How do I use Queues in Cases?

Queues in Sprout help care teams efficiently organize and route cases. They act as containers for inbound cases based on urgency, topic, or customer segment, ensuring they reach the right agents or teams for resolution. With this feature, you can assign cases manually or automate the process, streamlining your case management workflows.

This feature is only available on the Advanced and Professional plans.

This article contains the following sections:

• How do I create a Queue?
• How can I route cases?
• How do I claim an unassigned case?
• How do I reassign a case?
• Queues FAQs

How do I create a Queue?

Before creating queues, ensure you have Manage Case Settings permission and the necessary permissions to create teams, as well as at least one team created for assigning queue access. Note that when you create queues, this applies across all Sprout Groups.

To create a queue for routing cases, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to your initials in the lower left hand corner. Select Settings.
   
   
2. Click Case Settings under the Inbox section.
   
   
   
3. Click Create Queue. A modal will pop up with various configuration options:
   
   
   • Name: The queue name will identify the queue in navigation, filters, reporting, and on the Cases Settings page.
   • Description: The description appears in the Cases Settings page.
   • Teams: Add the teams you want to have access to cases in the queue.
   • Case Routing Method:
     • Capacity Based: Cases will be assigned automatically in a distributed order based on capacity.
     • Round Robin: Cases will be assigned automatically in a set order.
     • Manual: Agents will need to manually assign cases to themselves from the queue.
   • Allow team members to view Queue: When selected, team members in this queue will be able to view and manually assign Cases.  Please note, if not selected, agents will work from their My Cases view, where cases are automatically assigned to them without access to the primary queue.
     
     
     
4. Click Save. Your queue has been created and is available for cases to be routed to.

How can I route cases?

 In order to best use queues for routing, you can either:

• Create an automated rule that creates cases from incoming messages and routes them to a queue.  To learn more about creating automated rules, click here.
  
• Manually create and assign a case to a specified team queue.
  
  
  1. Click the pin icon on the message you want to turn into a case.  
  2. Select the queue you want to assign the case to from the drop down.
  3. Fill out the remaining case details.
  4. Click Create Case.

How do I claim an unassigned case?

To claim an unassigned case:

1. Navigate to Cases in the left-hand navigation.
2. Click Default Queue under My Queues in the left-hand navigation or click the particular queue you want to view unassigned cases for.
   
3. Filter by Types, Statuses and/or Priority.
4. Click the case you want to claim.
5. Assign the case to yourself and update any additional case details.

How do I reassign a case?

To reassign a case that’s assigned to you:

1. Open a case from the Case tab.
2. Select Unassigned from the Assignee dropdown.
   
   

A notification is sent to all Team members alerting them the case is unassigned and available to claim. Alternatively, you can reassign a case directly to another user on your Team.

Queues FAQs

What’s the difference between case routing and assignment?
Routing is the process in which cases are sent to a queue, whereas assignment is the process of making an individual user responsible for the case.

What queues are included in the Queue dropdown when creating and updating cases?
All active queues within your account are included.

Does a user need to be a member of a particular queue to create and route a case to that queue?
No. Any user who can create a case can see a list of queues within your account.

What happens if a team member is removed from a queue but they have cases assigned to them?
The case remains assigned to the user.

What happens if a queue is deleted?
Deleting a queue is permanent and can’t be undone. It’s a best practice to move cases to a different team before deleting the queue.

If a case belongs to a queue and is Unassigned, the case automatically updates to Default Queue on the Cases page in the All Cases view.

If a case belongs to a queue and is assigned to a user, then it remains with the current Assignee.

What is considered an ‘Available’ case in Sprout?
Available cases are those that are unassigned.

What impacts are there on the Case Performance Report?
The Case Performance Report is a user-level report, where metrics are calculated during the time in which a case is assigned to a specific user. As such, any time period where a case is unassigned is not attributed to an assignee.

Example:

• A new case is created and routed to the Customer Support team at 12:00 pm. The case is Unassigned.
• Agent A claims the case at 1:00 pm.
• Agent A marks the case Closed at 2:00 pm.
• The Active Case Time for Agent A is 1 hour, the time period the case was Open and assigned to the agent.

How “real-time” are the case counts that appear on the Cases page?

The case counts badges appear for each view within the My Queues section on the Cases page. These case counts are updated when unassigned cases are claimed/assigned, when assigned cases are unassigned, and when cases change queues

For a user making these updates to a Case Assignee, the case counts update in real-time.

For other users on the Cases page the case counts update after a page refresh, either manually or by performing other actions that refresh the page, e.g. using filters, clicking into views and viewing cases.

Is this feature available on the Sprout mobile app?

No, not at this time. When creating or updating cases from the mobile app, you can’t route cases to queues or un-assign users from cases.

You can view unassigned cases created from the Sprout web app in the Cases section of the mobile app. When viewing an unassigned case from the mobile app any edits made to the case also update the case assignee.

Why are some values not selectable in the Queue and Assignee dropdowns?

In order to prevent cases from slipping through the cracks without any ownership, you can’t create a case without at least a Team or user assigned. During case creation or update, validations are in place to prevent a case with a Team value of No Team and Assignee of Unassigned.

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