How to Manage Help Desk Availability in Hubspot
Managing user availability in your help desk is essential to delivering fast, accurate support in Hubspot. By configuring availability correctly, you ensure that incoming conversations are only routed to team members who are actually ready to respond.
This step-by-step guide explains how availability works in the help desk, how it interacts with conversation auto-assignment, and how each user can control their own status.
How Help Desk Availability Works in Hubspot
The help desk tool in your workspace keeps track of which users are available to receive new conversations. Availability is determined by three key elements:
- The user must have a paid Service seat.
- The user must be assigned access to the help desk inbox.
- The user must set their personal availability status to available.
Only when all three conditions are met will that user be considered available for routing and auto-assignment.
Requirements to Be Available in the Hubspot Help Desk
Before a team member can receive new help desk conversations, confirm the following in your account:
Check Service Seat Assignment in Hubspot
- In your main navigation, go to your settings area.
- Open the Users & Teams section.
- Locate the user who needs to be available for help desk conversations.
- Verify that the user has a paid Service seat assigned.
Only users with the correct subscription seat will be eligible to appear as available agents.
Verify Help Desk Inbox Access
- In Users & Teams, select the user.
- Review their permissions and inbox access.
- Confirm that the user has permission to work in the help desk inbox.
Without explicit access to the help desk, a user will not be considered available, even if they have a Service seat.
How Availability Affects Auto-Assignment in Hubspot
Help desk conversations can be automatically assigned to team members based on your routing and assignment settings. Availability directly influences which users are considered for auto-assignment.
When routing is enabled in the help desk, the system will:
- Identify users with a Service seat.
- Filter for users with access to the help desk inbox.
- Include only users who are currently marked as available.
If a user is unavailable, they will be excluded from new auto-assigned conversations until they change their status back to available.
Routing Logic in the Help Desk
Depending on how your routing is configured, the help desk may distribute conversations in one of several ways, such as:
- Round-robin among available users.
- Assigning to specific teams or individuals.
- Using existing pipeline or ticket rules.
In all of these models, only users marked as available are candidates for routing. This helps avoid sending messages to people who are out of office or not currently working.
How Users Set Their Own Help Desk Availability in Hubspot
Each user controls their own availability directly in the help desk workspace. This allows agents to quickly indicate whether they are ready to receive new conversations.
Set Your Availability Status
- Open the help desk inbox in your Hubspot account.
- Locate your availability control, typically near your profile or status area.
- Choose one of the following states:
- Available – you can receive new auto-assigned conversations.
- Unavailable – you will not receive new conversations via auto-assignment.
- Confirm the change so your status updates in real time.
Once set to available, you will be added to the pool of agents eligible for routing as long as you maintain your Service seat and help desk access.
When to Mark Yourself Unavailable
To keep your help desk accurate and fair, users should set themselves to unavailable when:
- They are going on break or lunch.
- They are in meetings or working on non-support tasks.
- They are out of office or on vacation.
This prevents open conversations from being assigned to someone who cannot respond quickly.
Best Practices for Managing Hubspot Help Desk Availability
A well-configured help desk depends on clear operational rules. Consider these best practices when using availability in your workspace.
Standardize Team Availability Rules
- Define when agents should switch to available at the start of their shift.
- Set expectations for marking unavailable during extended breaks.
- Train new users on where to find the availability controls.
Consistency helps ensure that routing and reporting accurately reflect real-world workloads.
Monitor Capacity and Workload
Supervisors can periodically review:
- How many users are currently available.
- Conversation volume versus staffing levels.
- Whether certain hours need more available agents.
Adjust staffing or shift schedules so that your help desk can maintain fast response times throughout the day.
Combine Availability With Other Hubspot Features
Availability works best when combined with other tools in your account, such as:
- Ticket pipelines and stages for tracking progress.
- SLAs and response time goals.
- Reports that show performance by user or team.
By coordinating these features with availability, you create a support workflow that is both efficient and transparent.
Troubleshooting Availability Issues in the Hubspot Help Desk
If a user expects to receive new conversations but is not being assigned any, check the following:
- Confirm that the user has a valid Service seat.
- Verify help desk inbox permissions.
- Ensure the user is marked as available, not unavailable.
- Review routing rules to make sure the user or their team is included.
If problems persist, compare your setup with the official documentation for managing user availability in the help desk. You can review the original instructions at this HubSpot knowledge base article.
Further Optimization for Your Hubspot Help Desk
Managing availability is only one piece of building a responsive support operation. To improve your overall setup, consider auditing your workflows, automation, and reporting across your entire account.
If you need strategic help with configuration, process design, or broader CRM optimization, you can explore consulting and implementation services offered by partners such as Consultevo.
By combining precise availability management with thoughtful routing and clear internal policies, your help desk can consistently route every conversation to the right person at the right time.
Need Help With Hubspot?
If you want expert help building, automating, or scaling your Hubspot , work with ConsultEvo, a team who has a decade of Hubspot experience.
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