Manage Digital Skills

Digital skills are ACD skills for digital channels. Digital Experience (DX) uses digital skills and scripts to determine which agent or skill to route contacts The person interacting with an agent, IVR, or bot in your contact center. to. You can learn more about how NiCE CXone uses skills to route contacts to agents.

There are two options for routing digital contacts in NiCE CXone:

Use digital skills and custom digital Studio scripts. This is the preferred method.
Use Workflow Automation (WFA) to create rules for how contacts are routed. WFA rules run independent of Studio scripts.

You can use both WFA and skill-based routing to handle your digital contact routing.

After creating a digital skill, you can assign it to a digital point of contact as a default skill. You can also use it in custom scripts for contact routing.

Another digital contact routing method is routing queues. This option has been replaced with digital skills and scripts. You cannot create new routing queues. NiCE CXone syncs routing queues and their corresponding digital skills.

Create a Digital Skill

Required permissions: ACD > Skills Create, Edit

Agents using Agent Workspace (Agent) need to have the Digital Engagement attribute enabled in their Admin employee profile and be assigned to a digital ACD skill to handle digital interactions. Agents using MAX can handle digital interactions if they have either the Digital Engagement attribute or a digital skill assigned to them.

If your agents use SFA Classic, do not select the Accept/Reject option in this setup. This feature is not currently supported for digital channels and attempting to enable it will result in the contact being automatically refused.

The name of a skill should be meaningful and unique. It's helpful to be consistent when naming skills. Decide on a standard format for skill names that works for your organization.

A skill name must have a minimum of 2 characters and a maximum of 30. Skill names may only contain letters, numbers, and these special characters:

Hyphens (-)
Underscores (_)
Periods (.)
Colons (:)

Click the app selector and select ACD.
Go to Contact Settings > ACD Skills.
Click Create New > Single Skill.
Set the Media Type to Digital and Inbound/Outbound to Inbound. Digital Any channel, contact, or skill associated with Digital Experience (DX). skills will always be Inbound unless you are using Personal Connection or BYOC.
Enter a Skill Name.
Select the Campaign you want the skill to be part of.
To use rich content in your outbound message, select a Message Template.
To add a sub-skill to this skill, select the checkbox. This only applies if you use digital routing queues for contact skill assignment. This is not the recommended routing method. Using Studio scripts is the recommended method to manage contacts and assign skills.

Configure the remaining optional fields in the Skill Information section as needed.

Learn more about fields in this step

Field	Details
Agentless	Personal Connection automatically dials phone numbers of contacts from a calling list and plays either a pre-recorded message or an IVR Interactive Voice Response. Automated phone menu contacts use via voice or key inputs to obtain information, route an inbound voice call, or both. menu. This is selected by default for Proactive SMS, Proactive Email, and digital Bring Your Own Channel. It cannot be cleared. Don't select for agent dialing. When this is selected, Workforce Intelligence Minimum Agents and Workforce Intelligence Minimum Available Agents are not available.
Sub-Skill	Allows you to add a sub-skill to a skill. This lets you apply additional filters to match a skill if you use digital routing queues for contact skill assignment. However, using Studio scripts is the recommended method to manage contacts and assign skills. Sub-skill is not compatible with Studio, so it's not recommended to be used.
Do not allow transfers to skill when closed	Determines whether interactions can be transferred to this skill when its hours of operation profile is set to Closed. Select to prevent transfer or leave unselected to allow transfer during closed hours.

Field

Details

Agentless

Personal Connection automatically dials phone numbers of contacts from a calling list and plays either a pre-recorded message or an IVR Interactive Voice Response. Automated phone menu contacts use via voice or key inputs to obtain information, route an inbound voice call, or both. menu.

This is selected by default for Proactive SMS, Proactive Email, and digital Bring Your Own Channel. It cannot be cleared.

Don't select for agent dialing.

When this is selected, Workforce Intelligence Minimum Agents and Workforce Intelligence Minimum Available Agents are not available.

Sub-Skill

Allows you to add a sub-skill to a skill. This lets you apply additional filters to match a skill if you use digital routing queues for contact skill assignment. However, using Studio scripts is the recommended method to manage contacts and assign skills. Sub-skill is not compatible with Studio, so it's not recommended to be used.

