Routing is the set of rules a contact center uses to send each call, chat, email or text to the right place. The rules decide where each contact goes, which can be a menu, a queue, an agent or an outside destination such as voicemail. For a contact that joins a queue, they decide which agent takes it and, when more customers are waiting than agents are free, who is answered next.
\n","summary":"Routing is the set of rules a contact center uses to send each call, chat, email or text to the right place. It decides where each contact goes, which can be a menu, a queue, an agent or an outside destination, and for queued contacts it decides which agent takes them and which waiting customer is answered next. The rules start with the number dialed, the schedule and the IVR menu, and they can loosen the skill match as a customer's wait grows.","publishedAt":"2026-07-18T14:39:59.776","verifiedAt":"2026-09-14T00:00:00","editorialStatus":"APPROVED","lastReviewedAt":"2026-10-10T02:35:49.758","nextReviewDueAt":"2026-12-14T00:00:00","templateVersion":"v2","aliases":["How does call routing work in a contact center?","What is ACD routing?","How does a contact center decide which agent gets a call?","How do contact center queues and routing rules work together?","What is skills-based routing in a contact center?"],"confidenceScore":84,"confidenceLabel":"High","canonicalUrl":null},"contributor":{"id":"ec39deab-44fe-48d8-9029-fefe993ab85a","slug":"answer-stack","displayName":"AnswerStack","websiteUrl":null},"contributorOrganizationProfile":null,"contributorPerson":null,"sections":[{"id":"30606949-fc1b-4aa7-9813-6d2e751bee97","sectionKey":"before_the_queue","sectionType":"markdown_section","heading":"The decisions made before a contact reaches a queue","introMarkdown":"Routing starts before anyone hears hold music. The first rules read what the system already knows about a call, which is usually the number that was dialed and the time of day.\n\nXima, the platform behind Atlantech's [contact center service](https://www.atlantech.net/solutions/voice/atlantech-ccaas), gives one documented example. Every call enters one [Primary IVR](https://guide.xima.cloud/docs/routing-configuration-ivr-call-routing-methods), the top-level call flow. Conditions inside it check the dialed number and can send the call to a different menu, skill group, agent or outside number \"before the caller ever hears a prompt.\" Schedules are another condition a flow can check. Xima's [Time of Day profiles](https://guide.xima.cloud/docs/routing-configuration-time-of-day-profiles) cover business hours, lunch periods and after-hours coverage, and separate Holiday profiles handle closures. A call that arrives after closing can go to voicemail or an on-call team without ever joining the daytime queue.\n\nThen come the questions only the caller can answer. A menu asks them to press 1 for sales or 2 for billing, and the answer picks the queue.\n\nA lookup can replace some of those questions. Xima calls this a [data dip](https://guide.xima.cloud/docs/routing-configuration-data-dip-profiles). During the call, the IVR sends a value such as the caller's phone number to a configured external web service. That service searches a connected data source, such as a CRM, and returns fields about the customer. Xima's examples include an assigned representative, a language preference, VIP status and a region. The call flow can then branch on what came back, so a known customer skips part of the menu. A lookup rule inherits the mistakes in the record, though. If the language field is wrong, that customer lands in the wrong queue on every call whose flow branches on that field.\n\nWritten channels get the same treatment with different inputs. Xima's [email routing rules](https://guide.xima.cloud/docs/routing-configuration-email-routing) match keywords in the subject line or body and send the message to a skill group. The rules are checked in ranked order.\n\nEntry rules also need a default. Xima's guide to its older [Call Routing menu](https://guide.xima.cloud/docs/routing-configuration-call-routing) warns that no default skill is set out of the box, and that a call matching no rule \"is disconnected immediately unless a default skill is configured.\" Whatever platform you use, decide where an unmatched contact goes and place a test call to confirm it.","introHtml":"Routing starts before anyone hears hold music. The first rules read what the system already knows about a call, which is usually the number that was dialed and the time of day.
\nXima, the platform behind Atlantech's contact center service, gives one documented example. Every call enters one Primary IVR, the top-level call flow. Conditions inside it check the dialed number and can send the call to a different menu, skill group, agent or outside number "before the caller ever hears a prompt." Schedules are another condition a flow can check. Xima's Time of Day profiles cover business hours, lunch periods and after-hours coverage, and separate Holiday profiles handle closures. A call that arrives after closing can go to voicemail or an on-call team without ever joining the daytime queue.
\nThen come the questions only the caller can answer. A menu asks them to press 1 for sales or 2 for billing, and the answer picks the queue.
