Departments

What it is

Departments are named choices that identify the area a visitor wants to contact. Each department can have translated names and optional actions that change a bot's conversation context. Channels control floor membership and routing, while teams group operators. Creating a department alone does not create a queue or assign a team.

Who uses it and why

• Administrators maintain department names, translations, optional bot context actions, channel conditions and team membership.
• Supervisors review routing and operator access when work is not reaching the intended people.
• Operators receive eligible conversations and transfer work to permitted destinations.
• Visitors choose a department where the chat experience offers one.

Where to find it

Use Settings › Chat › Departments for department names and Contexts, Settings › Channel for routing controls, and Settings › Teams for teams. Manage individual operator access in Settings › Account › Operators.

The Settings role grants department and channel configuration access when Departments or Settings › Channel is allowed in Settings Permissions. View Only prevents changes. The Manager role can change operator channel settings when Edit Operator Channel Settings is allowed and View Only is off.

How it works

1. Where the visitor experience offers department selection, the visitor chooses an area to contact. That department and other visitor details provide routing context. The department can also apply its configured bot context actions.
2. Channel conditions identify the relevant floor and eligible work. Conditions and schedules can change eligibility over time.
3. INSIDE checks operator permissions, skills, platform capability, availability and capacity.
4. INSIDE orders eligible operators according to the assignment policy and any applicable team, chat-link or preference for the operator who previously postponed the conversation.
5. Operators receive assigned conversations, accept broadcast offers or pick up waiting work manually, according to the channel settings. Work that cannot be assigned remains waiting.

Operators can transfer conversations to permitted destinations. Supervisors investigating unexpected routing should check channel conditions and schedules, operator access, skills, availability and capacity, then any explicit destination restrictions.

The department list displays the preferred-language name, falling back to English and then another populated translation. Saving fills a missing English name from the website language where available.

Configure it

With the Settings role and permission to make changes:

1. Ask Powerfront to set up the supported languages you need in Settings › General Settings › Supported Languages before entering translations.
2. Open Settings › Chat › Departments and choose New, or open an existing department.
3. Enter Department name in the default language tab, then add names in the other supported language tabs.
4. If needed, use the plus control under Contexts to add an action. Choose Select Bot, Select Context, then add, remove or set to. New rows default to add. Use the row's delete control to remove an action.
5. Choose Save, then configure the visitor's department selector separately in the chat entry experience.

No context actions are configured by default. New rows start with no bot or context selected. For each row with a selected bot, select a context and an operation.

In Settings › Channel, configure visitor conditions and availability. Managed channel is off by default. When on, it creates separate operator floors and splits visitors and chats between them. Its Mode starts at Default (mixed) in the new-channel editor; you can choose Proactive Only or Reactive Only. Enforce filter criteria is off by default. When on, it removes visitors who stop matching the conditions, while active chats remain. Restricted Availability is also off by default; enabling it disables the queue when operators have limited availability.

For manual pickup, enable Disable Auto Assignment and choose Disabled Platforms if only some platforms need it. With no platforms selected, it applies to all platforms. For proximity routing, enable Closest Team Location and choose Team to restrict the teams considered; leaving it blank considers all teams. Both switches start off in the new-channel editor. Maintain team membership and locations in Settings › Teams, and give operators the necessary website, channel and subsite access.

For platform-specific availability, enable Omnichannel Availability Control and save the intended Allowed Statuses. The editor initially selects all configured statuses, but a missing or empty saved list offers none. External Availability Control lets an external system control availability instead. Both controls start off in the new-channel editor. Where Salesforce is integrated, Salesforce Enable Omni Channel is off by default, with no Salesforce Statuses or Salesforce Limited Statuses mapped. Ask Powerfront to change the Salesforce integration setup for you.

Powerfront can change Operator Assignment Priority for you in Settings › General Settings › Admin. Its default is Most Available; Most Skills Matched favours matched skills when ordering eligible operators.

Settings

Fields

Permissions

Limits and good to know

• Broadcast for Acceptance and Disable Auto Assignment are mutually exclusive in the channel editor.
• Explicit operator or team restrictions can take precedence over ordinary channel and skill matching.
• Conversation Snooping starts on in the new-channel editor. Turning it off hides ordinary conversations assigned to another operator on unmanaged floors. Tickets, virtual assistant work and operators with the Manager role have exceptions.
• Omnichannel Availability Control, External Availability Control and Salesforce Enable Omni Channel are mutually exclusive in the editor. External or Salesforce availability can affect operator eligibility and available floor actions. With external control on, operators cannot become available directly in INSIDE.
• A department selected outside pre-chat may be reset when chat ends.
• The default-tab department name is required. The editor rejects a name matching an existing displayed department name, ignoring letter case.
• You can configure several context actions, but only one set to action per bot in each department.

Depends on and works with

FAQ and troubleshooting

Does a department automatically create a queue or team?

No. A department supplies context. Configure teams, channel conditions, routing restrictions and the visitor intake form separately.

Why can an operator see visitors but receive no conversations?

Check automatic assignment, the selected platforms, skills, capacity, availability and subsite permissions.

Why did enabling manual pickup turn off broadcasts?

Disable Auto Assignment and Broadcast for Acceptance select different handling modes. The editor prevents both being on together.

Why did a conversation go to a different team?

Check explicit transfer restrictions, closest-team routing, chat-link destinations and fallback eligibility.

Why will the department not save?

Enter a name in the default tab, check for an existing displayed name and complete the context and operation for each row with a selected bot.

Why is the name displayed in another language?

The list falls back to English and then another populated translation when the preferred name is missing. Check the department's language tabs.

Why are multiple set to actions rejected?

A department permits only one set to action for each bot. Remove the conflicting row.

Why can I only view departments?

Department editing requires the Settings role, Departments access and View Only switched off in Settings Permissions.