Learn how to configure inbound call routing in Shape Software, including call flows, routing rules, greetings, voicemail, IVR, lead assignment, AI answering, and best practices.
Designing Inbound Call Flows in Shape Software
Inbound Call Routing controls what happens from the moment someone calls one of your Shape phone numbers.
Whether you’re routing callers directly to a loan officer, insurance agent, customer service representative, AI agent, voicemail, or an entire sales team, Inbound Call Routing gives you complete control over how every incoming call is handled.
Rather than simply forwarding calls to a single phone number, Shape allows you to design intelligent call flows that can:
- Ring individual users or entire teams
- Route calls to the assigned record owner
- Round Robin calls across departments
- Forward calls to external phone numbers
- Play greetings or compliance recordings
- Route calls to AI agents
- Create or update customer records automatically
- Assign or reassign record ownership
- Respect user availability and state licensing
- Transfer callers to voicemail when no one answers
The result is a more consistent customer experience while ensuring opportunities are routed to the right people at the right time.
What Is an Inbound Call Route?
An Inbound Call Route is a configurable workflow that determines how Shape handles incoming calls for one or more phone numbers.
Every Shape phone number is associated with an inbound call route. When a customer dials that number, Shape follows the call flow you’ve designed until the call is answered or reaches its final destination.
Think of an inbound call route as a decision tree for every incoming phone call.
For example:
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Or for an insurance agency:
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Instead of manually forwarding calls or relying on a receptionist, Shape automatically follows your configured workflow every time someone calls.
How Inbound Call Routing Works
Every inbound call follows the same basic process.
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Each inbound route contains one or more Call Flow Rules.
These rules are evaluated from top to bottom.
If the first rule doesn’t answer the call, Shape automatically continues to the next rule until the call is answered or the workflow ends.
For example:
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This sequential approach allows you to build sophisticated routing workflows without requiring complex programming.
Why Inbound Call Routing Matters
Your inbound call strategy has a direct impact on customer experience.
A well-designed call flow helps your organization:
- Answer calls faster.
- Route customers to the correct person.
- Reduce missed opportunities.
- Automatically assign ownership.
- Improve reporting accuracy.
- Maintain compliance.
- Support multiple departments and teams.
- Scale as your organization grows.
Rather than forcing every caller through the same path, Shape allows you to customize routing for each phone number based on your business needs.
One Route, Multiple Numbers
An inbound call route can be assigned to multiple Shape phone numbers.
This is useful when several phone numbers should all follow the same routing workflow.
For example:
- Main Office
- Website Phone Number
- Marketing Campaign Number
All three numbers can point to the same inbound call route.
This makes administration much easier because updating the route automatically updates every phone number assigned to it.
One Number, One Active Route
While multiple phone numbers can share a single route, each Shape phone number can only have one active inbound route at a time.
The two primary exceptions are:
Registering your business tells carriers:
Run schedules allow different routes to become active at different times.
For example:
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IVR (Interactive Voice Response)
IVR allows callers to choose different paths by pressing keys on their phone.
Example:
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Thank you for calling. Press 1 for Sales. Press 2 for Customer Service. Press 3 for Billing.
Each selection can direct callers into a completely different call flow.
Common Uses for Inbound Call Routing
Every organization is different, but some of the most common routing strategies include:
Dedicated User Routing
Each user receives their own Shape phone number with a dedicated routing rule.
This is the most common configuration and provides the greatest flexibility.
Department Routing
Calls ring every available member of a department until someone answers.
Common examples include:
- Customer Service
- Reception
- Billing
- Sales
Team Routing
Instead of routing to an entire department, calls ring members of a specific team.
This works well for specialized sales groups or regional offices.
Round Robin Distribution
Calls rotate evenly between users to distribute opportunities fairly across a team.
This is commonly used by inside sales teams and call centers.
