Routing & Automation
Part of Support workforce tools
Checking workload distribution across support channels
Compare arrivals, backlog, handling effort and qualified staffing across email, chat, phone and other support channels.
Check workload distribution by comparing incoming and waiting work in each channel with the qualified agent time available to handle it. Contact share alone is a weak allocation rule. A smaller phone or chat queue may need immediate cover, while a larger email queue may be worked across its response window and carry yesterday's backlog.
Compare channels on one sheet
For each channel, use a stated period, time zone and interval. Keep arrivals, work already open, estimated handling effort and available people separate. Add the response promise and required skills. A transferred call, a reopened ticket and a new email may all appear in contact counts while representing different work.
| Channel view | Question to ask |
|---|---|
| Arrivals | When does new work enter, and how variable is it? |
| Waiting work | What is already queued, and when is its next response due? |
| Handling effort | What time or productivity assumption is used? |
| Available capacity | Who is qualified and free after other assignments? |
| Customer outcome | Is the channel meeting its stated response promise? |
Compare counts with the time and urgency they create. For example, email might contribute most arrivals while chat produces the sharpest need for people in one staffed hour. Allocating agents by monthly contact share could then leave chat uncovered. This is a planning illustration, not a finding about a particular team.
Check how each tool groups work
Zendesk WFM workstreams can group ticket, chat and voice work by conditions. A ticket is counted each time it enters a workstream, including a move or reopening. Summed workstream entries therefore need not equal distinct customer issues.
When using a staffing view, interpret any apparent deficit in light of its forecast and staffing assumptions.
Amazon Connect forecasts include inbound, transfer and callback contacts across voice, chat, tasks and email. Confirm whether transferred work belongs to both receiving teams' workload and keep the unit consistent when comparing it with another report.
Account for shared agents
Build a channel-by-interval view of scheduled people. For each person assigned across channels, state their primary queue, when they can switch and who watches the queue they leave. Do not count one agent as fully available in two places at once. A configured chat-concurrency setting is an input to a staffing model, not a guarantee that every combination of conversations is workable.
Include breaks, meetings, training and unplanned absence. A balanced daily total can conceal a short period without a qualified person. If a channel relies on backup, identify who activates it and under what condition.
Decide what can move
When a gap appears, first confirm classification, backlog age, roster status and the response target. Then choose an action suited to the work. A qualified person may move to a live queue; an email backlog may receive a later protected work block if its deadlines allow. Record what work was displaced and who owns it.
Review the result against the customer promise as well as the workload view. Moving someone may reduce one queue while another ages. Keep the before-and-after channel view and any unmet work so the next roster reflects the effect.