\nA lookup can replace some of those questions. Xima calls this a data dip. During the call, the IVR sends a value such as the caller's phone number to a configured external web service. That service searches a connected data source, such as a CRM, and returns fields about the customer. Xima's examples include an assigned representative, a language preference, VIP status and a region. The call flow can then branch on what came back, so a known customer skips part of the menu. A lookup rule inherits the mistakes in the record, though. If the language field is wrong, that customer lands in the wrong queue on every call whose flow branches on that field.
\nWritten channels get the same treatment with different inputs. Xima's email routing rules match keywords in the subject line or body and send the message to a skill group. The rules are checked in ranked order.
\nEntry rules also need a default. Xima's guide to its older Call Routing menu warns that no default skill is set out of the box, and that a call matching no rule "is disconnected immediately unless a default skill is configured." Whatever platform you use, decide where an unmatched contact goes and place a test call to confirm it.
\n","outroMarkdown":null,"outroHtml":null,"contentJson":{},"configJson":{},"noteMarkdown":null,"noteHtml":null,"sortOrder":10},{"id":"92b8390d-2f1c-40ac-9cad-f4262a5eb51d","sectionKey":"which_agent_takes_the_contact","sectionType":"markdown_section","heading":"Which agent takes the contact","introMarkdown":"Once a contact is in a queue, routing has to pick a person. Genesys Cloud's [ACD documentation](https://help.genesys.cloud/articles/genesys-cloud-acd-processing/) gives one example, which filters first and chooses second. It lists the agents who are on the queue, removes anyone who lacks the language or skill the contact requires, and picks from those who remain. If no qualified agent is left, the contact waits.\n\nAmazon Connect's [default](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/connect/latest/adminguide/about-routing.html) is simpler: the contact goes to the agent who has been available longest. Xima lets each skill group choose its own method. The methods themselves, such as longest idle, rotation and highest skill, belong to the [automatic call distributor](https://www.answerstack.io/q/what-is-an-acd-automatic-call-distributor), and we describe them there.\n\nGenesys Cloud also offers [predictive routing](https://help.genesys.cloud/articles/agent-selection-process/), which scores each available agent for the contact with a machine learning model and falls back to standard routing when three or fewer agents are available. Genesys recommends running its [comparison test](https://help.genesys.cloud/articles/test-predictive-routing-for-your-queues/) against your current method for at least two weeks.\n\nWhere the rules are stored differs by platform, which matters when you move from one to another. Genesys Cloud attaches a routing method to each queue. Amazon Connect attaches a [routing profile](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/connect/latest/adminguide/routing-profiles.html) to each agent, and the profile names the channels and queues that agent serves. A routing plan has to be rebuilt when you switch, because the settings don't map one to one.","introHtml":"Once a contact is in a queue, routing has to pick a person. Genesys Cloud's ACD documentation gives one example, which filters first and chooses second. It lists the agents who are on the queue, removes anyone who lacks the language or skill the contact requires, and picks from those who remain. If no qualified agent is left, the contact waits.
\nAmazon Connect's default is simpler: the contact goes to the agent who has been available longest. Xima lets each skill group choose its own method. The methods themselves, such as longest idle, rotation and highest skill, belong to the automatic call distributor, and we describe them there.
\nGenesys Cloud also offers predictive routing, which scores each available agent for the contact with a machine learning model and falls back to standard routing when three or fewer agents are available. Genesys recommends running its comparison test against your current method for at least two weeks.
\nWhere the rules are stored differs by platform, which matters when you move from one to another. Genesys Cloud attaches a routing method to each queue. Amazon Connect attaches a routing profile to each agent, and the profile names the channels and queues that agent serves. A routing plan has to be rebuilt when you switch, because the settings don't map one to one.
