Contact Center Please note that responsibility-based distribution is a Contact Center feature.
CONCEPTS ON THIS PAGE
To understand this concept behind Nimbus we need to define a few terms:
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Responsibility |
Enabled and tied to a skill category, e.g. knowledge about a product X or a certain language Y. Example: For Product X we defined various responsibility levels (First Call Responder, Tech Expert, Product Lead) |
| Responsibility Level |
Defined in a skill category. Allows to escalate the responsibility levels during an incoming call, as defined in the Distribution Policy assigned to the service. Example: For Product X we first let "First Call Responder" responsible users answer, then escalate to "Tech Experts" and "Product Lead". |
| Responsibility Profile |
A combination of both skill level and responsibility level. Multiple profiles can be assigned to users, allowing them to switch between various stages of responsibility. Example: Our support team has 3 profiles defined, each with different responsibility levels. During travel, they switch to the "Abroad" profile and are off duty or less responsible and get fewer calls. |
🔍 If you want to learn more about this concept - and skill and responsibility-based distribution in general - head over to the Distribution Order page.
After defining Skills and Responsibilities for Contact Center users, any service administrator can create multiple responsibility profiles which allow users to switch between their levels and duty states. Once skills are assigned, users can be pooled by Nimbus, selecting only those users that are sufficiently responsible and skilled to handle a specific task.
There are two standard profiles configured in Nimbus: On Duty and Off Duty. On Duty activates all skills of the user. Off Duty deactivates all skills of the user. Responsibility profiles activate a subset of the user's skills. Agents can use it as a switch to opt themselves in or out of services.
Good examples for the use of Responsibility Profiles are
- 1st and 2nd level support - Users with 1st level responsibility get the priority.
- Distinguishing between written and verbal communication - Users working timeboxed on written communication could have a profile "Text Only” where the skills for call modalities are deactivated.
- Switching profiles depending on the physical location of a person - Someone working in a department store could have a profile like “On the Ground Floor” or “In Store” where almost all of the skills are deactivated and the user only gets very urgent calls or calls explicitly intended to them.
- Switching between on-duty and off-duty profiles based on situation - Someone on a business trip or working while commuting could switch to an off-duty profile and therefore be excluded from skill-based routing.
Creating Responsibility Profiles
Responsibility profiles are part of the general configuration. Once created, a responsibility profile
- Only exists by its name and has no function until assigned to at least one user.
- Is also considered to be a Duty State (on duty / off duty).
💡 By default, responsibility profiles are on-duty profiles. You can change them to off-duty profiles disabling the toggle only when creating a new responsibility profile, but not when editing.
💡Custom off-duty profiles are treated the same as the system's default Off Duty profile.
TIPS TO GET STARTED
- Note that responsibility profiles follow the Organization Units (OU) rules. They can be either service-specific or put on the highest OU level to be available for company-wide use.
- Clearly name and reuse responsibility profiles when possible. Once defined, a profile can be individualized with Skills and Responsibilities for each user. Fewer profiles reduce configuration effort and misunderstandings in daily use.
- Think about your distribution needs. How many call escalation scenarios happen in your services? How large is your Nimbus Agent base?
SAFETY AGAINST DISRUPTIVE CHANGES
☝ Once you apply a responsibility profile on any user, it cannot be deleted. System profiles "Duty / Off Duty" are also protected against deletion, but may be renamed to meet your use case. → If you want to delete a responsibility profile, you need to manually remove the profile from all users.
☝Once created, it is not possible to change the duty profile (on or off duty) of a responsibility profile, as this would create mismatches in the Nimbus Reporting Model.
Applying and Using Responsibility Profiles
✅ Once your Responsibility Profiles were created it's time to put them to use. In the following we explain which steps are required for setup and how it affects your Contact Center users.
Assign the profile to a user
- Ensure that the user is Contact Center licensed so the "Profiles" and "Skills" tabs are shown.
- Head to the "Profiles" tab and add your newly created responsibility profiles
- You can define the "Default" profile and an "Active" one.
💡 Note that "Default" applies only as first profile for new Agents. It's also a fallback when any Administrator removes an "Active" profile currently used by an Agent.
💡 The "Active" profile changes as the user switches to a different one in the Frontend → See Step 3.
Define skills and responsibility levels
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Head over to the "Skills" Tab.
⮑ You will notice that each responsibility profile is now represented as an extra column -
Add one or several skills to that user.
⮑ Each skill will add a new row to the existing profiles. -
For each profile (column) you can now define the skill level and responsibility. Please note:
- Skills must be defined. The lowest skill level is selected by default.
-
Responsibility levels are optional.
💡 Disabling responsibility via the checkbox will exclude the user from any Distribution Policy where responsibilities are a requirement.
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Save your changes.
⮑ The user you just edited will immediately be able to select these new profiles.
Use your profiles in the Frontend Assistant
- Log in with the user you edited profiles for in the previous step.
- Click on the Assistant icon on the bottom left.
-
Switch between your responsibility profile. If any service requires the according skills and responsibilities met by your current profile, calls will now be distributed to you.
🔍 In Nimbus Frontend UI context these profiles are also referred to as Duty States since they directly influence the Duties and Responsibilites of an Agent.
NEXT STEPS
Defining, Assigning and toggling between your responsibility profiles will not show any effects unless you perform the following steps:
- Include the required skills and responsibility levels in your Distribution Policies. They will define the call escalation levels on your available user pool.
- Lastly, assign the distribution policy to the corresponding Contact Center Service. This is done in the individual Service Settings > "Distribution" tab. Note that this only works on services where the User assignment type is "Skill-based".
