Event optimizations – Assembled

This feature is a part of Assembled's Pro and Enterprise plans. Please see our Plans page for additional details about our plans and associated features, and please contact the Assembled team at support@assembled.com if you’re interested in using this!

Event optimizations allow you to optimize a set of events using a set of parameters that you specify. Imagine you are scheduling lunches and breaks around agent chat time to maximize coverage while remaining within the timing requirements of those breaks and lunches — event optimizations will provide you a one-click way to do this.

Once you set up an optimization rule, you can apply the optimization rule to any time range or set of agents you'd like.

Create an optimization rule

Optimization rules determine the acceptable parameters within which Assembled can schedule events.

1. On the navigation bar to the left, open the Configure menu and then select Optimizations.

2. Select Add rule.

3. Add some more details around your optimization:

   • Title: This is the name of your optimization. It is also the title that you'll choose when you want to run it. Make sure it's clear and brief.

• Events to optimize around: These are the events that you want Assembled to schedule around and keep. Many customers want to optimize their events around pre-existing meetings, 1:1 sessions, or time off events so those events would be included here.

• Enforce the order of event rules: When checked, the optimization rules listed in the next section will be scheduled in the order from the top of event rules to the bottom, chronologically. If left unchecked, the algorithm will optimize the schedule with no particular order. For example, if you wanted to ensure that you had a break, then a lunch, then another break, you would check this box. If it didn't matter, and all you care about is having two breaks and a lunch anywhere in the schedule, then don't enforce order.

• Stagger events: When checked, the optimization rule will create more staggered events randomly while still preserving the optimality of the events. This can be useful if you don't want all your agents having lunches at the same time, for example.

4. Add your event rules:
   • Event type: the event you want to optimize. Following the example above, this would be a lunch or a break event. These will need to be already defined in Assembled.
   • Event duration: the length of the event you're going to optimize. An example is having lunch be an hour. You can set this in hours or minutes.
   • Time from start: minimum duration of time after which you can start scheduling the event. You can set this in hours or minutes.
   • Time from end: minimum duration of time from the end of your event till the end of the event you're scheduling around. For the lunch example, this would be the remaining time the Chat event after the end of the lunch event. You can set this in hours or minutes.
   • Time between: minimum time between this event you are optimizing and other ones you'll be adding. You can set this in hours or minutes.
5. Select Add event rule to save your changes. You can add multiple event rules if you'd like to. Once those are done, go back to your staffing timeline.

Run an event optimization

1. Navigate to the Staffing timeline and filter to the set of agents whose events you're looking to optimize.

2. Set the timeframe you'd like to use. We'll use the staffing timeline timeframe to optimize events. If you're looking at a week, the optimization rule will apply over that week. If you're looking at a day, they'll apply over that day.

3. Select the magic wand icon at the top of your list of agents.

4. From the drop-down menu, choose the optimization rule you want to apply, and select Optimize events.

5. You're all set! Assembled will now optimize your events and make sure the needs of your customers and agents are met.

Frequently asked questions

• What does the algorithm optimize for? Assembled will use the staffing requirements generated from our forecasting system and try to ensure your schedule is as close to those required staffing levels as possible. If you run the algorithm while filtered to All channels, we will optimize across multiple channels. If you're selected to a particular channel, we'll optimize for that particular channel while also trying to optimize across any queues for that channel.

• What happens if the optimization doesn't work for an agent? The modal after you apply an optimization will list all agents where we weren't able to satisfy one of the requirements. This will happen if it's physically impossible to optimize an agent's events using the rules provided. We won't try to partially fill in an agent's schedule. We will just revert the agent's events back to what they looked like before, so that no agent is half-optimized.

• My SLA is going down, what gives? There are a couple of reasons why your SLA might go down after you apply an optimization. First, if you didn't have lunches and breaks and are adding them, your SLA will have to go down because we're adding in more non-productive time with the algorithm. Second, our algorithm optimizes across multiple queues and channels, so it tries to do its best making sure the lowest staffed queues will have more optimal events. It could be the case that some queues have lower SLA while other queues have higher SLA, but our algorithm tries its best to make globally optimal decisions.

• How does this work? It's a bit of a secret, but we use our made-in-house specialized algorithm borrows ideas from chess algorithms and artificial intelligence to reach maximum scheduling efficiency. Behind the scenes, our algorithm tries out millions of potential options, far more than any of us could ever do manually, to find the best placement for your events.

Video tutorial

Using Optimizations

Open video in Loom