Automatic assignment helps you manage high chat volumes by automatically routing new conversations to your agents. Each team can use a different assignment method depending on whether the goal is equal distribution or faster responses.
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How to set up automatic assignment
You can activate this function from the settings of your account, under the "Assignment rules" tab:
Once automatic assignment is enabled, you can decide to exclude team members from the incoming chat assignment.
In addition, you can decide to include (or exclude) agents from automatic assignment based on their "status" (online / offline). For more information on how agent status works, click here.
Finally, it is possible, in case you have activated the option to assign new chats only to available agents (the second option of the list must be deactivated as in the screenshot below), you will be allowed to activate a last option which will allow to automatically reassign to an available agent a previously closed chat that is reopened by a new message from the customer, when the agent to which it was previously assigned is unavailable.
Assignment methods
Callbell offers three assignment methods. Each team can use a different one.
Round-robin assignment
The Round-Robin system distributes conversations equitably among all available agents.
How it works:
A new conversation arrives
Callbell assigns it to the next available agent in sequence
Each new conversation goes to the next agent in line
When the last agent is reached, the cycle starts again
All agents available receive a similar number of new conversations
Example
With Agents A, B, and C available:
Conversation 1 → Agent A
Conversation 2 → Agent B
Conversation 3 → Agent C
-
Conversation 4 → Agent A
Smart assignment
Smart assignment focuses on balancing agent workload based on the number of open conversations per agent.
Instead of following a fixed order, Callbell:
Checks how many open conversations each agent has
Assigns the new conversation to the agent with the fewest conversations
If multiple agents are tied, one is selected randomly
All agents available have a similar number of open chats
Example
Agent A: 10 conversations
Agent B: 6 conversations
Agent C: 8 conversations
The next 2 conversations will be assigned first to Agent B, until workloads are more balanced.
Legacy Round-robin assignment
Legacy Round-robin is an older version of automatic assignment.
While it aims to distribute conversations evenly, it can behave inconsistently when:
Conversations are moved between teams
Agents become unavailable and return later
Because of this, assignments may not be equally distributed.
This method still exists for some older accounts, but it is being gradually replaced, and we recommend using either the new Round-robin or smart method.