External Phone Forwarding
Calls can also be forwarded to external phone numbers such as:
- Mobile phones
- Desk phones
- Answering services
- Third-party call centers
AI Call Answering
Organizations using Shape AI can have an AI agent answer calls:
- During business hours
- After hours
- Before routing to users
- After no answer
- As the primary receptionist
AI can answer questions, schedule callbacks, and transfer callers to the appropriate team when needed.
Before You Begin
Inbound Call Routing is configured from:
Settings → Phone Settings → Inbound Call Routing
Before creating your first call route, we recommend:
- Purchasing your Shape phone numbers.
- Assigning dedicated phone numbers to users whenever possible.
- Configuring your user profiles.
- Creating your departments and teams.
- Setting up your voicemail greetings.
- Determining how you’d like new callers to be assigned.
Taking a few minutes to plan your routing strategy before building your workflows can make future administration significantly easier.
Best Practice: We recommend assigning each user their own dedicated Shape phone number and corresponding inbound call route whenever possible. Dedicated routing provides cleaner reporting, more predictable call handling, and greater flexibility when routing calls to individual users or departments.
Typical Call Flow Strategy
Although every organization is different, most successful call flows follow a similar pattern.
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This approach gives the intended owner the first opportunity to answer while ensuring customers aren’t left without assistance if they’re unavailable.
As we’ll cover throughout this guide, Shape supports many different routing strategies, but building in one or more fallback options is one of the most important best practices for creating a great caller experience.
Creating an Inbound Call Route
Once you’ve planned how you want your inbound calls to flow, you’re ready to build your first route.
Inbound Call Routes are configured from:
Settings → Phone Settings → Inbound Call Routing
Each route represents a complete workflow for one or more Shape phone numbers, allowing you to control how callers are greeted, who is called, how new records are created, and what happens if nobody answers.
Step 1: Create a New Route
From the Inbound Call Routing page, click Add New Route.
Every route should have a descriptive name that clearly identifies its purpose.
Some common naming conventions include:
- John Smith
- Main Office
- Customer Service
- Claims Department
- Sales Team
- Branch Reception
- After Hours
- AI Receptionist
Choosing clear names makes it much easier to manage larger phone systems as your organization grows.
Step 2: Assign Phone Numbers
Next, choose which Shape phone numbers should use this routing workflow.
A single route can support multiple phone numbers if those numbers should all follow the same call flow.
For example:
- Main Office Number
- Website Number
- Marketing Campaign Number
could all point to the same inbound route.
If different phone numbers should follow different workflows, simply create additional routes.
Best Practice: Most organizations assign each user their own dedicated Shape phone number and corresponding inbound call route. This provides cleaner reporting, simpler troubleshooting, and much greater flexibility when routing inbound calls.
Step 3: Configure Lead Ownership
One of Shape’s most powerful capabilities is automatically assigning ownership when inbound calls arrive.
You’ll notice two assignment options.
Assign New Leads to the User That Answers
When enabled, if an inbound caller does not already exist in your CRM, Shape creates a new record and automatically assigns ownership to the person who answered the call.
This is especially useful for:
- Sales teams
- Call centers
- Speed-to-lead environments
- Lead providers sending live transfers
Instead of assigning new callers before someone answers, ownership is determined by the person who actually speaks with the customer.
Reassign Existing Records to the User That Answers
You can also choose to automatically reassign existing records whenever another user answers the inbound call. This is common for warm transfer setups.
This is useful when ownership should transfer naturally as conversations move between departments or team members.
For example:
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This helps keep record ownership aligned with the person actively working the customer.
Best Practice: Most organizations enable Assign New Leads to the User That Answers. Whether you enable Reassign Existing Records depends on your team’s workflow and ownership strategy.
Step 4: Assign a Marketing Source
Every inbound route can automatically assign a marketing source to new records created through that phone number.
This helps preserve reporting accuracy and makes it easy to understand where new opportunities originated.
