Documentation / Telephony channel
Routing of incoming calls
This feature is available if the Telephony feature has been activated for your account.
In short: With the routing you decide who rings when a customer calls. By default, the colleague who already knows the customer gets a 10-second head start; if they do not answer, everyone rings. You can also choose to always have everyone ring at once. The choice applies to all numbers and all organisations of the account.
Where to find this
Go to Account > Account settings and scroll to the Routing of incoming calls section. The explanation there reads: Who rings when a customer calls. This applies to every number and organisation of this account. The section only appears when the Telephony feature is on.
Who: only an Account admin can open the account settings and change the routing. The setting applies to the whole account.
The Routing of incoming calls section in Account > Account settings with the Routing list set to Known colleague first, then everyone, the Head start (seconds) field and the Save button.
Setting up the routing
- In the Routing list, choose one of the two options (see the table below).
- If you choose Known colleague first, then everyone, enter under Head start (seconds) how many seconds the known colleague rings alone. From 5 to 30 seconds is allowed (Between 5 and 30 seconds.); the default is 10.
- Click Save in this section. You see Settings saved. or, if it fails, Could not save settings.
| Option | Meaning | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Known colleague first, then everyone | The colleague who knows the customer rings alone first, for the duration of the head start. If they do not answer, or are not available, everyone rings. The explanation in aishaa: The colleague who is working on this customer’s open ticket, or who spoke with them last, gets a (n)-second head start. If they do not pick up, or are unavailable, everyone rings. | Yes |
| Everyone at once | All available colleagues ring at once. The explanation in aishaa: Every available colleague rings at once; the first to answer takes the call. | No |
Who rings at all
With both options, only colleagues who meet all these conditions ring:
- They have been enabled as phone agents for the organisation of the number being called (see Activate telephony).
- They have aishaa open in the browser, with that organisation selected, and the phone is connected (not Phone offline).
- Their status in the availability menu is Available for calls, not Do not disturb.
- They are not already on a call. A colleague who is on the line never rings for a new incoming call.
At most 10 colleagues ring at the same time. If nobody meets the conditions, the caller immediately hears the number’s greeting message and, if voicemail is on, can leave a message.
What “known colleague” means
aishaa determines the known colleague for each call in this order:
- The handler of an open ticket of this customer. For the customer behind the phone number, aishaa looks for tickets with the status Open, Answered or Pending that are assigned to a colleague. The most recently updated ticket counts. This may also be an email or WhatsApp ticket, as long as it is from the same customer within the same organisation. Closed and snoozed tickets do not count.
- The colleague who last spoke with the customer. If there is no open assigned ticket, aishaa looks at the last answered phone call with this number in the past 30 days, incoming or outgoing. The colleague who first answered that call (or made it) is the known colleague.
If there is no known colleague, or they do not meet the conditions above at that moment (not available, offline, on a call), everyone rings straight away. If the known colleague is the only available colleague, they ring immediately for the full ringing time; a head start makes no sense then.
The signals that determine “known”, their order and the 30-day lookback window cannot be changed.
How a call with a head start goes
- The customer calls. If the recording announcement is on for the number, the customer hears it first.
- The known colleague rings alone for as long as the head start that has been set (10 seconds by default). Meanwhile, the customer hears a ringing tone.
- If the known colleague answers, the call is connected.
- If they do not answer, all available colleagues ring, including the known colleague again, for the full ringing time. The announcement is not repeated.
- If nobody answers, the customer hears the greeting message and (if voicemail is on) can leave a message.
If the customer hangs up during the head start, the call simply ends; there is no second round.
Good to know
- The routing is one choice for the whole account. You cannot deviate from it per organisation or per number.
- An Organisation admin cannot change the routing. The account settings are only accessible to Account admins.
- There is no queue: a customer who calls while all available colleagues are on a call immediately hears the greeting and the voicemail. An options menu, routing per subject or routing based on support groups do not exist either.
- The head start only applies to the first round. How long everyone rings after that has been fixed by aishaa and cannot be set per account.
- A colleague who did not answer in the first round simply rings again in the second round.
- Assigning tickets to colleagues makes the routing smarter: an assigned open ticket is the first signal for “known colleague”. See Assign, support group, important and urgent.