Salesforce Custom Field Routing

Pre-requisites: You should have ‘Write’ access to the ‘Conversations' resource set to set up a ‘Connect to an agent’ step in the Conversations builder. Salesforce custom field routing requires an active Salesforce integration.

It is important to route your prospects to the right SDRs with the richest context on the Account. And often the prospects are assigned a rep in a custom field in Salesforce based on routing logic setup in Salesforce or third-party routing tools.

ZoomInfo Chat can route visitors to the right agents based on a custom field value in Contact or Lead Object. The custom field should contain the email address of an agent, and the agent should be a valid ZoomInfo Chat user with the same email address to receive alerts in Chat Inbox/Slack/MS Teams.

Note: Additional Setup Required

Setting up routing based on custom fields requires an internal configuration by the ZI Chat team. 

Custom field - Salesforce requirements:

1. A custom field in Salesforce Lead, Contact or Account Object.
2. The custom field should be an Email or Formula (Text) type.
3. The custom field should be populated with a valid email address format for custom field routing to execute successfully.

What you need to provide to your CSM to set up custom field routing:

1. Field Name in Salesforce (Lead/Contact/Account Object)
2. Rule name of the custom field routing - We recommend a short name, same as the Field name. Eg: Prospecting SDR (Contact).
3. Whether you would like to enable or disable fallback routing - Respond with “true” for fallback enabled and “false” for fallback disabled.

Example:

1. Field Name: SdrEmail__c (Contact)
2. Rule Name: Prospecting SDR (Contact)
3. Enable Fallback: true

Configuring custom field routing in the connect to an agent step

You will see the custom field routing step appear in the “Connect to an agent” step → “Send alerts to” dropdown once it is configured by the ZI Chat team.

Setup Process:

1. Choose where you would like to notify your agents: Chat Inbox, Slack, or MS Teams.
2. If you have chosen Slack or MS Teams, please set up your target channel (Slack) or your target team and channel (MS Teams).
3. Next, select your custom field routing rule from the “Send Alerts to” dropdown.
4. Next, set the execution time for the step. The default execution time is set to 30 seconds.
5. Choose if you would like to wait for an agent connection request or send a parallel alert (Check “Don’t wait for agent request”) in the Advanced options.
6. The incoming visitors will now be routed based on the custom field value read from Salesforce or through the fallback logic (if enabled).

Note: If your agents are using Chat Inbox, please ensure their “availability” is set to “online” for them to receive notifications. If your team is using Slack/MS Teams please ensure that your agents are added to the target channels to receive agent alerts.

Configuring custom field routing in the book a meeting step

You will see the custom field routing option appear in the “Book a meeting” step -> “Account/Contact Owner” dropdown once it is configured by the ZI Chat team.

Setup Process:

1. Setup the Calendar Title and select the custom field rule from the “Show available slots from” dropdown.
2. The custom field rule will take higher priority than the agents or teams in the calendar booking step. If an agent is identified through the custom field routing rule, then their configured calendar is shown in the chat widget.
3. Next setup availability slots from your agents or teams in the calendar step. This is required to ensure that when an agent is not identified through custom field routing, your prospects can still schedule a meeting with someone on your team.  

Note: Please ensure your agents have configured their Google or Microsoft calendars to serve their calendar in the “Book a meeting” step.

When does Salesforce enrichment happen in ZI Chat?

When a visitor arrives and engages with chat, the visitor’s profile is enriched from Salesforce when:

1. An email is submitted in the widget, and enrichment is not done in the last 5 minutes
2. New data is captured for a known visitor.
3. A meeting is booked by the visitor in the book a meeting step. 

How does the Custom field Routing Algorithm work?

Custom field routing for Account Object

If the visitor is matched a valid Account in Salesforce, then the configured custom field is read and the corresponding ZI Chat user with the same email address is sent an alert through the “Connect to an agent” step or has their configured calendar shown in the “book a meeting” step.

ZI Chat attempts to identify an existing account where the visitor could be arriving from:

• If the visitor’s account is found:
  • The visitor is routed based on the value present in the configured custom field.
• If the visitor’s account is found but does not contain a custom field value:
  • The routing step is skipped.

Fallback Routing Logic

If there is no valid salesforce account matched then fallback routing logic is invoked.

• ZI Chat looks up the email domain of the visitor (@company.domain) and attempts to find the most recently created contact with the same domain that has a valid account in Salesforce with a custom field value. 
  • If a Custom field value is found in the matched account, the request is routed to the agent assigned in the custom field.
• Else:
  • The routing step is skipped.

Custom field routing for Contact Object

If the visitor has an existing Contact record in Salesforce, then the configured custom field is read and the corresponding ZI Chat user with the same email address is sent an alert through the “Connect to an agent” step or has their configured calendar shown in the “book a meeting” step.

Fallback Routing Logic - Account-based routing

If it's a new visitor or there is no custom field value in the existing contact record then fallback routing logic is invoked.

• ZI Chat attempts to identify an existing account that the visitor could be arriving from.
  • If the visitor’s account is found:
    • the visitor is routed based on the custom field value of the most recently created contact in the account.
  • If the visitor’s account is not found:
    • ZI Chat looks up the email domain of the visitor (@company.domain) and attempts to route requests to the most recently created contact with a valid custom field value.
    • If no contact with a valid custom field is found:
    • The routing step is skipped.

Custom field routing for Lead Object

If the visitor has an existing Lead record in Salesforce, then the configured custom field is read and the corresponding ZI Chat user with the same email address is sent an alert through the “Connect to an agent” step or has their configured calendar shown in the “book a meeting” step.

Fallback Routing Logic - Domain-based routing

If it's a new visitor or there is no custom field value in the existing contact record then fallback routing logic is invoked.

• ZI Chat looks up the email domain of the visitor (@company.domain) and attempts to route requests to the most recently created lead with a valid custom field value.
• If no lead record with a valid custom field value is found:
  • The routing step is skipped.

Quick Recap

• Salesforce custom field routing requires a backend configuration for setup. Please reach out to your CSM with the field name, custom field rule name, and fallback routing status(enable/disable).
• Custom field routing capabilities are available in the “Book a meeting” and the “Connect to an agent” steps.

You are always welcome to get in touch with our Customer Success team at chatsuccess@zoominfo.com!