Queues and Skill Assignment

Within Amazon Connect, Phone Calls and Amazon Connect delivered Chats and Tasks are delivered through Amazon Connect Queues with Routing Profiles determining which agents get delivered work from which queues. Symbee Connect Skill Queues are used to queue, route and deliver all work outside of Amazon Connect contacts to your agents.

Each configured Skill Queue is used to deliver a specific type of non-Amazon delivered work, known as the Task Type. The following lists the available task types:

Use the Skill Queues and User Skill Assignment screens to create and maintain your Symbee Connect Queues, and assign the work (tasks) delivered through those queues to your agents. Once Skill Queues are created, they are then associated in the various Symbee Connect Channel configuration screens to set which queues the inbound work from each respective channel gets delivered through.

For all Skill Queue types, the configuration allows you to control the behavior of Wrap (or After Contact Work time - ACW) at a queue level. This behavior can then be overridden at a user level if required. For example, you may not require an agent to have Wrap Time after they have worked an email but still allow them Wrap Time when working a chat. Or allow different Wrap Times based on the type of chat they are working (for example, a sales chat versus a technical support chat). Or you may decide to give a default of 20 seconds to your agents for Wrap of a chat, but then allow new agents coming out of training a little more time (example 60 seconds) to Wrap chats for their first few days. You would do this by setting the default Wrap Time at the Skill Queue level and then overriding the Wrap Time at a user level for your new agents when needed.

Importing Amazon Connect Queues into Symbee Connect

Out the box, Amazon Connect only allows Wrap Time (After Contact Work Time) to be controlled at a user level, there are no options provided with Amazon Connect to configured ACW time at a queue level, however this is often needed in the real world.

To cater for this, Symbee Connect allows you to Import your Amazon Connect Queue definitions into Symbee Connect for the purpose of defining Wrap and Work Code behavior at a Queue level. Note, an imported Amazon Connect Queue cannot be used within Symbee Connect Channel configuration screens for additional work delivery. The purpose of importing an Amazon Connect Queue is only to support configuration like Wrap, Work Code behavior and Chat Agent Welcome messages at a queue level.

Skill Queues

The Skill Queues screen has different behavior based on whether Connect Queue Integration Enabled is set in your Amazon Connect Integration company environment settings:

Note: To view the Queues defined in your Amazon Connect Instance here, enabling Connect Queue Integration in the Amazon Connect Integration settings screen also requires you to run the Amazon Connect Management CloudFormation.


Skill Queue Settings

The below describes the configuration settings for a Skill Queue. Note, not all settings are available if the Queue you are maintaining is a Queue imported from Amazon Connect.

Queue Definition

Skill Queue Code

Your unique identifier for this Skill Queue. Used in drop-down lists when assigning skills to users. Allowed characters: A-Z, numbers, hyphens, maximum length 50.

Display Name

The label this Skill Queue will appear as on a Customer Facing UI.

Skill Queue Description

Additional text describing this Skill Queue if needed.

Queue Type

The type of work delivered through this Skill Queue.

Queue State and Task Behavior

Use these settings to control the behavior of work delivered through the Skill Queue at a queue level. Some of these settings can also be overridden at a user level when needed. Refer to user administration for how to do this.

Queue State

Whether the queue is currently forced Open, forced Closed, or following an Operating Hours schedule.

Operating Hours Schedule

Which Operating Hours schedule to follow to determine Open and Closed. For further information about creating and modifying an Operating Hours Schedule, refer to the Hours of Operation Step by Step Guide.

Accept/Decline Timeout (seconds)

The number of seconds to allow the user to accept a task from this queue, before it is treated as a Missed Task (the Ring No Accept or RNA time).

Wrap (ACW) Enabled

Whether tasks from this queue should transition to Wrap when complete.

Auto Wrap Timeout (seconds)

The number of seconds to allow the user after communication with the customer is over, to complete after-contact work. Only considered if the above Wrap Enabled setting is enabled. A value of 0 (zero) indicates no automatic wrap - the user must end wrap manually.

Work Code Selection Required

If Work Codes are configured, whether Work Code selection by the user is required before completing tasks from this queue.

Preview and Progressive Specific Behavior

These settings are only relevant when the Queue Type is set to Preview Dial.