Some common examples include:
- Inbound Call
- Website
- TV Campaign
- Radio
- Billboard
- Referral Hotline
- Customer Service
If the caller’s phone number already matches an existing record in Shape, the inbound call is logged to that record instead of creating a duplicate.
Marketing Sources can be managed from:
Settings → Marketing Sources
Best Practice: Creating dedicated phone numbers for different marketing campaigns allows you to automatically track campaign performance without requiring users to manually update the source.
How Shape Handles Existing Customers
When someone calls one of your Shape phone numbers, Shape first checks whether that phone number already exists in your CRM.
If a matching record is found:
- No duplicate record is created.
- The existing record is opened.
- The inbound call activity is logged on that record.
If no matching phone number is found:
- A new record is automatically created.
- The configured marketing source is assigned.
- Ownership follows your assignment settings.
This process happens automatically during every inbound call.
Duplicate Record Handling
If multiple records contain the same phone number, Shape automatically associates the inbound call with the newest matching record.
This helps ensure activity is logged against the most current version of the customer record.
Mortgage Support: Borrower & Co-Borrower Matching
Mortgage organizations often collect multiple phone numbers for both borrowers and co-borrowers.
Shape supports inbound matching against:
- Primary Borrower Mobile
- Primary Borrower Home
- Primary Borrower Work
- Co-Borrower Mobile
- Co-Borrower Home
- Co-Borrower Work
If any of these phone numbers call into Shape, the call is associated with the corresponding primary borrower record and the activity is logged appropriately.
This allows loan officers to immediately access the correct customer record regardless of which borrower is calling.
Automatically Opening the Customer Record
To help users answer calls more efficiently, Shape can automatically open the associated customer record whenever an inbound call is answered.
When enabled, users immediately see:
- Customer information
- Previous conversations
- Notes
- Tasks
- Timeline activity
- Loan or policy information
- Contact details
This is particularly valuable when handling live transfers or repeat customers, since agents have immediate context before beginning the conversation.
This setting is configured individually within each user’s Profile Settings.
Building Your Call Flow
The Call Flow is the heart of every inbound call route.
Once a customer calls one of your Shape phone numbers, Shape begins working through each Call Flow Rule in the order you’ve configured them until the call is answered or reaches its final destination.
Think of it like a checklist.
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If the Assigned User answers, the remaining rules are skipped.
If they don’t answer, Shape automatically proceeds to the next rule.
Because rules execute sequentially, you can build extremely simple or highly sophisticated routing workflows.
Reordering Call Flow Rules
Call Flow Rules can be reordered at any time using drag-and-drop.
The order matters.
Rules at the top are evaluated first.
Rules lower in the list act as fallbacks if earlier rules don’t answer the call.
For example:
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behaves very differently than
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Take a few minutes to think about who should receive the first opportunity to answer each type of call.
Understanding Each Call Flow Rule
User
The User rule calls one specific Shape user.
This is the most common routing option for organizations where each employee has their own direct phone number.
Common examples include:
- Individual Loan Officers
- Insurance Agents
- Account Managers
- Receptionists
- Customer Service Representatives
If the selected user answers, the call ends successfully and no additional routing rules are processed.
If they don’t answer, Shape moves to the next rule.
Best For
- Direct extensions
- Personal phone numbers
- Executive lines
- Dedicated support representatives
Assigned User
Rather than selecting a specific person, Assigned User dynamically routes the call to whoever currently owns the record.
This is one of Shape’s most powerful routing options because ownership changes automatically over time.
No matter who owns the customer, Shape always routes the call to the current owner.
If ownership changes tomorrow, the routing updates automatically without changing the call flow.
Best For
- Existing customers
- Returning borrowers
- Existing policyholders
- Ongoing client relationships
All Assigned Users
The Assigned User Blast option rings all users currently assigned to the record.
Instead of routing the call to only one assigned user, Shape attempts to reach every assigned user on that record at the same time. The first assigned user to answer is connected to the caller.
