The Different Ways You Can Route Chat (Olark Classic)
NOTE: This help article was written for our Olark Classic chat console. Some things may not apply, may have moved, or may look different. For up to date chat console documentation, click here.
There are two options for routing chats to your team. This setting can be modified from the Setup page.
All Agents
By default, all available agents will see each incoming chat requests. The agent that sends a reply first will be assigned the chat. This option may be best for small teams, where whoever is free can engage with the customer.
Once an agent has replied to the message all other available agents will see who has taken the chat. Agents not engaged in the chat can close the chat tab with the notification.
Round Robin
You can enable Round Robin so that each new incoming chat goes to only one available agent at a time on a rotating and availability basis. Round Robin is recommended for busy teams, so that visitors are automatically assigned a chat agent.
Round Robin will attempt to evenly distribute new inbound chats by attempting to assign each new chat to the agent who least recently received a chat. In the case that all agents log off and your site goes offline, we will reset the order in which chats are distributed. That is to say, if you do not offer 24/7 chat support, the Round Robin mechanism will reset each day. Due to how we distribute chats, there may be times where one of your agents seems to be getting more than the other online agents, but this will even itself over time.
Round Robin also provides your team the ability to set a max chat limit for your account. This will automatically set your agent to unavailable/offline when they reach the specified number of chats so that they do not get overwhelmed and can provide the best support possible.
Additional Routing Options: Agent Groups
The Groups feature allows you to assign visitors to specific agent groups, so their chats go to the correct group of agents on your website. You can use either chat routing option with agent groups. Take a look at https://www.olark.com/help/groups for more info.