Department routing is not working correctly in chat

I am having issues with chat department routing

Department routing is active in Zendesk Chat but does not route chats correctly.

Chats route to the wrong agents and wrong departments.

Chats route to offline agents.

Chats do not route to a department when they should.

Resolution steps

Note: This article applies to accounts using live chat in Agent Workspace. To route conversations using messaging, see the article: Routing messaging tickets and notifications.

To verify the issue is not caused by online status

The routing issue can occur because of a department's offline status. When you route chats with triggers, the chat goes to the department specified in the trigger even if that department is offline. This can cause lost chats.

To verify the pre-chat form works correctly

If you use the pre-chat form to allow customers to choose a department, make sure you activate the pre-chat form and that it works correctly in the account. Also, make sure the department option is not hidden on the pre-chat form. For more information, see Can I hide the department field on the pre-chat form?.

To verify the trigger setup

If you use a trigger to route chats to departments, make sure you use the correct department condition in the trigger.

When you use the Set visitor department action in a Chat trigger, make sure Run trigger is set to When a visitor has loaded the chat widget. Department routing does not work if Run trigger is set to When a visitor requests a chat or When a chat message is sent. See the image below for an example:

If a proactive chat trigger starts the chat instead of the visitor, this bypasses other routing triggers. In this case, the chat routes to any available agent regardless of the department. If you want chats that start with a proactive message to route correctly, make sure proactive chat triggers include the Set visitor department action.

Note: The Set visitor department action must be above the Send message to visitor action. The visitor department can only set the chat department before a chat starts.