This option is useful when multiple users share ownership of a record and any assigned user can assist.
Teams
The Team option rings or round robins all users assigned to a selected team, depending on the call flow option you choose.
This is ideal for organizations that organize users into regional offices, specialized sales teams, service groups, or internal pods where any team member can assist the caller.
When using simultaneous ringing, Shape supports up to 10 concurrent ringing users. If your team contains more than 10 users or you need to notify a larger group simultaneously, we recommend using QuickFire Connect, which is specifically designed to notify large groups without the standard concurrent ringing limitation.
Best For
- Regional sales teams
- Branch offices
- Specialized service teams
- Internal support groups
- Shared ownership within a team
Department
The Department option rings or round robins users assigned to a selected department, depending on the call flow option you choose.
This is ideal when any member of a department can assist the caller, making it a popular choice for shared support lines and departmental phone numbers.
Best For
- Shared sales departments
- Customer service teams
- Claims departments
- Loan processing teams
- Reception or front desk coverage
- General support lines
Best Practice: If your goal is to ring more than 10 users at the same time, configure a QuickFire Connect rule instead of a standard department call flow.
All Available Users
The All Available Users option simultaneously rings every user in your organization who is currently available to receive calls.
To receive the call, users must have:
- Calling enabled
- Call Availability turned on
The first user to answer is connected to the caller, and the call stops ringing for everyone else.
Because this option rings multiple users at the same time, it’s a popular choice for:
- Small offices
- Reception lines
- Shared sales teams
- Customer service queues
- General support numbers
Best Practice: If you need to ring more than 10 users simultaneously, configure a QuickFire Connect rule instead of using All Available Users.
Round Robin
Round Robin distributes inbound calls evenly across a Department or Team.
Instead of ringing everyone at once, Shape rotates through users sequentially.
For example:
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Call #1 → Sarah Call #2 → John Call #3 → Mike Call #4 → Emily Call #5 → Sarah
This helps balance inbound opportunities fairly across your staff.
You can configure:
- Ring duration for each user
- Number of attempts
- Department or Team
- Fallback rules after the Round Robin completes
Call Direct Number
The Call Direct Number rule forwards inbound calls to an external phone number.
Examples include:
- Mobile phones
- Desk phones
- Third-party answering services
- External call centers
Calls routed through Shape continue to support native features such as call recording (when enabled), even if the user answers on their cell phone.
This is particularly useful for employees who spend most of their day away from their desks.
Play Recording
This rule plays a prerecorded audio message before continuing through the rest of the call flow.
Organizations commonly use recordings for:
- Welcome greetings
- Business hours
- Call recording disclosures
- Compliance announcements
- Temporary office closures
- Holiday messaging
After the recording finishes, Shape proceeds to the next rule unless the workflow ends there.
AI Answering
Organizations using Shape AI can route callers directly to an AI Voice Agent.
The AI can:
- Answer common questions
- Collect customer information
- Collect customer information
- Transfer callers to users
- Route callers to departments
- Provide after-hours assistance
AI can be placed anywhere in the call flow.
Examples:
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or
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This allows organizations to provide 24/7 coverage while reducing missed opportunities.
Advanced Routing Features
Inbound Call Routing is more than simply deciding which phone rings first. Shape includes several advanced routing capabilities that allow you to create sophisticated workflows based on your business processes, operating hours, licensing requirements, and customer ownership.
Business Hours & After-Hours Routing
Many organizations want inbound calls handled differently outside of normal business hours.
Using Run Schedules, you can automatically activate different inbound call routes based on the time of day.
For example:
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After hours, a completely different route can take over.
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This allows your organization to provide a professional experience regardless of when customers call.
