Not every agent can handle every call. Some speak Tamil and some do not, some know the loan products and some only handle service requests, and some are new and still learning. Skill based routing sends each caller to the agents best able to help, instead of the next free person in the room. This guide explains how skill based routing works, how to plan skills for an Indian call centre and how to build it in Voxdial Contact Center with inbound groups and agent priorities.
What is skill based routing?
Skill based routing is a way of distributing calls by matching what the caller needs with what the agent can do. The “skills” are usually:
- Language: Hindi, English, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu and so on.
- Product or service: loans vs cards, OPD vs lab reports, bookings vs billing.
- Level: new agents, experienced agents and senior staff for escalations.
- Customer type: dealers, corporate clients or priority customers.
The system learns what the caller needs from the number they dialled, their IVR choice or their details, then offers the call to agents with the matching skill. If none are free, it can wait, overflow to a wider group or offer a callback.
Skill based routing vs simple queues
| Factor | Simple queue | Skill based routing |
|---|---|---|
| Who gets the call | Next free agent | Next free agent with the right skill |
| Transfers | Common, caller explains twice | Fewer, right person first time |
| Training | Every agent must know everything | New agents start on fewer call types |
| Language match | Luck | Planned |
| Planning effort | Low | Needs a skills matrix and upkeep |
The main gain is fewer transfers. Each transfer adds handle time and frustrates the caller, and it hurts first call resolution.
Step 1: Build a skills matrix
List agents down the side and call types across the top, then mark who can handle what and how well. Keep it simple: a 1 for strong, 2 for able, a dash for not trained.
| Agent | Hindi | Tamil | Loans | Cards | Escalations |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agent A | 1 | – | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Agent B | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | – |
| Agent C | – | 1 | 1 | – | – |
| Agent D | 2 | 1 | – | 1 | – |
From this you can see gaps straight away: if only one person handles Tamil loan calls, you have a single point of failure on their day off.
Step 2: Let callers say what they need
Callers need a way to signal the skill they need before the call reaches an agent.
- Separate numbers: one DID per product or region. Common for dealers and partners.
- IVR options: “Press 1 for Hindi, 2 for Tamil”, then a product menu. Keep it to two short levels. See IVR call flow design.
- Time of day: route to a different team outside office hours using time based call routing.
Step 3: Turn skills into groups and priorities
The practical way to run skill based routing in most systems is a group (queue) for each skill combination that matters, with agents ranked inside each group.
In Voxdial Contact Center this is done with inbound groups:
- Create a group for each skill. For example “Loans Hindi”, “Loans Tamil” and “Cards”.
- Point each DID or IVR option at its group. The Advanced IVR or the inbound DID setting sends the caller to the right queue.
- Add agents to every group they can handle. The same agent can be a member of several groups.
- Set a priority from 1 to 9 for each agent in each group. Lower numbers are offered calls first. Your strongest Tamil agent might be priority 1 in “Loans Tamil” and priority 5 in “Loans Hindi”.
- Set waiting rules per group: music on hold, a waiting announcement, the SLA target time, a maximum number of callers waiting and a timeout destination.
Priorities are what turn a plain queue into skill routing. A priority 1 agent gets the call when free. Priority 5 agents only get calls when the priority 1 to 4 agents are all busy. That keeps your best-matched people busy first and uses backup agents only when needed.
Step 4: Plan overflow so nobody waits forever
Skill routing can make queues smaller, and small queues can get stuck. Always plan what happens when the skilled agents are all busy.
- Wider backup agents at a higher priority number in the same group, as above.
- Call actions: Voxdial lets you run timed steps while a caller waits, such as playing a message after 30 seconds or changing the route after 90 seconds to a wider group.
- Timeout destination: after the maximum wait, send the caller to another group or destination you choose.
- No agent destination: where calls go when no agent in the group is logged in.
- Auto callback: missed and abandoned callers come back as a callback list.
- AI backup: when every agent is busy, a BitVoice AI voice agent can take the call in the caller’s language, note the request and pass the caller to the next free agent with a summary.
Step 5: Give agents context when the call arrives
Routing to the right person helps most when that person also sees who is calling. Each Voxdial inbound group can pop a web form or CRM page on the agent’s screen, so the loan agent sees the loan record straight away. See click to call CRM integration.
Step 6: Watch it and adjust
- Compare service level and average speed of answer per group on the wallboard. One group that always waits longer usually means too few skilled agents.
- Check transfers. If calls from “Cards” are often moved to “Loans”, the IVR wording may be confusing.
- Update priorities as new agents gain experience. Move them from priority 5 to 3 as their scores improve.
- Review the skills matrix every month, especially before festivals and campaign launches.
Common mistakes
- Too many groups. Twenty groups of two agents each is harder to staff than five groups of eight.
- No backup agents. A group with only priority 1 agents stalls when they are all busy.
- Long IVR menus that try to capture every skill up front.
- Never updating priorities, so the best agents burn out and new ones never get practice.
Want to map your teams and languages into groups and priorities? Talk to BitVoice.
FAQs
What is skill based routing in a call centre?
It is call routing that matches the caller’s need, such as language or product, with agents who have that skill, instead of sending the call to the next free agent.
How do I set up skill based routing in Voxdial?
Create an inbound group for each skill, send the right DIDs or IVR options to each group, add agents to every group they can handle and set each agent’s priority from 1 to 9. Lower numbers are offered calls first.
What happens if no skilled agent is free?
You can add backup agents at a higher priority number, change the route after a set wait using call actions, send callers to a timeout destination, call them back from the missed call list, or let an AI voice agent take the call as backup.
Is skill based routing useful for small teams?
Yes, mainly for languages. Even a ten-agent team benefits from sending Tamil or Malayalam callers to agents who speak them, with others as backup.