\n","outroMarkdown":null,"outroHtml":null,"contentJson":{},"configJson":{},"noteMarkdown":null,"noteHtml":null,"sortOrder":20},{"id":"75118f5a-b2b5-4477-b958-602b40cdac58","sectionKey":"which_customer_is_answered_next","sectionType":"markdown_section","heading":"Which customer is answered next","introMarkdown":"The opposite case comes up at busy times, when one agent comes free and several customers are waiting. In a [2002 survey of call center research](https://www.math.vu.nl/~koole/publications/2002aor/art.pdf), Ger Koole and Avishai Mandelbaum treat these as two separate rules. Agent selection covers how an arriving call picks among idle agents. Call selection covers how a free agent picks among waiting calls.\n\nGenesys Cloud and Amazon Connect both answer waiting contacts in arrival order by default. Priority is how a business overrides that order, and the two platforms attach it in different places.\n\nGenesys Cloud puts priority on the contact. Under its default scoring, each [priority point counts as one minute](https://help.genesys.cloud/articles/acd-evaluation-routing-methods/) of waiting, so the system treats a prioritized call as if it had arrived earlier. Suppose two calls are waiting for the same group of agents. Call A arrived at 10:00:00 with no priority, and call B arrived at 10:01:30 with a priority of 3. B is treated as though it arrived at 9:58:30, so B is answered first. Give B a priority of 1 and it is treated as a 10:00:30 arrival, which leaves A ahead.\n\nOne point is worth one minute, so it moves a caller ahead only of unprioritized callers who arrived less than a minute earlier. And raising everyone's priority changes nothing within a queue, because every call shifts by the same amount.\n\nAmazon Connect puts priority on the queue. In [its example](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/connect/latest/adminguide/concepts-routing-profiles-priority.html), a group of sales agents has the Sales queue at priority 1 and the Support queue at priority 2, so they take a Support contact only when no Sales contact is waiting. A second configuration adds a delay. With Support at priority 1 and a 30-second delay, a Support contact is treated as priority 1 once it has waited 30 seconds. Xima takes the queue approach too. Each skill group gets a [Skill Priority](https://guide.xima.cloud/docs/contact-center-manage-skills) from 0 to 10, which ranks the groups for an agent who is eligible for more than one.","introHtml":"The opposite case comes up at busy times, when one agent comes free and several customers are waiting. In a 2002 survey of call center research, Ger Koole and Avishai Mandelbaum treat these as two separate rules. Agent selection covers how an arriving call picks among idle agents. Call selection covers how a free agent picks among waiting calls.
\nGenesys Cloud and Amazon Connect both answer waiting contacts in arrival order by default. Priority is how a business overrides that order, and the two platforms attach it in different places.
\nGenesys Cloud puts priority on the contact. Under its default scoring, each priority point counts as one minute of waiting, so the system treats a prioritized call as if it had arrived earlier. Suppose two calls are waiting for the same group of agents. Call A arrived at 10:00:00 with no priority, and call B arrived at 10:01:30 with a priority of 3. B is treated as though it arrived at 9:58:30, so B is answered first. Give B a priority of 1 and it is treated as a 10:00:30 arrival, which leaves A ahead.
\nOne point is worth one minute, so it moves a caller ahead only of unprioritized callers who arrived less than a minute earlier. And raising everyone's priority changes nothing within a queue, because every call shifts by the same amount.
\nAmazon Connect puts priority on the queue. In its example, a group of sales agents has the Sales queue at priority 1 and the Support queue at priority 2, so they take a Support contact only when no Sales contact is waiting. A second configuration adds a delay. With Support at priority 1 and a 30-second delay, a Support contact is treated as priority 1 once it has waited 30 seconds. Xima takes the queue approach too. Each skill group gets a Skill Priority from 0 to 10, which ranks the groups for an agent who is eligible for more than one.
\n","outroMarkdown":null,"outroHtml":null,"contentJson":{},"configJson":{},"noteMarkdown":null,"noteHtml":null,"sortOrder":30},{"id":"6e01fdfa-3f0d-4a92-9262-72c3ed9dfc5e","sectionKey":"when_the_best_agent_is_busy","sectionType":"markdown_section","heading":"What routing does when the best agent is busy","introMarkdown":"Strict matching has a cost. If only your strongest billing agents may take billing calls, callers wait whenever those agents are busy, even while other agents sit idle. Xima and Genesys Cloud both let the match loosen as the wait grows.\n\nXima does this with [Availability Tiers](https://guide.xima.cloud/docs/contact-center-manage-skills-availability-tiers). The first tier applies the moment a call arrives and sets a minimum skill level. Later tiers lower the minimum after a set time in queue. Suppose a billing skill group starts at level 8 and adds a second tier at level 5 after two minutes. A call is offered only to agents at level 8 or higher for the first two minutes, and after that to anyone at level 5 or above. The call never leaves the skill group, so the caller's position in line and estimated wait time remain consistent.\n\nGenesys Cloud calls its version [bullseye routing](https://help.genesys.cloud/articles/bullseye-routing-overview/). Agents are arranged in rings. If nobody in the inner ring is free within a set time, the pool widens to the next ring, either by admitting agents with lower ratings or by dropping one of the required skills. Agents in the inner rings keep first claim if they come free during the wait. Genesys gives the reason plainly: strict skill enforcement hurts a queue's service level and abandon rate when the agents who are free don't hold every required skill.\n\nHow long to wait before loosening is a judgment the business has to make. Koole and Mandelbaum observed in 2002 that skill-based routing comes \"as a list of options that managers can choose from, but without any guidelines to accompany them.\" Vendor documentation still explains what each setting does and leaves the values to you. We'd start with a simple rule, watch wait times and abandoned calls for a few weeks, and add tiers only where the numbers show a problem.","introHtml":"Strict matching has a cost. If only your strongest billing agents may take billing calls, callers wait whenever those agents are busy, even while other agents sit idle. Xima and Genesys Cloud both let the match loosen as the wait grows.
