Introduction

Summary

• How to Add New Contact Routing Rules
• How to Edit / Pause / Reorder / Delete Contact Routing Rules
• Contact Routing Rule Specifics
  • Rule Name
  • Location
  • Source
  • Tags & Segments
  • Phone
  • Pricing
  • Contact Type
  • Active Hours
• Working Hours & Vacation Mode

How to Add New Contact Routing Rules

1. Navigate to Company Settings
2. Click on Contact Routing under Contact Settings
3. Click on the + Add New button at top-right corner to create a new rule

How to Edit / Pause / Reorder / Delete Contact Routing Rules

You can adjust the rule by doing any of the following: 

1. Pause / Resume an agent contact routing rule
2. Edit an agent contact routing rule
3. Copy an agent contact routing rule
4. Delete an agent contact routing rule
5. Drag and drop to reorder agent contact routing rules (order is important with agent contact routing rules)

Contact Routing Rule Specifics

These are the instructions on how to build out a contact routing rule. This can get complex because there is a lot of built-in logic that you may need to consider, but if you take it one piece at a time it should make sense.

Rule Name

Give your agent contact routing rule a name that you will recognise so that you can easily access the right rule for future adjustments as necessary.

Location

If you want to route contacts by specific locations, use these fields:

After filling in a specific location you must choose from one of two available options:

• Match Exactly. A contact will only be routed by this rule if the contact's location criteria are an exact match for the location data above. For example, if I add a city, county, address, and Postcode, ALL of them will have to match for this rule to apply. If one is empty, this rule would not apply to the contact.
• Empty or Match Exactly. This option is fairly complex in how it works. Every incoming contact will be compared against the location fields in this order: (a) street address, (b) Postcode, (c) town/city, and (d) county. Depending on the result, the contact will either Pass one field and move to the next or will Fail and skip the entire contact routing rule. Here are the different scenarios that can occur:

  • (a) Street Address 

    Does the rule have an address?	No	Yes	Yes	No
    Does Contact have an address?	No	Yes	No	Yes
    -- Result	Field (a) Passed. Compare to the field (b).	1. If the addresses match, field (a) is Passed. Compare to the field (b). 2. If addresses do not match, field (a) Failed. The contact will not be routed by this rule.	Field (a) Failed. Contact will not be routed by this rule.	Field (a) Passed. Compare to the field (b).

  • (b) Postcode

    Does the rule have a Postcode ?	No	Yes	Yes	No
    Does Contact have a Postcode?	No	Yes	No	Yes
    -- Result	Field (b) Passed. Compare to the field (c).	1. If the Postcodes match, field (b) is Passed. Compare to the field (c). 2. If Postcodes do not match, field (b) Failed. The contact will not be routed by this rule.	1. If the previous comparison (a) Passed, field (b) was also Passed. Compare to the field (c). 2. If the previous comparison (a) Failed, field (b) also Failed. The contact will not be routed by this rule.	Field (b) Passed. Compare to the field (c).

  • (c) Town/City

    Does the rule have a town/city?	No	Yes	Yes	No
    Does Contact have a town/city?	No	Yes	No	Yes
    -- Result	Field (c) Passed. Compare to field (d).	1. If the towns/cities match, field (c) is Passed. Compare to field (d). 2. If towns/cities do not match, field (c) Failed. The contact will not be routed by this rule.	1. If the previous comparisons (a) and (b) both Passed, field (c) also Passed. Compare to field (d). 2. If the previous comparison (b) Failed, field (c) also Failed. The contact will not be routed by this rule.	Field (c) Passed. Compare to field (d).

  • (d) County

    Does the rule have a county?	No	Yes	Yes	No
    Does Contact have a county?	No	Yes	No	Yes
    -- Result	Field (d) Passed. The contact will be routed by this rule.	1. If the counties matched, field (d) is Passed. The contact will be routed by this rule. 2. If counties do not match, field (d) Failed. The contact will not be routed by this rule.	1. If the previous comparisons (a), (b), and (c) are all Passed, field (d) is also Passed. The contact will be routed by this rule. 2. If the previous comparisons (a), (b), or (c) Failed, field (d) also Failed. The contact will not be routed by this rule.	Field (d) Passed. The contact will be routed by this rule.

