Hello everyone!

Assignment rules in Zoho Desk provide an automated mechanism to distribute tickets among agents based on predefined criteria. This ensures a streamlined and efficient way to manage customer requests. 

Currently, there are two types of rules:

1.  Direct assignment: Tickets are assigned directly to specific agents based on predefined conditions. 
   
   
2. Round-Robin assignment: Tickets are distributed in a round-robin manner to ensure an equitable workload. Round-robin assignment is further divided into two types: 

What is a Sequential Assignment?

This method ensures that tickets are assigned in a sequential order. The sequence is determined by the order in which the agents are added during the configuration of the round-robin rule.  

Sequential assignment can be ideal for teams that have a handful of support agents or small organizations, and even start-ups. When your team is lean, it's crucial to distribute tickets in a way that optimizes efficiency and ensures quick resolution of customer issues, while maintaining a balanced workload for the support team. In such cases, sequential assignment works the best.

For example, to prioritize high-priority billing inquiries, it is essential to engage experienced team members. By employing sequential assignment, a systematic order can be maintained, directing tickets to senior team members before juniors. Hence, by establishing a round-robin pattern, senior members such as Amelia, Don, and James can be initially included. This sequential assignment process ensures that tickets are consistently assigned in the specified order: Amelia > Don > James.

How to ensure load balancing, backlogs, and offline agents? 

The following options can be applied in the Round-Robin Preferences menu to maintain balance in the sequential ticket assignment:

• Threshold limit: Agents will not receive new tickets if they reach the defined threshold. If the threshold is set to 10 tickets, then Don will be skipped and the next ticket will be assigned to James, and so on. 
  
  
• Backlog limit: The backlog limit is the maximum number of unresolved or pending tickets that an agent is allowed to have at any given time. Suppose the backlog limit is set to 10 tickets and if an agent, let's say, Don, already has 10 unresolved tickets, the system will refrain from assigning any new tickets to Don until he resolves some existing ones.
  
  
• Inclusion of offline agents: If certain agents within the queue are offline, tickets will be assigned to them as well.
  
  
  

Sequential assignment provides flexibility while ensuring incoming tickets are assigned in a prompt, organized way. The available options allow standardized assignment for various types of team structures.

This feature is now available for all users across DC.