Support groups and work distribution

In short: A support group is a team of colleagues that can receive tickets, for example “Returns” or “Second line”. For each group you decide who is in it and how a ticket that a workflow gives to the group is distributed among the members. A ticket ends up with a group because a workflow puts it there or because a colleague chooses the group on the ticket.

Where to find this

Go to Organisation > Topics > Support groups. In the menu it is under the subheading Ticket triage. The page is called Support groups and capabilities (Organise agents into reusable teams and define which handling requirements each team can safely process.). At the top you choose the organisation. The list of groups is on the left, the form for the chosen group on the right.

Who: from the Organisation admin role. Support groups apply per organisation.

The Support groups and capabilities page with on the left the New support group button and the list of groups (name, agents, status and capability chips) and on the right the form with Group name, Description, Work distribution, Agents, Handling capabilities and the Group is active switch, menu Organisation > Topics > Support groups.

Creating a support group

1. Click New support group. An empty form appears on the right.
2. Fill in the fields (see the table below). Only Group name is required.
3. Click Save. You see Support group saved. and the group appears in the list on the left.

As long as there are no groups, the page shows No support groups have been created yet.

Work distribution

With both options only membership counts: aishaa does not check whether someone is signed in or working. A member who may no longer handle tickets or no longer has access to the organisation is skipped in the distribution. If the group has no member at all who may handle tickets, the ticket does get the group, but no colleague.

How a ticket ends up with a group

• With a workflow. The Update conversation step has the Team field. Choose the support group there. The group’s work distribution then chooses the colleague, unless you choose a colleague yourself in the For field. See Building blocks of a workflow and the examples in Workflow recipes.
• By hand. As soon as the organisation has at least one support group, the Support group field appears in the top bar of every ticket. A colleague chooses Unassigned or an active group there. See Assigning, support group, important and urgent.

If a ticket gets a different group, this is shown in the ticket’s timeline. In the ticket overview you see the group name with a group icon next to the ticket.

Triage rules used to distribute tickets over groups. aishaa has moved those rules into a workflow of the organisation’s own called Routing, in the same order and with the same fallback colleague. See What are workflows.

Handling capabilities

With Handling capabilities you record which sensitive or risky matters the team is authorised for. They are shown as chips next to the group in the list, so you can see at a glance what each team may do. There are eight capabilities:

aishaa does not give tickets to a group by itself based on these capabilities. If you want a certain kind of matter to go to a certain team, build that into a workflow: let the workflow decide what kind of matter it is and give the conversation to the right team with Update conversation.

Editing, deactivating or deleting a group

1. Click the group on the left. The form with the current values appears on the right.
2. Adjust the fields and click Save.

To take a group out of use temporarily, switch off Group is active. An inactive group:

• no longer receives tickets via a workflow; a workflow step that tries to give the conversation to an inactive group fails and follows the workflow’s error route;
• is greyed out in the Support group field of a ticket and can no longer be chosen by hand;
• remains on tickets that were already given to the group.

You delete a group with Delete below the form; this happens immediately, without a confirmation prompt. You see Support group deleted. A group that is named in a workflow of the account, in the published version or in the draft, cannot be deleted. You then see the message The support group is still used by a triage rule. First remove the group from that workflow, or set the group to inactive.

Good to know

• Just creating a group does not change who gets which tickets yet. For that you need a workflow or a colleague who chooses the group.
• If a colleague chooses a group on a ticket by hand, the ticket is not given to a member of the group. The work distribution only works with the Update conversation workflow step.
• There is no mailbox, filter or view per support group in the ticket overview. Group members see the tickets given to them via Assigned agent and Show only my tickets.
• A colleague can be in several groups.
• Two groups cannot have the same name; you then see A support group with this name already exists.
• If a member loses the Agent role or access to the organisation, remove them from the group to keep the list up to date; see Manage users.

Related

• Building blocks of a workflow
• Workflow recipes
• What are workflows
• Assigning, support group, important and urgent
• Manage users
• Roles and permissions