Common after-hours workflows include:
- AI call answering
- After-hours voicemail
- Emergency forwarding
- Holiday greetings
- Temporary office closures
Best Practice: Rather than forwarding every after-hours call directly to voicemail, consider using Shape AI to answer common questions, collect customer information, schedule callbacks, or transfer callers when appropriate.
Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
If your organization receives calls for multiple departments or services, you can enable IVR (Interactive Voice Response) to allow callers to choose where they’d like to be routed.
For example:
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Thank you for calling ABC Company. Press 1 for Sales. Press 2 for Customer Service. Press 3 for Billing.
Each menu option can direct callers into a completely different inbound call route.
Shape currently supports IVR selections using:
- Numbers 0 through 9
This allows your organization to provide a professional experience regardless of when customers call.
Common after-hours workflows include:
- AI call answering
- After-hours voicemail
- Emergency forwarding
- Holiday greetings
- Temporary office closures
Greetings & Compliance Recordings
Inbound Call Routing also allows you to play prerecorded audio messages before continuing through your call flow.
Organizations commonly use greetings to:
- Welcome callers
- Explain business hours
- Notify callers of holiday closures
- Inform callers that calls may be recorded
- Provide temporary announcements
Greetings are uploaded as MP3 recordings and can be placed anywhere within your call flow.
Multiple greetings can also be chained together using IVR or multiple routing paths when needed.
Smart Lead Assignment
Inbound Call Routing doesn’t just determine who answers the phone. It also can control how customer ownership is managed inside Shape.
Depending on your configuration, Shape can:
- Create new records automatically.
- Assign new records to the user who answers.
- Reassign existing records to the user who answers.
- Update existing customer records.
- Apply inbound activity to existing records instead of creating duplicates.
This creates a seamless experience where the person helping the customer also becomes the record owner, eliminating manual reassignment.
State Licensing Support
Organizations operating in regulated industries, such as mortgage lending and insurance, often need to ensure inbound calls are only routed to appropriately licensed users.
Shape supports State Eligibility Routing within Inbound Call Routing.
When enabled, Shape compares:
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Users who are not licensed or eligible for the caller’s state are automatically skipped during routing.
This helps organizations maintain licensing compliance while ensuring customers reach qualified representatives.
Example: A caller with an Arizona area code calls your office. If a user is not licensed to conduct business in Arizona, Shape automatically excludes that user from the routing process when State Eligibility is enabled.
AI Voice Agent Routing
Shape AI can be incorporated into nearly any stage of an inbound call flow.
Some common configurations include:
AI First
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The AI gathers information before transferring the caller.
AI After No Answer
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If nobody answers, the AI continues assisting the customer rather than sending them directly to voicemail.
AI After Hours
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This provides 24/7 availability while allowing your team to follow up the next business day.
AI can answer questions, collect information, transfer callers, and schedule callbacks based on your configured AI workflows.
Notification Preferences
Inbound Call Routing also determines who should be notified when communication events occur.
You can configure notifications for:
- Missed calls
- Voicemails
- Text messages
- Verifying whether a contact already exists elsewhere in your organization.
- Providing enterprise-wide administrative support.
Notifications can be sent to:
Specific User
Notify one designated user regardless of who owns the record.
Assigned User(s)
Notify all users currently assigned to the customer record.
This is the default configuration for many organizations.
Assigned Department User
Notify only the assigned user within a specific department.
For example:
- Assigned Loan Officer
- Assigned Insurance Agent
- Assigned Customer Service Representative
This helps reduce unnecessary notifications while ensuring the appropriate team member stays informed.
Best Practice: Department-specific notifications are particularly useful when multiple departments share ownership of the same customer but only one department is responsible for responding to inbound communications.
Voicemail Management
If nobody answers the call, Shape can automatically route callers to voicemail.
Organizations can configure different voicemail boxes for different routes, departments, or users.
Voicemails are accessible from:
- Voicemail Report
- Customer Record
- Call History
Organizations using AI Call Insights can also generate voicemail transcriptions for easier review and searching.