Do not allow transfers to skill when closed

Determines whether interactions can be transferred to this skill when its hours of operation profile is set to Closed. Select to prevent transfer or leave unselected to allow transfer during closed hours.

If your system is configured for divisions, use the Division field to specify which division Separate data securely between lines of business. Data can only be accessed from within the division it's part of. to assign the skill to. After you have assigned the skill to a division, you cannot change it. To configure this option, you must have the Division Assignment permission.
If you want to use screen pops A pop-up window with information about the contact that appears on an agent's screen after an event such as connecting to a contact. for this skill, use the action in Studio. This capability is only supported for the Agent Workspace (Agent) suite.

If you want to change the default prioritization settings for this skill, modify the settings in the Priority Management While in Queue section. You can also do this later.

Learn more about fields in this step

Field	Details
Initial Priority	Enter a numeric value you want to set as the base level priority Skill-based designation of the importance of contacts that determines delivery order. for all contacts in an inbound skill or for fresh records and retries in an outbound skill (callbacks Holds a customer's place in queue and automatically calls the customer when they move to the front of the queue. always take priority and are not affected by this setting). The default value is 0. For existing digital skills, Initial Priority is set to the same priority value for its associated routing queue filter. For Outbound Engagement skills, this is currently the only priority setting available.
Acceleration	Enter a numeric value to determine how quickly the priority of the skill increases. For every minute a contact stays in queue, the priority increases by the value you configure for Acceleration. The default value is 1. The minimum value is 0 and the maximum priority is the value configured in the Maximum Priority field. For example, if the Initial Priority is 4, and you set Acceleration to 1, then with each passing minute that the contact is not handled, the priority increases by one. In this example, if the contact has been in queue for three minutes, then the priority will be raised to 7. Priority increments in seconds. For example, when Acceleration is 1, a contact's priority increases by 0.5 after 30 seconds in queue. For Personal Connection skills, set this value to 0 because there is no queue of contacts. You can set Initial Priority for one skill lower than another skill, but if you set Acceleration for that skill higher, it can jump spots in the queue. For example, you set Initial Priority for Skill A to 1 and Acceleration to 5. You set Initial Priority for Skill B to 3 and Acceleration to 1. Initially, a contact for Skill B will be first in queue because it has a priority of 4, but after one minute, Skill A will take its place at the top because its priority will be 6. NiCE CXone combines the acceleration value with the time the contact has been in queue and the initial priority using the formula Overall Priority = (Time * Acceleration) + Initial Priority.
Maximum Priority	Enter a numeric value to determine the maximum priority a contact can have. If you choose not to use Acceleration, this value should match the Initial Priority. The default value is 1000. The maximum priority for digital contacts is 1000.

Field

Details

Initial Priority

Enter a numeric value you want to set as the base level priority Skill-based designation of the importance of contacts that determines delivery order. for all contacts in an inbound skill or for fresh records and retries in an outbound skill (callbacks Holds a customer's place in queue and automatically calls the customer when they move to the front of the queue. always take priority and are not affected by this setting). The default value is 0.

For existing digital skills, Initial Priority is set to the same priority value for its associated routing queue filter.

For Outbound Engagement skills, this is currently the only priority setting available.

Acceleration

Enter a numeric value to determine how quickly the priority of the skill increases. For every minute a contact stays in queue, the priority increases by the value you configure for Acceleration.

The default value is 1. The minimum value is 0 and the maximum priority is the value configured in the Maximum Priority field.

For example, if the Initial Priority is 4, and you set Acceleration to 1, then with each passing minute that the contact is not handled, the priority increases by one. In this example, if the contact has been in queue for three minutes, then the priority will be raised to 7.

Priority increments in seconds. For example, when Acceleration is 1, a contact's priority increases by 0.5 after 30 seconds in queue.

For Personal Connection skills, set this value to 0 because there is no queue of contacts.

You can set Initial Priority for one skill lower than another skill, but if you set Acceleration for that skill higher, it can jump spots in the queue. For example, you set Initial Priority for Skill A to 1 and Acceleration to 5. You set Initial Priority for Skill B to 3 and Acceleration to 1. Initially, a contact for Skill B will be first in queue because it has a priority of 4, but after one minute, Skill A will take its place at the top because its priority will be 6.

