- 01 Terminology - Jumplink to Terminology
- 02 Example Use Case - Jumplink to Example Use Case
- 03 Implementing Skill Categories and Skills - Jumplink to Implementing Skill Categories and Skills
- 04 Allocating Skills to Agents - Jumplink to Allocating Skills to Agents
- 05 Identifying the Required Skills for the Incoming Call - Jumplink to Identifying the Required Skills for the Incoming Call
- 06 Configuring an Agent Routing Profile - Jumplink to Configuring an Agent Routing Profile
- 07 Testing & Validation - Jumplink to Testing & Validation
Products Used
Skills-based routing (SBR) is a method used in contact centers to direct incoming consumer engagements to the most qualified agent based on specific skill sets. Unlike traditional routing systems that simply assign engagements based on availability (longest idle being a commonly used method), Skills Based Routing evaluates the nature of the consumer’s query and matches it to a set of agents with the right skills.
Some examples of skills may include:
- Language
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Technical knowledge
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Product specialization
This approach aims to improve the customer experience by having calls answered by an agent who is best positioned to deal with the customer's query without having to transfer to another member of the team. By doing this, issues can be resolved more quickly and accurately, contributing to higher efficiency, lower resolution times, improved overall service quality, and first-contact resolution.
There are four key components that we need to consider when building a Skills Based Routing setup.
Skills & Skill Categories:
Skills are agent traits that indicate that they are the right person to handle a customer interaction. Proficiency ratings correspond to the agent’s level of expertise or knowledge of that skill. Skills are assigned to agents' profiles to define which skills they posess and, optionally, their proficiency in that particular set of skills. A higher proficiency rating means an agent is better at that skill.
Agent Routing Profiles :
Agent Routing Profiles route engagements to the appropriate agents that can best meet their needs based on previously-created skills. Routing Profiles contain the business requirements of which skill(s) are required and how skills should be factored into the routing of an engagement.
Flows:
Flows are the entry point into the contact centre and provide much of the business logic so a consumer is routed to the right place.
Before the consumer is sent to a queue to be answered by an agent, the flow has the ability to identify what the consumer needs and the necessary skills required of the agent who ultimately answers the engagement.
Skills are typically identified using a combination of Collect Input and Condition widgets.
- Collect Input widgets map a skill requirement to consumer input (digit input in an IVR menu, for example).
- Condition widgets map a skill requirement to the contents of a variable.
Once skill requirements have been identified, a Route To widget is used to send the incoming engagement into a queue.
Queues :
Queues manage incoming engagements that need to be distributed to your agents. Agents and Agent Routing Profiles are assigned to queues.
Outline
In this section we will focus on a ficticious provider of insurance who is delivering their services over Zoom Contact Center's voice channel.
Some useful points to note about the provider:
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The services provided are Home Insurance and Motor Insurance.
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Agents must be certified to speak to consumers about these products.
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Services are provided in English or French based on the consumer's preference.
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Some agents are bi-lingual, others have varying levels of fluency.
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They want to make sure consumers are answered quickly, so if a consumer has been waiting too long, an agent who is not certified could at least answer the engagement.
A flow has been built to deliver the following consumer experience:
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Greet the consumer and ask them to select option 1 if they would prefer to talk to a French-speaking agent.
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Select option 1 for Home Insurance or option 2 for Motor Insurance.
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Regardless of the digit choice made by the consumer, they are sent into a single queue containing all agents.
Today, all consumers are sent to the same group of agents regardless of their choices inside the flow. If a caller is answered by an agent who is not certified to speak about their product of choice or they do not speak their preferred language, they must be transferred to another member of the team. This is potentially negatively impacting customer experience and satisfaction.
The remaining sections of this article will guide you through the process of implementing Skills Based Routing to optimise this setup, so that the incoming caller is sent to an agent who is capable of speaking about the product of their choice in the language of their preference.
Defining Skills
Skill categories provide a logical grouping of skills and can be configured to accommodate two different skill types:
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Text-based: An agent either has the capability or does not. For example, an agent may be certified to speak about a particular set of products or services.
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Proficiency-based: Different agents may have varying levels of proficiency in a particular skill. Skills may change over time if, for example, an agent gets more experience or further training in a particular area like varying levels of fluency in a particular language.
With this in mind, we can define the required categories and skills.
|
Category |
Type |
Skills |
|
Insurance Products |
Text-based |
Home, Motor |
|
Languages |
Proficiency-based |
English, French |
The Zoom Contact Center Administrator will need to log in to the Zoom admin portal and navigate to Contact Center Management > Skills. From here they will be able to click the Add Skill Category button to add the first Skill Category which in this case is Insurance Products as shown below.
Once the Admin has clicked the Save and Add Skills button they will be able to populate the appropriate skills in the Skill Name field. This fictitious insurance company deals with queries related to home and motor insurance.
Once the changes have been saved, the Admin will need to repeat the process to add the Language skills, this time choosing Proficiency Based as the Skill Type.
Once the changes have been saved, the Admin will need to repeat the process to add the Language skills, this time choosing Proficiency Based as the Skill Type.
