If you’re running a sales team and using chat on your website, you’ve probably heard of Drift. It promises to route leads to the right reps and help you close more deals. Sounds great, but actually getting those routing rules set up without creating a Frankenstein’s monster of logic? That’s another story.
This guide is for sales managers, ops folks, and anyone tasked with making sure chats actually get to the right person. I’ll walk you through setting up Drift routing rules step by step, point out what to avoid, and share some tips you won’t find in the official docs.
Why Routing Rules Matter (and What Goes Wrong)
Before we get into the weeds, let’s talk about why routing matters—and where people screw it up.
Why bother? - Fast lead response = higher conversion. If a hot lead waits 10 minutes, you’re toast. - Routing gets leads to the right person (the one who actually owns the account or territory), not just whoever’s online. - It saves reps from fighting over chats, or worse, ignoring them because “it’s not my lead.”
What usually goes wrong? - Overcomplicated logic (too many “if this, then that” paths) - Poor team setup (wrong reps in wrong groups) - Routing rules that go stale after one org change - Relying on wild guesses instead of data (e.g., hoping a website visitor picks their company size correctly)
Keep it simple, start with the basics, and add complexity only when you need it.
Step 1: Prep Your Sales Team and Segments
Before you even open up Drift, nail down who’s on your sales team and how you want to divvy up leads.
Things to decide:
- Are you routing by territory (e.g., East vs. West)?
- Are you assigning by account owner in your CRM?
- Do you want to filter by company size, vertical, or something else?
Get this on paper first. If your sales org changes every week, routing rules will quickly become a mess.
Pro Tip: Keep the number of routing criteria low at first. The more branches, the higher the chance of mistakes and confusion.
Step 2: Set Up Your Teams and Users in Drift
You can’t route chats if Drift doesn’t know who’s who.
To do:
- Add your sales reps as users in Drift.
- Group them into teams based on how you plan to route leads. For example:
- “East Coast Sales”
- “Enterprise Reps”
- “SDRs”
Teams make rule-building way easier and let you swap people in and out without updating every rule.
Don’t: Add your whole company “just in case.” Only invite people who will actually handle chats.
Step 3: Map Out Your Routing Logic
This is the part most people screw up. Don’t build rules blindly—sketch out the flow first.
Ask:
- Where should a chat go if the territory or owner isn’t clear?
- What happens after hours?
- Who’s backup if someone’s away?
You can use a whiteboard, a napkin, or a flowchart app. The point is to see the logic before you build it.
Keep fallback rules simple: If all else fails, route to a general sales team or a catch-all inbox.
Step 4: Set Up Routing Rules in Drift
Now for the hands-on part. Here’s how to set up routing in Drift:
1. Navigate to Routing Settings
- Go to the admin panel, then look for “Routing” or “Lead Routing.” (Drift moves menu items around, but it’s usually under Settings > Routing.)
2. Create a New Routing Rule
- Click “Add Rule” (or similar).
- Give your rule a clear name (e.g., “Inbound Demo Requests - East Coast”).
3. Define Rule Triggers
- Pick what should trigger the routing. Options usually include:
- Chat widget started
- Playbook (Drift’s term for chatbots) completed
- Meeting requested
Pick one to start. Don’t try to cover every use case right away.
4. Set Routing Conditions
- Define your logic. Examples:
- If visitor is from “California,” route to West Coast team.
- If company size > 500, route to Enterprise reps.
- If CRM owner exists, route to them.
Drift lets you pull in firmographic data (like company size or location) and CRM data, but only if you’ve set up those integrations.
What works: Routing by CRM owner works well if your data is clean. Routing by geography is OK, but geo-IP isn’t perfect.
What to ignore: Don’t get fancy with niche firmographics unless you’re sure your data is accurate.
5. Assign Teams or Reps
- Choose who should get the chat:
- A specific team (“Enterprise Sales”)
- A round-robin group (so chats are distributed evenly)
- A specific rep (rarely a good idea—people go on vacation)
Round robin is best for most sales groups. It keeps things fair and avoids burnout.
6. Set Fallbacks
- Always add a fallback. If no one matches your rule (or everyone’s offline), route to a default team or create an alert.
Pro Tip: Set up after-hours routing to a lead capture form or bot. Don’t let hot leads disappear just because it’s 6:01pm.
Step 5: Test, Test, Test
The #1 mistake? Assuming your rules work as intended. Drift’s routing can be finicky, especially if your CRM data is messy.
How to test:
- Use Incognito mode or a test user to trigger your routing rules.
- Change values (like fake a visitor from a different state) and see if the right team gets the chat.
- Test after-hours and edge cases (e.g., what happens if no rep is assigned?).
Check your Drift reporting or logs to see where chats actually went. Don’t just trust the rule builder.
Be ruthless: If something doesn’t work, fix it right away. Otherwise, leads will fall through the cracks.
Step 6: Maintain and Improve Your Rules
Sales teams change, territories get redrawn, and reps come and go. Drift routing rules need regular care.
Best practices:
- Review rules quarterly: Remove or update teams, reps, and logic as your org changes.
- Keep rules simple: If you have more than 5-7 main rules, ask yourself if you’re overcomplicating things.
- Document changes: Keep a log of what you’ve changed and why. Future you (or your replacement) will thank you.
What doesn’t work: Setting and forgetting. Drift routing isn’t “one and done”—treat it like a living system.
Some Honest Tips (From Experience)
- Integrations break: If you’re routing by CRM owner, check that your CRM sync keeps working. It breaks more often than you’d think.
- Don’t route to “whoever’s online”: This leads to random chats and a bad customer experience.
- Bots are good, but not magic: Drift’s bots can pre-qualify, but don’t expect them to replace humans for complex sales.
- Avoid routing by department unless your departments actually own leads: Otherwise, you’ll get finger-pointing and no responses.
Wrapping Up: Keep It Simple, Iterate Often
Setting up Drift routing rules isn’t rocket science, but it’s easy to overthink. Start with the basics: map your sales teams, decide your main routing logic, and keep rules easy to follow. Test everything, set up fallbacks, and revisit your setup as your team changes.
Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. You can always tweak things over time. Most sales orgs get tripped up by trying to handle every possible scenario from day one. Keep it simple, stay flexible, and you’ll get more value out of Drift—and fewer headaches for your sales team.