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Distribution Strategies

The distribution strategy you select in a queue determines how activities that use the queue are allocated to your agents. All queue types β€” calls, web chats, emails, SMS and social media β€” use the same strategies; select one in the Distribution strategy field of the queue details.

Each strategy takes into account the agent's rank in the queue β€” a value from 0 to 10 that comes from the agent's profile, where 10 is the highest rank and 0 the lowest. An activity is always offered to the available agents with the highest rank first and only falls through to lower ranks from there. New queue access starts at rank 10.

The same value is edited from two screens: it is labelled Rank on the Queues grid of a profile's Access & scope tab (see Profiles β†’ Queues area), and still labelled Priority on the queue's own agent list, which you open by clicking Change in the Agents column of the queue list (see Queue Basics).

Warning

The direction of this scale changed in 2026.2. In earlier versions 0 was the strongest preference and 10 the weakest; it is now the other way round. Existing values were converted during the upgrade, so the order in which your agents are offered work did not change.

Info

Distribution strategies apply to queues that offer activities to agents in real time. A ticket queue works differently: tickets are ordered by the priority score they carry and by how long they have been ageing, not by a distribution strategy β€” see Priority Flows.

Note

A profile's Channel rotation rules can lower an agent's rank on a channel temporarily after a run of consecutive activities of that channel. The strategies below then work with the lowered rank.

The examples below illustrate how each distribution strategy distributes activities to agents. We will work with 6 agents and their ranks in the queue:

  • Rachel and Paul – rank 10 – the most competent to deal with activities in the queue
  • Tom and Sophie – rank 5 – can help out if Rachel and Paul are busy
  • Julia and Terry – rank 1 – should only answer activities in the queue if there is no other option

Everyone

  1. This strategy first distributes the activity to all the users with the highest rank at once. If they are available, it will ring there until Wait time runs out or all agents reject the activity.
  2. If there are no agents of the highest rank available or if no one in the group answers the activity, it will be distributed to all users of the next rank group down.

  3. If there are no agents available or if the activity is rejected or not answered before Wait time runs out, it will be distributed to all agents

    1. of a higher rank if they become available while it is ringing.
    2. of a lower rank.

Diagram of the Everyone distribution strategy

Example 1:

  1. All agents are available.
  2. An activity comes in via the queue and starts ringing for Rachel and Paul (rank 10). Neither of them answer and Wait time runs out.
  3. The activity starts ringing for Tom and Sophie as they hold the next rank down (rank 5). They both reject the activity.
  4. The activity goes back to Rachel and Paul as they are available and hold the highest rank.

Example 2:

  1. Everyone but Julia is chatting to customers.
  2. An activity comes in via the queue and starts ringing for Julia (rank 1). As it's ringing, Tom's and Sophie's activities end. Julia doesn't answer and Wait time runs out.
  3. The activity starts ringing for Tom and Sophie (rank 5). Meanwhile, Rachel's activity ends. Tom rejects the activity, Sophie doesn't answer and Wait time runs out.
  4. The activity starts ringing for Rachel as she holds the highest rank.

Everyone in Priority Order

  1. This strategy first distributes the activity to all the users with the highest rank at once. If they are available, it will ring there until Wait time runs out or all agents reject the activity.
  2. If there are no agents of the highest rank available or if no one in the group answers the activity, it will be distributed to all users of the next rank group down.
  3. If there are no agents of that rank available or if no one in the group answers the activity, it will be distributed to all users of the next rank group in line, regardless of any agents that have become available at a higher rank.
  4. If the activity is not answered even in the group with the lowest rank, distribution will start again from step 1.

Diagram of the Everyone in Priority Order distribution strategy

Example 1:

  1. All agents are available.
  2. An activity comes in via the queue and starts ringing for Rachel and Paul (rank 10). Neither of them answer and Wait time runs out.
  3. The activity starts ringing for Tom and Sophie as they hold the next rank down (rank 5). They reject the activity.
  4. The activity starts ringing for Julia and Terry as they hold the next rank down (rank 1). They reject the activity.
  5. The activity goes back to Rachel and Paul – the distribution starts again from the beginning.

Example 2:

  1. Everyone but Julia is chatting to customers.
  2. An activity comes in via the queue and starts ringing for Julia (rank 1). As it's ringing, Tom's and Sophie's activities end. Julia doesn't answer and Wait time runs out.
  3. Because Julia holds the lowest rank, the activity goes back to the beginning, but Rachel and Paul (rank 10) are busy, so it starts ringing for Tom and Sophie (rank 5). They don't answer and Wait time runs out.
  4. The activity goes back to Julia as she is the only agent available in the next rank group.

