How to send more emails to higher-level agents

Sometimes you do not want emails spread evenly. You want your most experienced people to carry more of the load. VICIdial supports that through the overall_user_level method on the Next Agent Email setting, which orders available agents by their user level so a higher level receives more emails.

What user level is

User level is a numeric value defined on each agent's user record. It is normally used to control what an agent can see and do, but the overall_user_level routing method reuses it as a priority. When this method is set, the system sorts the pool of available agents by that number, and the higher levels come out ahead, so they are handed emails first and more often.

This is different from the rank methods, inbound_group_rank and campaign_rank, which use a rank you assign per group or per campaign. User level is a single value that follows the agent everywhere, so it is the right tool when you want a person treated the same across every email group they log into. With rank you would have to remember to set the right number in each group; with user level you set it once on the user and it travels with them.

Because user level usually already reflects seniority in your system, reusing it for email routing keeps things simple. There is no second list of numbers to maintain and no chance of a group config drifting out of sync with how senior an agent actually is. The number you trust for permissions becomes the number that drives email volume.

When to use it

Reach for overall_user_level when seniority should decide volume rather than wait time or a flat count:

• You want senior agents to absorb the bulk of inbound email while juniors handle the overflow.
• You want one consistent priority value that applies no matter which group an agent joins.
• You are fine with uneven totals, because the point is to load your best people on purpose.

A practical caution: do not give every senior agent the same high level if you actually want some ordering among them. When two available agents share the same user level, the method has nothing left to separate them, so it falls back to whatever tiebreaker the queue uses. If you want a clear pecking order, give each level a distinct number rather than bunching people at the top.

flowchart TD
  A["Inbound email arrives"] --> B["Available agents in group"]
  B --> C["Read each agent user_level"]
  C --> D{"Sort by user_level"}
  D -->|Highest| E["Senior agent first"]
  D -->|Lower| F["Junior agent later"]
  E --> G["Assign email"]
  F --> G

There is a softer cousin to this method. If you want to favor stronger agents without guaranteeing they always win, the grade-random method shifts probability instead of forcing order. To compare it against the even-spread options, see oldest-wait versus fewest-emails, and the inbound email and chat guide ties it all together.

This kind of seniority-based steering is close in spirit to Skills-based routing, where you push work to whoever is best suited. The same idea drives Agent rank for calls in an Ingroup. Whoever the email lands on, the Agent applies a Disposition when they finish and rejoins the pool. To run all of this without managing your own server, check our pricing page.