# Create and configure queues

> Routing lets you get customer inquiries and tasks from internal teams to the right agent You can automatically route tasks and conversations from any channel

Source: https://help.kustomer.com/en_us/configure-queues-BkCVqbJ9L

Last updated: 2025-10-20T21:01:43.487Z

Routing enables you to direct customer inquiries and [tasks](https://help.kustomer.com/understand-tasks-r1djh7wCC) from internal teams to the appropriate agent. You can automatically route tasks and conversations from any channel to available agents with queues. Queues can be viewed as buckets, or containers, that hold conversations waiting to be assigned to an agent based on criteria you set through [queue rules](https://help.kustomer.com/queue-rules-HyLuJ1KHX). 

Queues can be prioritized, allowing you to determine which conversations are of higher priority and should be routed to an agent first. You can also control the weight or size of a conversation in a queue, ensuring agents can focus on the most important conversations in their inbox.

**Who can access this feature?**

**User types**

Admins can access the Routing page.

  

### In this article

*   [Create a queue](#CreatingQueue)
*   [Advanced queue configurations](#AdvancedQueue)
*   [Delete a queue](#DeleteQueue)

### Create a queue

A default queue is preconfigured and cannot be edited or deleted. This default helps ensure that any conversation that doesn't match one of your queue rules is still assigned to a queue. 

When you add a queue, you can be guided through configuring a new queue using our setup wizard or set up the queue manually.

**To create a queue with the setup wizard:**

1.  Go to **Settings![](https://cdn.kustomerhostedcontent.com/media/570fad9d9001bc1000163b28/fd48ffff447182a5593e2026606ff2fb.png)****\> Platform >** **Routing**.
2.  Select **Add Queue** and choose **Configure the basics** from the window that opens.
3.  Follow the remaining steps in the setup wizard to be guided through creating a new queue.

The guided setup will allow you to specify the name, description, priority, and conversation weight of a new queue, set up a queue rule, and assign teams to the queue.

![](https://cdn.kustomerhostedcontent.com/media/570fad9d9001bc1000163b28/37c251706feee2f47b958e2e6569930b.png)

**Note:** If you create a queue rule in the wizard, you must activate the rule to route conversations to queues. To do this, go to **Settings ![](https://cdn.kustomerhostedcontent.com/media/570fad9d9001bc1000163b28/016030a348aacf9e7fb2af432636a969.png)** **\> Platform > Routing,** choose the **Rules** tab, and then turn on the toggle next to the rule.

For advanced users who prefer to create a rule without additional guidance, we also still offer a manual setup option. The manual setup will only create the queue and will not configure any rules or team assignments.

**To create a queue manually:**

1.  Go to **Settings![](https://cdn.kustomerhostedcontent.com/media/570fad9d9001bc1000163b28/fd48ffff447182a5593e2026606ff2fb.png)****\> Platform >** **Routing**.
2.  Select **Add Queue** and choose **Set Up Manually** from the window that opens.
3.  Enter the following information:
    *   **Queue Name** is the internal name of the queue.
    *   **Queue Display Name** is the name your customers will see when asked to pre-select a queue in a chat conversation.
    *   **Queue Description** provides context on how the queue is used.
4.  Enter a value for **Queue Priority**. For more information, see [Understand queue priority](#queue-priority).
5.  Select **Save Changes**.

### Advanced queue configurations

You can set more advanced settings for your queues with the following options.

*   **Queue Key Name**  
    With queue keys, you can assign similar conversations to a queue using conversation or customer attributes in their raw format. If you are creating this queue to use with a queue key, enter the queue's name in this box.  
      
    
*   **Restrict User Transfers**  
    Turn this option on to prevent users from manually transferring conversations into this queue. For more information on how users can manually transfer a conversation to a queue, see [Conversation Details](https://help.kustomer.com/en_us/conversation-details-HyMxiMId8).
    
    **Note:** Workflows and queue rules are not affected by this setting and will continue to assign conversations into this queue.
    
*   **Conversation Weight**  
    You can also specify the weight of the conversations going into that specific queue.  
      
    Conversation weight is the total allocation of space that the conversation will take up in an agent's inbox. Think of this number as the size of the conversation. How many conversations an agent will be allowed to view will depend on the size of their inbox (capacity) and the size of the conversations being routed to them. Conversation weight can be any number between 1 and 100.  
      
    Conversation weight assignments only take effect when the conversation enters a queue. If you change the conversation weight in the Queue settings _after_ the conversation enters the queue, the conversation will continue to reflect the original weight.  
      
    Think of a moving truck to better understand the concept of conversation weight. Let's say that your truck has a total capacity of 10. If each one of your packing boxes has a weight (total allocation of space) of 2, the moving truck will only be able to fit 5 boxes at a time since it will reach capacity once the weight in it reaches 10.

