Inhalt/Content
Introduction
Categories are the central element in the novomind iAGENT system. Among other things, they are used to control which types of different concerns exist and who is allowed to work on them. For simplified reporting, categories can also be assigned to so-called main categories.
When requests are received in the Mail module (asynchronous, digital communication), the content is analyzed by a complex semantic text analysis with a set of rules that can be set individually, and this determines a winning category that is stored on the request.
For processing, the system then picks out the members of the agent group to which the winning category is assigned. To select the appropriate agent, other routing rules such as privilleged routing or bundling, as well as language skills or location are taken into account (see supervisor manual).
Creating a category
To create a new category at least the following steps are necessary:
- Open the category list via Administration –> Master data –> Categories
- Click the New button to switch to the new category creation dialog
General
On the General tab you can enter the display name which will appear in the system, e.g. in reporting. The technical, internal name is automatically generated from this name and suggested. Afterwards, the internal name cannot be changed, whereas the display name can be changed.
- The fields Prio and Max can be ignored. They are only present to maintain backward compatibility on systems where prio-based routing is still enabled. As of iAGENT v10, service level based routing is enabled by default.
- If the category is also to be used for chats or claims, the corresponding checkmarks must be set.
- In the Description field, you can fill in what this category is intended for. The description is only visible in the recategorization dialog as a tooltip or for supervisors.
- If the category gets a Service Level (target response time) that differs from the standard or from the current tenant, this can be entered here.
- There is the possibility to show a small warning icon next to the category in the supervisor backlog if more than a certain number of requests are received within a period of time. This is configured via the next three fields.
- In the Mailagentsetting, certain workflows can be set specifically for requests of this category (e.g. release check).
- Visibility controls when the category should be offered for certain actions such as recategorization in the iAGENT system.
Agent Group
The next step is the Agent group tab. Here you can assign the new category to an agent group. In order to see who will be responsible for the processing of this category in the future, a list of the members of this group will be displayed immediately after the selection of the group.
Routing
On the Routing tab, additional assignment workflows can now be set or activated.
- Whether agents who are members of the assigned agent group get the mails delivered automatically (as soon as they have a free channel) can be defined in the first setting Distribute mails automatically. This check mark is automatically set by default when a new agent is created. Further settings for privileged routing and bundling follow.
- If requests from a category are to be answered automatically and thus closed, this must be set via the setting Answer mails automatically. If this option is activated, a template for the automatic reply must also be selected. Requests that enter the system with this setting activated and are automatically sorted into this category will then be answered automatically. However, if an agent manually re-categorizes a call into this category, it will not be answered automatically with the template. If this is desired, the serial answer in the template area must be used instead of the automatic answer on the category.
- In case that incoming requests should be forwarded directly to a fixed recipient automatically, the option Forward mails automatically can be activated and a recipient address can be stored. Whether the forwarded mails will be closed at the same time or not is controlled by the following checkbox Close mails automatically.
- In case of incoming out-of-office notifications or similar, it may be desired that incoming requests in this category are not even seen by an agent and should not be answered automatically. For these cases there is the option Automatically close mails. Incoming mails will then be automatically closed by the system without a reply.
Even if there are already requests in this category in the backlog, they will be automatically closed immediately if the checkmark is set on the category and saved. - In the Escalation and Notification section, an escalation category can be set with an expiration date. This causes a request from this category that has been in the system longer than specified to be automatically moved to another category. For example, if calls are to be handled by your own agents first but are to be placed in a category for an external service provider before the service level expires. Or if there are no more chat agents available for chat categories at one tenant, agents from the other tenant are automatically added as overflow. It is also possible to set that after a definable period of time a message can be sent to the inquirer (automatic interim message), e.g. with the information that the processing is not yet completed, but that one will get in touch within the next few days. This is to prevent the customer from sending another mail asking about the status of the processing, which would further increase the volume of incoming mail.
- A closing action can be used to specify that a copy of the reply should also be sent to another email address. This is useful if, for example, responses are also to be sent to an external CRM system and archived there.
Transaction codes
If transaction codes are to be used by the agents when completing queries in order to enable more precise statistical evaluations of the results, these can be selected here. Whether transaction codes must be used at the category is to be set on the General tab in the Mail agent settings area.
What exactly can be selected as a transaction code is completely up to you, it could be something like “First solution”, “Consultation open” or more specific things like “Article group x”, “Customer happy”, “TV show from 28.09.2021” to reduce the number of categories.
Individual settings
Individual settings can usually be neglected. Apps can store here, for example, the information they need at the categories.
Call Connector App
After saving the new category, additional tabs may be available. If Call Integration is active on the iAGENT system, this tab appears, on which a prefix can be specified for each category.
This prefix is transferred to the telephone system for outgoing calls, which then uses it to derive and set the outgoing phone number.
Further necessary configurations
Beside the configurations on the category mask itself, further configurations are necessary for a proper operation.
- Assignment of the new category to a possibly existing main category
- Via the main menu item Administration –> System –> Main categories it has to be checked if the new category has to be inserted below one or more main categories.
- The assignment of categories to tenants takes place via the supervisor group, below which the agent group is located which was entered on the category.
- Text modules and top text modules
- In order to display the required text module buttons on the editor in the iAGENT Desk also on requests of this category, the required text module groups must also be assigned to the new category.
- If top text modules are also to be used for the new category, this configuration must also be carried out. You can choose between a manual default of top text modules or an automatic determination of the most used text modules.
- Address book
- If, for example, the same email addresses are always to be used for external forwarding, it may be helpful to create the corresponding email addresses in the address book and assign them to this new category.
- Business hours
- If there are specific business hours for the new category, these must be assigned to the category via the business hours editing macros.
- Templates
- In order for the agents to receive a suitable response proposal when receiving calls in this category, the specific response template for this category must be assigned in the Templates area on the Categories tab. This template may also have to be created. Templates for e.g. serial replies, acknowledgements of receipt and interim notifications in various formats (TXT/HTML/optionally PDF) can also be selected here.
- In order to be able to select other templates manually in the editor, these would have to be selected below the main menu item Template category assignment and assigned to the new category. Templates that are not yet assigned to a category are automatically available on all categories.
- Adjustment of the knowledge base for automatic categorization into this category
- In order to automatically assign the appropriate queries to the new category when the mail is received, the knowledge base has to be adapted accordingly. Otherwise, the new category are only available for manual recategorization.
- Extend existing campaigns
- If automatic campaigns have been defined in the system, it is necessary to check whether requests for this new category should also participate in the campaign. The campaign has to be adapted accordingly.
- When used in Claim:
- Reasons – reasons are assigned to specific categories. If the new category is also to be used for the complaint management iAGENT Claim, then the required reasons should also be assigned to the new category.
- Roles – Roles of contacts on claims are also category-dependent. Therefore, a suitable reassignment must be made here as well.