What are Agent Pools?
Agent Pools are a flexible and dynamic way to organize your workforce to meet the changing demands of your business. Agents who share similar Routing Attributes belong to the same Pool. You can create general Pools that admit all of your Agents, as well as more selective Pools, where only your best Agents, or those with a particular skill, will be admitted.
To create or edit an Agent Pool, select the Routing menu, then click Pools. The Pools list page works identically to the other list pages for Clients, Programs and Campaigns. Click the Add New Pool button or select an existing Pool and click its Edit Pool link to edit it. Table 4-1 describes the main Pool fields.
Editing Agent Pools
Pool Field Descriptions
Table 4-1 : Pool General Tab Fields
Field Name | Data Type | Notes | ||||||
Pool Name | String | Enter a unique, descriptive name for this pool. | ||||||
Disable the Pool | Boolean | Set this to "Yes" to exclude this pool from the call routing process. | ||||||
Pool Rule | Rule | This control selects which Agents will be included in the Pool. You can add Pool Rules by clicking the Add Rule link. For each rule, choose a Routing Attribute by which you want to select Agents. In the adjacent Logic drop down, select the comparison operator to apply. Finally, in the Value field, type in the string or number this rule will use to compare to the Routing Attribute. For example, if you have an Attribute called "Training Level", and you only want Agents who have a score of 5 or higher to be in this Pool, you would create the following Rule:
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Sort Agents by | Rule | If you want your Agents ranked within a Pool by a particular Attribute, use this control to set up the sort logic. You can sort on one more Attributes, and you can sort in ascending or descending order. For example, let's say you have a Pool Rule that includes Agents who have a "Training Level" Attribute of 3 or higher, and a "Performance" Attribute that represents how well each Agent did last month, on a scale of 1 - 10. To give the better performing Agents first chance at an incoming call, you could sort on Performance in descending order. To reverse that and give more practice to your lower performing Agents, change the sort order to ascending. When you sort Agents in this way, those Agents appearing in the top of the sort will always be given preference for the next call. Lower ranked Agents will only receive a call when the higher ranked Agents are busy or offline. | ||||||
Dedicated For | This is an informational field only; you can't change this in the Edit Pools page. If this pool is associated with a Dedicated Room, that room name will appear here. If the words "Not Dedicated" appear, it means this Pool can be used by the General or other, non-dedicated call Rooms. Dedicated Rooms are a type of Line Group, part of the My Schedule Agent scheduling system. | |||||||
Weighting Attribute | Select | Determines the Routing Attribute to use when selecting Agents using the Weighted Random Shuffle method. | ||||||
Alert Waiting Agents | Select | The Phone Panel application has an "Alert Me" mode, whereby Agents can choose to remain idle, but not be given calls unless the number of calls in queue exceeds a preset level. If a Pool is set to "Alert Waiting Agents," then any Agents who are in Alert Me mode will be notified when calls to this Pool exceed the limit. They can then choose to go online and take calls until the threshold has been cleared. After that, the Agent will be returned to Alert Me mode. | ||||||
Pool Priority | Select | Not used. | ||||||
Ranking Attribute | Select | Not used. | ||||||
Comment | String | It's always a good idea to describe anything clever you've done, especially in the wee hours. You won't remember how brilliant you were in the morning. |