Use Routing to Automatically Assign Conversations
Routing helps your team distribute conversations fairly and efficiently by automatically assigning conversations that land in the Unassigned folder to available teammates. Instead of manually assigning messages or monitoring the Unassigned folder, routing ensures conversations go to the right people at the right time.
In this article
| Permissions & Plans Access | |
|---|---|
| Plans With Access | Plus — Round Robin
Pro — Round Robin and Balanced |
| User Roles and Permissions | All users with the Inbox: Manage Routing permission |
Enable Routing
Head to Manage > Inbox(es) > [Choose Your Inbox] > Routing to enable routing for that Inbox.
Manage Routing
Choose your Assignment Method
- Round Robin — Assigns conversations one by one in alphabetical order.
- Balanced — Assigns conversations to whoever has the fewest active assignments. This option is only available on Pro plans.
Set an Assignment Limit
Set the assignment limit, up to 100.
Add Teammates
Select Add Teammate to choose users and/or teams to be included in the rotation.
Remove Teammates
Hover over users to reveal the Remove option.
Disable Routing
Head to Manage > Inbox(es) > [Choose Your Inbox] > Routing and toggle routing off.
Click Save to commit your changes.
How Routing Determines Eligibility
Routing assigns conversations only when both the conversation and the teammate are eligible.
Conversation Eligibility
Routing works through all active, unassigned conversations in the Unassigned folder — not just new ones arriving after routing was enabled. Any conversation already sitting in the Unassigned folder is eligible to be assigned out. Conversations are assigned in order of longest-waiting first, so customers who have been waiting the longest get a response first.
Teammate Eligibility
Routing assigns conversations only to teammates who meet both of the following:
- Their status is set to Active. Teammates who are Away are skipped and won't receive automatic assignments.
- They are below their assignment limit. Teammates at or above their limit are skipped until they fall below it.
If no eligible teammates are available, new conversations remain unassigned until someone becomes eligible again.
Routing rules only apply to automatic assignments. Manual assignments and assignments made through Workflows are not affected by routing eligibility.