\nXima does this with Availability Tiers. The first tier applies the moment a call arrives and sets a minimum skill level. Later tiers lower the minimum after a set time in queue. Suppose a billing skill group starts at level 8 and adds a second tier at level 5 after two minutes. A call is offered only to agents at level 8 or higher for the first two minutes, and after that to anyone at level 5 or above. The call never leaves the skill group, so the caller's position in line and estimated wait time remain consistent.
\nGenesys Cloud calls its version bullseye routing. Agents are arranged in rings. If nobody in the inner ring is free within a set time, the pool widens to the next ring, either by admitting agents with lower ratings or by dropping one of the required skills. Agents in the inner rings keep first claim if they come free during the wait. Genesys gives the reason plainly: strict skill enforcement hurts a queue's service level and abandon rate when the agents who are free don't hold every required skill.
\nHow long to wait before loosening is a judgment the business has to make. Koole and Mandelbaum observed in 2002 that skill-based routing comes "as a list of options that managers can choose from, but without any guidelines to accompany them." Vendor documentation still explains what each setting does and leaves the values to you. We'd start with a simple rule, watch wait times and abandoned calls for a few weeks, and add tiers only where the numbers show a problem.
\n","outroMarkdown":null,"outroHtml":null,"contentJson":{},"configJson":{},"noteMarkdown":null,"noteHtml":null,"sortOrder":40},{"id":"28d7cf2f-19ff-4e63-b895-918a68c30e19","sectionKey":"chat_email_and_text","sectionType":"markdown_section","heading":"How routing changes for chat, email and text","introMarkdown":"The principles carry over to written channels, and each channel has its own rules, as Xima's email keyword rules show. Capacity is the other difference. An agent can hold one phone call but several chats, so routing needs a limit for each channel. Genesys Cloud's [default limits](https://help.genesys.cloud/articles/utilization/) allow one call, one email and up to four chats at a time. Xima uses a single number per agent called [Max Simultaneous Sessions](https://guide.xima.cloud/docs/web-chat-adjusting-agents-session-count). Its guide illustrates a value of 2 as one call plus one chat, and 3 as one call plus two chats.\n\nThose limits decide how one group of agents is shared between channels, which is the subject of what a unified queue is. Whether a customer can switch channels without starting over is a separate matter, covered in omnichannel versus multichannel customer service.","introHtml":"The principles carry over to written channels, and each channel has its own rules, as Xima's email keyword rules show. Capacity is the other difference. An agent can hold one phone call but several chats, so routing needs a limit for each channel. Genesys Cloud's default limits allow one call, one email and up to four chats at a time. Xima uses a single number per agent called Max Simultaneous Sessions. Its guide illustrates a value of 2 as one call plus one chat, and 3 as one call plus two chats.
\nThose limits decide how one group of agents is shared between channels, which is the subject of what a unified queue is. Whether a customer can switch channels without starting over is a separate matter, covered in omnichannel versus multichannel customer service.
\n","outroMarkdown":null,"outroHtml":null,"contentJson":{},"configJson":{},"noteMarkdown":null,"noteHtml":null,"sortOrder":50},{"id":"ef3e729b-119d-421a-a31d-1243f7bc01a2","sectionKey":"what_routing_cannot_fix","sectionType":"markdown_section","heading":"What routing cannot fix","introMarkdown":"Routing can only distribute the agents who are logged in and free. Genesys's bullseye documentation says agents who are busy or at capacity are not candidates, however well they match the contact. If waits stay long after the rules are tuned, look at how many agents are scheduled for that hour.","introHtml":"Routing can only distribute the agents who are logged in and free. Genesys's bullseye documentation says agents who are busy or at capacity are not candidates, however well they match the contact. If waits stay long after the rules are tuned, look at how many agents are scheduled for that hour.
