# Departments Section: Tidio Features Description: Group your agents into departments and route chats, emails and tickets to the right team through the pre-chat survey, flows, mailboxes or manual reassigning. Verified against Tidio panel 12.304.0 Last updated: 2026-11-07 Source: https://help.tidio.com/articles/departments/ Deliver conversations and tickets to the right agents faster by enabling **Departments** in your Tidio project. **In this article, you'll learn:** - [The benefits of using departments]() - [How to add agents to departments]() - [How to assign chats to departments via the Pre-Chat Survey]() - [How to assign chats to departments via flows]() - [How to route emails from a mailbox to a department]() - [How to reassign conversations to departments]() [Video]() Silent walkthrough. Create the Sales department with two agents, add a pre-chat routing rule for the Sales alias, save the Appearance settings, and route the support@yourstore.com mailbox to Sales. ## Benefits #### Save agents' time Answer your customers more quickly by focusing only on the relevant chats. No more unnecessary reassigning of chats or tickets. #### Relevant conversations only No more interruptions during your work. Let your visitors find the right agent and enjoy fewer notifications and a lighter workload. #### #### Keep your inbox organized See only those chats and emails that fit into the scope of your expertise. Let other departments handle the rest of the conversations. ## Adding Departments To start using **Departments**, go to the **Settings \> Team** section: ![The Settings sidebar has "Team" selected under "GENERAL".]() Once inside, you will see three tabs: **Agents**, **Departments**, and **Roles**. This is where you manage your team of agents and their permissions, and you can also create departments if that feature is available on your Tidio project. ![Settings \> Team on the Departments tab, with the Set routing rules and Create department buttons in the top-right and the department list below it (General plus one more department, with their agents' avatars and the Edit and delete buttons)]() 💡 **Please note:** Departments are available on the **Plus** plan and above (see [Which upgrades do I need?]()). On a lower plan, the **Departments** tab is marked with a paid badge. Click on **Create department** in the top-right, and in the **Add a new department** window, set the **Department name** and pick the right agents under **Add agents**. You can add as many agents to the department as you need; one agent can be added to multiple departments as well. ![The "Add a new department" dialog names the department "Sales" and has the "Add agents" dropdown open with available agents.]() **Save** the settings, and your new department will be created. The first time you do this, Tidio will suggest routing messages to it right away: click on **Set routing rules** to jump to the routing rules of your pre-chat survey ([covered below]()), or on **Add another department**. You can get to the routing rules anytime with the **Set routing rules** button in the top-right of the **Departments** tab. You can see all your current departments listed along with the associated agents: ![The "Departments" tab lists "General" and "Sales", their assigned-agent avatars, and edit and delete controls.]() You can come back to the **Departments** tab and modify your departments anytime. To edit a specific department - click the **Edit** button on the right. You'll be able to add agents and change the department's name. To **delete** the department - click on the trash can icon, and confirm with **Yes, delete it**. There is **no limit on the number of departments** your project can have. 💡 **Please note**: The **General** department is always listed, and it can't be renamed or deleted - it receives all conversations and tickets that weren't routed to a specific department. It includes all your agents by default. You can still click on **Edit** to remove (and re-add) agents, but an agent can't be removed from a department if it's their only one. If an incoming chat has no specified department - the chat will go to the **General** department. This allows all agents to be notified equally. If you **delete a department**, all of its **unassigned** chats (and tickets) will be automatically transferred to the **General** department as well. All of the open threads will show the old (deleted) department name. No chats or tickets are deleted during this process. Deleting a department also deletes all routing rules linked to it, so your customers won't be able to choose it anymore, and any agent who was only in that department is moved to the **General** department. Flows that transfer conversations to the deleted department will route new conversations to **General** instead. If you **deactivate all agents** assigned to a department, it's marked as **Deactivated** (no active agents inside) in the **Departments** tab. A routing rule that points to it shows a warning, and incoming messages are redirected to the **General** department until the department has an active agent again. ## Getting notifications If your Tidio project has Departments enabled, you will be notified only about the conversations from the department to which you are assigned. You'll receive push notifications from the Tidio panel and [offline email notifications]() as well. Please keep in mind that if your email address is added manually in the **Forward email notifications **section - you will also receive [offline email notifications]() about all conversations from all departments. ## Assigning live conversations to departments You can decide about how your live chat visitors reach specific departments; this can be done either in the [**Pre-Chat Survey**]() (where the visitor selects a department manually) or via [**flows**]() (where the visitor is assigned automatically, based on your flow setup). Of course, you can also assign departments [**manually**](). ### Assigning via Pre-Chat Survey The Pre-Chat Survey pops up for any visitor who tries to message you via chat for the first time, and it's mandatory to complete then. One of the fields you can add to the survey is the **Department** field - allowing the visitor to select a department they'd like to contact. You can modify the Pre-Chat Survey in **Settings \> Live Chat \> Appearance**. Access the **Content** section there to find the survey settings: ![The Live Chat "Appearance" page has an arrow pointing to the "Content" section beside the widget preview.]() 💡 Please make sure the **Pre-Chat Survey** is enabled on your Tidio project in general. Without this, your visitors will be unable to select a department\! ![The "Pre-chat survey" tab is selected in Content settings, with its "Display" toggle switched on.]() In the **Pre-Chat Survey** tab, use the **Add new** button. This will allow you to add a new field to your survey, and in this case - you want to add the **Department** field: ![The pre-chat survey "Add new" menu is open with "Department" highlighted, and an arrow points toward the field choices.]