Least Recent

Info

Least recent activity distribution: the time of the last activity is calculated based on activities in the last 2 hours.

Info

By default, the Least recent distribution strategy takes into account All activity types except Custom. If you want it to only take into account Only same activity type as this queue or All activity types, go to Global Settings and change the Least recent – check by activity types field.

  1. This strategy first distributes the activity to an available agent of the highest rank.
  2. If there are several available agents of that rank, the one with the longest time since closing their last activity will be selected. If that is the same as well, the agent that has been logged in to the queue longest will be selected.

  3. If there are no agents available or if the activity is rejected or not answered before Wait time runs out, it will go to another agent

    1. of a higher rank if they become available while the activity is ringing.
    2. of the same rank.
    3. of a lower rank if there are no agents of the same or a higher rank available.

If an agent is the last available one at the highest rank and they reject or don't answer an activity, it will be distributed to them again straight away (unless Automatic pause is turned on).

Diagram of the Least Recent distribution strategy

Example 1:

  1. All agents are available.
  2. An activity comes in via the queue and starts ringing for Rachel (rank 10). She doesn't answer and Wait time runs out.
  3. The activity goes to Paul (rank 10). He doesn't answer and Wait time runs out.
  4. The activity goes back to Rachel. She doesn't answer and Wait time runs out.
  5. The activity goes back to Paul.
  6. Unless both Paul and Rachel Go Unready or start a pause, the activity will never go to a lower rank.

Example 2:

  1. Everyone but Julia is chatting to customers. Automatic pause is turned on in the queue, meaning that if an agent doesn't answer an activity, they will be put on an unpaid pause.
  2. An activity comes in via the queue and starts ringing for Julia (rank 1). As it's ringing, Tom's, Sophie's and Rachel's activities end (in that order). Julia doesn't answer and Wait time runs out – she is put on an unpaid pause.
  3. The activity goes to Rachel because she holds the highest rank (rank 10). She doesn't answer and Wait time runs out – she is put on an unpaid pause.
  4. Paul is still busy, so the activity proceeds to the next rank down (rank 5).
  5. The activity goes to Tom as he has been inactive longer than Sophie.

Random in Priority Order

  1. This strategy first distributes the activity to a random available agent of the highest rank to whom the activity has not yet been distributed.

  2. If the activity is rejected or not answered before Wait time runs out, it will go to another agent to whom the activity has not yet been distributed

    1. of the same rank.
    2. of a lower rank if there are no agents of the same rank available.
    3. Once the activity has been distributed to all agents in all rank groups and no one has answered, the process begins again from step 1.

Diagram of the Random in Priority Order distribution strategy

Example 1:

  1. All agents are available.
  2. An activity comes in via the queue and starts ringing for Rachel (rank 10). She doesn't answer and Wait time runs out.
  3. The activity goes to Paul (rank 10). He doesn't answer and Wait time runs out.
  4. The activity goes to the next rank group down (rank 5), to a random agent – Tom. He doesn't answer and Wait time runs out.
  5. The activity goes to Sophie. She rejects it.
  6. The activity goes to the next rank group down (rank 1), to a random agent – Julia. She doesn't answer and Wait time runs out.
  7. The activity goes to Terry. He rejects it.
  8. The process starts again from step 1.

Example 2:

  1. Everyone but Julia is chatting to customers.
  2. An activity comes in via the queue and starts ringing for Julia (rank 1). As it's ringing, Tom's, Sophie's and Rachel's activities end. Julia doesn't answer and Wait time runs out.
  3. Julia was the only available agent at the lowest rank – the activity will go to Rachel (rank 10, Paul is still busy). She doesn't answer and Wait time runs out.
  4. The activity goes to the next rank down (rank 5) – first to Tom, then Sophie. They both don't answer.
  5. The activity goes back to Julia.

Call Last Agent

Warning

If Find specific agent is set to Last agent in the queue (formerly the Call last agent option) and an activity comes in before Last agent hours runs out, it will first be distributed to the agent that spoke to the customer last. If the agent rejects the activity or doesn't answer before Agent ring time runs out, distribution will continue from the beginning as per the diagrams above. The time a call spends ringing at the last agent is counted towards Max. waiting time.

Info

Find specific agent is not one of the four distribution strategies β€” it is a separate option on the queue, tried before the selected strategy runs. Its other choices target the owner of the customer's CRM contact: CRM Contact owner – if available falls back to the strategy like Last agent does, while CRM Contact owner – exclusively never offers the activity to anyone else.