\n","outroMarkdown":null,"outroHtml":null,"contentJson":{},"configJson":{},"noteMarkdown":null,"noteHtml":null,"sortOrder":60}],"citations":[{"title":"About routing","url":"https://help.genesys.cloud/articles/about-routing/","excerpt":"Routing includes the set of features that administrators use to set up Genesys Cloud routing. Use routing features to create schedules, configure call and message routing, plan for emergencies, and store data locally in data tables for use in Architect.","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"PRIMARY","verifiedAt":"2026-09-15T00:00:00","supportsText":"Routing as a feature set covers interaction routing (ACD), call routing, and message routing; schedules and schedule groups with time zones; mapping a call flow or inbound message flow to a dialed address; emergency groups that change routing behavior during a critical event; data tables Architect r","domain":"help.genesys.cloud","publisherName":"Genesys Cloud Resource Center"},{"title":"Routing and evaluation methods","url":"https://help.genesys.cloud/articles/acd-evaluation-routing-methods/","excerpt":"Bullseye | Routes interactions to a targeted sub-queue of agents with specific skills, and if no agents are available, it relaxes the requested skills, based on the queue configuration, to expand the pool of agents.","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"PRIMARY","verifiedAt":"2026-09-15T00:00:00","supportsText":"The five queue routing methods (Standard ACD, predictive, preferred agent, bullseye, conditional group routing); the conversation score in which one priority point equals 60,000 milliseconds and priority score with time in queue as tiebreak; queues set to priority score route first; scoring method s","domain":"help.genesys.cloud","publisherName":"Genesys Cloud Resource Center"},{"title":"Genesys Cloud ACD processing","url":"https://help.genesys.cloud/articles/genesys-cloud-acd-processing/","excerpt":"This score is calculated from the priority assigned to the interaction and its arrival time with a priority point system such that one point of priority equals adding one minute of time that the call is waiting.","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"PRIMARY","verifiedAt":"2026-09-15T00:00:00","supportsText":"The agent-surplus and interaction-surplus scenarios; filtering the agent list by required language and skills and waiting when no qualified agent remains; scoring waiting interactions on time in queue and priority with one priority point equal to one minute; distribution by arrival time down to the ","domain":"help.genesys.cloud","publisherName":"Genesys Cloud Resource Center"},{"title":"Bullseye routing overview","url":"https://help.genesys.cloud/articles/bullseye-routing-overview/","excerpt":"bullseye routing allows you to expand the agent pool by skill relaxation to achieve a balance between customer experience and routing to the most-suited agent from the available pool of agents.","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"PRIMARY","verifiedAt":"2026-09-15T00:00:00","supportsText":"Bullseye rings as sub-queues that expand after a configured timeout, either by adding groups at lower proficiency or by removing a required skill from evaluation while it stays on the interaction; inner rings keeping priority over outer rings; strict skill enforcement hurting queue SLA and abandon r","domain":"help.genesys.cloud","publisherName":"Genesys Cloud Resource Center"},{"title":"Agent utilization","url":"https://help.genesys.cloud/articles/utilization/","excerpt":"By default, an agent can handle at one time: One callback, Up to four chats, One email, Up to four messages, One voice call, Up to four workitems.","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"PRIMARY","verifiedAt":"2026-09-15T00:00:00","supportsText":"Default concurrency per agent of one voice call, one email, one callback, up to four chats, up to four messages, and up to four workitems; configurability at organization and agent level; administrator control over which interaction types interrupt others; the recommendation not to let calls and cal","domain":"help.genesys.cloud","publisherName":"Genesys Cloud Resource Center"},{"title":"Agent selection process","url":"https://help.genesys.cloud/articles/agent-selection-process/","excerpt":"If the number of available agents on a queue is three or less, Genesys Cloud does not score the agents but routes the interactions using the standard routing method.","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"PRIMARY","verifiedAt":"2026-09-15T00:00:00","supportsText":"Predictive routing builds a model per queue from agent profile data, aggregated customer data, and historic interaction data; it lists agents on the queue, filters for language skills and ACD skills when skill matching is enabled, and ranks available agents by score; with three or fewer available ag","domain":"help.genesys.cloud","publisherName":"Genesys Cloud Resource Center"},{"title":"Predictive routing comparison test","url":"https://help.genesys.cloud/articles/test-predictive-routing-for-your-queues/","excerpt":"During a comparison test, Genesys Cloud routes your interactions in an hour-on, hour-off pattern, using predictive routing 50 percent of the time and an alternative routing method the other 50 percent... Genesys recommends that you run the comparison test for at least two weeks.","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"PRIMARY","verifiedAt":"2026-09-15T00:00:00","supportsText":"The