Auto Route or Queue: Choosing How Chats Reach Your Agents
3 min read
Every group decides how a new chat gets to an agent. You have two choices, and the checkbox that picks between them sits at Workflows → Routing. Each choice shows its own set of options, so you only see the settings that apply.
The two modes at a glance
Auto route chat requests (box checked). Velaro picks one agent for each new chat and assigns it right away. You choose how the agent is picked: Round-robin takes agents in turn, and Least busy round-robin takes agents in turn but favors the agent with the fewest chats open.
Queue (box cleared). The chat waits in the team's queue and your agents are alerted. The first available agent accepts it, and the chat stays with that agent.
Settings you get in each mode
| Auto route | Queue | |
|---|---|---|
| Who chooses the agent | Velaro, by your routing algorithm | The agent who accepts |
| Routing algorithm | Round-robin or Least busy round-robin | Not shown |
| Re-route if agent doesn't answer | Yes | Not shown |
| Queue timeout | Not shown | Yes |
| Higher tier agents see lower tier queued chats | Not shown | Yes |
| Hide surveys until the chat is accepted | Not shown | Yes |
| Re-route on agent disconnect | Yes | Yes |
| Assign visitors to previous agent | Yes | Not shown |
How to choose
Choose Queue when agents are in their seats and you want chats to stay put. Whoever is free takes the chat, and it stays with the agent who accepted it. Pair it with a queue timeout that matches how long a visitor should wait and, if you want fair pickup, turn on Hide surveys until the chat is accepted so agents cannot pick chats by the visitor's answers.
Choose Auto route when you want chats assigned without anyone watching the queue. Use Least busy round-robin so the agent with the lightest load gets the next chat. Then set Re-route if agent doesn't answer so a chat never waits on someone who stepped away. Two to three minutes is a common starting point. See Automatic Chat Re-Routing for exactly when the timer applies, and Understanding Reroute on No Answer for choosing the value.
How the re-route timer relates to an agent's status
The Re-route if agent doesn't answer timer counts one thing: time since the agent last sent a message in that chat. It does not look at whether the agent is Available, Away or offline. An agent who sends any message after joining keeps the chat for as long as it lasts.
If the timer runs out, Velaro moves the chat to the next available agent. If nobody else is available, the chat stays with the current agent and the visitor sees no change. Velaro does not send the chat back and forth, and it does not close it.
Agent status is its own setting. When an agent's connection drops, Re-route on agent disconnect moves their chats after the number of seconds you choose, in either mode.
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Automatic Chat Re-Routing