Guide · Process Boards and cases
Assign cases to your team
Assign a case by hand from the case itself, or let ioZen hand out new cases with rules by country, channel, Intake Bot, board or score.
Assign a case by hand
Open the case. Below the title and the phase there's the assignee button: it reads “Unassigned” or shows the photo of whoever has it. Tap it and check one or more people under “Assignees”.
Everyone you assign gets a notification and starts following the case. To take someone off, uncheck them.
Hand out new cases with rules
Picture a mechanic's workshop with an Intake Bot for brake jobs: that bot's cases can always go to the same mechanic, while everything else rotates among the rest. You set that up with rules, in “Case distribution”.
1. Turn on distribution
Go to “Settings” › “Case distribution” and turn on “Assign new cases automatically”.
When it's off, new cases stay unassigned and your rules are kept.
2. Add a rule
Tap “Add rule”. Give it a “Rule name” that says what it catches, such as WhatsApp.
Under “When”, choose which cases the rule takes. You can use:
- “Country”: where the case came from.
- “Channel”: “Web”, “WhatsApp” or “API”.
- “Intake Bot”: the bot that handled it.
- “Board”: the board it landed on.
- “Overall Score”: the case's score, from 0 to 100.
With no conditions, the rule takes any case.
3. Pick who gets it
Under “Assign to”, check at least one person. Under “How to pick”, decide how cases are shared among them:
- “Round robin”: members take turns, in order.
- “Least busy”: whoever has the fewest open cases from the last 30 days gets the case.
Tap “Done”.
4. Order the rules
The first matching rule wins. Drag rules to reorder them, with the most specific ones on top.
Say a clinic has two receptionists. A rule named WhatsApp sends Ana every case that comes in over WhatsApp, and the fallback in step 5 shares the rest between Ana and Luis by round robin.
If everyone in a rule is paused or no longer on the team, the rule is skipped and the next one gets a try.
5. Decide what happens when no rule matches
Under “When no rule matches”, pick “Leave unassigned”, or pick “Round robin” or “Least busy” and check who's in under “Assign to”. This fallback also takes the cases whose rule has nobody available.
6. Test and save
Tap “Test rules”. In “Test the rules”, pick a country, a channel, a bot, a board or a score, then tap “Run test”. You see which rule matches and who the next assignee would be. It tests unsaved changes too, and nothing is saved or assigned.
When you like the result, tap “Save”.
From then on, every case a rule assigns says so next to its assignees, like “Assigned by rule WhatsApp”. If the fallback assigned it, it reads “Assigned automatically”. Take that person off the case and the tag goes away.
Case and chat go to the same person
“Case distribution” also has “Case and chat go to the same person”, “On by default”. Assigning a case assigns its conversation, and assigning the conversation assigns its open cases. It works the same when you assign by hand, when a rule assigns and when Zen assigns. It applies when you have the “Inbox” (Business or higher).
Nothing someone else already holds moves, and closed cases don't either. Every change shows in the case activity. If you turn it off, the case and the conversation are assigned separately.
Frequently asked questions
- Can I assign a case to more than one person?
- Yes. Check as many people as you need under “Assignees”.
- Do the rules hand out the cases I already have?
- No. Only new cases that come in through your Intake Bots. Existing cases stay as they are.
- What if someone goes on vacation?
- In “Settings” › “Team”, tap “Pause assignments” next to that person and pick the day they're back. New cases skip them, and they keep the cases they already have.
- Does assigning cases use credits?
- No. Assigning cases, by hand or with rules, uses no credits.