comparison test routes interactions in an hour-on, hour-off pattern using predictive routing 50 percent of the time and standard or bullseye routing the rest; Genesys recommends at least two weeks to produce a statistically significant result and simultaneous testing of queues that share agents.","domain":"help.genesys.cloud","publisherName":"Genesys Cloud Resource Center"},{"title":"How the AI model scores agents for predictive routing","url":"https://help.genesys.cloud/articles/how-the-ai-model-scores-agents-for-predictive-routing/","excerpt":"While feature importance indicates the data, which, has the most influence on decisions, it does not necessarily indicate that the data caused the decision.","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"PRIMARY","verifiedAt":"2026-09-15T00:00:00","supportsText":"Feature importance indicates which inputs most influence predictions and does not indicate that the data caused the decision; the documentation states that correlation does not imply causation for predictive routing features.","domain":"help.genesys.cloud","publisherName":"Genesys Cloud Resource Center"},{"title":"How routing works in Connect Customer","url":"https://docs.aws.amazon.com/connect/latest/adminguide/about-routing.html","excerpt":"A routing profile might assign a priority to one queue over another, but the priority within the queue is always set by the order the contact was added to the queue.","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"PRIMARY","verifiedAt":"2026-09-15T00:00:00","supportsText":"Contacts are routed based on the routing profile assigned to the agent, the hours of operation for the queue, and the routing logic in flows; contacts are forwarded to the agent idle longest; held contacts are served by time in queue on a first-come, first-served basis; a routing profile may priorit","domain":"docs.aws.amazon.com","publisherName":"Amazon Web Services"},{"title":"How Amazon Connect uses routing profiles","url":"https://docs.aws.amazon.com/connect/latest/adminguide/concepts-routing.html","excerpt":"A routing profile determines what types of contacts an agent can receive and the routing priority. Each agent is assigned to one routing profile.","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"PRIMARY","verifiedAt":"2026-09-15T00:00:00","supportsText":"A routing profile determines what types of contacts an agent can receive and the routing priority; each agent is assigned to one routing profile; queues are linked to agents through a routing profile; a profile specifies channels, queues, and the priority and delay of those queues.","domain":"docs.aws.amazon.com","publisherName":"Amazon Web Services"},{"title":"Queue priority and delay examples to help you load balance Connect Customer contacts","url":"https://docs.aws.amazon.com/connect/latest/adminguide/concepts-routing-profiles-priority.html","excerpt":"Priority takes precedence... Priority for queues is relevant to searching for queues for an individual agent. It does not determine which agent out of multiple available agent will be routed contacts.","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"PRIMARY","verifiedAt":"2026-09-15T00:00:00","supportsText":"Worked priority and delay examples: a priority 2 queue is taken only when the priority 1 queue is empty; a same-priority queue with a 30 second delay is treated as priority 1 once a contact ages past the delay; priority takes precedence over an aged contact in a lower priority queue; priority does n","domain":"docs.aws.amazon.com","publisherName":"Amazon Web Services"},{"title":"Create a routing profile in Connect Customer to link queues to agents","url":"https://docs.aws.amazon.com/connect/latest/adminguide/routing-profiles.html","excerpt":"For chat, task, and email channels, specify how many contacts that an agent can handle simultaneously, up to 10.","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"PRIMARY","verifiedAt":"2026-09-15T00:00:00","supportsText":"Queues are a waiting area for contacts and a routing profile links queues to agents; a profile specifies channels, whether channels are allowed concurrently, queues, and queue priority; maximum contacts per agent for chat, task, and email is configurable up to 10, and an email limit of 5 allows 10 a","domain":"docs.aws.amazon.com","publisherName":"Amazon Web Services"},{"title":"Use Connect Customer contact attributes","url":"https://docs.aws.amazon.com/connect/latest/adminguide/connect-contact-attributes.html","excerpt":"you need a way to store information about the contact and then make a decision based on the value.","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"PRIMARY","verifiedAt":"2026-09-15T00:00:00","supportsText":"Contact attributes store information about the contact so the flow can make a decision based on the value; documented sources include how the customer made contact, Amazon Lex bot values, and values stored from a Lambda function; attributes can be used to route based on the number of contacts in a q","domain":"docs.aws.amazon.com","publisherName":"Amazon Web Services"},{"title":"Queueing Models of Call Centers: An Introduction (Annals of Operations Research 113, 2002)","url":"https://www.math.vu.nl/~koole/publications/2002aor/art.pdf","excerpt":"A common way of implementing skill-based routing is by specifying two selection rules: agent selection - how does an arriving call select an idle agent, if there is one; and call selection - how does an idle agent select a waiting