Preview Task Maximum Attempts

Only relevant for Preview queues. The maximum number of times a Preview task can be queued (or re-queued) for servicing by an agent within the context of a loaded Preview List.

Preview Task Default Attempt Interval

Only relevant for Preview queues. If the maximum number of attempts is more than 1, the default minimum time interval (in minutes) before a Preview task is re-queued after the previous attempt.

Progressive Behavior Enabled

Only relevant for Preview queues. Progressive behavior will attempt to automatically start dialing/calling the customer as soon as a Preview task has been delivered to a user and accepted. If enabled, upon accept, outbound dialing of the first valid listed phone number on the Preview task will automatically start, rather than the user manually clicking to begin an outbound call.

Progressive Delay (seconds)

If Progressive Behavior is enabled, this setting controls the optional delay (in seconds) before automatic dialing begins for a Preview task, after it has been delivered and accepted by the user. A value of 0 results in the progressive auto-dial starting immediately upon accept.

Progressive Cancelable

If Progressive Behavior is enabled, and a non-zero Progressive Delay is set, this setting controls whether the user is able to cancel before the auto-dial action begins during the Progressive Delay period.

These settings are only relevant for Queues being used to deliver chat conversation type work.

Initial Response Message (Closed)

The initial response message sent back to the customer when tasks arrive and the queue is currently closed. The token {QueueDisplayName} can optionally be used in the message text and will be replaced with the configured "Display Name" value above. If empty (blank), no message will be sent.

Agent Welcome Message

Only relevant for chat-type queues. The automatic first message sent back to the customer on behalf of the agent when a task from this queue is initially delivered to the agent. The token {UserName} can optionally be used in the message text and will be replaced with the Agent's configured "User Friendly Name" value. If empty (blank), no message will be sent.

Conversation Ended Message

Only relevant for chat-type queues. The message sent as a notification to parties that the conversation has been ended. If empty (blank), no message will be sent.


User Skill Assignment

Assign Skills for Symbee Connect delivered Tasks to your users here. To control delivery of Amazon Connect delivered voice calls, chats and tasks, refer to Routing Profiles within your Amazon Connect instance.

Symbee Connect chat-based endpoints (Webchat, SMS, Social) that are configured for delivery via the Symbee Connect engine (Provider = Symbee) are controlled here. Refer to your Amazon Connect Routing Profiles for delivery control of any chat-based endpoints configured to deliver through Amazon Connect (Provider = Amazon).

There are three options - Add Skill to Users, Remove Skill from Users, Bulk Skill Reassignment.

Add Skill to Selected Users

Use this action to assign a single Skill to one of more selected users. Use the list screen to check/select all the users to assign the selected skill to.

Skill to Add

Select which skill to be applied.

Skill Level

Skill Level indicates the user's proficiency at working the tasks delivered through the Skill Queue.

The higher the number, the better proficiency. For example, a user with skill level 10 will receive tasks from the queue before another user assigned to the same queue with a skill level of 5.

Additionally, if the same user is assigned multiple skills with different skill levels, the skill level affects priority of tasks assigned to them - tasks (if available) from higher skill level queues will be delivered before tasks from a lower skill level queue.

Remove Skill from Selected Users

Use this action to remove a single Skill from one of more selected users. Use the list screen to check/select all the users to remove the selected skill from.

Skill to Remove

Select the skill you want to remove from the user or users selected.

Bulk Skill Reassignment

Use this action to perform an assignment (which may include removal and/or add) of multiple skills to one of more selected users at the same time. Use the list screen to check/select all the users to apply the bulk skill assignment action to.

When using this action, any previously assigned Skills for all of the selected users will be removed and then replaced by the new selections you choose.

For example, selecting 5 users, and then selecting no Skills within this screen, will clear all current Skill assignments on the selected users. Selecting 5 users (that have previous skill assignments), and then selecting 3 Skills, will remove all previously assigned Skills from the 5 selected users and replace them with the 3 new Skill selections chosen.



User Skill Assignment (View Skill assignments by Skill)

A convenience view shows assignment of Symbee Connect Skills to users, but viewed by Skill Queue rather than the by user view shown in the User Skill Assignment screen.

Again, refer to your Routing Profiles in your Amazon Connect instance for assignment of Voice and Amazon-Chat delivered tasks.