Routing: queues and assignment

Routing decides who gets a conversation in a queue. One router handles all channels. Queues are set up in Settings → Conversations → Queues by Owners and Cliedesk Admins (Manage settings). Select Routing on a queue to open its routing settings. Agent statuses are on Agent statuses.

How conversations come into a queue

A conversation comes into a queue in one of these ways:

• an arrival rule that sets the queue (Settings → Channels → Arrival rules, for example “subject contains refund → Billing”; sorting needs Manage SLAs and routing);
• an automation rule that assigns a team or a queue;
• a person moves it there.

A new conversation that is in no queue after that goes to its product’s Default queue (set on the product, Settings → Workspace & brands → Products), so round robin works without any rule.

Queue entry conditions (the first queue whose conditions match takes a new conversation) are available with Cliedesk Pro.

Assignment

• Manual: agents take or assign conversations. Agents pick conversations from the queue.
• Round robin: to the Online team member who waited longest. Only agents who are Online and were seen in the last 5 minutes count. Turn on Offline agents may get conversations too to include everyone.

With round robin you can also set When nobody is available: wait for the next agent who comes online, or Give it to … a default person. Agents in Assign only mode get nothing from round robin (see Agent statuses).

Order of conversations: Priority, then oldest (default), Waiting longest first or Newest first. The queue view uses it, and waiting conversations are given out in this order when an agent comes online.

Balanced and capacity-based assignment, chat offers, the last agent for returning customers and re-routing are available with Cliedesk Pro (a PRO badge shows where they go).

Taking conversations

• Assign, take or drop a conversation from its header, from the list (also in bulk), or from the command palette.
• Without Pick from the queue, an agent cannot take a conversation from a queue; round robin gives them work. Drop conversations and Assign others are separate permissions. See Team and permissions.
• When you reply to an unassigned conversation, you become its assignee (inbox.assign_on_reply, on by default).
• When a WordPress user is deleted, their open conversations go back to the queue.
• In focus mode, resolving a conversation opens your next live conversation (see Your workspace).

Teams

When you Add team in Settings → Team → Teams, Assign new conversations automatically creates the team’s queue with round robin. Private teams are available with Cliedesk Pro. A team or queue that was made private with Pro stays hidden from people who are not members; an admin can turn Private off on the team page.

Chat continues by email

If a chat gets no agent reply within 10 minutes (widget.email_handover_minutes), or an agent ends the chat, and the customer’s email is known, the conversation continues by email. The customer gets an email saying so, and routing runs again in the conversation’s queue.

Why did it go there?

The timeline shows each routing decision as a line, for example “Routing: assigned to Ana by round robin” or “Routing: nobody available (4 members): 2 away, 1 offline, 1 outside working hours”.