Exercise 05 - Configure routing rules and skill-based routing

Routing is the brain of the contact center. Without it, every conversation lands in the same queue regardless of urgency, customer value, or required expertise. In this exercise, you will configure the routing pipeline for Contoso Coffee's chat channel. You will enable skill-based routing so Spanish-language conversations go to qualified agents, create a work classification rule that tags high-value customer conversations, and build a route-to-queue rule that sends those tagged conversations to the right queue automatically.

This exercise should take approximately 45 minutes to complete.

Before you start

You must have completed Exercise 04. The Contoso Chat Workstream, Contoso Support Queue, and Spanish skill must all exist before you begin.

Task 1 - Create a rating model

Skill-based routing requires a rating model that defines the scale used to measure agent proficiency. You will create a Language rating model for Contoso Coffee's multilingual support team.

1. In Copilot Service admin center, in the left navigation under Customer support, select Routing.

2. Next to Skill-based routing, select Manage.

3. In the Rating Models subgrid, select +New Rating Model.

4. Enter the following:

   • Name: Language Rating Model
   • Min Rating Value: 1
   • Max Rating Value: 10

5. Select Save.

6. In the Rating Values section, select the ellipses in the corner of the subgrid and then select + New Rating Value.

7. Create the following entries. After each entry, select Save and close.

   Name	Value
   Basic	1
   Conversational	5
   Business	8
   Fluent	10

   [!NOTE] If the Discard suggestions? dialog appears at any point during this process, select Continue anyway to continue without applying AI-generated suggestions.

8. Select the Value column header in the Rating Values subgrid. Select Smaller to larger to sort the values.

9. Confirm that all four rating values - Basic, Conversational, Business, and Fluent - appear in the Rating Values subgrid, in that order.

Task 2 - Enable skill-based routing on the workstream

Skill-based routing is enabled at the workstream level by setting the default skill-matching algorithm. This tells the routing engine to match incoming conversations to agents based on their skills and proficiency.

1. In the left navigation under Customer support, select Workstreams.

2. Select Contoso Chat Workstream.

3. Select See more in the Work distribution settings.

   [!NOTE] This panel exposes several additional workstream settings worth exploring:

   • Auto-close after inactivity - automatically closes a conversation after a defined period of agent inactivity, preventing stale conversations from blocking capacity.
   • Work distribution mode - locked to Push for this workstream, meaning the system assigns conversations automatically rather than requiring agents to pick them up.
   • Capacity - sets the capacity unit cost of each conversation assigned through this workstream; used in conjunction with capacity profiles.
   • Block capacity for wrap up - when enabled, the agent's capacity remains occupied during the post-conversation wrap-up period so they aren't assigned a new conversation immediately.
   • Allowed presences - defines which agent presence statuses (for example, Available, Busy) are eligible to receive work from this workstream.
   • Keep the same representative for the entire conversation - ensures that a returning customer is reconnected to the same agent if they rejoin within the session window.

4. For Block capacity for wrap up, select Custom time. Set the custom time to 3 minutes 0 seconds.

5. Under Default skill matching algorithm, select Exact match.

   [!NOTE] Exact match requires the assigned agent to have all required skills at or above the minimum proficiency threshold. If no agent meets the criteria, the conversation remains unassigned in the queue. Use Closest match if you want the system to assign conversations even when no agent has an exact skill match.

6. Select Save and close.

Task 3 - Create a skill attachment ruleset

Skill attachment rules are a type of work classification ruleset. They attach skills to incoming conversations so the routing engine can match conversations to agents who have the required skill and proficiency. You will create a rule that attaches the Spanish skill to any conversation where the customer's language is Spanish.

1. In the left navigation under Customer support, select Workstreams.

2. Select Contoso Chat Workstream.

3. In the Routing rules section, scroll to Work classification (optional) and select + Create ruleset.

4. Select Create new.

5. In the Create work classification ruleset dialog configure the following:

   • Rule type: Logical rules
   • Name: Contoso Skill Attachment Rules
   • Description: Attaches the Spanish skill to conversations from Spanish-speaking customers

6. Select Create.

   [!NOTE] There are two rule type options:

   • Logical rules - you manually define conditions and outputs using the decision list builder. Best for straightforward, deterministic routing logic where the criteria are well-known and stable.
   • Machine learning model - uses an AI model trained on historical conversation data to predict and attach attributes automatically. Best for complex or high-volume environments, but requires model training and setup.

