Agent Center Settings

The Settings area of Agent Center (found under the Call Center / Agent Center admin pages) is where you configure how calls get routed into queues, and — most importantly — how support tickets are created from incoming email, WhatsApp, SMS, Facebook, and Instagram messages, and how those tickets get assigned to agents. This article covers that Settings area's sub-tabs.

Overview#

Settings has these sub-tabs:

• Destination — a shortcut to the standalone Destinations screen (routing rules).
• IVR Menus — a shortcut to the standalone IVR Menus screen (phone menu trees).
• Ring Groups — a shortcut to the standalone Ring Groups screen (ring multiple extensions at once).
• Time Conditions — a shortcut to the standalone Time Conditions screen (route differently by day/time, e.g. business hours vs. after hours).
• Ticket Settings — configuration for how support tickets are created and assigned, covered in full below.

The first four are simply convenient shortcuts into screens that already exist elsewhere in the system (and are documented in their own articles) — nothing about them behaves differently when opened from here. The rest of this article focuses entirely on Ticket Settings, since that configuration is specific to Agent Center.

Ticket Settings itself has its own row of sub-tabs: Email, WhatsApp, Social Media, SMS, Idle Time, Escalation Matrix, KPI, RCA Template, and Tickets.

The Agent Center Settings screen

Screenshot needed · agent-center-settings-overview

Email Ticket Settings#

This controls how incoming email becomes a support ticket.

Ticket Intake Mailbox#

One real mailbox receives mail for every alias address you configure below it. Make sure each alias (e.g. support@yourcompany.com) is actually set up at your mail provider to deliver or forward into this mailbox — this page only reads what arrives here, it does not create the aliases at the mail server itself.

1. Enter the Mailbox Email Address and Mailbox Password.
2. Choose an Assignment Strategy — how a newly created ticket picks an agent out of whoever is currently marked Available:
   • None — leave the ticket unassigned.
   • Round Robin — cycle through available agents in turn.
   • Least Busy (Fewest Open Tickets) — give it to whoever currently has the fewest open tickets.
   • Random — pick a random available agent.
3. Click Save.

Ticket Alias Addresses#

When a message arrives addressed to one of these aliases, a ticket is created automatically.

1. Type an address (e.g. support@yourcompany.com) in the box at the bottom and click Add.
2. Optionally tie the alias to one or more Queues — only agents who are members of those queues will then be assigned tickets created from this alias. Use the Select Queues picker (searchable) next to each alias; at least one queue must be checked to save that alias's queue assignment.
3. Click the star icon next to an alias to mark it as the hand-over alias — the one address a ticket hand-over PDF is emailed to. Only one alias can hold this at a time.
4. Click the trash icon to remove an alias.

Automated Customer Messages#

These are sent automatically the moment an agent closes or resolves an email ticket. Use {ticket_number} and {requester_name} anywhere you want those filled in automatically — everything else is sent exactly as written (basic HTML tags like <p> and <strong> are fine). Edit the Ticket Closed Message and Ticket Resolved Message, then Save.

WhatsApp Ticket Settings#

This connects your WhatsApp Business number so incoming WhatsApp messages become tickets.

Webhook#

Shown read-only so you can copy both values straight into Meta's App Dashboard webhook configuration:

• Callback URL
• Verify Token — this only shows a real value after you've saved the connection settings below once.

WhatsApp Business Connection#

1. From your Meta App's WhatsApp > API Setup page, copy and paste in: Phone Number ID, WhatsApp Business Account ID, Access Token, and App Secret.
2. Choose an Assignment Strategy (same four choices as Email, above).
3. Click Save.
4. Go back to Meta's dashboard and paste the Callback URL and Verify Token (now showing real values) into the webhook configuration, and subscribe to the messages field.

Automated Customer Messages#

Same idea as Email's automated messages, but plain text only (WhatsApp has no HTML formatting) — use {ticket_number} in the Closed/Resolved message text.

Social Media Ticket Settings (Facebook & Instagram)#

A master Social Media toggle turns Facebook and Instagram ticket channels on or off for your whole domain. Turning the master off also disables both channels underneath it, regardless of their own individual toggles.

Facebook Page#

1. Turn on the Facebook toggle (only available if the master Social Media toggle is on).
2. Copy the Webhook Callback URL and Verify Token into your Meta App's Messenger > Settings > Webhooks configuration.
3. Under Facebook Page Connection, paste in your Page ID, App ID, Page Access Token, and App Secret (from your Meta App's Messenger settings and your Page's own settings).
4. Choose an Assignment Strategy and Save.
5. Set the Automated Customer Messages (Closed/Resolved, plain text).

Instagram#

Same pattern as Facebook: a per-channel toggle, a Webhook URL/Verify Token pair to paste into Meta's Instagram webhook configuration, a Connection card (Instagram User ID, App ID, Access Token, App Secret), an Assignment Strategy, and Automated Customer Messages.

