- Agent B is on the Retention Team and has the skills Outbound Call and Spanish
- Agent C is on both the Acquisition Team and Retention team, and only has the skill Outbound Call
- Agent D is on the Acquisition Team and only has the skill Inbound Call
Which of the 2 queues will each agent receive tasks from?
- Agent A will receive tasks from the Acquisition - Outbound Call queue
- Agent B will receive tasks from the Retention - Outbound Call queue
- Agent C will receive tasks from both the Acquisition - Outbound Call queue AND Retention - Outbound Call queue
- Agent D will not receive tasks from either outbound queue because they don't have the Outbound Call skill