![](https://cdn.kustomerhostedcontent.com/media/570fad9d9001bc1000163b28/56484c7dd208755321fcf61d036686d2.gif)

### Delete a queue

You have the option to delete queues if they are no longer needed. To delete a queue, you will first need to:

1.  Delete queue rules associated with the queue.
2.  Remove all conversations from that queue.
3.  Remove any work items that were left in a queued state.

#### 1\. Delete queue rules

All queue rules associated with the queue you are deleting must be deleted first. You will see a notification alerting you of this if you try to delete a queue that still has a queue rule assigned to it.

The rules associated with a queue can be seen in the **Queue Rules** column.

![](https://cdn.kustomerhostedcontent.com/media/570fad9d9001bc1000163b28/d60d084a2a921b3b54d95115f21b5c48.png)

**To delete a rule:**

1.  Go to **Settings**![](https://cdn.kustomerhostedcontent.com/media/570fad9d9001bc1000163b28/fd48ffff447182a5593e2026606ff2fb.png)**\> Platform > Routing** and choose the **Rules** tab.
2.  Select **Edit Rule** ![](https://cdn.kustomerhostedcontent.com/media/570fad9d9001bc1000163b28/5a07d47db40af55015963fee648d89d0.png) for the rule to be deleted.  
3.  Select **Delete** in the bottom left corner of the screen, and then confirm that you want to permanently delete the rule.

#### 2\. Remove conversations from a queue

Before you can delete a queue, make sure it doesn’t contain any active conversations. Only conversations that are currently in the queue and waiting to be assigned need to be moved or deleted. Completed or closed conversations that previously used this queue do not prevent you from deleting it.

To find conversations in a queue, create a search to locate all conversations in the queue (see [Create and edit searches](https://help.kustomer.com/create-a-new-search-SyX3HX3DI)). 

For search criteria in the **Conditions** section, select **Conversation** > **Queue** > **is equal to** and select the queue you will delete from the remaining dropdown. See example below:

![](https://cdn.kustomerhostedcontent.com/media/570fad9d9001bc1000163b28/c89bba0d1ab31631ca13b21fbd9ca98a.png)

Conversations currently in that queue will populate the space below. Click **Save** in the lower right corner of the _Conditions_ section. This will enable bulk actions to select all the conversations and transfer them to another queue.

Click **Assign**![](https://cdn.kustomerhostedcontent.com/media/570fad9d9001bc1000163b28/19e91c76b6758bdd5b451ccb150c007a.png)select a queue to move the conversations to in the _Transfer to a Queue_ section.

![](https://cdn.kustomerhostedcontent.com/media/570fad9d9001bc1000163b28/9cc58bccf6bb2bff08fc9abb0d63441c.png)

Once you've cleared the queue of assigned rules and conversations, you can delete the queue by returning to **Settings**![](https://cdn.kustomerhostedcontent.com/media/570fad9d9001bc1000163b28/fd48ffff447182a5593e2026606ff2fb.png)**\> Platform > Routing** and selecting **Delete** ![](https://cdn.kustomerhostedcontent.com/media/570fad9d9001bc1000163b28/386d21a63d6fb9e04cd236aa7edd6250.png).

#### 3\. Remove all work items in the queue

You may already be able to remove the queue after steps 1 and 2, but in some cases, you may still see an error that _Queue deletion failed. Cannot delete a queue that contains queued conversations._

This is usually caused by work items that were left in a queued state. To resolve this scenario, you need to query the queue's endpoint for `work-items` with a status of _queued_ and find the associated conversations. Once you identify the conversations, you can resolve the leftover items.

To find the work items in a queued status, use the following endpoint query to return all work items that have their status set to _completed_:

/v1/routing/queues/queueId/work-items?status=queued

Next, review any work items returned in this endpoint query to identify the associated conversations. Inspect the work item for the **conversation ID**.

Once all the conversations have been identified, cycle the status of each returned conversation to resynchronize the work items and change the status from queued. You can cycle the status by:

*   Reopening the conversation and marking it done again
*   Canceling a snooze, then snoozing the conversation again

After all the applicable conversations have had their status cycled and all the work-items' statuses have been reset, the queue should be ready for deletion.

### Related articles:

*   [Understand tasks](https://help.kustomer.com/understand-tasks-r1djh7wCC)
*   [Tutorial: Route a task to a team](https://help.kustomer.com/route-a-task-SyrHSSC2A)
*   [Understand skill-based routing](http://help.kustomer.com/understand-skill-routing-ByTKNVPFR)
*   [Tutorial: Assign a conversation to an agent based on skill](https://help.kustomer.com/assign-conversation-based-on-skill-S1QJ_UykA)