Based on the above configuration, the Zoom Admin UI will look something like the screenshot below.
Skills have now been defined, but they have not been allocated to the agents. This will be done in the next step.
Once skills have been defined, the ZCC Administrator can begin the process of adding skills to agents and, where needed, defining the agents' proficiency in those skills.
In this example, there are three agents who are handling incoming calls into the contact center.
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Amy Martin is a fluent French speaker and speaks a little English, certified in Motor Insurance
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Bill Lee is a fluent English speaker, certified in Home Insurance
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Sofia Jones is a fluent English and French speaker, certified in all Insurance Products
Based on these profiles, the appropriate skills and proficiencies must be defined. From within the Zoom Admin UI the Admin will need to perform the following steps:
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Navigate to Contact Center Management > Users and select a user.
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Scroll down to the Skills section and click Add Skill. Place checkmarks next to each of the required skills, specifying a proficiency where required.
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Click the Save button when complete.
Amy Martin:
Bill Lee:
Sofia Jones:
Note that once skills have been added, the Admin can change the proficiency levels from the user's configuration page as shown in this example.
Once the agents have been allocated the appropriate skills, we need a way to identify the skills required of the agent in order to service an incoming consumer. There are several ways to do this, but for this use case we will use a simple example where skills will be determined based on the choices made by the caller inside the flow. In other words, if the caller chooses the option for Home Insurance, then we need an agent who is certified to speak about Home Insurance products.
The incoming call flow will need to be edited by navigating to Contact Center Management > Flows and selecting the flow from the list.
The Collect Input widget should be selected followed by the Exits tab. There is a dropdown field labeled Map Exit to Skill where the Skill Category and Skill can be selected.
For each Collect Input exit, the appropriate Skill Category and Skill should be selected from the dropdowns. An example is shown below.
Note: In a multi-language setting you may wish to set the Engagement Language variable (global_system.Engagement.language) so the consumer receives recorded assets, etc. in their preferred language. The use of the Engagement Language variable is beyond the scope of this article.
In this example, there are two Collect Input widgets; one for the consumer's language selection, and another for their product selection. An example from the Select Product widget is shown below. The Admin should map a Skill Category & Skill to each of the exits.
After successfully mapping a Skill Category & Skill to all exits, the Save Draft button and Publish button is required to commit the changes.
The goal here is to identify the skillset required of the agent who ultimately answers the inbound engagement. In this example, if the consumer selects the option for French followed by the option for Home Insurance, then Zoom Contact Center knows that it must search for a French speaking agent who is knowledgable in Home Insurance.
The final step is to tell the queue how it should prioritize skills that were identified in the flow. We can do that using an Agent Routing Profile. Agent Routing Profiles define how skill categories are prioritized, whether or not skills are mandatory, and what happens if an agent with the appropriate skillset is not available.
A new Agent Routing Profile by navigating to Contact Center Management > Routing Profiles. Once the Agent tab is selected Admins will be able to select the Add Agent Profile button. The Agent Routing Profile should be given a meaningful name (e.g. Insurance Skillsets).
In the next screen the Admin will be presented with a blank Agent Routing Profile that should be populated. At the bottom of the Priority table the Add Priority button should be selected twice to add two new entries into the Priority table.
In the first Priority the Languages skill category should be added. Insurance Products should be selected for the second Priority.
Since we chose a Proficiency-based skill category for Priority 1, we must also specify what is the Minimum Proficiency required for the queue to which this Agent Routing Profile will be assigned. For this example, select 6 from the dropdown.
Enable the Required toggle for Priority 1. This mandates that the agent who answers the incoming engagement has the ability to speak the consumer's preferred language with a minimum level of proficiency.
In the Maximum time to match this profile setting we will enter 30 seconds. If the Admin has set a Skill Category to 'Required', keep in mind that engagements may be placed in queue even if agents are available. This could happen because the available agents do not have the 'Required' skill assigned to them and therefore are not eligible to receive the engagement.
The Agent Routing Profile appears as shown:
The Agent Routing Profile can be described as follows:
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The top priority is to find an agent who speaks the required language with at least a proficiency of 6. If the consumer is a French speaker, for example, we need to make sure the agent speaks French.
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Out of the pool of agents who speak the appropriate language (with a proficiency of at least 6), find an agent who has the right Insurance Products skill.
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If, after 30 seconds of queuing, an agent who meets the above criteria is not available, then search for the next available agent who must have the appropriate language skill and minimum proficiency (as this skill was set to Required) but they do not need the Insurance Products skill. For example, at this point we may be looking for any French speaker who is available to take the incoming engagement regardless of whether they have the necessary Insurance Products skill.
At this stage we have defined the skill priorities by creating an Agent Routing Profile; our next task is to assign it to the queue.
From within the Zoom Admin UI, Admins should navigate to Contact Center Management > Queues and select the appropriate queue.
Locate the Agent Routing setting and click Add Agent Routing. From here the Agent Routing Profile should be selected from the list.
An informational message letting the Admin know that assigning an Agent Routing Profile will impact the incoming engagement routing (because now there are skills involved).
The routing profile configuration on the queue should now look like this:
