Feature Overview:

In October of 2022, Terminus Chat released a suite of features to help streamline the way chat administrators manage their team's routing rules, along with some additional routing capabilities.

Here's a quick overview of the new features:

• Schedules - Assign online hours to your team members.
• User Groups - Segment your team into various groups.
• Territories - Easily assign geographic regions to users or user groups (based on Visitor Location or Headquarter Location).
• Routing Workflows - Combine all of these new features to seamlessly manage your routing rules in one place - rather than within each individual playbook.

You may be wondering what the new functionality is + when/how to switch over to the new features. This guide will walk you through the "why" behind the new features, the links to the official Setup Guides for the new features, and our recommended migration approach. 

When to Start Using These New Features:

The intention of these new features is to lighten the burden on chat administrators. Because of this, we do not have a scheduled date to sunset existing processes and functionality for routing groups / break the logic you’ve already created. Playbooks with old routing groups will continue to work as expected and we are not requiring a migration immediately.

That being said, we recommend that you read through this guide in its entirety to familiarize yourself with the features. There may be some new benefits - such as being able to add routing logic based on Salesforce fields or Company Headquarter Location - that would create enough value for your team to migrate immediately.

Otherwise, we recommend that you make the switch the next time your Sales Team has an adjustment of their lead routing rules, a new person joins the team, or any other event triggers the need to update your routing configuration with Terminus Chat. 

Determining Which Features You Will Use:

Schedules:

"Why did you create Schedules?"

Before this release, there was not a direct way to assign user availability - meaning "only notify User A during these hours." To configure Terminus Chat to only notify users during online hours, chat administrators would rely on features such as logic within Routing Plays or availability within Routing Groups. 

Schedules create a direct way to assign online hours to individual users - making it easier to scale your routing logic.

"Does my team need to use Schedules?"

We say, yes! This is the easiest feature to configure and a great place to start as you work to migrate to the new and enhanced routing workflows. Schedules are necessary to ensure you're only notifying users during online hours once you make the official switch to Routing Workflows. 

"How can I set up Schedules?"

Check out this setup guide for detailed instructions.

"Are there any special considerations as I am adding Schedules to my chat instance?"

As previously mentioned, most teams are currently leveraging logic within Routing Plays or the "Availability" setting within Routing Groups to only notify users during working hours. As you start to assign schedules to your team, your already existing chat configuration will work in tandem with the new schedule functionality. The joint availability between both configurations will apply.

A couple of examples of this in practice:

- User "John" is in a routing group with the availability of 9 AM-9 PM ET Monday - Friday. You then assign John a schedule with the availability of 9 AM-5 PM ET. The result: John will not be notified after 5 PM because of his personal availability, even though the routing group has broader hours.

- User "Risa" is an eligible member of a calendar event with the availability of 9 AM to 5 PM PT Monday - Friday. You then assign Risa a schedule with the availability of 9 AM - 6 PM PT. Although Risa's user account is now able to have meetings booked until 6 PM based on personal availability, the calendar event still restricts her from having a meeting booked after 5 PM PT.

User Groups:

"Why did you create User Groups?"

Before this release, you have used "Routing Groups" to separate your team members into groups. If you look at the Routing Group configuration, there are several additional fields beyond just selecting team members, such as "Timeout", "Rollover", "Availability", etc. This means that you were configuring routing behavior in multiple places in the platform - and we understand that can be hard to keep track of!

For Routing Workflows, we decided we need to start fresh with a streamlined, straightforward way to segment users into teams. User Groups are a way to simply combine a group of users into one unit that can be referenced the same way as individual users across your Routing Workflows.

"Does my team need to use User Groups?"

Is there a place within your routing rules where you are notifying multiple users at once? If yes, then you likely should create User Groups. Not all teams will require User Groups.

"How can I set up User Groups?"

Check out this setup guide for detailed instructions.

"Are there any special considerations as I am adding User Groups to my chat instance?"

User Groups have been built specifically to work with Routing Workflows. Keep in mind that your existing Routing Groups cannot be used within new Routing Workflows. Similarly, the new User Groups cannot be added to legacy Routing Plays. 

Territories:

"Why did you create Territories?"

We understand that many of our customers' sales teams are segmented by geographic territories. We also understand that these territories can often shift around. With the new territories functionality, Terminus Chat administrators can now manage their geographic segmentation in one place and within an easy-to-view table format rather than across various rules. No more updating all of your playbooks every time a sales territory shifts around! 

"Does my team need to use Territories?"

Is there a place within your routing rules where you are notifying users based on the chat visitor's location? Would you like to be able to route based on the visitor's Company Headquarter location? If you answered either of these with yes, then you likely should create Territories. Not all teams will require Territories.

"How can I set up Territories?"

Check out this setup guide for detailed instructions.

"Are there any special considerations as I am adding Territories to my chat instance?"

When building territories, you want to make sure you don't have any overlapping locations within each region. We recommend drafting your separate regions within a spreadsheet and checking for potential duplicates before you begin the process of creating your territories.

Routing Workflows:

"Why did you create Routing Workflows?"

We heard you. It can require a lot of time and redundant efforts to manage your routing rules across your playbooks as your teams shift around. With Routing Workflows, you can create one sequence of routing logic that all of your playbooks can reference. When you update a Routing Workflow, all of the playbooks pointing to that workflow will also update automatically - eliminating the need to make the same change in multiple places.

"Does my team need to use Routing Workflows?"

Yes, every team can benefit by switching to Routing Workflows. 

"How can I set up Routing Workflows?"

Check out this setup guide for detailed instructions.

"Are there any special considerations as I am adding Routing Workflows to my chat instance?"

When adding Routing Workflows, we recommend first making a clone of your existing playbooks. Then, adjust the playbook from a "Routing Play" to the new "Routing Workflow Play". To avoid unintended sudden chat ends, be sure to double check that you've updated the respective plays within the playbook to appropriately point to the new workflow play. You'll also want to ensure you've selected the "No Answer Play" for your new routing workflow play in case nobody from your team answers. 

Once you've configured everything, you can push the new "cloned" version of your playbooks live and deactivate the old versions with legacy routing plays. We recommend maintaining the old version of your playbooks for a few weeks until you confirm that everything is routing as expected. If your new Routing Workflows are not reaching your desired behavior and you have questions about your configuration, you can submit a Support Request for further assistance. 

Which Order to Build Your Routing Workflows:

 We recommend:

1. Create and assign schedules to all users.

2. Create user groups (if necessary).

3. Create territories (if necessary).

4. Combine all of these within your Routing Workflows. 

5. Clone all existing playbooks.

6. Within the cloned versions, switch your "Routing Plays" to the new "Routing Workflows."

7. Push the cloned version with the new Routing Workflows live on your site.

We are excited for your team to start benefitting from these powerful new features!