Workflow: Replace the Out of Office app with omnichannel routing in Zendesk

Zendesk released the feature to reassign open tickets through omnichannel routing (OCR). This allows businesses to fully replace the Out of Office app. This transition offers improved agent availability management and more advanced routing capabilities. This article outlines a detailed comparison of Out of Office app features with omnichannel routing capabilities. It provides a step-by-step guide on how to transition from the Out of Office app to managing your agents' availability and their tickets with omnichannel routing. This workflow article includes the sections below:
Prerequisites
Why replace the Out of Office app?
Feature comparison: Out of Office app vs omnichannel routing
Replacing the Out of Office app with omnichannel routing
Best practices
Prerequisites
Zendesk Suite (Professional, Enterprise, or Enterprise Plus) or Support (Professional or Enterprise) plan
Omnichannel routing activated and configured
Custom agent statuses
Why replace the Out of Office app? The Out of Office app manages agent availability and ensures that tickets aren’t routed to agents who are away, as well as the reassignment of such agent's open tickets. However, omnichannel routing now provides support for:
Agent status management across channels, such as email, messaging, chat and voice
Automatic ticket routing based on availability and capacity
Real-time control and visibility over agent workloads
Native experience to manage agent’s workload and ticket reassignment
These capabilities render the Out of Office app redundant and make omnichannel routing a more scalable and native alternative. Feature comparison: Out of Office app vs omnichannel routing







Feature
Out of Office app
Omnichannel routing


Manually mark agents as out of office
✅

✅
through status change



Prevent the assignment of tickets to unavailable agents
✅

✅
doesn't block manual assignments



Integration with routing logic
❌
✅


Auto-assignment based on availability and capacity
❌
✅


Real-time visibility in Admin Center
❌
✅


Reporting capabilities
limited
full analytics in Explore


API support for custom workflows
❌
✅


Replacing the Out of Office app with omnichannel routing Below are the steps required to achieve this transition. Step 1: Define a custom unified agent status

Create a custom status called Out of Office

Configure the Channel routing for the Email, Messaging, and Talk channels to Offline. This prevents the assignment of tickets to agent when they are on this status.
Configure the Groups that can make use of this status
Click the Create agent status button to create this custom status

Step 2: Activate reassignment for reopened and open tickets
Edit your omnichannel routing configuration

Select Turn on reassignment for reopened tickets

Choose the tickets you want omnichannel to handle, such as Email or Messaging, and specify the Out of Office custom unified agent status as the required status
Select the Ticket priority that you want this applied to
Scroll down and select Auto-reassign open tickets

Choose the tickets you want omnichannel to handle, such as Email or Messaging, and specify the Out of Office custom unified agent status as the required status. Then, select the Ticket priority that you want this applied to. For our implementation, we applied this to all ticket priorities.
Scroll down and select Reassign tickets through queues, then click Save. Omnichannel routing will re-route reassigned tickets through queues.

Step 3: Train your agents to use the Out of Office unified agent status Ensure agents know how to set their own status and the implication of setting their status:
From the Zendesk Agent Workspace, agents can click their profile picture and choose the appropriate status
Status persists across sessions but can also be set automatically via API or business rules
Step 4: Deactivate and remove the Out of Office app Once OCR is fully configured and tested, deactivate and remove the Out of Office app. Best practices
Encourage agents to update their unified status at the start and end of each shift to maintain accurate availability data
Monitor the agent status logs to ensure alignment with expectations
Update internal documentation and notify your support team of the changeover
