Routing messaging tickets and notifying agents

<body>
<div class="article-banners">
<div id="docs-wmp-link">
<a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5411234991258-plan" rel="noopener" target="_blank">What's my plan?</a>
</div>

<div class="article-banner" id="suite_all">
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<strong>All Suites</strong>
</td>
<td>Team, Growth, Professional, Enterprise, or Enterprise Plus</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>

</div>
<div id="docs-ai-summary">
<p id="docs-ai-summary-toggle">Verified AI summary <span id="up-triangle">◀</span><span id="down-triangle">▼</span></p>
<p id="docs-ai-summary-content">Learn how to route messaging tickets and notify agents effectively. Use ticket triggers and chat routing rules to direct tickets to specific agents or groups. Alternatively, employ omnichannel routing for a more comprehensive approach. Customize views to organize messaging tickets, ensuring agents can easily locate and manage them. Note that skills-based routing isn't available for messaging tickets.</p>
</div>

<div class="body">

<p class="p" dir="ltr">In Zendesk's messaging for Web Widget, mobile SDKs, and social channels, when a
customer requests assistance from a live agent during a conversation, a ticket is
created, and agents are notified that a request has been received.</p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">You can use ticket triggers to route the associated ticket to specific agents
or groups, then use the chat routing rules defined in your Chat dashboard to determine
which of those agents or groups are notified that a new conversation is waiting in the
queue. You can create views to organize tickets submitted through a messaging
channel.</p>
<p class="p">You can also route messaging tickets using omnichannel routing, instead of using ticket
triggers and chat routing rules as described in this article. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4409149119514" target="_blank">About omnichannel routing</a>.</p>
<div class="p" dir="ltr">
<div class="note note">
<span class="notetitle">Note:</span> Currently, skills-based routing is not available for messaging conversations or
tickets.</div>
</div>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">This article includes the following topics:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_hvd_fkt_lpb__ul_gjn_nbq_mpb">
<li class="li" dir="ltr"><a class="xref" href="#topic_jsz_qbq_mpb">Overview of the routing flow
in messaging </a></li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">
<a class="xref" href="#topic_lg5_qbq_mpb">Understanding what happens
to messaging requests by default</a>
</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">
<a class="xref" href="#topic_tn4_qbq_mpb">Using ticket triggers to
route messaging tickets</a>
</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">
<a class="xref" href="#topic_d33_qbq_mpb">Using Chat routing rules to
notify agents</a>
</li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_yhw_s4y_bvb">Using omnichannel routing to route messaging tickets</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_j41_gr2_npb">Routing messaging tickets to a
view</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title2" class="topic nested1" id="topic_jsz_qbq_mpb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title2">Overview of the routing flow in messaging</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">Before jumping into a discussion about routing incoming messaging requests, it’s
important to understand the elements involved and where they fall in a messaging
flow.</p>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title3" class="topic nested2" id="topic_tnr_vbq_mpb">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title3">Elements directly (and indirectly) controlling messaging ticket routing</h3>
<div class="body">
<p class="p" dir="ltr">There are three elements that directly control how a messaging ticket
is routed:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_tnr_vbq_mpb__ul_b4j_ybq_mpb">
<li class="li" dir="ltr">
<strong class="ph b">Ticket triggers</strong> are applied to the tickets created when a
messaging conversation is passed to an agent. They perform much like
triggers applied to tickets created via other channels, but you may need to
use them in other ways for messaging tickets.</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">
<strong class="ph b">Chat routing rules</strong> define how agents are informed that
there is a messaging ticket waiting in the queue. Specific agents or groups
can be notified, or all agents can see a broadcast notification. If a
Support trigger has routed the ticket to a specific agent or group of
agents, only agents assigned to the ticket will receive a notification.
Agents must click the notification to enter the conversation. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5020833543450" target="_blank">Setting up notification routing for live
chat and messaging</a> for more information.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Omnichannel routing </strong>allows you to direct tickets from multiple
channels, including messaging, to team members based on their availability
and capacity. On Professional and Enterprise plans, you can also route
tickets based on priority and skills. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4409149119514" target="_blank">About omnichannel routing</a> for more
information.</li>
