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Zoho Desk

Assignment Rule (Desk)

Assignment rules in Zoho Desk automatically route new tickets to the right agent or team based on defined conditions, eliminating manual triage.

An assignment rule in Zoho Desk is an automation that routes incoming tickets to the right agent or team based on defined conditions such as ticket type, channel, department, or customer attributes.

How Assignment Rules Work

When a ticket is created, Zoho Desk evaluates assignment rules in priority order. The first matching rule assigns the ticket to a specified agent, team, or assigns it via round-robin among available agents. If no rule matches, tickets go to the default queue.

Condition-Based Routing

Assignment rules can match on ticket subject keywords, channel (email, chat, phone), custom fields, customer account type, or department. A company might route tickets mentioning ‘invoice’ to the billing team and those mentioning ‘crash’ to the engineering support team.

Assignment Rules vs Workflows

Assignment rules specifically handle routing decisions at ticket creation. Workflows handle a broader range of actions and can fire on ticket updates as well. For initial routing, assignment rules are the primary tool; workflows handle re-routing based on subsequent changes.

Example: A software company creates assignment rules: tickets from Enterprise accounts go to the senior support team, tickets tagged ‘API’ go to the developer support queue, and all others go to the general support pool via round-robin.
What is an Assignment Rule in Zoho Desk?

An assignment rule is an automation that routes new tickets to the correct agent or team based on criteria like ticket subject, channel, or customer type. It ensures tickets reach the right person without manual triage.

Can assignment rules route to teams rather than individual agents in Zoho Desk?

Yes. Assignment rules can route tickets to a specific agent, a team, or distribute them via round-robin across a group of agents. Team-based routing is useful when any member of the team can handle the ticket.

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