Assign and route conversations to the right agent

Every conversation in your Messello shared inbox should have a clear owner. You can assign manually, route to a team, or turn on auto-assignment so incoming chats are distributed for you.

Assign a conversation to an agent

1. Open the conversation in your inbox.
2. In the right-hand Conversation Actions panel, open the Assigned Agent dropdown.
3. Select the agent. They are notified immediately and the chat moves to their view.

Only agents with access to that inbox appear in the list.

Route to a team

Teams group agents by function (Sales, Support, Billing). Use the Assigned Team dropdown in the same panel to route a conversation to a team instead of one person. Anyone on the team can then pick it up, which is ideal when you don't yet know who should handle it.

Turn on auto-assignment

Auto-assignment spreads new conversations evenly across available agents so no one is overloaded and nothing waits.

1. Go to Settings → Inboxes and open the inbox.
2. Open the Collaborators tab and enable Auto assignment.
3. Add the agents who should receive routed chats.

New conversations are then assigned automatically to online agents in that pool. Agents who set themselves to Busy or Offline are skipped.

Reassign a conversation

To hand off, just pick a different agent or team from the same dropdowns. The new owner is notified and the previous one is removed. Reassign whenever a chat needs an escalation, a specialist, or shift coverage.

Clear the unassigned queue

The Unassigned folder shows every conversation without an owner. Work it down like this:

• Sort by oldest first so no customer waits too long.
• Assign each chat to yourself or route it to the right team.
• Use auto-assignment to keep this queue near empty automatically.

Tip: Combine auto-assignment with your business hours so after-hours chats go to Pending and are routed the moment your team comes online.

Want to try it hands-on? Explore assignment in the live demo, or learn how to manage conversation status and priority once a chat is assigned.