Routing Configuration

Overview

Routing determines how conversations are assigned to agents. You can choose to let agents pick conversations themselves (pooled), automatically distribute them evenly (assigned), or follow a specific order (sequential).

To access routing settings:

1. Go to Settings → Inbox
2. Select your inbox
3. Click the "Routing" tab

Routing Types

Pooled Routing

How it works:

• All new conversations appear in the Dashboard as unassigned
• Agents can view all unassigned conversations
• Agents manually pick conversations to work on
• Best for teams where agents have varying expertise

When to use:

• Small teams (2-5 agents)
• Teams with specialized skills (agents pick based on their expertise)
• When you want agents to have full visibility and control

To configure:

1. In Routing, select "Pooled"
2. Select the agent group that can access this inbox
3. Click Save

Assigned Routing

How it works:

• New conversations are automatically assigned to agents in round-robin fashion
• Each agent receives an equal number of conversations
• Conversations are distributed evenly based on agent availability

When to use:

• Medium to large teams (5+ agents)
• When you want even workload distribution
• When all agents have similar skill levels

To configure:

1. In Routing, select "Assigned"
2. Select the agent group for automatic assignment
3. Click Save

Additional considerations:

• Agents at their request limit (if configured) are automatically skipped
• Offline agents are skipped in the rotation
• Reassigned conversations follow the same round-robin logic

Sequential Routing

How it works:

• Conversations are assigned to agents in a specific order
• The first agent in the list receives conversations until they reach capacity
• Then the next agent starts receiving conversations
• Useful for priority-based assignment

When to use:

• When you have senior/junior agent hierarchies
• When you want to prioritize specific agents
• When certain agents should handle most conversations

To configure:

1. In Routing, select "Sequential"
2. Select the agent group
3. Drag and drop agents to set the priority order (top = highest priority)
4. Click Save

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Pro Tip: Combine sequential routing with request limits to ensure senior agents aren't overwhelmed while still getting priority access.

Selecting Agent Groups

When configuring routing, you must select which agent group will handle conversations in this inbox.

To select a group:

1. In the Routing configuration, find "Agent Group"
2. Select a group from the dropdown
3. Only agents in this group will receive conversations from this inbox

If you haven't created groups yet:

• Go to Settings → Users & Groups → Groups tab
• Create a group and add agents
• Return to routing configuration and select the group

Why use groups? Groups let you assign different teams to different inboxes. For example:

• "Support Team" handles the "Customer Support" inbox
• "Sales Team" handles the "Sales Inquiries" inbox

Combining Routing with Request Limits

Routing works best when combined with request limits to prevent agent overload.

Example configuration:

• Routing: Assigned (round-robin)
• Request Limit: 10 active conversations per agent
• Result: Each agent receives up to 10 conversations, then the system automatically skips them in rotation

See Inbox Management → Request Limits for setup details.

Routing Decision Table

Use this table to choose the right routing type for your team:

Restricting Admin Access

By default, all admins can view and manage all inboxes. You can restrict an inbox so only specific admins can access it.

To restrict access:

1. Select your inbox in Inbox Settings
2. Find "Restrict Admin Access"
3. Toggle ON
4. Select which admins should have access
5. Click Save

Use cases:

• Separate billing or HR conversations from general support
• Create VIP inboxes for high-priority customers
• Isolate sensitive conversations

Auto-Close Requests

Automatically close conversations after a period of inactivity to keep your inbox clean.

To enable auto-close:

1. In Inbox Settings, select your inbox
2. Find "Auto Close Requests"
3. Toggle Enable to ON
4. Set the inactivity period (e.g., 24 hours, 48 hours, 7 days)
5. Optionally enable "Send message to customer on auto-close"
6. Enter the message customers will receive (e.g., "This conversation has been closed due to inactivity. Feel free to reach out again if you need further assistance!")
7. Click Save

How it works:

• After the specified time with no messages from either side, the conversation is automatically closed
• Closed conversations move from Dashboard/Inbox to History
• If the customer replies after closure, a new conversation is created

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Pro Tip: Set auto-close to 24-48 hours for support inboxes and 7 days for sales inboxes where follow-ups may take longer.

Limiting Requests per Agent

Control how many active conversations an agent can handle simultaneously to prevent overload.

To set request limits:

1. In Inbox Settings, select your inbox
2. Find "Limit Number of Requests per Agent"
3. Toggle Enable to ON
4. Set the maximum number of active conversations (e.g., 5, 10, 20)
5. Choose which actions the limit applies to:
   • ☑️ Apply to assigning an agent manually - Prevents manual assignment if the agent is at capacity
   • ☑️ Apply to reopening requests - Prevents reopened conversations from going to agents at capacity
   • ☑️ Apply to reassigning requests - Prevents reassignment to agents at capacity
6. Click Save

How it works:

• When an agent reaches their limit, new conversations won't be assigned to them (manual or automatic)
• The agent must close existing conversations before receiving new ones
• Helps distribute workload evenly and prevent burnout

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Pro Tip: Set limits based on conversation complexity. For quick support queries, 10-15 is reasonable. For complex technical support, 3-5 may be more appropriate.

Best Practices

Pooled Routing:

• ✅ Train agents on when to pick conversations
• ✅ Monitor to ensure conversations don't sit unassigned
• ✅ Use filters to help agents find relevant conversations
• ✅ Set expectations for response time to first assignment

Assigned Routing:

• ✅ Enable request limits to prevent overload
• ✅ Monitor distribution to ensure fairness
• ✅ Adjust agent availability settings to reflect actual working hours
• ✅ Consider time zones when assigning globally distributed teams

Sequential Routing:

• ✅ Always set request limits for higher-priority agents
• ✅ Review the order regularly based on performance
• ✅ Ensure junior agents still receive enough conversations for training
• ✅ Use this for mentoring scenarios (senior reviews junior's work)

Auto-Close:

• ✅ Enable auto-close to keep your inbox organized
• ✅ Set realistic timeframes based on your response expectations
• ✅ Always send a friendly message explaining the closure
• ✅ Customers can easily start a new conversation if needed

Request Limits:

• ✅ Set limits to prevent agent burnout
• ✅ Adjust based on conversation complexity and average handling time
• ✅ Monitor agent performance to find the optimal limit
• ✅ Consider applying limits to all assignment actions for consistency

Troubleshooting

Conversations aren't being assigned automatically

Check:

• ✅ Routing is set to Assigned or Sequential (not Pooled)
• ✅ Agent group is selected and contains active agents
• ✅ Agents are online and not at their request limit
• ✅ Inbox is linked to at least one channel

One agent is receiving too many conversations

Solutions:

• Switch from Sequential to Assigned routing
• Enable request limits
• Add more agents to the group
• Check if other agents are offline or at capacity

Agents can't see unassigned conversations

Check:

• ✅ Routing is set to Pooled
• ✅ Agent is part of the selected agent group
• ✅ Agent has permission to access this inbox