() You will see the new field appear, and you can modify the text that accompanies it: ![The survey fields include Email and Department, with "Select department" in the department text field and a "Set routing rules (1)" button.]() By clicking on the **Set routing rules** button, you will be able to configure what departments are available to select, and how they are named in the Pre-Chat Survey. Set these **aliases** and **departments** the way you'd like your visitors to see them displayed in the list: ![The "Routing rules for departments" dialog maps the "Sales" alias to "Sales Assistance" and includes a Technical Support rule and "Confirm" button.]() Hit the **Confirm** button to save your routing rules for the Pre-Chat Survey. In the **Appearance** section (where you've been configuring the Pre-Chat Survey), don't forget to **save** your changes in order for them to take effect\! From now on, your visitors will be able to select a department when they try to send you a chat message: ![The visitor pre-chat survey asks for an email and department, with a newsletter checkbox and "Send" button.]() Now, you'll see the chats and get notified only from the departments you are assigned to. When a visitor is transferred, the agents assigned to the department will see the incoming chat in the **Unassigned** folder (while other departments will not be notified): ![The Inbox "Unassigned" folder contains an incoming live chat labelled "Technical Support".]() You'll also see a label under each incoming chat, with the department name on it. The department transfer details will also be included in the conversation itself, along with timestamps: ![A timestamped notice in the chat says the conversation has been transferred to the Sales department.]() ### Assigning via flows If you feel like your visitors can use a help of a human agent - you can also assign your visitors' conversations with the flow to specific departments by using the **Reassign to a Department** node inside your flow. Your visitors can still continue with the flow, but the agent will be notified and can join the conversation. The **Reassign to a Department** node allows you to specify the department to which the chat will be transferred to continue the conversation with an agent. Inside the node, you can select an already existing department or add a completely new department. ![The "Reassign to a Department" node has "Sales" selected and offers "Add new department", with a note about fallback routing after deletion.]() Let’s see how it works on an example. **Example** Imagine a user coming to your website with a particular goal in mind. You can let the visitors choose a topic they would like to discuss by using one of the [decision nodes](), and thanks to the **Reassign to a Department** node, it will be transferred to the correct department with the agents knowledgeable in the chosen subject. Take a look at how the flow looks in our flow editor: ![The flow starts when a visitor clicks the chat icon, branches by quick reply into technical or sales department reassignment, then sends a chat message.]() In this example, the visitor gets two options: "**I am having technical issues"** (which transfers them to the **Technical Support** department) and **"I want to speak with Sales"** (which transfers them to **Sales Assistance**). ![The widget asks "What do you need help with today?" and offers "I am having technical issues" and "I want to speak with Sales".]() Once they select what they need, the flow will continue to the next action (transferring to the correct department, followed by a simple message): ![The chat widget shows the visitor choosing "I want to speak with Sales" and the flow replying, "Alright, somebody will assist you right away\!".]() The department will be notified by the flow, which will be visible for them in the **Unassigned** folder, along with the visitor's choice: ![The Inbox Unassigned folder contains conversations with the visitors' selected replies and Sales department labels.]() As always, the flow interaction and transfer details will be included in the conversation itself, along with timestamps: ![The conversation history shows the visitor choosing Sales, a timestamped transfer to the Sales department, and the flow's confirmation message.]() Departments work in your flows in two more ways: the **Visitor selects department** trigger starts a flow when a visitor chooses a department in the pre-chat survey, and the **Department status** condition checks whether any agents in the selected department are online - so the flow can follow a different path when nobody from that team is available. ### Routing emails from a mailbox Emails can reach the right team, too. Once you have at least one department besides **General**, head over to **Settings \> Email \> Mailbox**. Next to each verified mailbox, you'll find the **Department** column - choose the department the mailbox **is routing to**. Agents from the selected department will have access to email messages from this mailbox: ![Settings \> Email \> Mailbox with two verified mailboxes listed, and the Department column showing "is routing to" with a department dropdown open next to one of them (General, Sales, Technical Support)]() ### Assigning manually As an agent, you can reassign your chats, emails, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp conversations to another department - similarly as you would reassign a chat to a different agent. This also applies to any tickets (emails) in your Tidio inbox. To reassign the conversation (or ticket) to another department, click on the **Assignee** button at the top of the conversation. You will see the available departments listed above the available agents: ![The Assignee menu lists General and Sales under Departments above the agents, with Sales highlighted and an arrow pointing to the menu.]() 💡 The departments will be visible on the list only after being added first. See how to [**add a new department**](). Alternatively, you can click on the **three dots** to the right of the conversation itself, inside the folder - and use the **Assign **(or **Reassign**, if the chat/ticket is already assigned somewhere) option there: ![The conversation's three-dot menu is circled, with "Assign" highlighted among the available actions.]() You’ll then see a new window where you can select the department (or agent) which the conversation should be transferred to: ![The "Reassign the conversation" dialog has its dropdown open, with General and Sales departments above the agents and Sales highlighted.]() As with other transfer methods, the conversation (or ticket) assigned to a chosen department will be displayed in the **Unassigned** folder. Only agents from that specific department will see the message and will be able to assign it to themselves. ![The Inbox Unassigned folder shows a live chat labeled Sales.]() For more on assigning and reassigning, see [Assigning conversations to agents](). ## Further reading - [Assigning conversations to agents]() - [Start collecting leads]() - [Flow editor: Actions]() - [Permissions]() - [Which upgrades do I need?]()