Assignment Rules

Assignment rules control how Trochai distributes new conversations (leads) among your team's agents. Each WhatsApp channel has its own assignment rules, allowing you to configure different strategies per number.

Per-channel assignment

Each WhatsApp channel can have an independent assignment mode. For example:

• "Sales" channel: Round-robin to distribute leads evenly among the sales team.
• "Rentals" channel: Property agent to direct leads to the responsible agent.
• "Support" channel: Manual so agents pick up conversations at their discretion.

Automatic assignment only considers channel members. If an agent is not a member of a channel, they will not be considered for automatic assignment in that channel. Admins are always included as a fallback, regardless of their membership.

Assignment modes

Manual

New leads are not assigned automatically. Conversations stay in the "unassigned" group until an agent or admin takes them manually from the inbox.

Ideal for: small teams where agents regularly check the inbox and decide which leads to take.

Round Robin

Automatically distributes new leads evenly among available agents. Trochai rotates the assignment so each agent receives a similar number of leads.

How the fallback chain works:

1. Assigns to the next available agent who is a member of the channel.
2. If no channel agent is available, assigns to the next channel member anyway and leaves an internal warning note.
3. If there are no agent members in the channel, escalates to an admin.
4. If there are no users, the lead stays unassigned.

Property Agent

Directs leads that arrive from a public property page to the agent assigned to that property (listing agent). This ensures the lead speaks directly with the agent who knows the property.

How the fallback chain works:

1. Assigns to the property's listing agent, as long as they are a member of the channel. Even if marked as unavailable (an internal note is left so the team is aware).
2. If the listing agent is not a member of the channel, a note is left and round-robin is used as fallback.
3. If the property has no assigned agent, a note is left and round-robin is used as fallback.
4. If the lead did not come from a property page (for example, the contact messaged the WhatsApp number directly), round-robin is used without an additional note.

Claim

In this mode, new leads stay in a shared unassigned group. Agents can actively "claim" a conversation to take it as their own. There is no automatic assignment.

Ideal for: large teams where agents compete for leads and prefer to choose which ones to handle.

Changing the assignment mode

1. Navigate to Settings > Channels and edit the channel you want to modify.
2. In the Assignment section, select the desired mode.
3. Click Save to apply the change.

Automatic internal notes

When the system makes a non-obvious assignment decision, Trochai automatically adds an internal note to the conversation. These notes are visible only to the team (not to the contact) and explain why that decision was made. Examples:

• "Assigned to Juan Perez via round-robin, but no agent is available right now."
• "Property Casa Escazu has no assigned agent. Conversation assigned via round-robin."
• "Lead from property Condo Santa Ana assigned to Maria Lopez, who is marked as unavailable."

Mode comparison

Related pages

• WhatsApp Channel -- configure channels, members, and assignment rules
• Team -- manage agents, their availability, and channel membership
• Properties -- assign agents to properties
• Inbox -- where assigned conversations are viewed