Round Robin assignment explained
Round robin is a ticket distribution method that ensures new conversations are assigned to agents in a fixed, repeating sequence. This approach helps maintain fairness by cycling through the list of currently online team members consistently, so that no single person is overloaded while others remain idle.
Important: Round robin only operates when a ticket or conversation is assigned to a team via a Workflow. If you manually assign a ticket to a team or an individual agent, the round robin process will not run.
How to enable Round Robin for a team
- Go to Settings → Teams → Select a Team.
- Under "Conversation Assignment Method", click on Round Robin
- Click on Save Changes
When Round Robin Triggers
Round robin is triggered only when all of the following are true:
- A Workflow assigns the ticket to a team.
- The target team has Round Robin enabled.
- At least one team member is online.
If any of these conditions are not met, the ticket will not be automatically assigned to an agent.
How It Works
When a new ticket arrives, SparrowDesk first looks at which team members are online. It then arranges their names in alphabetical order to create a simple list. The system remembers who received the last ticket, and the next one is given to the following person on that list. If someone is offline, they are skipped. When the end of the list is reached, the cycle starts again from the top, making sure tickets keep moving fairly between agents.
Assignment Process
- Check if the team has Round Robin enabled.
- Refresh the list of online agents (A → Z order).
- Start after the last assigned agent and select the next online agent.
- Skip any offline agents.
- Assign the ticket to the next available qualified agent
- If no agents are online, the ticket remains unassigned (team only) in the inbox.
Preparing agent list for assignment
- The round robin list only includes team members who are currently online.
- After identifying who is online, their names are placed in alphabetical order (A to Z) by display name.
- Even though the list looks alphabetical, SparrowDesk keeps track of assignments using each agent’s unique ID.
- This approach ensures accuracy and fairness, even if two or more agents share the same display name.
The agent list is rebuilt for each ticket. If an agent comes online after the last assignment, they are immediately eligible for the next ticket.
Assignment limit Per Agent
Currently, there is no limit on how many tickets an agent can receive. This means that if other agents are offline, the system may continue assigning new tickets to the same available agent without restriction. While this ensures tickets are not left waiting, it can sometimes result in one agent carrying a heavier workload until others come online.
Example
Here’s a single scenario that shows how round robin works with different situations:
- Normal cycle: Online agents are Alice, Brian, and Clara. Tickets go Alice → Brian → Clara → Alice, and so on.
- One goes offline: If Clara goes offline and the last ticket went to Brian, the next one will move to Alice.
- One comes back online: If Clara comes online again after being offline, she is added back into the cycle. If the last ticket went to Alice, the next goes to Brian, then Clara.
- Everyone offline: If all team members are offline at the time of assignment, the ticket stays Unassigned in the team inbox.
Unassigned Tickets
Tickets remain unassigned when:
- All agents are offline.
- The team has no members.
- Round robin is disabled.
Agents can manually pick these from the Unassigned view.
FAQ
When does round robin trigger?
It triggers only when a Workflow assigns the ticket to a team that has the Round Robin toggle enabled and at least one team member is online.
What if a ticket is assigned manually?
Round robin does not run on manual assignments.
How is the agent list made?
We include only team members who are currently online and sort them alphabetically by display name. Internally, the sequence is tracked with each agent’s unique ID for accuracy.
Do display names need to be unique?
No. Even if two agents share the same name, assignments remain correct because they’re tracked by unique IDs.
How often is the list refreshed?
On every new assignment event. This ensures online/offline changes are applied immediately.
What if the last assigned agent is now offline?
The system skips that person and moves to the next online agent in the alphabetical sequence.
What happens if all agents are offline?
The ticket remains unassigned in the team’s inbox (assigned to the team, not an agent) until someone picks it up or agents come back online.
Are there capacity limits per agent?
Not currently. An available agent can receive multiple tickets if others are offline. Capacity controls are on the roadmap.
Does the cycle wrap around?
Yes. After reaching the end of the list, the next assignment starts again from the top to keep distribution even.
Can round robin be configured per team?
Yes. This can be configured in the team settings.