Groups

Groups are the third level in the SmarterTrack structure. Each department is broken down into divisions called groups. For example, a support department may have Level 1 Support (less experienced support agents), Level 2 Support (more experienced support agents), and Support Management groups. Each group may have different permissions assigned to it, giving organizations the ability to assign agents within a single department varying levels of access to information. This section lists all of the groups that are currently available to your organization and provides administrators with the ability to add new groups and/or edit/delete existing groups.

To access this section, log into the management interface with an administrator account. Select Settings in the Navigator, then click on Groups in the navigation pane. Any groups associated to your company will load in the content pane.

In general, the following columns are available:

Checkbox - Use these boxes to select multiple departments. Departments must be selected before choosing an action from the toolbar.
Department - The department to which the group belongs.
Group Name - The name of the group.
Round Robin - A True/False indication of whether tickets are distributed automatically via round-robin distribution. If False, tickets will need to be manually taken from the queue. For an explanation of the two distribution methods, see Ticket Distribution Methods.
Agents - The number of agents assigned to the group.
Active Tickets - The number of active tickets within the group.
Active Live Chats - The number of active live chats within the group.

The following options are available in the content pane toolbar:

New - Creates a new group.
Edit - Allows the administrator to make changes to a group's settings.
Delete - Permanently deletes the selected group(s).

To view the settings for a specific group, simply double-click the group. Alternatively, you can select a group and click the Edit button in the content pane. The group settings will load in the content pane and the following tabs will be available:

Options

Department - The department to which the group belongs.
Group Name - The name given to the group.

Agents

This tab gives administrators the ability to add, edit, and delete agents from the group. To view or change the settings for a specific employee within the group, simply double-click the employee and the agent-group relationship settings will load in a modal window. To add an agent to the group, click the Add button. When you do, the following options will be available:

Agent - A dropdown where you select the name of the employee that is being added to the group.
Ticket Handling - Select the method of ticket distribution for this agent. If round-robin distribution is the desired ticket distribution method for this group, at least one agent needs to be assigned to a distribution group. Options include:
- Pull from Queue - By selecting this option, the agent will not receive tickets automatically for the group. The agent will still be a member of the group, so they will be able to see tickets for the group, receive transfers, cherry-pick tickets, etc. but they will not receive any tickets automatically. Instead, they'll have to take tickets from the queue, or take them from other agents. This setting is good for managers or agents-in-training who want to participate in the group but manually take/receive ticket assignments.
- Primary Group - Agents in the primary assignment group will be the first to automatically receive tickets via round-robin distribution. Agents in this group can include specialists for the group, senior agents or other "go to" individuals for the group.
- Secondary Group - Agents in the secondary group will receive automatic round-robin distributions only after the primary group has met their max ticket limit (either the overall or group-specific ticket limit). Secondary group members act as failover agents for the primary group. Agents in this group can include agents-in-training, part-time agents or others.
Max Tickets - The maximum number of new, active tickets an agent can have at a time. Waiting tickets that become active and follow-ups that become active do not count towards Max Ticket restrictions. Note: Setting a max tickets per agent means that there may still be tickets in the queue unless max ticket values for agents are adjusted based on ticket load. Tickets will only be distributed based on how quickly agents work.
Chat Handling - This option sets the distribution for live chats to agents within the group. Options include:
- Chat disabled - This option excluded the agent from live chat, so they will NOT receive any live chats.
- Pull from Queue - By selecting this option, the agent will not receive live chats automatically for the group. The agent will still be a member of the group, so they will be able to see live chats come in for the group, receive chat transfers, cherry-pick chats, etc. but they will not receive any live chats automatically. Instead, they'll have to take them from the queue. This setting is good for managers or agents-in-training who want to participate in the group but manually take/receive chat assignments.
- Primary Group - Agents in the primary assignment group will be the first to automatically receive live chats as they come in, via round-robin distribution. Agents in this group can include specialists for the group, senior agents or other "go to" individuals for the group.
- Secondary Group - Agents in the secondary group will receive automatic round-robin distribution of chats only after the primary group has met their max ticket limit (either the overall or group-specific ticket limit). Secondary group members act as failover agents for the primary group. Agents in this group can include agents-in-training, part-time agents or others.
Auto-Inactive - Enter the number of minutes after which an agent is marked as "Inactive" for the particular group. When an agent is inactive in a group, they cannot be assigned tickets, live chats and/or phone calls using SmarterTrack Communicator. (Agents can use Active Groups to go active or inactive in each group of which they are a member. Note: Check the enabled checkbox to enable this setting.
Hand-off on Auto-Inactive - Checking this box will automatically hand off any of an agent's active tickets to another agent if the agent is automatically made inactive in the group.
Automatically go active upon login - Checking this box will automatically make an agent's status active/available for any live chat or ticket groups they belong to after logging into the management interface. If unchecked, agents will need to manually set themselves as active across their various groups.

Editing / Removing Agents

Follow the steps below to edit an existing agent in a group:

From Groups, find the group you want to edit. Either double click it or select it and click Edit in the content pane toolbar.
Click the Agents tab. A list of all Agents currently assigned to the Group will display.
Select the agent you want to edit and either click the Edit button or double-click on the agent. The Agent-Group Relationship modal window opens.
The agent's name cannot be edited, but other areas can: Ticket/Chat Handling, Max Tickets, etc.
Once your changes are made, click OK in the modal.
Click Save in the content pane. If you do not click the save button, your changes will not be saved if you move off of this page.

To remove an Agent, select the Agent and click the Remove button.

Time Estimates

This tab gives administrators the ability to associate specific times with certain ticket and live chat tasks. Assigning ticket and live chat time estimates are helpful when using cost analysis reports. For a very basic example, knowing that an agent will take an average of 10 minutes working on a new ticket tells you that an agent should be able to get through 6 tickets an hour. In an 8-hour shift, that means 48 tickets total. When coupled with agent cost, that number tells you what your support costs would be for that agent for that number of tickets. Managers and business owners can then use that information when making decisions on the types of support to offer (live chat, tickets or both), whether to offer paid or free support, whether to increase costs of goods and/or services to account for support costs, etc. In addition, these estimates can be used to project when a department and/or group is at the point where another agent or two is required in order to handle the workload.

Ticket Created - The estimated number of minutes agents will spend creating a new ticket.
Ticket Transferred - The estimated number of minutes agents will work on a ticket that has been transferred to them.
Ticket Message In - The estimated number of minutes agents will spend working on a new ticket message.
Ticket Message Out - The estimated number of minutes agents will spend researching and replying to a ticket message.
Live Chat Started - The estimated number of minutes agents will spend starting a live chat.
Live Chat Transferred - The estimated number of minutes agents will chat with a customer that has been transferred to them.