If you manage a support or sales team and your phone lines are a mess—calls bouncing around, people waiting forever, agents burned out—automated call routing is your next move. This guide is for folks running real-world teams who want to set up automated call routing in Five9 without getting lost in the weeds. I’ll walk you through what actually matters, what to skip, and how not to overcomplicate things.
Why Bother With Automated Call Routing?
Let’s be honest: Nobody calls support for fun. If you can cut down wait times, get callers to the right person, and avoid “let me transfer you” loops, you win. Automated call routing does that by:
- Sending callers directly to the best agent or queue, based on rules you set.
- Freeing up time for agents (and your brain).
- Making customers a little less cranky.
But you don’t need to buy into every bit of marketing fluff. Smart call routing is about setting up rules that actually fit your team—no more, no less.
Before You Start: What You Need
Don’t dive in without a plan. Here’s what you should have ready:
- A list of the most common call reasons. (Billing? Tech support? Sales?)
- An idea of your team’s strengths. Who’s best at what?
- Your Five9 admin login. You’ll need admin rights to configure routing.
- A map of current call flows, if you have one. Even a napkin sketch helps.
Pro tip: If you can’t explain your current process to a new hire, you’re not ready to automate it.
Step 1: Map Out Your Call Flows
Before you touch Five9, sketch out your ideal call journey. It doesn’t need to be fancy—a whiteboard or notebook is fine. Focus on:
- Who should handle which types of calls?
- What’s the “default” path for calls?
- Where do calls get stuck or bounce around today?
For example:
- New sales calls → Sales team
- Existing customers with billing questions → Billing queue
- Tech support for product A → Support queue A
Keep it simple. Overcomplicated flows are a nightmare later.
Step 2: Set Up Skills and Queues in Five9
Five9 uses “skills” to route calls. Think of skills as tags for what your agents are good at (“Billing,” “Spanish,” “Product X support”).
How to set up skills and queues:
- List your skills. Don’t go overboard—start with your biggest needs.
- Create skills in Five9:
- Go to the Admin section.
- Find “Skills” and add new ones for each area (e.g., Sales, Support, Billing).
- Assign agents to skills:
- Edit each agent’s profile and check the skills they have.
- Be honest—don’t assign skills just to be nice. If someone’s not a fit for “Tech Support,” skip it.
- Set up queues.
- In Five9, skills often double as queues. Calls for “Billing” go to the Billing queue, etc.
What to ignore: Don’t get fancy with a dozen micro-skills (“Upsell pro,” “Tech Level 2”). It’ll just make maintenance a pain.
Step 3: Build Your Routing Rules (The Heart of It)
This is where the magic happens. Routing rules tell Five9 what to do with each incoming call.
How to do it:
- Open Five9’s IVR/ACD (Interactive Voice Response/Automatic Call Distributor) admin.
- Set up entry points: For each phone number, decide which IVR (menu) or queue it should hit first.
- Create your IVR menus:
- Use simple options (“Press 1 for billing, 2 for support, 3 for sales”).
- Avoid long menus—no one wants to listen to a robot for 2 minutes.
- Map IVR choices to skills/queues: Each option should route to a skill you set up earlier.
- Set fallback rules: If no agents are available, should the call go to voicemail, overflow to another team, or hang up?
- Test each path: Call in and pretend you’re a customer. Where do you end up? Is it what you expect?
Pro tips: - Limit to 3–4 menu options. More than that and people just mash zero. - Use clear, human language in your recordings. Skip jargon.
Step 4: Set Up Priority and Overflow
Not all calls are created equal. Maybe VIP customers go to the front of the line, or sales calls skip the general queue.
How to handle priorities:
- Assign priority levels to skills: In Five9, you can rank queues so urgent calls or VIPs go first.
- Overflow rules: If a queue is slammed, send calls to a backup team or voicemail.
- Callback options: Let callers hang up but keep their place in line—Five9 can call them back automatically (but only set this up if you can actually return those calls quickly).
What to skip: Don’t try to build a complex web of priorities unless you really need it. Start basic. You can always add more rules later.
Step 5: Test, Tweak, and Get Real Feedback
Setting this up isn’t “set it and forget it.” You need to see how it works in the wild.
- Do test calls: Have several people (including yourself) try different paths. Take notes.
- Listen to call recordings: Are people getting stuck? Are agents getting the right calls?
- Ask agents: Is the routing helping, or causing new headaches?
- Check your metrics: Look at abandoned calls, average wait times, and transfers. If they’re not improving, adjust.
Pro tip: Don’t just rely on “the data.” Listen to actual calls and talk to your team. Numbers don’t tell you if your IVR is confusing or if callers are getting annoyed.
Common Pitfalls and What to Ignore
What works:
- Simple, direct menus. Don’t make people guess.
- Agent skills that match real strengths. Don’t fudge this—misrouted calls waste everyone’s time.
- Regular reviews. Tweak your setup every month or so.
What doesn’t:
- Too many options. More choices = more confusion.
- Assuming your first setup is perfect. You’ll need to iterate.
- Ignoring agent feedback. If your team hates it, customers probably do too.
What to ignore:
- Promised “AI magic” that claims to fix everything. Five9 has AI features, but unless you have high call volumes and clear use cases, stick with basic routing first.
- Overly complicated routing trees. If you can’t explain it on a whiteboard, it’s too much.
Wrapping Up: Keep It Simple, Iterate Often
Automated call routing in Five9 isn’t rocket science, but it does take some thought and a willingness to tweak as you go. Start simple, focus on the biggest pain points, and don’t get distracted by features you don’t need yet. The best setups are the ones you and your team actually understand and can change without calling in a consultant every time.
Remember: The goal is fewer headaches for your callers and your team. Don’t let the tech get in the way of that. Keep it simple, listen to feedback, and improve bit by bit. That’s how you get real results.