{"id":26,"date":"2026-09-09T04:25:40","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T04:25:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nirohelp.com\/docs\/26\/auto-assigning-agents\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T12:39:29","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T06:39:29","slug":"auto-assigning-agents","status":"publish","type":"nirohelp_doc","link":"https:\/\/nirohelp.com\/docs\/workflows-automation\/auto-assigning-agents\/","title":{"rendered":"Auto-assigning agents to new tickets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When a client files a ticket, NiroHelp can hand it to an agent so it does not sit unowned. Configure it under NiroHelp \u2192 Settings \u2192 Tickets \u2192 Agent assignment<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"ticket<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Turning it on<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Auto-assign tickets<\/strong> is on by default. With it off, every new ticket is left unassigned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only users holding the NiroHelp Agent role are candidates.<\/strong> An administrator who answers tickets but does not carry that role is never picked. With no agents at all, tickets stay unassigned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The three strategies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Strategy<\/th>How it picks<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Random<\/strong><\/td>Picks at random from the eligible agents. The default.<\/td><\/tr>
Round-robin<\/strong><\/td>Goes down the list in order, one ticket each. Adding or removing an agent shifts the rotation, because the position counts into the current list.<\/td><\/tr>
Least-loaded<\/strong><\/td>Counts each agent’s assigned tickets and picks the lowest. Ties go to whoever comes first in the list.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Max open tickets per agent<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Set a cap under Max open tickets per agent<\/strong>. Leave it empty, or set it to 0, for no cap. When it is set, agents at or above the cap are skipped; if that leaves nobody, the ticket goes unassigned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read this before you set a cap.<\/strong> The count is not<\/em> limited to open tickets, despite the label. Resolved, closed and cancelled tickets are counted too, so in practice the cap behaves as a lifetime total per agent<\/strong> – an agent who has handled a lot of tickets is excluded even with an empty queue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until that changes, treat both the cap and the least-loaded strategy as “total tickets ever assigned”, and size the cap accordingly or leave it empty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the pick happens<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Exactly once, when the ticket is created.<\/strong> Later replies, status changes and edits never re-pick. If nobody is eligible, the ticket simply shows as unassigned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reassigning a ticket<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Auto-assignment is a starting point, not a decision. Reassign through the Assigned agent<\/strong> dropdown in the Ticket details<\/strong> box on the ticket editor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WordPress’s Quick Edit<\/strong> does not<\/em> offer the agent field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When there are no agents<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Tickets show No agent assigned<\/strong> in the Agent column. They are still searchable, readable and answerable, and you can assign them later. The “New ticket – to agent” email is skipped, because there is nobody to send it to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seeing the load<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

NiroHelp \u2192 Agents<\/strong> lists every agent with their open ticket count, total assigned, and an At capacity<\/strong> badge when they have hit the limit. The View tickets<\/strong> link beside each one filters the ticket list to that agent – it is the only per-agent filter there is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dashboard<\/a> shows the same load alongside each agent’s median first-reply and resolve times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smarter routing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Routing by product, by working hours or by timezone is not built in, and there is no setting for it. It is a small piece of custom work – see the Developers<\/a> section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"nirohelp_product":[],"nirohelp_topic":[7],"class_list":["post-26","nirohelp_doc","type-nirohelp_doc","status-publish","hentry","nirohelp_topic-workflows-automation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nirohelp.com\/docs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nirohelp_doc\/26","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nirohelp.com\/docs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nirohelp_doc"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nirohelp.com\/docs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/nirohelp_doc"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nirohelp.com\/docs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nirohelp.com\/docs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"nirohelp_product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nirohelp.com\/docs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nirohelp_product?post=26"},{"taxonomy":"nirohelp_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nirohelp.com\/docs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nirohelp_topic?post=26"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}