Prioritization Rules in Shape: How They Work and Why They Matter
Lead Management and Routing
Learn how leads enter Shape, get organized, & move through your workflow.
Prioritization Rules in Shape: How They Work and Why They Matter
Prioritization rules are one of Shape’s most effective organizing tools. They scan your entire database and automatically surface the records you need to focus on. These rules keep your day structured, your follow-up organized, and your team aligned without constant manual sorting.
Prioritization rules are one of Shape’s most useful tools for keeping your day organized. Instead of digging through long lists, Shape surfaces the records that need attention right now. Mortgage teams especially rely on these rules because they remove the guesswork about who to call, who’s slipping through the cracks, and which follow-ups will move the needle.
They’re used to:
- Build structured call queues
- Keep loan pipelines clean and organized
- Automatically surface hot leads or engaged contacts
- Create repeatable workflow “paths” for teams
- Make activity expectations clear without manual oversight
What Prioritization Rules Do for You
When you click on any record type in Shape (Leads, Applications, Loans), you’ll see prioritized views directly underneath. These views:
- Automatically group contacts into logical sections
- Sort them in the order you want your team working them
- Refresh dynamically as call attempts, emails, and activity change
- Keep each person focused on the right targets instead of scanning pages of records
Most teams use this to create a predictable daily rhythm. New leads show up at the top. Active follow-ups sit next. Older or untouched records fall lower. The system keeps moving everything for you.
Creating and Editing Prioritization Rules
Navigating to the Rules
In Settings, you’ll see every prioritized view tied to your record types. You can:
- Open an existing view
- Duplicate one
- Or create a brand-new pipeline
Each view includes several customizable options.
Configuring a Prioritized View
Why sorting matters
Your sort order controls what gets attention first. Teams often choose:
- Created date when they want a simple pipeline
- Last call attempt for dialer queues
- Total call attempts to keep low-attempt records visible
- Last AI score or ShapeIQ when they want AI-assisted prioritization
Choosing the right sort method can improve speed-to-contact, reduce missed leads, and make your team's day feel structured instead of chaotic.
Choosing the Right Record Types
A prioritized view (in our mortgage template, for example) can target:
- Leads
- Applications
- Loans
- Referral Partners
- Contacts
- Or all record types
Mortgage Teams commonly build:
- “Funded & Past Clients” views for refinance opportunities
- “Active Pipeline” views based only on application statuses
- Sales queues that mix leads and apps
- Marketing re-engagement views that span everything
Column Settings
You can customize columns for yourself or lock them for everyone.
Teams lock columns when they:
- Want consistency
- Need junior users to see specific fields
- Follow compliance or reporting requirements
Visibility Settings
Use visibility to control who sees what:
- Departments for LOs vs. processors
- Teams for region-specific views
- All users for shared dashboards
This keeps each role focused on their own workload.
How the Pipeline Sections (Rules) Work
Each section you see in the UI (“New Leads,” “Attempting Contact,” “Contacted Follow-Up”) is powered by a rule. These rules determine exactly which contacts appear in each grouping.
Why these groupings matter
They:
- Give every team member a predictable roadmap
- Remove the need to hunt for leads
- Make sure “important but easy to forget” records don’t get buried
- Keep your pipeline moving in order without manual dragging
Filters You Can Apply
You can include or exclude records based on:
- Status
- Source
- Tags
- Record type
This helps you carve out views like:
- “Only Zillow leads”
- “Only inbound phone leads”
- “Exclude anything from LendingTree”
- “Only records marked VIP”
Teams often build source-specific views when certain lead types need their own cadence.
Dynamic Field Filters (this is where the power is)
Field filters allow you to make the lists behave intelligently. You can filter by:
- Created date (“show only leads from the past 30 days”)
- Last call attempt (“remove anything called within 8 hours”)
- Total call attempts (“hide if called more than 3 times”)
- Last status change
- Next calendar event date
How teams use these filters:
- To create dialer queues that constantly refresh as calls are made
- To prevent double-calling
- To bubble up neglected activity
- To time outreach appropriately
Examples of How Teams Use Prioritization Rules
Prioritization rules aren’t just for pipeline organization. Teams use them to create targeted segments, build contact strategies, streamline follow-up, improve accountability, and power reporting. Here are some of the most common and high-impact ways they’re used.
1. Basic Pipeline Views by Status
A simple, foundational use case is organizing leads by status so your team always knows the next action.
Examples:
- New Leads
- Attempting Contact
- Contacted Follow-Up
- Appointment Scheduled
- Active Working
This gives loan officers an immediate sense of their day without having to jump around different filters.
2. Contact Strategy Views (Status + Activity Rules)
This is where prioritization rules really become powerful. You can pull in records based on a combination of factors like:
- Status
- Last call attempt
- Total call attempts
- Time since last activity
- Last status change
These create dynamic call queues that constantly refresh as activity happens.
For example:
- Leads with fewer than 3 call attempts
- Leads not contacted in the last 8 hours
- Leads created within the last 30 days
This builds a predictable, repeatable follow-up rhythm for every LO.
3. Marketing Segments for Email + Text Blasts
Instead of exporting lists or creating one-off filters, you can build saved views that become your go-to outreach lists.
Examples:
- Past clients with rates above a certain threshold
- Leads with specific tags (webinar, homebuyer class, refinance interest, etc.)
- Borrowers who haven’t been contacted in 60+ days
- Any group where you want to “select all” and send a campaign
This is especially useful for newsletter sends, rate updates, market commentary, and reactivation campaigns.
4. Manager Oversight + “Reverse Prioritization” Lists
Managers can create views that show the opposite of a traditional call queue.
Instead of “who needs to be called,” you can create lists that show:
- Who was called today
- Who was contacted this week
- Who hasn’t been worked despite being assigned
- Who was moved to a new status today
These are great for coaching, activity reviews, team huddles, and pipeline management.
5. Re-Engagement Lists (Opens, Clicks, Replies)
These lists surface contacts who have recently interacted with your outreach.
Examples:
- Anyone who clicked an email link within the past 24 hours
- Anyone who opened an email this week
- Anyone who replied to a text within the last 3 days
This lets you quickly queue up warm contacts for a second touch — often the perfect place to add another call, nudge, or follow-up message.
6. Multi-Record-Type Pipelines
You can also build all-record views that merge Leads, Applications, and Loans into one unified activity panel.
Useful for:
- Call blocks
- Drip follow-up timing
- Marketing re-engagement
- Referral partner relationship management
7. Specialized Reporting Views
Some teams build views strictly for reporting or tracking trends, such as:
- Leads created today
- Loans moved to a new milestone
- Contacts tagged from a specific campaign
- Leads distributed to a certain branch or LO
These become simple, real-time snapshots of performance.
Organizing and Maintaining Your Views
You can:
- Drag rules to reorder the pipeline
- Duplicate rules to speed up setup
- Remove rules you don’t need
- Add new logic as your follow-up evolves
Teams often revisit these rules once a quarter to tune their sales flow.
Why Prioritization Rules Make a Meaningful Difference
They reduce manual decision-making
Your team shouldn’t be figuring out “Who do I call next?”
Shape does that for them.
They tighten follow-up
No more missed leads, lost opportunities, or forgotten tasks.
They create consistency
Every LO follows the same workflow, which helps management track performance.
They save hours per week
Less scrolling, more doing.
When to Ask for Help
If you know the goal of the list but aren’t sure how to translate it into rules, the Shape team can build or adjust the views for you.