</ul>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">Additionally, there are elements that do not directly control ticket
routing, but can be referenced by ticket triggers, or can otherwise impact how a
ticket is received by agents:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_tnr_vbq_mpb__ul_c4j_ybq_mpb">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Default messaging responses</strong> can include the collection of customer
details, which also uses custom ticket fields that can then be referenced in
ticket triggers. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4500737327258#topic_kzg_ync_gnb" target="_blank">Working with the default messaging
response</a>.</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">
<strong class="ph b">Messaging triggers</strong> can fire when a conversation is passed
to a live agent (via an agent transfer event), or when the customer enters a
comment in a messaging conversation with a live agent. An agent does not
have to be <em class="ph i">actively</em> participating in the conversation for these
triggers to fire, but the conversation must have been passed from the AI
agent to live agent control. Messaging triggers are often used for auto
responders, which can inform your customers that live agent assistance is
not currently available. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5973077601562" target="_blank">Understanding messaging
triggers</a>.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Transfer to agent events</strong> (Web Widget and mobile SDKs only) in any AI
agent configuration will hand off the conversation to a live agent. This
creates a ticket associated with that conversation. These events can be
preceded by the Ask for details step, which uses custom ticket fields to
collect information from customers that can be used when creating ticket
triggers. For more information on these events, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408836323738" target="_blank">Understanding the step types for AI agent
answers (Legacy)</a>. </li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title4" class="topic nested2" id="topic_abw_vbq_mpb">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title4">Sample messaging flow</h3>
<div class="body">
<div class="p">
<div class="div">
<p class="p" dir="ltr">The elements described above influence the routing workflow at
different points in the life cycle of a messaging conversation. It's
important to know when they come into play so you can configure your
routing workflow with confidence. In the example below, a messaging
conversation goes through a basic messaging workflow, and the elements
influencing the routing are highlighted in bold.</p>
<ol class="ol" id="topic_abw_vbq_mpb__ol_mdv_3cq_mpb">
<li class="li" dir="ltr">Customer begins a messaging conversation via your
messaging channel. For Web Widget and mobile SDKs, the AI agent is
the first responder for the conversation and interacts with the
customer based on the <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/8774095741466" target="_blank">AI agent's standard
responses</a>.</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">The customer indicates they are unable to self-solve their
issue in an <strong class="ph b">agent transfer event</strong> and requests help from a
live agent. The AI agent is removed as the first responder for the
conversation. </li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">A ticket associated with the conversation is created.
<strong class="ph b">Any chat messaging triggers for <em class="ph i">when a visitor requests a
chat</em> fire, and triggers with the condition<em class="ph i">Ticket | is
| Created </em>fire</strong>. </li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">An agent becomes the first responder for the conversation. </li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">Customer adds a comment to the conversation. <strong class="ph b">Any
messaging triggers for <em class="ph i">when a message is sent</em> fire</strong>. </li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">The associated ticket is added to the queue. <strong class="ph b">Messaging
routing rules fire, alerting agents to the presence of a new
conversation.</strong>
</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">An available agent accepts the ticket and enters the
conversation based on your selected routing method OR, if no agent
is available, the ticket remains unassigned and can be found in the
ticket views according to your view configurations. </li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">Once the customer’s issue is resolved, the ticket is
marked Solved. </li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">After a set period of time, an automation updates the
ticket status from Solved to Closed, which ends the associated
conversation as well. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408832151834#topic_myd_gdx_qf" target="_blank">Solving a ticket and
understanding how it is closed</a> for more information.</li>
</ol>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title5" class="topic nested1" id="topic_lg5_qbq_mpb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title5">Understanding what happens to messaging requests by default </h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p" dir="ltr">Using the out-of-the-box configurations for your <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408824263578#topic_hmy_2yr_2nb" target="_blank">AI agent</a>, <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408828984346" target="_blank">ticket triggers</a>, <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5973077601562" target="_blank">messaging triggers</a>, and <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5020833543450" target="_blank">messaging notification routing</a>, incoming requests for
