Skill Priority-Based Call Routing

Reservation Sales > Accounts Settings > Skills

Depending on your account configuration you may not currently have Skill Based Priority Routing. This is often used for larger teams. If your Skills page displays like the image below you will need to work with your Customer Success Manager if you would like to enable this feature.

Overview of Skill Priorities

The skill priority-based calling routing tool allows clients to establish how calls associated with a particular skill will be prioritized and handled when multiple calls for various skills are holding in the queue (i.e. new
reservations, existing reservations, dining, spa, golf etc.). Priority can range from 1-100 with 100 as the highest priority for any skill.

Editing Skill Priorities in the Reservation Sales Suite

Anyone set with the user level access of Administrator can enter or adjust priorities for skills in the Reservation Sales Suite on the Account Settings > Skills page.

This tool provides an easy way to increase or decrease a skill’s ranking.

1. Priority – Move the arrows up or down to the desired priority for this skill. The higher the number, the higher the priority in which the call will be ranked. Highest priority skills are routed to agents first, and so on.
   1. First Period Seconds – After the selected number of seconds, the skilled call’s priority will change based on the value in the next column (First Period Increment).
2. First Period Increment – If the skilled call isn’t answered after the number of seconds specified in the previous column (First Period Seconds), this skill’s priority will incrementally increase by the value entered here.  Example: If your initial skill answer priority is 10, you can add a rule that if that skilled call is not answered within 10 seconds, the call’s priority will increase by 20, which escalates its priority to 30. In other words, after the first 10 seconds, increase the priority by 20. 
3. Additional Period Seconds – After the number of seconds entered in this column, the skilled call’s priority will change based on the value in the next column (Additional Period Increments).
4. Additional Period Increments – If the call isn’t answered after the additional number of seconds specified in the previous column (Additional Period Seconds), this skill’s priority will incrementally increase by the value entered here. Example: Continuing with the example above, if you increase the priority by 5 for every subsequent 10 seconds that the call goes unanswered, the new priority is 35 after the first 10 seconds and next 10 pass.
   Then, the priority will be 40 after another 10 seconds. The skill priority will continue to increase (by 5) after each additional 10 seconds, until either the call is answered or the priority reaches the maximum specified in the Maximum Priority field.
5. Maximum Priority – By entering a number in this field, the skill’s priority will continue to increase until it reaches the maximum skill priority. This skill will not exceed its maximum priority. Example: If you enter a value of 50 in the Maximum Priority field, the priority for this type of skilled call will not go any higher than that.

Note: A new call with this skill will enter the queue at the defined priority level. Routing for any skilled calls already in the queue will be immediately adjusted if its priority is modified, once the changes are
saved.

EXAMPLE: 

In this example we outline how three skills can be prioritized. As noted above, the higher the number, the higher the priority. The property in this example would like new reservations to take the highest priority (be answered before all other calls) for 60 seconds. If a call has been waiting for 60 seconds, that call will then be answered in the order in which it was received.

Further they would like Existing Reservations to be answered after New Reservations but before Spa reservations for the first 30 seconds. After 30 seconds, Existing Reservations and Spa calls will be answered in the order in which the calls were received. Both Existing and Spa will still only be answered after all New Reservations from 30 to 60 seconds.

For the first 30 seconds call skills have the following priority:

New Reservations Priority = 3

Existing Reservations Priority = 2

Spa Priority = 1

Note: Click Ctrl+ to zoom in if these images appear small for a better look at this table. 

During this first 30 seconds all new reservations take priority over any other call type. During this time any new reservation calls will be answered before Existing or Spa calls. Existing Reservations will be answered before Spa. After 30 seconds, Spa is increased in priority by 1. Spa's total priority becomes 2 while the priority of the other call types remains the same. 

From 30 to 60 seconds the calls have the following priority:

New Reservations Priority = 3

Existing Reservations Priority = 2

Spa Priority = 2

From 30 to 60 seconds New Reservation calls will still be answered before any other call types. The still have the highest priority at 3. However, Spa Calls now have the same priority as Existing Reservations. Spa calls and Existing Reservations will now be answered in the order in which the calls were received (Once all New Reservations are answered).

Finally, after 60 seconds both Existing Reservations and Spa priorities are incremented by 1. 

After 60 seconds the calls have the following priority:

New Reservations Priority = 3

Existing Reservations Priority = 3

Spa Priority = 3

Since all priorities are the same. After 60 seconds, all calls will be answered in the order they were received.

Note: The example above uses small numbers for simplicity. Please be aware that Priority can range from 1-100 with 100 as the highest priority for any skill.