Assigning interaction to previous handling agent

Sometimes, it may be useful to assign an interaction from a specific contact to the agent who most recently handled a completed interaction with the same contact. This agent is called the previous handling agent.

If enabled for your account, at the end of an interaction in Vonage Contact Center (VCC), the previous handling agent's ID is saved along with the contact's address (phone number, email, and so on) and the queue related to that interaction. The ID is saved for 60 days.

When a new interaction arrives at VCC, the Previous Handling Agent ID data source is populated with the saved ID of the previous handling agent.

The interaction plan can use the data source in two ways to assign the interaction to the previous handling agent:

• In the Universal Contact Distributor (UCD) applet. If Prefer last handling agent setting is turned on, the applet will look for the Previous Handling Agent ID for the contact's address.
  

  • If the queue related to the Previous Handling Agent ID matches the current queue, the applet will assign the interaction to that agent.
    
  • If the Previous Handling Agent ID isn't related to a queue (the previous interaction with this contact was outbound and therefore had no queue information), the applet will assign the interaction to the agent.
    
  • If the Previous Handling Agent ID is related to a different queue, the applet won't assign the interaction to that agent and will route the interaction according to other settings in the interaction plan.

  If there is a Skill Tagger applet configured in the interaction plan with personal queue settings, the Skill Tagger applet settings override the Prefer last handling agent settings.

• In the Skill Tagger applet. The Skill Tagger applet can use the Previous Handling Agent ID to identify the agent that the interaction should be assigned to.

Assigning an interaction to the previous handling agent using a Skill Tagger applet

To use a Skill Tagger to assign an interaction to the previous handling agent, create the applet and configure the applet to assign interactions to specific agents. For information, see Setting up personal queues. Note that you don't need to create a data source for the ID of the target — instead select the Previous Handling Agent ID data source in Agent Id in the Personal Queue Data Sources section.

Assigning an interaction to the previous handling agent using a UCD applet

To use a UCD applet to assign an interaction to the previous handling agent, create an ACD applet in skills-based routing mode — the ACD applet becomes a UCD applet — and configure the applet to prefer last handling agent. In the Routing section, click to select Prefer last handling agent. Configure the rest of the sections as required. For information about the other fields in the applet, see Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) or Universal Contact Distributor (UCD) applet.