Set a Profile Value Greater Than the Average Handle Time

The average handle time is the average duration of one interaction of an agent with a customer. You must evaluate the average handle times for real-time and non-real-time interactions in your company.

You must set the profile values for the SVC_STARVATION_PREVENTION_NRT_INTERVAL and SVC_STARVATION_PREVENTION_RT_INTERVAL profile options to a much higher value than the respective average handle times. For more information about configuring these profile values, see "Configure Profile Options to Prevent Work Starvation".

Here's an example:

Suppose you have only one agent and he's already engaged in a chat with a customer. So when a new chat comes in, it's in the wait period. If you set your profile value to 30 seconds but your chat handle time is 1 minute, then it's of no use. Even if you raise the priority, nothing is going to happen. That's because only after 1 minute, the application gets a chance to assign the next chat.

• As your handle time for a chat is 1 minute, you should ideally set the profile value to 3 minutes. Which means that if 3 chats get ahead of a lower priority chat, then you try to raise its priority. That's because a large number of higher priority chats keep on coming in, and they're not letting the lower priority chat to go through.

• You're letting the application give at least 3 chances to assign the lower priority chat. Because in 3 minutes, there are 3 instances when the agent is free and ready to pick up a chat. But if it still doesn't get assigned, then the priority of the chat is raised by 1, and it's picked up because it now has a higher priority.