Source

After selecting the source(s) from the list, you must choose from one of the two available options:

1. Match Exactly. A contact will have to be a match for the "source" field. This means that if a contact comes in that matches the "location" criteria but has a source that does not match the source setting, it will not be routed in this rule.
2. Empty or Match Exactly. A contact will be routed by this rule if the contact has no source specified or it matches the source. It does not have to have a defined source to match the rule with this option selected.

Tags & Segments

For contact routing by tags or segments. . .

• if a contact comes in with even one of the tags/segments that is on the list, it will be captured by the rule. It's not a requirement for the contact to have all of them.

• you can only choose a maximum of 500 tags

  After selecting the tags/segments from the list, you must choose from one of the two available options:

  1. Match Exactly. A contact will have to be a match for the "tag/segment" field. This means that if a contact comes in that matches the "tag/segment" criteria but has another tag/segment that does not match the tag/segment set, it will not be routed in this rule.
  2. Empty or Match Exactly. A contact will be routed by this rule if the contact has no tag/segment specified or matches the tag/segment. It does not have to have a defined tag/segment to match the rule with the option selected.

Phone

For contact routing by phone, there are only two options:

1. with phone number and
2. without phone number

Use this option if you want to filter out contacts that have (or do not have) phone numbers.

Pricing

If you want to route a contact based on the price associated with any enquiries that they have associated with their contact record when they enter the CRM, you can use the min/max fields to define a price range. If the enquiry price falls within that range, the contact will match this rule assuming all other criteria have been met as well.

Contact Type

If you would like to route your contacts based on the type of contact they are, you can use this drop-down menu. If the contact type does not matter, be sure to select Include All.

The Contact Type filter allows you to be very specific with the types of contacts a contact routing rule will apply to.

• Include all
  • The Contact Routing rule will apply to contacts who have any contact types.
• Include one of
  • The Contact Routing rule will apply to contacts who have one of the selected contact types and will apply if the contact has other contact types. 
• Equals to
  • The Contact Routing rule will only apply to contacts who have all of the selected contact types.
    • If they do not have all of the selected contact types, the contact routing rule will not apply.
    • If they have one of the selected contact types, but also have an unselected contact type, the contact routing rule will not apply.

Active Hours

Applies to. . .

• Agent Contact Routing (this article)

Does not apply to. . .

• Re-Routing Groups

Use this setting to set a specific schedule for a contact routing rule. With a schedule set, if a contact enters the CRM at a time/day that is outside of a rule's "Active Hours", that rule will not apply to the new contact. In other words, if a contact matches all the above criteria (location, price, source, etc.) but comes in at a time that is outside of the "Active Hours", it will skip that rule. 

Here is what that setting looks like inside of an individual contact routing rule:

• Active Hours
• Active Days
• If outside of active hours and days, then. . .
  • Go to the next rule (currently the only option)

Once established, the active hours are listed on the contact routing rules summary page:

Working Hours & Vacation Mode

A Team Owner/Admin can set "Working Hours" or toggle "Vacation Mode" for every user under Settings > users > Agent List > Working Hours. Agent contact routing rules will not distribute contacts to agents who are not in their working hours or have "Vacation Mode" toggled on. If all agents in a rule are not in their working hours, the next applicable rule would grab the contact, or it would end up at the Default Rule.

Individual agents can also control their "Working Hours" or "Vacation Mode" in Settings > Profile > Working Hours.

Along with working hours, be sure to make sure everyone has the same time zone for contact distribution to be accurate:

Questions?

If you have any questions about this topic or anything else, please get in touch with our Support Team. You can email us at <Support@LoftyWorks.com> or call us on +44 330 321 3500.