Creating and managing capacity rules

Building a capacity rule, applying it to the right people, and checking afterwards that it does what you meant.

Building a capacity rule, applying it to the right people, and checking afterwards that it does what you meant.

Create a rule

1. Open Admin Center, then People, then the capacity rules.
2. Add a rule and name it after who it is for.
3. Set a limit per channel: email, messaging, calls.
4. Assign it to agents or groups.
5. Save.

Everyone needs one

An agent not covered by any rule has no limit, and routing will keep giving them work. In a team where most people have a rule and one does not, that person quietly receives far more than anyone else.

A default rule covering everybody, with specific rules layered on top, avoids that entirely.

Which rule applies

Where an agent could match several, one wins. Check which, on a real agent, rather than assuming. Zendesk shows the agents assigned to each rule, which is the quickest way to find someone covered twice or not at all.

Check it after a week

Two questions, both answerable from the queues dashboard and the agent activity page.

• Are agents sitting at their limit while work waits? The limit may be too low, or people are not closing things.
• Is anyone far above what others carry? Usually a missing rule.

Adjust with the team, not at them

Capacity is a statement about how much work a person should hold. Setting it without asking produces a number that is either resented or ignored, and agents know their own throughput better than a dashboard does.

See also

• Capacity rules to balance the workload
• Why an agent receives no tickets
• Analysing agent state and activity