call, if there is one.","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"INDEPENDENT","verifiedAt":"2026-09-15T00:00:00","supportsText":"Skill-based routing is implemented by two selection rules, agent selection (how an arriving call selects an idle agent) and call selection (how an idle agent selects a waiting call), with a priority rule deciding among several waiting calls; skill-based routing is part of any advanced ACD and is off","domain":"math.vu.nl","publisherName":"Ger Koole and Avishai Mandelbaum, Vrije Universiteit and Technion"},{"title":"What is skill-based routing (SBR)?","url":"https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/skill-based-routing-SBR","excerpt":"Rather than routing customer queries to the next available agent, skill-based routing evaluates the customer's needs and directs the inquiry to the most qualified agent.","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"SUPPORTING","verifiedAt":"2026-09-15T00:00:00","supportsText":"Industry definition of skill-based routing as distributing calls, chats, or emails by agent skills and directing the inquiry to the most qualified agent rather than the next available agent, commonly using an ACD tied into CRM or support systems that identify the caller. Published September 16, 2024","domain":"techtarget.com","publisherName":"TechTarget"},{"title":"Predictive and Automated Routing Capabilities","url":"https://www.genesys.com/capabilities/automated-routing","excerpt":"49% of consumers say they value first-interaction resolution most in a customer service interaction, and 48% most value a fast response time. “State of Customer Experience,” Genesys, 2025","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"SUPPORTING","verifiedAt":"2026-09-15T00:00:00","supportsText":"Source of the consumer preference figures quoted and labeled in this answer: 49 percent of consumers say they value first-interaction resolution most and 48 percent most value a fast response time, attributed on the page to the vendor's own 'State of Customer Experience,' Genesys, 2025. Used only to","domain":"genesys.com","publisherName":"Genesys"}],"revisions":[{"revisedAt":"2026-07-18T14:39:59.776+00:00","versionLabel":"Originally published","note":"","reviewedBy":null}],"relatedAnswers":[{"id":"792e8892-6e9f-4474-8f8f-def71b0f1d61","slug":"what-is-an-acd-automatic-call-distributor","question":"What is an ACD (automatic call distributor)?","publishedAt":"2026-08-14T14:40:01.956","confidenceScore":80,"confidenceLabel":"High","industry":{"id":"ff619d7c-d7d7-485e-a05a-53fba07f33ed","slug":"telecommunications","label":"Telecommunications","description":"Business voice, fiber, UCaaS, and network services"},"topic":{"slug":"ccaas","label":"CCaaS","description":"Contact center as a service: cloud contact center features, routing, and how it differs from UCaaS and on-prem.","schemaKind":null},"contributor":{"id":"ec39deab-44fe-48d8-9029-fefe993ab85a","slug":"answer-stack","displayName":"AnswerStack","websiteUrl":null},"snippet":"An automatic call distributor is the part of a phone system that decides which agent answers each incoming call and holds callers in a queue when nobody is free. It first works out which agents are allowed to take a call, then picks one of them with a method such as longest idle, rotation or highest skill. On cloud platforms such as Genesys Cloud, the same engine distributes chats, emails and texts.","url":"/q/what-is-an-acd-automatic-call-distributor"},{"id":"a981f9a5-b2c7-4d7b-b400-2338b61b1da1","slug":"what-is-ai-powered-agent-assist","question":"What is AI-powered agent assist?","publishedAt":"2026-07-18T14:40:04.127","confidenceScore":88,"confidenceLabel":"High","industry":{"id":"ff619d7c-d7d7-485e-a05a-53fba07f33ed","slug":"telecommunications","label":"Telecommunications","description":"Business voice, fiber, UCaaS, and network services"},"topic":{"slug":"ccaas","label":"CCaaS","description":"Contact center as a service: cloud contact center features, routing, and how it differs from UCaaS and on-prem.","schemaKind":null},"contributor":{"id":"ec39deab-44fe-48d8-9029-fefe993ab85a","slug":"answer-stack","displayName":"AnswerStack","websiteUrl":null},"snippet":"AI-powered agent assist follows a live customer conversation and gives the human agent suggested replies, source articles, checklists and a draft summary. The suggestions go to the agent, who decides what to send. It differs from a virtual agent that talks to the customer and from analytics that run after the call.","url":"/q/what-is-ai-powered-agent-assist"},{"id":"c4ee74a3-74c8-4ef5-a33b-ac978554c881","slug":"what-is-the-difference-between-ccaas-ucaas-and-cpaas","question":"What is the difference between CCaaS, UCaaS, and CPaaS?","publishedAt":"2026-07-18T03:57:36.086","confidenceScore":90,"confidenceLabel":"High","industry":{"id":"ff619d7c-d7d7-485e-a05a-53fba07f33ed","slug":"telecommunications","label":"Telecommunications","description":"Business voice, fiber, UCaaS, and network services"},"topic":{"slug":"ccaas","label":"CCaaS","description":"Contact center as a service: cloud contact center features, routing, and how it differs from UCaaS and on-prem.","schemaKind":null},"contributor":{"id":"ec39deab-44fe-48d8-9029-fefe993ab85a","slug":"answer-stack","displayName":"AnswerStack","websiteUrl":null},"snippet":"Two of the three are finished applications and the third is a set of parts. UCaaS is the calling, meeting and messaging system employees use every day, licensed per user. CCaaS is the