Channels and Routing

NiCE CXone connects customers with the right agents, workflows, and resources using channels Various voice and digital communication mediums that facilitate customer interactions in a contact center. and routing. A channel is the communication method a customer uses to contact your organization, such as voice, chat, SMS, and so on. In the NiCE CXone online help, customers are called contacts. Routing is how the system determines which agent will handle each contact interaction.

Your organization can set up the channels you need to support the ways customers contact your organization. You can then define routing strategies that control how those interactions move through the system. Together, channels and routing help you manage customer experiences across all platforms while balancing agent availability, skills, and business priorities.

As an administrator, your channel and routing responsibilities may include:

Configuring voice and digital Any channel, contact, or skill associated with Digital Experience (DX). channels.
Creating and assigning skills Used to automate delivery of interactions based on agent skills, abilities, and knowledge..
Building routing flows and Studio scripts, or working with the script developers to build them.
Defining queue Digital Experience (DX) equivalent of a skill; routes each contact to an agent assigned to handle that type of contact. priorities and routing behaviors.
Managing agent concurrency and availability.
Monitoring routing performance and service levels.
Updating routing rules during staffing or traffic changes.

Channels in NiCE CXone

Channels are the communication methods your contacts The person interacting with an agent, IVR, or bot in your contact center. and agents use. NiCE CXone supports voice calls, chat, email, SMS, voicemail, work items Customizable method of delivering contacts to an agent via Studio scripts., and many digital messaging channels, including social messaging and messaging apps. Many channels support both inbound (contacts reaching out to you) and outbound (your agents reaching out to contacts) interactions.

Depending on your NiCE CXone applications and licenses, you can manage channels in NiCE CXone ACD and Digital Experience (DX). Alternatively, you can also use a third-party ACD with NiCE CXone.

Supported Channels

NiCE CXone supports the following types of channels:

Voice: Inbound and outbound
Chat: Inbound and outbound
SMS: inbound and outbound
Email: Inbound and outbound
Digital: Inbound and outbound

Digital channels include chat, SMS, email, and social media. When you create channels, use the digital channel media type for all channels managed with Digital Experience (DX). The chat, SMS, and email channel type are for the legacy chat, SMS, and email channels that operate outside of Digital Experience (DX). The legacy channels are not available to new customers.

You must have separate channels for each phone number, SMS, chat, and so on. Inbound and outbound communication also requires separate channels. For example, you may have three voice channels for inbound calls to each of your organization's three phone numbers, and a fourth voice channel for outbound calls.

Inbound and Outbound Channels

You need to have separate channels for inbound and outbound interactions. The configuration for inbound and outbound is different. Additionally, the Studio scripts for inbound and outbound have different requirements.

For outbound interactions, you can set up manual outbound workflows using Studio scripts or you can use Personal Connection. Personal Connection allows you to reach out to contacts on behalf of your agents. It provides proactive outbound dialing for voice channels, as well as automated messaging on SMS, email, and some digital channels.

Channel Setup

Before the system can route interactions to agents, you must configure the channel and connect it to routing components such as ACD skills and Studio scripts. Skills define the type of work agents can handle and are a primary factor NiCE CXone uses when selecting an agent for an interaction. For example, you may create separate skills for billing calls, technical support chats, or multilingual email interactions.

Setting up channels may require working with your NiCE CXone account representative to provision phone numbers or for custom setup required in the platform. This may include custom scripting work in Studio.

The key channel configurations are:

Points of contact: A point of contact is the configuration in NiCE CXone that creates the channel.
ACD skills: Skills define a criteria you want the system to use when routing contacts to agents. Each point of contact must have a default skill assigned to it. This is only a starting point, because the Studio scripts that route interactions can change the skill used to route each interaction.
Default Studio script: Scripts define the logic used to route interactions to agents. They also allow you to configure other actions, behaviors, and data related to routing.
Campaigns: Campaigns allow you to group related ACD skills for reporting purposes. All skills must be assigned a campaign.

