Agent prioritization enables enterprise administrators and office managers to indicate which agents should be given priority when determining availability for a given context (subject, office and meeting type).

 The prioritization system relies is based on two main rules:

1. Within the context of a specific subject, office and meeting type, an agent can only be offered for a time slot if no time slots for a higher-ranking agent are available within a specific time window related to the agent's rank (the configured priority threshold for the rank above).
1. Three ranks exist: rank 1, rank 2 and rank 3. These are in descending order (i.e., rank 1 is the highest rank).
2. As there is no rank higher than rank 1, this implies that agents with rank 1 can always be offered.
3. The priority threshold for a rank is always set per combination of a specific subject and meeting type.
4. The priority threshold for a rank can be set on enterprise-level but can be overridden on office-level.
5. The rank 2 priority threshold should always be greater than or equal to zero days and the rank 3 priority threshold should always be greater than or equal to the rank 2 priority threshold.
2. An agent can never be offered if a higher-ranking agent is available for an earlier or the same time slot.

The system’s behavior can be illustrated using a few examples.

Given that now (the time on which a customer wants to see the availability) is Monday morning and that the following setup applies:

• Rank 1 priority threshold = 3 days
  → This should be interpreted as follows: Agents with rank 2 can only be offered if no time slots for agents with rank 1 are available within 3 days from now.
• Rank 2 priority threshold = 4 days
  → This should be interpreted as follows: Agents with rank 3 can only be offered if no time slots for agents with rank 1 or 2 are available within 4 days from now.

We consider three agents John (rank 1), Jane (rank 2) and Nick (rank 3).

Use the following legend when interpreting the timetables below:

John (rank 1) is available between now and 3 days so, based on the first rule, Jane (rank 2) and Nick (rank 3) cannot be offered.

→ Only John can be offered.

John (rank 1) is not available between now and 3 days so, based on the first rule, Jane (rank 2) can also be offered. Jane (rank 2) is available between now and 4 days so Nick (rank 3) cannot be offered.

→ Both John and Jane can be offered.

On Thursday morning and Friday afternoon both agents with rank 1, 2 and 3 can be offered. Based on the second rule, only agents with rank 1 will be offered. Only John will be offered for these time slots.

Based on the second rule, an agent with rank 2 cannot be offered on Thursday afternoon and Saturday afternoon because an earlier time slot is available for a higher-ranking agent. Jane will not be offered for this time slot.

John (rank 1) is not available between now and 3 days so, based on the first rule, Jane (rank 2) can also be offered. But Jane (rank 2) is also not available between now and 4 days so, again based on the first rule, Nick (rank 3) can also be offered.

→ Both John, Jane and Nick can be offered.

On Friday morning both agents with rank 2 and 3 can be offered. Based on the second rule, only agents with rank 2 will be offered. Only Jane will be offered for this time slot.

On Friday afternoon both agents with rank 1, 2 and 3 can be offered. Based on the second rule, only agents with rank 1 will be offered. Only John will be offered for this time slot.

On Saturday morning both agents with rank 1 and 3 can be offered. Based on the second rule, only agents with rank 1 will be offered. Only John will be offered for this time slot.

Based on the second rule, an agent with rank 3 cannot be offered on Saturday afternoon because an earlier time slot is available for a higher-ranking agent. Jane will not be offered for this time slot.

Disabling the system or limiting the use

Using only two ranks instead of all three is also possible. Just don’t assign the rank 3 to anyone and then the rank 2 priority threshold will not make any difference.

Not using the prioritization system at all is also possible. In this case, just set all ranks to rank 1 and/or set both the rank 2 priority threshold and rank 3 priority threshold to 0 days. If the agent prioritization feature is disabled, the ranks and priority thresholds won’t even be shown and the entire prioritization logic will be skipped.