Things to consider when setting up Omni
Before diving into setup for Omni it is important to define how you intend to use it. Understanding this will let you decide what inbound routes, queues, flows and projects you need.
You will need an inbound route for each way into your omni environment. One for each number the customer might call, one for each email address they might send to, etc.
There are two factors which determine how many queues you need.
First, if you handle incoming calls, you will need a call queue, if you handle incoming messages, you will need a message channel queue. If you do both, you will need both a call and a message queue. The same message queue can handle emails, SMS, messenger, and webchat messages, so it is not required to have separate queues for each of them. However, having separate queues can make it easier to report independently on different channels.
Secondly, you will need separate queues for each type of agent you want to serve calls. This will depend on how you configure your service. When considering the number of types of agents you need, consider what skills or specialist knowledge are required to handle the calls. If all agents can take all calls, you only need one call queue.
For example, if you use LeadDesk for your accounting department, you might have one queue (the accounts team), two queues (accounts billable, accounts receivable) or three queues (billable, receivable, or general enquiries that all agents could serve).
Remember! For each team that handles calls and messages, you will need a call and at least one message queue.
Ideally, you should minimise the number of different projects you have. Different projects work with different lists of contacts, so if you have two separate lists of customers, it would be useful to have two projects. Additionally, when you send emails or SMS messages from Omni, the project determines what sender information the recipient sees. If you want customers to receive emails from different addresses for different situations, you will need multiple projects.
Case Study: Example company
To help describe this process, consider the case of Example Company.
- Example Company offers two levels of customer service: one level for their Gold subscribers, and one for all other customers.
- Both levels accept calls and emails, but Gold subscribers get to jump to the front of the line.
- Currently, all agents answer all calls, but Example would prefer that only experienced agents deal with the Gold service line.
- Example have existing separate phone numbers and email addresses for their general and Gold service.
Example will need:
- Four inbound routes, one for each phone number, one for each email address.
- Two call queues and two message queues (for emails). For the Gold service queues, they can set a skill required, so that only experienced agents will be offered calls or messages from them. The Gold service queues will also be given a higher priority, meaning they will be offered first.
- Two projects. When dealing with calls and messages, there will be different default contact lists: Gold subscribers for the Gold queues, and all customers for the general queues. When sending email replies, Gold service replies should come from the Gold service address. Either one of these factors would necessitate a separate project.
- All agents will be able to answer calls and messages from the general service queues, but the experienced agents get a skill to qualify for the Gold service queue.
The distinction between Gold and general customer service could be handled by flows, but Example prefers to keep the existing separate phone numbers and email addresses for now.