application a customer service team uses to queue contacts and route them to agents. CPaaS is a set of programmable capabilities, mostly APIs, that developers assemble into their own software and pay for mostly by usage. The categories overlap, and many companies use more than one.","url":"/q/what-is-the-difference-between-ccaas-ucaas-and-cpaas"},{"id":"d16d4699-6203-4a6c-aa0f-fd6edf3515ea","slug":"what-is-ccaas-contact-center-as-a-service","question":"What is CCaaS (contact center as a service)?","publishedAt":"2026-07-18T03:50:16.615","confidenceScore":80,"confidenceLabel":"High","industry":{"id":"ff619d7c-d7d7-485e-a05a-53fba07f33ed","slug":"telecommunications","label":"Telecommunications","description":"Business voice, fiber, UCaaS, and network services"},"topic":{"slug":"ccaas","label":"CCaaS","description":"Contact center as a service: cloud contact center features, routing, and how it differs from UCaaS and on-prem.","schemaKind":null},"contributor":{"id":"ec39deab-44fe-48d8-9029-fefe993ab85a","slug":"answer-stack","displayName":"AnswerStack","websiteUrl":null},"snippet":"CCaaS is contact center software that a provider runs in the cloud and rents to you. The provider hosts and maintains the routing, queues, phone menus, recording and reporting, and you pay a subscription or a usage fee instead of buying and running that system yourself, while phones, headsets and the network stay with you. Prices are quoted per named user, per concurrent seat or per minute, so the unit has to be known before two prices can be compared.","url":"/q/what-is-ccaas-contact-center-as-a-service"}],"contributorStats":{"verifiedAnswers":149,"openDisputes":0},"schemaJson":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Question","name":"What is routing in a contact center?","text":"What is routing in a contact center?","url":"https://www.answerstack.io/q/what-is-routing-in-a-contact-center","answerCount":1,"datePublished":"2026-07-18T14:39:59.776","about":[{"@type":"Thing","name":"CCaaS"},{"@type":"Thing","name":"Telecommunications"}],"acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Routing is the set of rules a contact center uses to send each call, chat, email or text to the right place. The rules decide where each contact goes, which can be a menu, a queue, an agent or an outside destination such as voicemail. For a contact that joins a queue, they decide which agent takes it and, when more customers are waiting than agents are free, who is answered next.","url":"https://www.answerstack.io/q/what-is-routing-in-a-contact-center","upvoteCount":0,"datePublished":"2026-07-18T14:39:59.776","dateModified":"2026-09-14T00:00:00","citation":[{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"About routing","url":"https://help.genesys.cloud/articles/about-routing/"},{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"Routing and evaluation methods","url":"https://help.genesys.cloud/articles/acd-evaluation-routing-methods/"},{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"Genesys Cloud ACD processing","url":"https://help.genesys.cloud/articles/genesys-cloud-acd-processing/"},{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"Bullseye routing overview","url":"https://help.genesys.cloud/articles/bullseye-routing-overview/"},{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"Agent utilization","url":"https://help.genesys.cloud/articles/utilization/"},{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"Agent selection process","url":"https://help.genesys.cloud/articles/agent-selection-process/"},{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"Predictive routing comparison test","url":"https://help.genesys.cloud/articles/test-predictive-routing-for-your-queues/"},{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"How the AI model scores agents for predictive routing","url":"https://help.genesys.cloud/articles/how-the-ai-model-scores-agents-for-predictive-routing/"},{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"How routing works in Connect Customer","url":"https://docs.aws.amazon.com/connect/latest/adminguide/about-routing.html"},{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"How Amazon Connect uses routing profiles","url":"https://docs.aws.amazon.com/connect/latest/adminguide/concepts-routing.html"},{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"Queue priority and delay examples to help you load balance Connect Customer contacts","url":"https://docs.aws.amazon.com/connect/latest/adminguide/concepts-routing-profiles-priority.html"},{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"Create a routing profile in Connect Customer to link queues to agents","url":"https://docs.aws.amazon.com/connect/latest/adminguide/routing-profiles.html"},{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"Use Connect Customer contact attributes","url":"https://docs.aws.amazon.com/connect/latest/adminguide/connect-contact-attributes.html"},{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"Queueing Models of Call Centers: An Introduction (Annals of Operations Research 113, 2002)","url":"https://www.math.vu.nl/~koole/publications/2002aor/art.pdf"},{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"What is skill-based routing (SBR)?","url":"https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/skill-based-routing-SBR"},{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"Predictive and Automated Routing Capabilities","url":"https://www.genesys.com/capabilities/automated-routing"}]}}}