What this helps you do

Build shared Inbox teams and automatically place new customer chats with the right team.

Before you start

Your role must allow Inbox team management. Add staff and give them Inbox access before placing them in a department.

Steps

  1. Open the Inbox menu and select Inbox departments.

  2. Enter a Name, such as Returns.

  3. Enter an optional Description, such as Handles refunds and exchanges.

  4. Select Add department.

  5. Tick the staff who belong to it and save its members.

  6. Add routing rules only after the department and its members are correct.

A department is a shared work queue. Adding a staff member to it does not automatically assign old chats to that person.

Understand every routing field

  • Rule name: an internal label that helps your team recognise the rule. It is not shown to customers.
  • Route when: the condition Upstorr checks on a new inbound message.
  • Keywords: words or phrases to look for in the incoming message. The example refund, return, exchange is useful for a Returns team.
  • Phone prefix: the beginning digits of the customer's phone number. For example, 9180 can match numbers that start with those digits.
  • Department: the team queue that should receive the conversation.
  • Staff member: an optional person inside the chosen department. Leave it empty when anybody in the department can pick up the chat.
  • Priority: the order in which rules run. A lower number runs before a higher number.
  • Active: whether Upstorr should currently use the rule.

Choose a route condition

  • Keyword: route when the incoming message contains one of the configured keywords.
  • Phone prefix: route when the customer's phone number starts with the configured digits.
  • Every message: match every new inbound message. This condition does not need a value.

How auto-routing behaves

Auto-routing only assigns a new inbound chat that is currently unassigned. It does not move a conversation somebody already owns. When several rules could match, the lower priority number is checked first.

Put broad rules, such as Every message, after specific rules by giving the broad rule a higher priority number.

A simple setup

  1. Create a Returns department.
  2. Add the staff trained to handle returns.
  3. Create a Keyword rule with refund, return, exchange and priority 10.
  4. Create an Every message rule for General support with priority 100.

A refund message reaches Returns first. A message with no special keyword falls through to General support.

Change or remove routing

Turn a rule inactive when you may need it later. Delete it when it should never be used again. Deleting a rule or department does not rewrite past conversation activity.

What happens next

New, unassigned inbound chats are checked against active rules in priority order. Existing assigned chats stay with their current owner.

Common problems

  • Add rule is disabled: Create at least one active department first.
  • A staff member is missing from the rule: Add that person as a member of the chosen department.
  • A broad rule catches everything: Give specific rules lower priority numbers than the Every message rule.
  • Old chats did not move: Auto-routing is intentionally only for new, unassigned inbound chats.
  • You can view departments but cannot edit: Your role does not allow Inbox team management.