7. On the Decision list page, select +Create rule.

8. In the Create work classification rule dialog, enter:

   • Rule Name: Attach Spanish skill - Mexico

9. In the Conditions area, select + Add row. Set the condition:

   • Attribute: Customer Language
   • Operator: Equals
   • Value: Spanish - Mexico

10. Set the Output as Skills.

11. Select the Set to lookup. In the Select skills pane that appears, select:

    • Skill: Spanish
    • Proficiency: Conversational

12. Select Save and close.

13. Select Create.

14. Repeat the previous steps to create three more rules with the same output, one for each remaining Spanish variant:

    Rule Name	Condition Value
    Attach Spanish skill - Puerto Rico	Spanish - Puerto Rico
    Attach Spanish skill - Spain	Spanish - Spain
    Attach Spanish skill - United States	Spanish - United States

    [!NOTE] Because the condition toggle is fixed to And and can't be changed to Or, creating one rule per language variant is the correct approach. Each rule is evaluated independently in the decision list, so any matching variant will attach the Spanish skill.

15. Confirm that all four rules appear in the decision list.

    [!NOTE] These rules attach the Spanish skill at Conversational proficiency to any incoming conversation where the customer language is Spanish. The routing engine then uses the exact match algorithm (set in Task 2) to find an agent with at least Conversational proficiency in Spanish.

Task 4 - Create a work classification ruleset

Work classification rules run before a conversation is assigned to a queue. They inspect the conversation's properties and set output values - such as a service level or category - that route-to-queue rules can then act on.

Contoso Coffee wants conversations from Trey Research (a key commercial account) to be tagged as Gold service level and routed to the Contoso Support Queue immediately.

1. In the left navigation under Customer support, select Workstreams.

2. Select Contoso Chat Workstream.

3. In the Routing rules section, select See more next to Work classification (optional).

4. On the Work classification page, select Create new.

5. In the Create work classification ruleset dialog configure the following:

   • Rule type: Logical rules
   • Start new or use a template: New ruleset
   • Name: Contoso Classification Rules
   • Description: Classifies Trey Research conversations as Gold service level

6. Select Create.

7. In the Decision list, select +Create Rule.

8. Configure the rule:

   • Rule Name: Set Gold service level
   • Select +Add, then Add related entity, and add the Issue (Case) entity
   • Condition: Customer Equals Trey Research

9. In the Output section, scroll to Related entities in the dropdown and select Issue (Case). (Do not select Issue; it will appear before Issue (Case) in the dropdown, but keep scrolling. We want to select the field that exists on the related entity.)

10. In Select attribute or related entity, select Service Level.

11. In set to, select Gold.

12. Select Create.

13. Confirm that Set Gold service level appears in the decision list.

Task 5 - Create a route-to-queue ruleset

Route-to-queue rules use the output values set by the work classification ruleset to direct conversations to the correct queue. You will create a rule that routes Gold service level conversations to the Contoso Support Queue.

1. On the Contoso Chat Workstream page, in the Routing rules section, select the Default routing ruleset.

2. In the Decision list, select + Create Rule.

3. Configure the rule:

   • Rule Name: Route Gold to Contoso Support Queue
   • Select Add related entity and select Issue (Case)
   • Condition: Service Level Equals Gold
   • Queue: Contoso Support Queue

4. Select Create.

5. Confirm that Route Gold to Contoso Support Queue appears in the decision list.

6. Click the up arrow to move it to the 1st position in the decision list.

Task 6 - Verify the routing configuration

With both rulesets attached to the workstream, review the complete routing pipeline to confirm everything is connected correctly.

1. On the Contoso Chat Workstream page, review the Routing rules section. Confirm the following are all present:

   • Work classification: Contains Contoso Skill Attachment Rules and Contoso Classification Rules
   • Route to queues: Specifies Default messaging queue as the fallback queue and specifies the Ruleset as Default routing

2. Confirm that all sections show the expected values. Changes made in each pane were saved when you selected Save and close in earlier tasks.

   [!NOTE] When a chat conversation arrives through this workstream, the routing engine will: (1) apply skill requirements to match the conversation to a qualified agent, (2) run the classification rules to check for Trey Research and set the service level, and (3) run the route-to-queue rules to direct the conversation to the correct queue. You will test this end-to-end in Exercise 08.

Verification

This exercise is complete when:

• Skill-based routing is enabled and the Language Rating Model exists with four rating values
• Contoso Chat Workstream has a Spanish skill requirement with minimum proficiency of 4
• Contoso Classification Rules workstream ruleset exists with the Set Gold service level rule
• Contoso Route-to-Queue Rules exists with the Route Gold to Contoso Support Queue rule
• All rulesets are attached to Contoso Chat Workstream