NiCE CXone combines the acceleration value with the time the contact has been in queue and the initial priority using the formula Overall Priority = (Time * Acceleration) + Initial Priority.

Maximum Priority

Enter a numeric value to determine the maximum priority a contact can have. If you choose not to use Acceleration, this value should match the Initial Priority. The default value is 1000.

The maximum priority for digital contacts is 1000.

If your organization uses AI Routing or dynamic delivery, use the Routing Configuration section to customize the routing experience for this skill. To do so, select an Evaluation Criteria and configure any related settings.

Learn more about fields in this step

Field	Details
Skill Proficiency	This is the default setting. Routing decisions prioritize the agent with the highest configured proficiency level for the skill.
Preferred Agent	Routing decisions prioritize the agent who last handled the same case or contact. If you select this option, you must configure these settings: Focus Metric: Specifies which agent is the preferred agent. Choose between: Per Case: The agent who most recently handled an interaction linked to the customer case. Per Customer: The agent who most recently worked on the interaction with the contact The person interacting with an agent, IVR, or bot in your contact center.. Focus Lock: Specifies what happens when the preferred agent is unavailable. Choose between: When Offline: The interaction waits in queue until the preferred agent becomes available or the Fallback Time is exceeded. When the Fallback Time is exceeded, the interaction routes to another agent based on skill proficiency. The receiving agent becomes the new preferred agent for the case or contact. When Available Only: The interaction only routes to the preferred agent when they are in an available state. Sometimes agents appear as available but are actually busy handling something else like ACW State that allows an agent to complete work requirements after finishing an interaction.. To determine how long to wait for the preferred agent to become available, configure Fallback Time. If the Fallback Time is exceeded or the preferred agent is offline, the interaction routes to another agent based on skill proficiency. The receiving agent becomes the new preferred agent for the case or contact. Fallback Time: The number of seconds to wait for the preferred agent to become available. For example, if you enter 900 seconds, the system will wait 15 minutes before routing the contact to another agent. If you choose to use Preferred Agent to route contacts, you must enter a value between 1 and 5,256,000. If you leave this field blank, you receive an error message. Any interaction that enters the queue without an applicable contact or interaction history routes to an available agent based on skill proficiency.
Least Occupied	Contacts route to the agents with the lowest number of active contacts and who have not already met their total contact limit. This option helps to evenly distribute contacts among your agents.
Most Occupied	Contacts route to the agents with the highest number of active contacts and who have not already met their total contact limit. This option helps to maximize agent effectiveness.

If you want to change the default service level settings for this skill, modify the fields in the Service Level section. This only appears if you are configuring an Inbound skill.

Learn more about fields in this step

Field	Details
Service Level Threshold	The number of seconds agents have to respond to meet an SLA Commitment between service provider and customer with defined service level thresholds including quality, availability, and responsibilities.. For example, if your SLA for this skill is to respond to 80% of contacts within 20 seconds, enter a value of 20.
Service Level Goal	The percentage of contacts agents must respond to by the Service Level Threshold to meet the SLA. For example, if the SLA for this skill is to respond to 80% of contacts within 20 seconds, enter a value of 80.

To require agents to manually accept or reject interactions for this skill, select the Accept / Reject checkbox. If an agent rejects an interaction, it returns to the queue.

To enable a countdown timer for agent responses, go to Agent Response section. This capability is only supported in Agent. You can also do this later.

Learn more about fields in this step

Field	Details
Enabled	Select this option to make the timer appear in the agent console. Clear the box to hide it.
Agent First Response	Enter how long you want to set the timer for. The countdown timer starts when a contact is assigned to the agent. The countdown ends when the agent sends the first message.
Follow on Response	Enter how long you want to set the timer for. The countdown timer starts again when a customer responds to the agent. It ends when the agent sends a reply.

To unassign contacts after a timer expires, go to the Customer Response section. This capability is only supported in Agent. You can also do this later.

Learn more about fields in this step

Field	Details
Enabled	Select this option to unassign contacts when the timer expires. Clear the box to have no idle time limit.
Customer Idle Time	The countdown timer starts when the agent sends the first message to the customer. The contact will automatically unassign the contact from the agent when the timer expires.
Time Extension	Select this option to let an agent give the customer more time to respond. This enables a button the agent can click to reset the customer idle timer.

Click Create. Complete additional configurations to customize or manage your skills.