What is a Queue?
A Queue is simply a shared inbox where new incoming messages route. You can have multiple channels routing to a single queue.
When a new message routes to the queue, it is unassigned until one of your designated operators (operator definition below) takes it from the queue. When a user takes a message from a queue, that user becomes the owner of the conversation.
Navigate to the queues section by first heading the gear icon in the bottom left hand side of the screen and then selecting the queues tile.
This view allows you to see all of your queues. Scroll up and down or use the search bar to find the queue you are looking for.
You’ll notice that under each queue title, it shows how many conversations are currently waiting in the queue. Underneath, you will notice how many operators are watching for incoming messages. As you can see, if you have less than 2 operators assigned to a queue, you will see the yellow caution message.
Additionally, you will see what channels route to the queue.
Queue Status, Hours and Auto-Replies
Hit “view details” to adjust the queue status, queue hours and auto-replies.
The default status of your queue defaults “Auto”. This means that the queue is open during the specified hours of operation. Incoming messages that come in after those hours will receive the auto-reply.
For the auto status to work properly, be sure to add the hours you will have operators available and ready to take inbound messages in the queue.
Toggling the status to “Open” will mean that the queue is open 24/7 and that operators will be available to answer any inbound messages in a timely manner. Toggling the status to “closed” means that every inbound message will receive the auto-reply.
Closing your queue is helpful for holidays where the entire office will be closed and no one will be responding to incoming messages from clients. If you close the queue, make sure that your auto-reply reflects an appropriate message to your customers on when your team will be available to respond.
You can also add an open-auto reply by hitting the edit button. An open auto-reply sends a message every time an inbound message comes into the queue. For example, “Thanks for reaching out to Dunder Mifflin. A sales representative will be with you shortly”.
Finally, when a message is queued, it comes into your conversation inbox in a green bar. It will then turn yellow and then red as the message sits longer in the queue. The default is 10 minutes for yellow and 20 minutes for red, but you can adjust these to whatever time frame you’d like.
Queue Operators
To remove a user as an operator of the queue, just hit the trash icon. Doing this does not delete the user, just removes them as an operator of the queue.
To add additional users as operators, hit the “Add Another Operator” button.
Queue Sharing
The sharing tab allows you to specify the teams and individual users who can transfer to this queue.
This is helpful for organizations that have multiple departments such as Sales, Service, etc. If a messages comes into the main queue but pertains to a specific department, the user could transfer the message from the main queue to the sales queue so that the operators of that queue can handle the message.
Add or Delete a Queue
To add a new queue, hit “add queue” in the top right corner.
To delete a queue, click view details on the queue you want to delete and then hit the red “delete” button.
Taking Conversations from the Queue
Learn how to take conversations from the queue here.
- Questions? You can chat with Captivated Support via the left-hand menu or text Captivated Support at 317.316.3600