What are distribution Rules?

Distribution rules allow brokers or team leaders to route incoming leads in envoy to a particular agent.  Rules can be setup to send leads to an agent based on location, price range and source. 

How do distribution rules work?

Distribution rules work using a sorted rule system.  Once you create one or more rules, Envoy will try to match an incoming lead to each rule starting with your highest priority rule and ending at your lowest priority rule.  Once a rule is matched, the distribution behavior you setup will be followed (eg round robin to all of your agents).  Read on for more details on how to setup and unique cases.

How do I setup distribution rules?

To setup distribution rules, log in with your broker account and click on your user menu (top right hand menu).  Click “Account Settings” and then click “Distribution Rules” in the tabs below account settings.

To setup your first rule click “Add Rule”.   A list of lead type filters will display that you can choose from.  A description of each is provided below:

• Any lead I receive:  If this rule is selected, it will apply to any leads submitted to your IDX.  This is a great option to set as your last rule to catch and distribute any leads that do not match other rules.
• Only leads searching in certain location:  This rules allows you to specify multiple cities.  If a user has searched in any of the those location you lead will match this rule.
• Only leads searching within a certain Price Range: This rules allows you to specific a price range a lead is searching for.  Envoy will take the median value the user is searching and if this value falls within the range you have specified it will match.
• Only leads generated from certain Sources: This rule only applies if you’ve setup your tech connect integration.   However, if you do have your integration setup, any leads that are received through tech connect will match these rules.

Once you’ve decided on which rule criteria you want to use, you’ll need to setup a specific a behavior for how your lead is routed.  To accomplish this, click “next” and your behavior settings for this new rule will be displayed.  A description of each setting is provided below.

• Distribution Type:
  • Round Robin: This will equally distribute leads to the agent you select below.
  • Weighted distribution:  This will distribute leads based on a weight you set per agent.  This is represented by percentage (eg if you set 75% for agent #1 and 25% for agent #2 – out of 4 leads, agent #1 would receive 3)
• Agents: This is a drop down that contains a list of all of your agents.  You can add more agents by clicking “Add Agent”
• Mailing Lists:  If you have a MailChimp integration setup you can also distribute an incoming lead to a specific mail list.
• Apply Tags:  You can apply a tag to any incoming leads.  This can be helpful if you want to mark leads that match a specific criteria for filtering on later within lead dashboard.

Once you’ve selected your options above, click save and you have created a new rule.  You’ll now want to repeat the process above to create all of the rules that you would like to have in place.

Next you’ll want to ensure the sort order of rules is correct.  Envoy looks at each rule from top to bottom when evaluating a lead.  When a lead meets the criteria it will follow the behavior of that lead, ignoring any leads sorted below.  So you’ll want to ensure that you do not have overlapping rules.  Here is an example of an overlapping rules:

 

 

You’ll notice there is a rule for “All: Any leads I receive” in first position.  This rule will match all leads and the rules below will never be checked.  Moving this to bottom would solve this issue.  However, you’ll also notice a price range rule that is overlapping.  The first rule would need to have a min price of $22 set to not overlap.

Once your sorting has been set, your distribution rules have been setup.  Its always good practice to check back on these setting and look at “Contacts in the Last 30 Days” to ensure all rules getting leads.

 

Special Considerations 

• If you have multiple MLSes attached to your account you’ll see a drop down list to select between.  In this case, a rule must be setup for leads coming from each MLS.
• If you’re a current agentReach Pipeline user, once distribution rule are saved your pipeline rules will no longer apply.  An alert will display, to remind you of this before you save your first rule.

 

What if a lead does not match any of the rules I’ve setup?

In this case, the lead will always be delivered to your broker account.

If I change the sort order of a rule, will it redistribute old leads?

No, the new rule will only apply to new leads coming.

Do I need to do anything differently if I have multiple MLSes setup?

Yes.  You will need to select an MLS for each rule.  This may mean that some rules are duplicated for each MLS but this can also give you additional flexibility to handle incoming leads.