agent assistance from the messaging channel have a simple, functional routing
process.</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_lg5_qbq_mpb__ul_r4g_vcq_mpb">
<li class="li" dir="ltr">Customers are handed off from the AI agent to the live agent, who
picks up the conversation in the Agent Workspace. No information is collected
through custom ticket fields. </li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">Tickets are not assigned to any agent or group, and appear in two
default views, <strong class="ph b">Unassigned tickets</strong> and <strong class="ph b">All unsolved tickets</strong>. </li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">A notification is broadcast to all agents, informing them that a
request has been received. </li>
<li class="li">If a ticket request remains unassigned in the queue for more than 10 minutes, it
is moved to the <strong class="ph b">Unassigned tickets</strong> view.</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title6" class="topic nested1" id="topic_tn4_qbq_mpb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title6">Using ticket triggers to route messaging tickets </h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">Ticket triggers allow you to automatically route tickets to specific agents or
groups. In messaging, you can use the following data as trigger conditions to
automatically route messaging tickets to specific agents or groups:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_tn4_qbq_mpb__ul_mhc_xq2_npb">
<li class="li" dir="ltr">
<strong class="ph b">Channel | is | Messaging</strong> set as the ticket submission channel,
to create routing rules that apply only to messaging tickets. If you do not
specify messaging as the channel, all incoming tickets will have this trigger
applied. Any triggers with other channels specified (email, for example) that do
not include messaging will not fire. </li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">
<strong class="ph b">Data collected via custom ticket fields</strong> as part of an <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408836323738#topic_i5r_grz_n5b" target="_blank">Ask for details event</a> created in the
legacy bot builder, or as part of the <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4500737327258#topic_kzg_ync_gnb" target="_blank">default messaging response</a>. This data
can include customer location, the nature of their issue, or any information you
want to gather. </li>
</ul>
<p class="p">There are three main parts to setting up this routing flow:</p>
<div class="p">
<ul class="ul" id="topic_tn4_qbq_mpb__ul_nhc_xq2_npb">
<li class="li">Creating a custom ticket field</li>
<li class="li">Adding the custom ticket field to your conversation flow</li>
<li class="li">Building a trigger to route your ticket</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title7" class="topic nested1" id="topic_d33_qbq_mpb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title7">Using Chat routing rules to notify agents </h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p" dir="ltr">Chat routing rules determine which agents, or groups of agents, are
notified that a messaging conversation has been received. Routing rules are set at
the account level, and applied to all brands associated with your account.</p>
<div class="p">
<div class="note important">
<span class="importanttitle">Important:</span> Messaging users <em class="ph i">must</em> make sure all Chat departments
are enabled for Chat for notification routing rules to work. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408894143898#topic_mfr_wyk_4fb" target="_blank">Creating and editing a Chat department</a>
for information on updating department settings.</div>
</div>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">There are two basic methods for notifying agents of incoming messaging
requests:</p>
<div class="p">
<ul class="ul" id="topic_d33_qbq_mpb__ul_hmz_42q_mpb">
<li class="li" dir="ltr">
<strong class="ph b">Broadcast</strong>, where all agents are notified of all incoming
requests, and agents self-assign these requests through the Agent Workspace.
<em class="ph i">This routing option is enabled by default</em>.</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">
<strong class="ph b">Assigned</strong>, where conversations are passed to specific online
agents or groups. </li>
</ul>
</div>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">One of these routing rules is applied at all times -- you cannot opt out of
routing rule selection. </p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">Chat routing rules are applied <em class="ph i">after</em> any ticket triggers fire. If
you are using a support trigger to route incoming messaging tickets to specific
agents, notifications are only sent to agents that are eligible to accept the
ticket. </p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_d33_qbq_mpb__ul_efl_r2q_mpb">
<li class="li" dir="ltr">
<strong class="ph b">If no specific agent or group is assigned the ticket</strong>, a
broadcast notification will be received by all messaging agents, and an assigned
