Speed to lead
Every new lead gets an owner and a clock.
A lead can arrive from a call, a text, an email, a website form or a chat. Routing rules give it to the right person in seconds, create the follow-up task, and track whether they responded in time. If they did not, the lead moves to someone who can.
- Rules and round robin
- Response deadline
- Escalation
New lead · Website form
Just nowSource
Pricing page form
Area code
214 · Dallas
Skips Do Not Disturb and anyone outside their hours.
Assigned to Jordan Lee
Respond within 30 minFollow-up task created · missed deadline escalates to the next available
Within deadline
86%
Median response
11 min
Reassigned
3 of 52
A clear path from the first conversation.
Illustrative workflow
A lead arrives
Call, text, email, form, or chat
A rule matches
Source, stage, tags, area code
An owner and a clock
Task with the deadline as its due time
Responded or escalated
The lead never sits unowned
Rules that match how your team is organized
Each rule belongs to one event: a contact created from a call, text, email or the dialer, a form submitted on your website or in chat, a Journey step, or a manual route from the contact record. Rules run top to bottom and the first match wins, with a catch-all at the bottom so nothing is left behind.
- Filters on source, lifecycle stage, tags, account and area code.
- Area-code matching against any of the contact’s phone numbers.
- A contact that already has an owner is left alone unless a Journey says otherwise.
Round robin that respects who is actually available
Assign to a specific person, a group, or a rotation. The rotation skips anyone on Do Not Disturb, outside the hours on their booking page, or on time off, as long as someone else is available. When nobody is, the full rotation is used so the lead is never left unassigned.
The context stays with the work
Avery Morgan
Customer inquiry · Full conversation history
The original conversation
What the customer asked and what was discussed.
The next action
An assigned task with the details your teammate needs.
The continuing relationship
Calls, texts, email, and chat in the customer history.
Illustrative customer record · Sample data
A response deadline, counted in working hours
Assignment creates a follow-up task with the deadline as its due time and starts a handoff clock. A call that reaches the lead, a text or email a person sends, or completing the task closes it. AI replies keep the customer engaged but do not count as the person’s response.
An owner and a clock
Task with the deadline as its due time
Escalate what was missed
When the deadline passes, the owner is notified. If the rule has an escalation, the lead moves to the next available person in the rotation, a named person, or a group, with a fresh task and its own deadline. The original handoff is recorded as reassigned so you can see where leads slip.
- Escalation targets: next available, a named person, or a group.
- A second deadline for the escalated owner.
- Old tasks dismissed, new owner notified, history kept.
See whether speed to lead is improving
The routing page shows leads assigned, the share that got a response within the deadline, missed and reassigned leads, leads still waiting, and the median first response for the last 7 or 30 days. A decision log lists recent leads with the event, the rule that matched, the outcome and the owner, so you can tell why a lead went where it did.
Give the assigned owner a booking link to offer in their first reply with meetings and booking pages.
A focused starting point
Define the work before you expand
- 01The events and filters that matter
- 02Who is in the rotation
- 03The deadline and where it escalates
Confirm the answers, routing, and next steps with your team.
Before you get started
Practical questions
What counts as a new lead?
Any contact created in NexTalker can be routed: a new caller or texter, an unknown email sender, a website lead form or chat visitor who shares their details, a contact added from the dialer or the Chrome extension, or a contact a Journey decides to route.
Can AI respond first while the person is being assigned?
Yes. An AI agent can answer the call, text or chat immediately. Routing assigns the human follow-up in parallel. The deadline is only satisfied by a person’s call, text or email, so the AI’s reply never hides a lead that still needs attention.
What happens when nobody is available?
The rotation falls back to everyone so the lead gets an owner. The deadline is counted in your working hours, so a lead that arrives overnight is due during the next working period rather than immediately.
Your next customer workflow
Bring your workflow. See it in one platform.
Show us the tools you use for CRM, calls, support, and follow-up. We’ll walk through how NexTalker can bring that work together.
Book your workflow demo