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Lab 4 - Attributes and Skills based routing

Please submit the form below with your Attendee or pod ID. All configuration entries in the lab guide will be renamed to include your pod ID.




Learning Objectives

Learn about skills based routing (sometimes referred to as attribute based routing) and how it helps match the caller and the agent

The common caller experience

Imagine that you are an above average spending customer with a business. You've used their products and services for a number of years, but now need some assistance. It is natural to think "With the relationship I have with the business, I deserve nothing but the best. I want someone that can understand what I need and resolve any problem I have"

You call the contact center hoping to be prioritized and provided special treatment but think "I hope I get to speak to someone that doesn't keep me on the phone for too long trying to understand what they can do to help me".

The experience of the customer service representative (agent)

The agent receives your call and quickly realize that your question is beyond the area of their expertise. They fear "Uh oh, I've asked many clarifying questions already and I am not the best fit for this issue. I may have to ask them more questions or send this call to someone else."

Both the customer and the agent are left wanting a better experience. They both feel like they deserve better.

Skills-based routing

With SBR, the solution can be configured to "know" who the caller is, what their relationship is worth and match them with the agent that has the right expertise (skills) to handle them. For the customer this is a very pleasant situation that started off by needing to call in, no one likes that. For the agent, the ability to solve a problem feels empowering.

Some immediate benefits of SBR

There is no need to create multiple queues for every possible combination of customer query. For example: English product 1 regular, Spanish product 1 regular, English product 1 premium, Spanish product 1 premium, Spanish product 1, English service 1, Spanish service 1 etc. You get the idea.

Instead, we could have one smart system that matches each call to the right agent based on the skills requested. Its simpler, faster, and it frees the administrator from managing an overwhelming number of queues. One queue, many possibilities

Create Skills Based Queue

Navigate to CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE - Queues and click Create Queue

Create a new queue SBR_TechSupport_attendeeID

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Under Call Distribution create the groups of teams like before

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Keep the rest of the settings like below and click Create

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Create skill definitions

We will now create skill definitions, which are attributes which the caller requires, and the agent should possess to service the interaction.

Webex Contact Center offers four types of skill definition.

  1. Text: A free-form text skill that must be matched exactly. For example, you might define a skill named Extension that will let you route a call to a specific agent’s extension number based on digits entered by the caller in response to a prompt. The text value can include up to 40 characters, including spaces.
  2. Proficiency: Can have a value ranging from 0 to 10 that represents the agent’s level of expertise in the skill. For example, you might define a skill for each language that your agents speak.
  3. Boolean: Can have the value of True or False to indicate whether the agent has the skill. For example, you might define a skill named Premier Service to ensure that your most valuable customers get the best service. Your most experienced agents can be assigned a value of True, and your least experienced agents can be assigned a value of False.
  4. Enum: A named set of predefined values. For example, a skill named Line of Business might have a set of three values: Sales, Service, and Billing. Each value can include up to 20 characters, including spaces.

For this exercise, we will create 3 skill definitions:

  1. CustService: To indicate the level of service which the caller requires.
  2. Mobile: This will indicate the product proficiency.
  3. Broadband: This will indicate the product proficiency.

Create the skill definitions under the USER MANAGEMENT - Skill Definitions

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Create Skill Profiles

A skill profile is like a set of qualifications an agent needs for specific tasks. For example, for premium customers, you want senior agents who can access customer contracts and have top-notch customer service skills. These agents are chosen because they can provide the best experience for premium callers. You assign this set of skills to ensure the right agents handle the right customers.

For this exercise, we will create three skill profiles:

  1. Premium Care (L3) Profile: For the most senior agents (L3), who handle premium customers and can handle multiple product lines. [CustService = 10, Mobile =10, Broadband =10]
  2. Advanced Support (L2) Profile: For mid-level agents (L2), who address more advanced but not top-tier queries [CustService = 5, Mobile =5, Broadband =5]
  3. Basic Assist (L1) Profile: Basic Assist (L1) Profile – For entry-level agents (L1), handling routine or simple customer inquiries. [CustService = 1, Mobile =1, Broadband =1]

Tip

Use your browser search (Control+F) to search and locate your attendee ID when configuring skill profiles

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Assign skill profiles to agents

Under USER MANAGEMENT - Contact center Users locate AgentattendeeID. Under Agent Settings assign the attendeeID_PremiumCareL3Profile

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Similarly, assign attendeeID_AdvancedSupportL2Profile to AgentattendeeID.2 and attendeeID_BasicAssistL1Profile to AgentattendeeID.3 (Agent 3 is optional)

Agent Skill Profile
AgentattendeeID attendeeID_PremiumCareL3Profile
AgentattendeeID.2 attendeeID_AdvancedSupportL2Profile
AgentattendeeID.3 (optional) attendeeID_BasicAssistL1Profile

Configuring the Voice flow

Under CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE - Flows Look for MainFlow_attendeeID

Login Agent 1 and Agent 2 into the agent desktop. The example below is for attendee ID 069 (Agent 3 is optional)

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Like we did in the teams-based routing lab we need to update the flow to queue to the configuration you have built. See the nodes to update in the image below

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When you change the queue in the QueueContact node the skill conditions need to be reconfigured. We'll do them for the two nodes shown below.

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Optionally, you can edit the other two QueueContact nodes to reflect the correct skills for the Broadband skill. We'll skip this in the interest of time.

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Option 2 (skills based routing) will take you to another menu option to choose if you would like support for Mobile Service or Broadband. For this lab, we will choose Mobile service (Option 1)

The Condition node that follows will check your ANI and if matched will provide a premium routing to the caller. For the sake of this exercise, you can edit the Flow and replace the number in the Condition node for the Mobile service flow with the number you are calling from

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If a match is found, then you, the caller will be sent to Agent 1, who takes care of premium customers. If you were to change the number in the condition node and repeat the test, you will notice that the caller is redirected to Agent 2 who has a L2 profile.

Call from Service category Menu option chosen skill assignment
ANI recognized Premium 1 - Mobile Service Customer service >= 10, Mobile >= 10
ANI NOT recognized not premium 1 - Mobile Service Customer service >=5, Mobile >= 5

Let's make some test calls

Login Agent and Agent 2 and set them in "Available" state

Make a call to the EP DN for your lab and pick option 2 for Skills based routing. Then choose Option 1 for Mobile.

When the Condition node matches the calling ANI it will route the call to the Agent that has skill level of 10. The contact will go to the best available agent.

Note

You have already created reports in the previous labs. Edit the report and add the SBR queue you created in the queue filter

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Remember to use them to view your results. While the call is waiting in queue, check the report to review the skill requirement of the caller

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Note

We were able to offer differentiated service even though the contacts were all placed in the same queue. This is because the categorization is done at a call level by identifying the service it needs through the attributes that are associated with the call. There is no need to create multiple queues for every combination of caller requirement like we did with the Teams based routing example (TechSupport East and TechSupport West queues)

This simple scenario illustrates some key concepts

  1. Right Agent for every Call: Skills-Based Routing (SBR) ensures every caller is connected to an agent who knows exactly how to help.
  2. No More Complex Queues: SBR eliminates the need for creating multiple queues for different customer and product combinations.
  3. Faster Resolution, Happier Customers: By matching calls based on expertise, SBR boosts customer satisfaction and improves agent efficiency.

Are your premium customers guaranteed the best possible service every single time? What if the queues are long and the desired service level has been missed for that caller? We can use past metrics to provide a differentiated experience when they call the next time. Let's explore how this can be accomplished in the next section