Hi! As the person who oversees the Helpdesk, I actually vet and assign all incoming tickets, to ensure:

1. Tickets are equally distributed
2. Assignments are based on the agents center of expertise (it varies by module)

This way, the agents are not making the decisions, rather an unbiased party. 

Hope this helps!

Thanks @Suzi_O for sharing your experience. Do you find this slows things down at all using a manual approach vs automated?

@CRollogas You are welcome!

I would much prefer for the “vetting” process to be automated; however, I have not yet been able to find a way to do that based on ticket “weight” or category.

I'm not sure if it slows anything down, as I get alerts the minute a new ticket comes in, and am able to quickly assign them. I keep the ticket window open at all times, and can easily multitask while doing my other work.

Hello @CRollogas and @Suzi_O, did you happen to check out the automatic ticket assignment feature in the group settings? 

Because we do have the features that could help you in this case. 

Navigate to Admin → Group → Edit group and you can try the features here: 

If you choose to use the round-robin method, tickets would be assigned in a circular fashion to all agents who are online. Say you have Agent A, B, C added to group G1 online. When new tickets come in Group G1, this is how the tickets would be assigned. 

Agent A - Ticket 1, 4, 7

Agent B - Ticket 2, 5, 8

Agent C- Ticket 3, 6, 9

This ensures that the tickets are equally distributed and is not chosen based on the context. @CRollogas, do you think this feature would be helpful? You can indeed read through this documentation that entails the major use-case and how the process works.   

@Suzi_O, we also have the option where tickets are auto-assigned based on the skills of the agent. You can set up skills and assign them to the agent and set up the whole system to fit your use case. If you hadn’t had the chance to explore the feature, I’d suggest this article that has everything you need to test this out right away. 

Additionally, you can also glance through the load-based ticket assignment option which can ensure the load is equally distributed among your agents who are online. 

If you need any help in setting this up or if you have any further queries, you can always write to support@freshdesk.com and we’d love to help you as always. 

I hope this helps.   

One other point to consider - real-time coaching can be really valuable in situations like this. All of these ideas are great, so this would be in addition to whatever vetting you choose.

I saw one situation where a manager would simply approach after a ticket was closed and ask questions like “what made you select that one instead of (the more challenging) one?” “What expectations do you think this customer had?” and “Is there anything we can do to help your confidence in answering these types of queries?” It was a supportive way of finding out if the agent was avoiding situations because they felt they didn’t have the right skills or tools, which are resolvable issues! They created an environment where the team wanted to take on the challenges and it was empowering. 

Hope that’s helpful!