Effectively managing incoming conversations is crucial for providing timely and high-quality customer support. In BeDesk, workload management is handled at the Group level, allowing you to define precisely how conversations are routed to your agents. This ensures that customer inquiries are assigned efficiently, workloads are balanced, and your team operates at peak performance.
This article will guide you through the conversation assignment methods and queuing system available for your agent groups.
If you are not planning to use multiple groups, you can configure the built-in General group. All agents are part of this group automatically and all conversations are assigned to it, if no other group is specified.
The foundation of workload management in BeDesk is the Group. A group is a collection of agents that you can organize based on any criteria, such as:
Department: Sales, Support, Billing
Skill Set: Technical Support Level 1, Technical Support Level 2
Language: English Team, Spanish Team
Product Line: Product A Specialists, Product B Specialists
All conversation routing rules are configured within a specific group's settings page. To get started, navigate to Team > Groups from the left-hand sidebar.
BeDesk offers two primary methods for assigning new conversations to agents within a group: Auto assignment and Manual assignment.
Auto assignment is designed to distribute conversations automatically and evenly among your available agents. This method is ideal for most teams, especially those with high conversation volumes, as it minimizes customer wait times and ensures fair workload distribution.
A new conversation arrives in the group.
BeDesk automatically assigns it to an available agent who has their status set to "accepting conversations".
The system uses a round-robin logic to distribute conversations evenly, so each agent receives a similar number of conversations over time.
If all available agents have reached their maximum concurrent conversation limit, new conversations will be placed in a queue until an agent becomes available.
You can enable Ignore tickets during assignment option from admin > settings > tickets page to only count chats towards agent conversation limit.
Within the Auto assignment model, you can further refine your routing logic by designating agents as either Primary or Backup.
Primary agent: These are your front-line agents. BeDesk will always try to assign new conversations to an available Primary agent first.
Backup agent: These agents will only be assigned conversations if all Primary agents are unavailable (e.g., they are at their conversation limit, offline, or not accepting conversations).
This two-tiered system is perfect for scenarios where you have senior staff who should only be pulled into conversations when the primary team is overwhelmed, or for training new agents who should only handle overflow.
To configure this: Simply use the "Conversation priority" dropdown next to each agent's name in the group settings to set them as Primary agent or Backup agent.
Manual assignment provides a more flexible, hands-on approach. Instead of the system assigning conversations automatically, agents can pick and choose which conversations to handle from the queue.
A new conversation arrives in the group.
All agents in the group receive a notification about the new, unassigned conversation waiting in the queue.
The first agent who actively accepts or "picks up" the conversation will be assigned to it and can begin responding to the customer.
Specialized Knowledge: This method is excellent for teams where agents have unique specializations. An agent can see the customer's initial message and decide if they are the best person to handle that specific inquiry.
Low Volume Teams: For teams with a lower volume of incoming conversations, manual assignment can foster a sense of shared responsibility.
Agent Autonomy: It empowers agents to manage their own workload by pulling in new work as they complete existing tasks.
During your busiest hours, you may receive more incoming conversations than your available agents can handle at once. The BeDesk queuing system ensures that no customer is lost and that expectations are managed transparently.
A conversation is placed in the queue when all eligible agents in a group are at their conversation limit. This is most common when using the Auto assignment method.
Leaving customers in the dark creates frustration. BeDesk improves the waiting experience by providing real-time, helpful information. When a user's conversation enters the queue, they are immediately shown a message in the chat widget that includes:
Current position in the queue: This tells the user exactly where they are in line (e.g., "You are number 3 in the queue.").
Estimated waiting time: This provides a dynamically calculated time estimate for when they can expect to be connected with an agent (e.g., "Your estimated wait time is 5 minutes.").
BeDesk understands that not all customers have time to wait. To prevent lost conversations and provide maximum flexibility, customers in the queue are also given the option to enter their email address. After submitting their email, they can safely leave the chat or close the browser window. When an agent becomes available and responds to their message, the response will be automatically sent to the provided email address, with a link to chat window where they can resume the conversation. This ensures every inquiry is captured and answered, even during your busiest times.
Navigate to Team > Groups from the main menu.
Click on the group you wish to configure (e.g., "General").
Under the "Choose new conversation assignment method" section, select either Auto assignment or Manual assignment.
If you selected Auto assignment, you can set the Conversation priority for each agent in the list below.
Click the Save changes button in the top-right corner.
By thoughtfully configuring your group assignment methods, you can create a powerful and efficient workflow that reduces customer wait times, balances agent workload, and ultimately leads to a better support experience.