Overview
Smart Routing decides which agent each conversation goes to and how many conversations each agent receives — automatically. Instead of distributing manually, you define policies and the platform applies them to every new conversation, balancing load and improving response time.
There are two policy types that work together:
- Routing policy: defines the distribution strategy and the priority order.
- Capacity policy: defines load limits per agent and per inbox.
Prerequisites
- The Smart Routing module enabled for your account (an optional capability). If it isn't under Settings, talk to an administrator.
- Permission to manage routing.
- Inboxes and agents already configured, so you can bind them to policies.
Step by step
- Under Settings, open Smart Routing.
- Create a routing policy:
- give it a name and description;
- choose the strategy (round-robin, balanced, or skill match);
- set the conversation priority (earliest first or longest waiting first);
- bind one or more inboxes to the policy.
- (Optional) Create a capacity policy to limit load per agent and per inbox.
- Enable the policies and watch the distribution on real conversations.
Settings & options
Routing strategies:
| Strategy | How it distributes |
|---|---|
| Round-robin | Distributes conversations evenly across agents in rotation. |
| Balanced | Assigns to the agent with the fewest open conversations. |
| Skill match | Prefers agents on the conversation's team, then rotates. |
Conversation priority: earliest first, or the conversations waiting longest for a reply.
Extra routing-policy options:
- Fair distribution: limits how many conversations an agent receives within a time window.
- Reassign on unassign: automatically re-routes the conversation if the assigned agent is removed.
- Enable/disable: pause a policy without deleting it.
Capacity policy:
- conversation limit per inbox;
- exclusion rules (for example, by label and conversation age);
- agents bound to the policy.
Use cases
- Balance the team: use the balanced strategy to keep one agent from piling up conversations.
- Specialist support: skill-match routing sends to the right team first.
- Guard against overload: a capacity policy limits concurrent conversations per agent.
- SLA: prioritize the longest-waiting conversations to reduce response time.
Tips, limits & best practices
- Start with a simple strategy (round-robin or balanced) and tune it with real numbers.
- Combine routing + capacity: the strategy picks who, capacity prevents overload.
- Make sure agents are available (online) — policies distribute to whoever can handle conversations.
- Review capacity limits as the team grows or during demand spikes.
Troubleshooting
- Conversations aren't being assigned: confirm the policy is active and bound to the right inbox, and that there are available agents.
- One agent gets too many conversations: review the strategy and add a capacity policy with limits.
- I don't see Smart Routing: the module may not be enabled for the account or your role.
- Conflict with automation rules: if a rule also assigns agents, align the two so they don't overlap.