SMS Ticket Settings#

This is where you pick which SMS provider agents' outbound texts (sent from inside a ticket) actually go through.

1. Choose an SMS Provider from the dropdown (several providers are supported — each one's own connection fields appear once selected, e.g. API Key, Sender ID, Account SID, etc., depending on the provider).
2. Fill in that provider's connection fields.
3. Check Active Provider to make this the one provider actually used for sending (only one provider can be active per domain at a time — switching to a different one while Active is checked will turn the previously active provider off, and you'll be asked to confirm).
4. Click Save.
5. Optionally send a Test SMS — enter a Recipient Number and Message, then send, to confirm the connection works before rolling it out to agents. A live character/segment counter shows how many SMS segments your test message will use.
6. If your provider supports it, a Check Balance button shows your remaining account credit.

Idle Time#

A single setting: how many hours the Agent/Supervisor Portal can sit with no activity (no clicks, keystrokes, or scrolling) before it automatically logs the user out. Defaults to 8 hours. Enter a new value and Save.

Escalation Matrix#

This automatically emails a summary of open tickets that have sat idle (no reply, comment, or status change) past a threshold you configure, escalating to whoever is responsible for following up.

Escalation levels chain in order: Level 1 fires once a ticket has been idle for its own threshold; every level after that only fires if the ticket is still unattended, and its own threshold is measured from when the previous level fired — not from the ticket's raw idle time. Any new activity on the ticket resets the whole chain back to Level 1.

How to add an Escalation Level

1. Click to expand the add/edit form.
2. Enter a Level number.
3. Enter the Idle Threshold (minutes) — for Level 1, minutes of idle time before it fires; for every level after, minutes after the previous level's own escalation.
4. Enter Recipient Emails (comma- or newline-separated) — everyone on this level receives the idle-ticket summary once the level fires.
5. Check Enabled.
6. Click Save.

Use the up/down arrows on an existing level to reorder the chain, the toggle button to enable/disable a level without deleting it, and the trash icon to remove it.

Escalation Schedule — escalation emails only ever go out during the time windows you add here; with no schedule configured, nothing will be sent regardless of how the levels above are set up.

1. Click to expand the add/edit form.
2. Pick a Time.
3. Check the Days this schedule applies to (quick buttons for Every Day, Weekdays, Weekends, or Clear).
4. Check Enabled and Save.

Add more than one schedule (e.g. 9:00 AM and 12:00 PM) to let the escalation chain advance further across the day.

KPI (Queue KPI Targets)#

Set the expected response/resolution times and a daily missed-call allowance for each queue, based on your business needs. These targets apply to every ticket channel (call, email, WhatsApp, SMS, etc.) handled through that queue. This page only stores the targets — it does not track or report actual agent performance against them (that reporting lives in the Agent Portal's own Reports/Dashboard, covered in other articles).

For each queue listed, fill in:

• Open Ticket (min) — expected time to open/acknowledge a new ticket.
• First Reply (min) — expected time to send the first reply.
• Re-reply (min) — expected time to reply again once the customer replies back.
• Close Ticket (min) — expected time to fully close the ticket (e.g., 60 = 1 hour).
• Max Missed Calls / Agent / Day — a daily missed-call allowance per agent.

Each queue's row saves independently.

RCA Template (Root Cause Analysis Report)#

When an agent or supervisor closes a ticket, everything logged in that ticket's own Tracking Thread is automatically compiled into a Root Cause Analysis report and emailed to the customer. A report is only actually sent when the customer has an email address on file, the Tracking Thread has at least one entry, and — if this ticket was already sent a report before (e.g. it was reopened and closed again) — at least one new entry has been added since the last send. Reopening and re-closing a ticket with no new activity logged never sends a duplicate report.

1. Check or uncheck Automatically email an RCA report when a ticket is closed.
2. Customize the Email Subject and Email Body (HTML) — leave either blank to use the default shown.
3. A reference table below the body shows every available token (e.g. ticket number, resolution summary) you can use in the template.
4. Click Save.

Tickets (sub-tab)#

This sub-tab is simply the Tickets list moved in as a convenience — it's the same Tickets view described in the Agent Portal article, just reachable from inside Settings as well.

Field Reference#

Tips & Common Issues#

• Aliases don't create mailboxes. Setting up an alias here only tells UCBC which addresses, once mail arrives in the one Ticket Intake Mailbox, should become tickets — you still need to configure forwarding/delivery for that alias at your actual mail provider.
• Only one SMS provider and one hand-over alias can be active at a time. Switching either will deactivate whatever was previously set.
• No escalation schedule means no escalation emails, no matter how the levels are configured — always add at least one schedule window.
• The Escalation chain resets on any new activity. If an agent replies or comments, a ticket goes back to square one for escalation purposes.
• RCA reports never duplicate. Reopening and re-closing a ticket with nothing new logged in the Tracking Thread will not send a second report to the customer.