Let's explore a common issue with round-robin distribution in Concierge.
When checking a queue's distribution history, we sometimes see the distribution is heavily skewed, where some reps receive meetings while others receive none. This can happen even if the rep is "next up" in the queue (denoted by a star).
Sometimes this looks extreme - if the rep receiving all the bookings is weighted very low or calibrated very high but is still being booked all of the meetings in Round Robin.
Example
Consider this real-world example, specifically the "Current Level" of each rep:
Here we see that one rep, who happens to be marked "next up" due to their very low current level, is not receiving any bookings. Meanwhile, 32 other meetings have been booked to the other reps!
In the queue's history itself, you will likely see repeated lines stating that the "Next in queue" is that rep with the star.
Why does this happen?
1. Availability
By default, Chili Piper will always book a prospect to the rep who is available. If a rep is too busy on their calendar, they have too many busy slots or no free slots within their working hours. This can be extremely limiting.
To put it simply, if the rep has blocked off their calendar, they won't be able to receive new invites.
Tip: The "Strict" setting in a queue does not mean that we will only book the meeting with the rep who is next up. This strict setting only prevents bookers on your team from manually choosing a rep. Prospects can still book with anyone in the queue.
2. Working Hours
Consider this: If most of your customers are from North America, but you have a rep in the UK, their working hours will likely reflect their own business day. Customers may not be willing to book as late (or early) in the day to accommodate the rep's schedule.
In other words, a customer from North America will likely choose a convenient time to meet within North American time zones and vice versa.
It may be advisable to group specific reps to specific regions to accommodate different groups of users.
Make sure your rep has correctly set their time zone and working hours in their profile.
3. Custom Schedule
Chili Piper introduced "Custom Schedules" which allow any rep to set their own workings specific to meeting types. Any custom schedule that has been misconfigured can inadvertently block out a rep's availability.
The same goes for their Working hours (see point above), or even the schedule set within a meeting type by the admin.
4. An issue with the Calendar
If a rep has an issue with their calendar connection, this can cause issues booking to their calendar entirely. These issues can be challenging to diagnose, but if an individual seems to have no availability issues described in the above sections, there may be a problem with their calendar connection.
Have this user re-login with their Calendar account to reconnect it, just to rule this out as the cause.
Troubleshooting
If you feel that a rep is being unfairly booked or is not receiving enough bookings, but none of the above seems to fit the bill, it's time to troubleshoot.
1. Your best source of truth will be the Instant Booker.
To use Instant Booker, either use our Chrome Extension or open the page in Chili Piper with any prospect email. It doesn't have to be a real prospect as you aren't booking an actual meeting.
https://apps.na.chilipiper.com/meetings/instant-booker
Open the queue in Instant Booker that has the issue and observe the different availabilities of your reps.
If a meeting was booked when one rep should have been available, you could confirm this visually here!
Using "Availability for all" can also help you determine which of your reps would be booked to if a prospect selected a specific time slot on the calendar booking link.
2. Check the booking link directly
If your prospects are booking through a web form or booking link, submit a test to this booking link to view the availability that comes up. Perhaps the availability issue can be spotted by seeing which slots appear to prospects.
It can also help to check the rep's personal booking link (outside the queue) to see if the availability issue exists there as well. This might point you to their overall availability as the issue.
3. Check the rep's calendar
Something that you as an admin may have access to, or may have access via screen sharing, is your reps actual calendar (Google or Outlook).
Take a close look at their calendar to ensure they don't have any all-day blocking events or busy events that could be causing problems with their calendar showing up.