Routing (Routers)
By default a phone number rings one agent. A Router lets a single number reach different agents depending on the call — the time of day, where the caller is calling from, a menu choice (“press 1 for sales”), or the caller’s language. You build it once; it then applies automatically to every call.
Where: Dashboard → Routing. Assign a router to a number on Phone numbers.
Your agents don’t change at all. A Router just chooses which existing agent answers — so any agent can be a routing target with zero setup.
The idea
+1 912… ──► Router "Main Line" (rules run top-to-bottom, first match wins)
1. Business hours → Front Desk
2. Area code 305 → Miami Team
3. Fallback → After-hours Voicemail agentA call comes in, the Router walks its rules top-to-bottom, and the first rule that matches decides which agent picks up. One call still means one agent — the Router just picks the right one.
Rule types
All five rule types are available today:
| Rule | Routes by | Caller hears |
|---|---|---|
| Business hours | day + time (your timezone) | nothing — instant |
| Caller area code | where they’re calling from | nothing — instant |
| Menu (press 1, 2…) | the key the caller presses | your menu prompt |
| Language ask | 1 = English, 2 = Arabic | a one-line bilingual question |
| Fallback | always (catch-all) | nothing — instant |
Business hours, area code and fallback are silent: the right agent is chosen before the call is answered, so there’s no extra delay and the caller can’t tell routing happened. Menu and Language ask add one short spoken step, because they have to ask the caller something.
Create a router
New router
Go to Routing → New router, give it a name (e.g. Main Line), and you land in the builder.
Add rules
Add rules in the order you want them checked:
- Business hours — pick a timezone, the days (e.g. Mon–Fri), and a from/to time. Inside that window → your chosen agent; outside → it falls through to the next rule. Windows may cross midnight (18:00–02:00 works).
- Caller area code — list area codes (e.g.
305, 786); calls from those areas go to the agent you pick. - Menu (press 1, 2…) — write the prompt the caller hears (mention each key: “For sales, press 1. For support, press 2.”), then give every key a label and an agent. Two to nine keys.
- Language ask — plays a fixed bilingual prompt — “For English, press one. للغة العربية، اضغط ٢” — and sends 1 → your English agent, 2 → your Arabic agent.
Reorder rules with the up/down arrows. First match wins, so put the most specific rules first.
Set a fallback
The Fallback sits pinned at the bottom and always matches — it’s the agent that answers when nothing above did (e.g. an after-hours agent that takes a message). Keep it enabled; without it, an unmatched call has no agent.
Test it
Use the Test panel at the bottom of the builder — see the simulator.
Save & assign
Save, then go to Phone numbers and set a number’s Routes to dropdown to your router (it’s listed under Routers).
How menus and the language ask behave
The two interactive rules run on the caller’s phone keypad. A few details worth knowing:
- The menu prompt is spoken exactly as you write it — so name every key in it. The Language ask always uses the standard bilingual question; you don’t write it.
- Callers can press early. A keypress during the prompt counts, so regulars skip straight through.
- Wrong keys are ignored. If no valid key is pressed within a few seconds, the prompt replays once.
- Nobody gets stuck. If the caller still presses nothing, the call is answered anyway by a default agent rather than dropped. The flip side: assign an agent to every key — a key with no agent falls back to the default too. The builder warns you about incomplete menus, and a menu with no prompt is skipped entirely on live calls.
- They end the rule list. A call that reaches a Menu or Language ask rule always hears the prompt — rules placed below it never run. Put your Business hours and Area code rules above it.
- The Language ask also sets the conversation’s language. If the chosen agent is Multilingual, the keypress doubles as its language choice — the caller isn’t asked twice.
Test before you go live
The Test panel at the bottom of the builder simulates a call against the rules as they currently stand — including unsaved edits — no real call needed.
Pick a day, a time, and a caller number, and it tells you what that call would do:
- rings Agent X — plus which rule matched;
- plays the menu / language prompt — the call reaches an interactive rule (the simulator can’t press keys for you);
- has no agent (unmatched) — nothing matched and the fallback is off. Fix that before going live.
Times are read in the business’s local zone you set on the business-hours rule — enter the wall-clock time you care about, no conversion needed.
Common setups
After-hours
Open hours → live agent, after hours → message-taker.
- Rule 1 — Business hours Mon–Fri 9–5 → Front Desk.
- Fallback → After-hours agent (greets, takes a message, captures a callback number).
Tips & gotchas
- Order matters. Rules are checked top-to-bottom; the first match wins. Put specific rules above general ones — and remember a Menu or Language ask always triggers when a call reaches it, so nothing below it runs.
- Always keep a fallback. It’s the safety net for any call that falls through your silent rules.
- “Voicemail” and “send to a human” are just agents. Make an after-hours agent that takes a message, or an agent whose first action is Transfer call — then route to it.
- Area codes are US/Canada (NANP). Times are in the business’s timezone you set on the rule.
- One router can back many numbers — reuse it instead of rebuilding.