Designing Reliable Call Flows
As your routing becomes more sophisticated, it’s important to think about the caller’s experience rather than just your internal workflow.
A strong inbound call route should:
- Route callers quickly.
- Always include a fallback.
- Avoid dead ends.
- Minimize unnecessary transfers.
- Respect user availability.
- Route customers to the person most likely to help them.
- Continue working even when users are unavailable.
Instead of asking, “Who should answer this call?”, ask:
“If my first choice doesn’t answer, what’s the best experience for the customer?”
That simple mindset often results in dramatically better inbound call flows.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Avoiding a few common mistakes can significantly improve your inbound call experience.
Routing Too Many Users Simultaneously
Carrier limitations allow up to 10 concurrent ringing users.
If your organization needs to notify larger groups, use QuickFire Connect instead.
Forgetting to Update Routes
When users leave your organization or phone numbers are reassigned, review your inbound routes to ensure calls continue reaching the correct destination.
Ignoring State Eligibility
Mortgage and insurance organizations should enable State Eligibility routing whenever licensing requirements apply.
Skipping Testing
Always place live test calls after making routing changes.
Small configuration changes can produce very different results than expected.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens when someone calls a Shape phone number?+
Shape checks whether the caller already exists in your CRM. If a matching record is found, the existing record is updated with the new call activity. If no matching record exists, Shape automatically creates a new record using the settings configured within the inbound route.
Can multiple phone numbers use the same inbound call route?+
Yes. One inbound call route can be assigned to multiple Shape phone numbers.
Can one phone number belong to multiple routes?+
Generally, no. Each phone number can only have one active inbound route at a time. The primary exceptions are Run Schedules, which activate different routes based on time, and IVR, which routes callers to different paths after making a menu selection.
Can I automatically assign the record to whoever answers?+
Yes. You can configure your route to: Assign new records to the user who answers. Reassign existing records to the user who answers.
What happens if the caller already exists in Shape?+
The existing record is updated with the new inbound call activity rather than creating a duplicate record.
What happens if duplicate records exist?+
Shape associates the inbound call with the newest matching record.
Can Shape identify co-borrowers?+
Yes. For mortgage organizations, inbound calls from primary borrower or co-borrower mobile, home, and work phone numbers are associated with the corresponding primary borrower record.
Can I route calls based on licensing?+
Yes. State Eligibility routing can automatically exclude users who are not licensed for the caller’s state.
Can I forward calls to my cell phone?+
Yes. The Call Direct Number rule supports forwarding calls to external numbers such as mobile phones or desk phones.
Will forwarded calls still be recorded?+
Yes. When call recording is enabled, calls routed through Shape continue to support recording even if answered on an external phone.
Can I play a greeting before routing?+
Yes. Greeting recordings can be used for welcome messages, business hours, recording disclosures, and other announcements before continuing through the call flow.
Can I use AI to answer inbound calls?+
Yes. AI Voice Agents can answer first, answer after business hours, answer after no response, or be placed anywhere within your routing workflow.
Can I use QuickFire together with traditional call flow rules?+
No. QuickFire Connect is an alternative routing strategy designed for notifying larger groups of users. It is configured separately from standard call flow rules.
How many users can ring at the same time?+
Up to 10 users can ring concurrently. If you need to notify more than 10 users simultaneously, use QuickFire Connect, which is specifically designed for larger groups.
Who can receive missed call and voicemail notifications?+
Notifications can be configured for: A specific user All assigned users The assigned user within a specific department This allows organizations to tailor notifications to match their ownership and department structure.
Can I build different call flows for business hours and after hours?+
Yes. Run Schedules allow different inbound routes to become active based on the time of day.
Where should I start when designing a new inbound call route?+
Start simple. Build your primary routing path first, then add fallback options, voicemail, AI, business hours, and advanced routing as needed. You can always expand your routing strategy over time as your organization’s needs evolve.