notification will be received by the next eligible agent, <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5020833543450#topic_u3c_rrn_mpb" target="_blank">according to the assigned routing
rules</a>. </li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">
<strong class="ph b">If a specific agent or group is assigned the ticket</strong>, a
broadcast notification will be received by all messaging agents specified in the
trigger, and an assigned notification will be received for the specified agent,
or the next eligible agent in the group, <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5020833543450#topic_u3c_rrn_mpb" target="_blank">according to the assigned routing
rules</a>. </li>
</ul>
<div class="note note">
<span class="notetitle">Note:</span> Any chat routing settings configured <em class="ph i">before</em>
enabling
messaging are automatically applied to messaging routing.<p class="p" dir="ltr">Other chat
routing settings such as hybrid assignment and reassignment are
<em class="ph i">supported</em>.</p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">Skills-based routing is <em class="ph i">not supported</em>
for messaging conversations.</p>
For information on configuring basic routing
options, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5020833543450" target="_blank">Setting up automatic notification routing</a>.</div>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title8" class="topic nested1" id="topic_yhw_s4y_bvb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title8">Using omnichannel routing to route messaging tickets</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">With omnichannel routing, you can direct tickets from email, calls, and messaging to
agents based on their availability and capacity. On Professional and Enterprise
plans, tickets can also be routed based on priority and skills. This means your most
important tickets are assigned to the agents who are best equipped and available to
work on them.</p>
<p class="p">Before using omnichannel routing for messaging, consider the following:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_yhw_s4y_bvb__ul_v1w_mxg_lzb">
<li class="li">You can't activate omnichannel routing if you're using live chat.</li>
<li class="li">The Zendesk Agent Workspace must be activated to use omnichannel routing.</li>
<li class="li">When using omnichannel routing, tickets originating from a <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4409149119514#topic_psx_hxk_3yb" target="_blank">variety of native and social messaging
channels</a> are routed as "messaging" tickets.</li>
<li class="li">Omnichannel routing can be used in combination with ticket triggers to route
messaging tickets.</li>
<li class="li">Broadcast and hybrid modes for messaging aren't supported.</li>
<li class="li">On Professional and Enterprise plans, you can <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4828787357210" target="_blank">configure how inactive messages are
evaluated</a> for <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4776409839770" target="_blank">agent capacity</a>.</li>
<li class="li">See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4409149119514#topic_zlk_c3p_m5b" target="_blank">Requirements and limitations of omnichannel
routing</a> for a complete list of requirements and limitations.</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title9" class="topic nested1" id="topic_j41_gr2_npb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title9">Routing messaging tickets to a view</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p" dir="ltr">You can also route messaging tickets to a view, allowing admins and agents
to easily locate tickets submitted through the messaging channel. The Chat routing
rules will still apply to tickets routed to views. In the example screenshot below,
the view is also restricted to a messaging-specific agent group.</p>
<p class="p"><img class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_j41_gr2_npb__image_apb_fs2_npb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/messaging_view_ex.png" width="350"></p>
</div>
</div>
<script id="ai-summary-script">
//<![CDATA[
const ai_summary_style = document.createElement('style');
ai_summary_style.innerHTML = `#styled-article-body{padding:0 0 0}#article-body #docs-ai-summary{background-color:#f3f3f3;border:1px solid #d3d3d3;padding:10px 10px 6px;margin-bottom:16px}#article-body #docs-ai-summary #docs-ai-summary-toggle{font-size:.9em;font-weight:700;margin-bottom:4px;cursor:pointer;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center}#article-body #docs-ai-summary #docs-ai-summary-toggle #up-triangle{margin-left:auto;padding-right:10px;display:none}#article-body #docs-ai-summary #docs-ai-summary-toggle #down-triangle{margin-left:auto;padding-right:10px}#article-body #docs-ai-summary #docs-ai-summary-content{font-size:.9em;padding-left:25px;padding-right:25px;margin-bottom:12px}`;
document.head.appendChild(ai_summary_style);

const toggleAISummary = () => {
const summary = document.getElementById("docs-ai-summary-content");
const upTriangle = document.getElementById("up-triangle");
const downTriangle = document.getElementById("down-triangle");
if (summary.style.display === "none") {
summary.style.display = "block";
upTriangle.style.display = "none";
downTriangle.style.display = "inline";
} else {
summary.style.display = "none";
upTriangle.style.display = "inline";
downTriangle.style.display = "none";
}
};

document.getElementById("docs-ai-summary-toggle").addEventListener("click", toggleAISummary);
//]]>
</script>
</body>