Understand how channel interactions reach representatives

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After an organization enables a customer engagement channel, it needs a consistent way to receive, organize, and assign the resulting work. Dynamics 365 Customer Service uses workstreams, queues, and unified routing to connect incoming interactions with an appropriate customer service representative.

The details vary by channel. A chat or SMS message creates a conversation, a phone call creates a voice conversation, and an email or case enters the process as a record. Dynamics 365 treats each item that needs routing as a work item. This common model lets the routing service consider work across channels while retaining the information and behavior specific to each channel.

Receive work through a channel

The channel provides the entry point for a customer interaction. For example, a customer starts a live chat, calls a support number, sends an SMS message, or emails a monitored mailbox. Record-based work can also originate from an internal process, such as automatic case creation or an integration that creates a service request.

Before the item reaches a representative, the channel or record intake process captures available context. Depending on the source, this context might include:

• The engagement channel and originating address or number.
• Customer identification or authentication information.
• Survey responses, message text, or other channel context.
• A related customer, case, or activity record.
• Language, priority, topic, or other routing attributes.

The amount of context depends on the channel and its configuration. Capturing it early allows later stages to make better routing decisions and gives the representative a clearer starting point.

Process the item through a workstream

A workstream is a container that enriches, routes, and assigns work items. It connects a channel or record type with the rules and work-distribution settings that apply to that work.

The three workstream types align with the channel families introduced earlier:

• Messaging workstreams process conversations from chat, SMS, social messaging, and Microsoft Teams.
• Record workstreams process records such as cases, emails, and activities.
• Voice workstreams process calls associated with support numbers.

Multiple channels of the same type can use a workstream. For example, several chat widgets can inherit the routing and assignment settings of one chat workstream. Workstreams also identify what happens when no specific queue rule matches, helping prevent work from being left without a destination.

Classify and route the work item

Unified routing has two main stages: classification and assignment. Routing to a queue connects those stages.

During classification, rules or machine learning models add information that helps describe the work. Classification can identify attributes such as the required skills, urgency, customer category, language, or estimated effort. The available signals depend on the work item and related records.

Route-to-queue rules use the classified information and record data to select an appropriate queue. A queue groups related workload, such as billing cases, technical chats, or orders that require specialist review. Queues can contain records and conversations, but their type must align with the workstream and channel.

Prioritize and assign work

Within the selected queue, unified routing prioritizes work and matches it with representatives. Assignment can consider:

• The priority and age of the work item.
• Skills or proficiency required to complete the work.
• Representative presence and current availability.
• Available capacity and existing workload.
• Assignment rules and representative attributes.

Depending on the workstream design, the system can push an item to a matched representative, or an eligible representative can pick available work. Voice uses push-based distribution because a live caller needs an immediate connection. The specific assignment method doesn't change the overall goal: direct the work to a suitable destination while accounting for demand across channels.

Present the work in Copilot Service workspace

When a representative receives or selects a work item, Copilot Service workspace presents the corresponding record or conversation. A live conversation normally opens in a session where the representative can interact with the customer and view related context. Assigned cases, emails, and asynchronous conversations can also appear in configured inbox views for representatives to organize and complete.

The following flow summarizes the relationship among the components:

1. A customer interaction or business process produces a conversation, call, email, case, or other record.
2. The associated workstream applies the intake and distribution model for that type of work.
3. Classification adds information needed for routing and assignment.
4. Route-to-queue rules send the work item to an appropriate queue.
5. Unified routing prioritizes the item and matches it with an eligible representative.
6. Copilot Service workspace presents the work with the available customer, conversation, and case context.

If an AI agent is attached to a push-based messaging workstream, an incoming conversation can go to the AI agent before representative assignment. When the interaction requires a person, the collected information can accompany the escalation so routing and the representative don't start without context.

This unit describes the architecture rather than its configuration. The earlier routing modules in this course cover work classification, queue routing, and assignment rules in detail.

For more information, see Create and manage workstreams and Overview of unified routing.