Delivering effective support requires a well-structured system that handles requests, assigns tasks, and ensures agents are fully engaged. For support teams using Slack as their primary communication tool, managing requests across Slack channels presents unique challenges. While Slack excels at communication, it's not optimized for the operational needs of support teams such as managing shift schedules, tracking agent availability, or fairly distributing support tickets. As a result, teams often struggle to stay organized and ensure that requests are handled efficiently.
At ClearFeed, we specialize in helping modern B2B and SAAS companies manage customer and employee support directly in Slack. We’ve recently launched Load-Aware ticket assignment policies - starting with the Round-Robin Assignment feature to address the complexities of assigning incoming requests in Slack across support teams, particularly those working in shifts. This feature works seamlessly with third-party apps like the Rotation App, allowing teams to ensure tickets are assigned efficiently and distributed evenly among available agents.
The Challenge: Balancing Requests with Agent Availability
Support teams often face the challenge of ensuring requests are assigned to the right agents at the right time. Manual ticket assignment can quickly become unmanageable as teams grow or when agents work across different shifts. Without an automated system, it's easy for some agents to be overwhelmed with too many tickets while others remain underutilized. This can lead to inefficiencies, slower response times, and ultimately, dissatisfied customers/employees.
The solution to this problem lies in a system that can automatically distribute incoming requests among available agents based on a predefined logic. For teams using Slack, this is where ClearFeed’s Round Robin Assignment feature comes in.
Solution: Round-Robin Assignment in Slack
To address these challenges, ClearFeed has developed the Round-Robin Assignment feature that ensures all incoming support requests are evenly distributed among available agents in a designated Slack Group. The Round-Robin method guarantees that each agent receives an equal share of tickets, helping prevent overload and improving overall team performance.
Here’s how it works:
- When a request comes in through Slack, ClearFeed automatically assigns it to an agent within the Slack Group using the round-robin method.
- If an agent’s Slack status is set to “Out of Office,” “DND,” or similar, ClearFeed will skip that agent and assign the request to the next available member.
- This process ensures that all agents in the group are utilized evenly, minimizing gaps in response times and ensuring no ticket goes unassigned.
This feature enables support teams to manage workload distribution without manual oversight, providing a more balanced, efficient way of handling support requests in Slack.
How Rotation App Complements ClearFeed’s Round-Robin Assignment
While ClearFeed’s Round-Robin Assignment ensures fair ticket distribution, managing the membership of the Slack Group itself is another critical piece of the puzzle. That’s where the Rotation App adds immense value. For support teams working in shifts, keeping Slack Groups updated with the correct roster of agents can be tedious and error-prone if done manually.
The Rotation App automates this process by managing agent rosters and shifts, ensuring that the Slack Group always reflects the agents currently on duty. Here’s an example of how the two tools work together:
- A support team works in rotating shifts - morning, afternoon, and evening. The Rotation App automatically updates the Slack Group at the start of each shift, adding the relevant agents and removing those who have finished their shifts.
- ClearFeed then uses the updated Slack Group to distribute incoming support tickets evenly through its Round-Robin Assignment feature.
- This ensures that tickets are only assigned to on-duty agents, eliminating the risk of assigning tickets to someone who isn’t available to respond.
By automating ticket distribution and shift-based group management, support teams can significantly improve operational efficiency, reduce manual errors, and ensure faster response times.
“Earlier, whoever was fastest at claiming a ticket would get it, leading to uneven workloads. Now, with the combination of ClearFeed's Round-Robin Assignment and Rotation App - tickets are automatically distributed fairly, reducing the burden on individual team members and improving overall efficiency." said Ilia Baranov, Co-Founder & CTO at Polymath Robotics.
Wrapping Up
As customer support teams increasingly rely on Slack to manage communications, the need for automated, efficient systems has become more important than ever. ClearFeed’s new Round-Robin Assignment feature, combined with the Rotation App’s shift management, provides a powerful solution for distributing support requests fairly and efficiently in Slack. By working together, these tools eliminate the need for manual ticket assignment and roster management, allowing support teams to focus on what they do best - delivering top notch support to their customers.
This feature is now available in ClearFeed and is already being used by teams in conjunction with the Rotation App to streamline support operations in Slack. With automation handling the logistics, teams can rest assured their support processes are running smoothly, without any gaps in coverage.
If you’d like to learn more about the Round Robin Assignment functionality, you can reach out at support@clearfeed.ai or talk to a support specialist at ClearFeed.