Additionally, you can configure these settings when they're appropriate for the channel:

Manage Do-Not-Call (DNC) lists: DNC lists contain contacts that your outbound ACD skills Used to automate delivery of interactions based on agent skills, abilities, and knowledge. are restricted from contacting at the contact's The person interacting with an agent, IVR, or bot in your contact center. request. You are required by law to comply with federal, state, and industry DNC lists.
Create and manage dispositions: Dispositions are statuses that apply to interactions The full conversation with an agent through a channel. For example, an interaction can be a voice call, email, chat, or social media conversation. based on the result or overall sentiment Overall mood or result of the interaction as determined by analysis of words, phrases, and context of the transcript. of the interaction. You assign dispositions to specific channels Various voice and digital communication mediums that facilitate customer interactions in a contact center. to make them available for agents handling that kind of interactions. They can be used in reporting.
Configure call suppression: Temporarily suspend outbound calls and SMS messages to contacts that meet certain configurable criteria.
Create and manage quick responses: Quick responses are pre-made messages that agents can send to contacts. They make responding to common questions faster and easier. They can include plain text or rich content Elements in digital messaging such as buttons, images, menus, and option pickers.. You assign quick responses to specific channels to make them available for agents handling that kind of interactions.
Create and manage tags: Tags allow agents to mark interactions with certain characteristics. You assign tags to specific channels to make them available for agents handling that kind of interactions. Tags appear in the Contact History report. Tags and dispositions not associated with dispositions, but they two can be used together.

Routing

Routing determines how NiCE CXone distributes interactions The full conversation with an agent through a channel. For example, an interaction can be a voice call, email, chat, or social media conversation. across your contact center. When a customer interaction enters the system, NiCE CXone evaluates the routing configuration and decides where to send the interaction based on factors such as:

Agent ACD skills Used to automate delivery of interactions based on agent skills, abilities, and knowledge.
Agent availability
Priority levels
Channel Various voice and digital communication mediums that facilitate customer interactions in a contact center. type
Business rules
Queue settings
Service level Commitment between service provider and customer with defined service level thresholds including quality, availability, and responsibilities. goals

Routing Methods

NiCE CXone offers two types of routing, static and dynamic delivery. These methods offer different experiences for your contact center:

Static delivery: The legacy NiCE CXone routing experience. It routes interactions The full conversation with an agent through a channel. For example, an interaction can be a voice call, email, chat, or social media conversation. based on agent availability and proficiency The level of expertise an agent has in an ACD skill. Helps determine which agents to route interactions to for that skill. in the related skill Used to automate delivery of interactions based on agent skills, abilities, and knowledge.. It allows agents to handle one contact The person interacting with an agent, IVR, or bot in your contact center. at a time, with the exception of multiple concurrent chats and email parking.
Dynamic delivery: The recommended routing experience. It gives you more control over the routing decision-making process. With it, you can change how routing works based on the interaction, team, agent, or skill. Dynamic delivery is the default routing experience for new tenants High-level organizational grouping used to manage technical support, billing, and global settings for your NiCE CXone system..

Each method supports different features and options.

Routing and Studio Scripts

Studio scripts play an important role in routing logic. Scripts define how interactions move through IVRs Interactive Voice Response. Automated phone menu contacts use via voice or key inputs to obtain information, route an inbound voice call, or both., queues, menus, automation, and transfers before they reach an agent. Scripts can gather customer input, play prompts, route by business conditions, or escalate interactions to different teams.

Depending on your organization, as an administrator you may work in Studio or you might need to work with script developers whose job is to manage the scripts. If you work with scripts, you can learn more about routing from a script perspective in the Studio online help.

Other ACD Features

In addition to managing channels Various voice and digital communication mediums that facilitate customer interactions in a contact center. and routing the ACD application allows you to:

Manage workflow data: Increase the security of data used in Studio scripts by storing it in the cloud with your other NiCE CXone data.
Create and manage unavailable codes: Unavailable codes let your agents choose a reason for not taking contacts. They can be used for tracking agent behavior and for reporting.
Set up and manage your contact center hours of operation: Create one or more hours of operations profiles for your contact center. These profiles can be used in Studio scripts to change routing behavior based on whether your contact center is open or closed.
Set up agent stations: Create stations to associate a phone number, caller ID, and other settings with a particular workstation in your contact center.
Create and manage address books: Agents use address books from within the agent application. You can create address books and assign them to agents or teams.
Schedule scripts to run: Create customized run schedules for Studio scripts.

Performance and Load Testing

NiCE CXone offers a service called Performance and Load Testing that you can use to perform stress tests on your ACD system. This verifies it can handle traffic during change events and during peak times, such as holidays and new product launches. Performance and Load Testing can:

Test inbound voice to IVR.
Mimic an agent for full end-to-end call testing.
Simulate outbound campaigns A grouping of skills used to run reports..
Test NiCE CXone native chat and email, and Digital Experience (DX) chat, email, and social channels. NiCE CXone may not be able to test digital interactions handled through an application outside of the NiCE CXone suite.

You must contact your account representative to order a stress test. Once the test is ordered, the NiCE CXone Professional Services team manages the process for you. Using a NiCE CXone service to test your ACD gives you full support from the NiCE CXone platform and team. This ensures careful monitoring and process management, keeping your ACD safe.