Control Who Gets Your After-Hours Leads

The Feature

RouterJet now allows you to customize how far into the future the system looks for available agents when escalation rules send leads to offline agents. You can now set this window anywhere from 0 to 24 hours based on your business needs.

Important: The default is now 0 hours for all new accounts (changed from 4 hours). Existing accounts keep their current settings unchanged unless you modify them.

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What Changed

Before: When escalation rules kicked in and all your agents were offline, RouterJet would automatically include agents whose shifts started within the next 4 hours. This was the same for everyone - no flexibility.

Now: You control this window through a simple dropdown in your Account Settings. Choose from 0, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, or 24 hours to match your business operations.

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How It Works (For Escalation Rules)

When escalation is enabled and all agents are offline, RouterJet finds the agents with the soonest upcoming shift, then includes any other agents whose shifts start within your configured window of that time.

Example: It’s Friday 5:00 PM and all agents are offline. Your escalation rule needs to assign a lead. Agent A starts Monday at 6:00 AM (earliest), Agent B starts Monday at 8:00 AM, and Agent C starts Monday at 11:00 AM.

• Setting = 0 hours: Only Agent A receives the lead (exact earliest time only)
• Setting = 2 hours: Agents A and B receive the lead (within 2 hours of 6:00 AM)
• Setting = 6 hours: All three agents receive the lead (all within 6 hours of 6:00 AM)

This ensures escalated leads always go to the agents who will be available soonest, while giving you control over how many agents are included in that pool.

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Why This Matters to You

Shift-aware routing and agent availability windows aren’t available in Pipedrive’s built-in automatic assignment—it simply assigns leads without considering who’s actually working. For a full breakdown of routing capabilities, see our RouterJet vs Pipedrive comparison.

Your Monday Morning Agents Will Thank You

Picture this: It’s Monday at 6 AM. Your earliest agent logs in to find 47 weekend leads waiting. They’re overwhelmed before their coffee kicks in. With a wider window (6-12 hours), those same leads would have been distributed across your entire morning team. Everyone starts their week manageable, not miserable.

You Can Finally Fix the “Why Always Me?” Problem

Your 7 AM agents keep asking why they get all the overnight leads while the 9 AM team starts fresh. Now you can spread the load fairly. Set a wider window and everyone shares the after-hours responsibilities - or keep it narrow if you have dedicated early-response agents who signed up for exactly that.

Your Best Agents Can Handle Your Best Leads

That high-value lead that came in at midnight? With a wider window, it can wait for your senior agent who starts at 9 AM instead of automatically going to whoever starts first. Better matches mean happier customers and more closed deals.

You Can Optimize for YOUR Business Reality

Every business has different priorities. If your weekend leads are usually tire-kickers, spread them wide across Monday’s team. If they’re serious buyers who expect immediate Monday callbacks, keep the window tight so your earliest agent can respond ASAP. You know your leads better than anyone - now your routing can reflect that knowledge.

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How to Choose Your Setting

Choose 0-2 hours if:

• You have dedicated early-shift agents who expect overnight leads
• Speed of response is absolutely critical
• You want maximum control over who gets off-hours leads

Choose 4-8 hours if:

• You want to balance the load across your morning team
• Your agents have similar skill levels and any of them can handle leads
• You’re seeing burnout in your early-shift agents

Choose 12-24 hours if:

• You have teams across multiple time zones
• Lead quality matters more than response speed
• You want maximum distribution to prevent any single agent overload

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Getting Started

1. Go to Account Settings
2. Find “Next Agent Availability Window” under Rule Settings
3. Think about your team’s workload - are early agents overwhelmed?
4. Select your preferred window from the dropdown
5. Click Save
6. Monitor for a week and adjust if needed

Changes take effect immediately for all new routing decisions. Start with a wider window if you’re unsure - you can always narrow it later.

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What’s Next

Test it for a week, then evaluate. Check if your Monday morning response times improve. Ask your team directly - are the early shifters less overwhelmed? Are leads being distributed more fairly? Adjust based on what you discover. Start with one setting, measure the impact, then tweak. The beauty of this feature is that you can experiment until you find the sweet spot for your sales team - there’s no universal answer, just the one that works for your business.