Routing - Hold Until Node & Time to Action Tracker

Contents:

• Overview
• Example Use Cases
• Configuring a Hold Until Node
• Selecting Your User for Tracking
• Setting Your Trigger Rules
• Setting an Expiration Time
• Evaluate while User is Working
• Using Triggering Activities in Subsequent Decisions
• Hold Until Metrics & Logs
• Routing Insights
• Audit Logs
• Time-to-Action Tracker
• FAQs
• Best Practices

Overview

LeanData’s Hold Until routing functionality extends the capabilities of Router, allowing Users to evaluate routing criteria during a specified time frame. Records will be held until the conditions are met or the expiration time has elapsed, whichever comes first. If the record meets the conditions for an edge on node entry, it will follow that edge immediately.

Hold Until routing will help to prevent Leads from stagnating, drive accountability for reps to follow up with their Leads, or simply to incorporate customized wait steps into your routing configuration.

Example Use Cases

• Hold a record until a new Task for a followup call is created. Otherwise, exit the node after 2 hrs for reassignment to a different ADR.
• Hold a record until the Lead Status changes to “Qualified”, and when it does, route the record to an AE and notify them to engage.
• Hold a record until enrichment is complete, and once complete, continue through the process.

Configuring a Hold Until Node

You will see the Hold Until node available in the Node Bar in the node menu under the Track & Report section. Drag a Hold Until node into your active flow to begin configuring your Hold Until criteria.

Selecting Your User for Tracking 

By default, LeanData will look at the record's Owner when tracking time to action. If you would like to track a different User field for Time-To-Action purposes, please select a different User field in the Time to Action User section.

Setting your Trigger Rules 

Define the rules that would trigger a record to exit the Hold Until Node. When a record enters the node, the Rules and Expiration Time will evaluate the record. If the record already meets the conditions set in your rules, the record will immediately exit the node and any SLA tracking will be marked as “Met”. 

To add Trigger rules, click the Add Trigger Rule button. From here, you will have several options:

Routed Lead (Updated) - This option will look at fields on the routed record itself to evaluate if the conditions are met. Since this criteria is looking for an update, formula fields or fields from other objects related by a lookup field cannot be used.

New Event on Routed Lead - this option will trigger when a related Salesforce Event is created that meets the Event conditions you define. Please Note: This option is not available when using Any Object Routing.

New Task on Routed Lead - this option will trigger when a related Salesforce Task is created that meets the Task conditions you define. Please Note: This option is not available when using Any Object Routing.

Note: Currently the Activity-based Trigger rules (Routed Event and Routed Task) will only trigger upon the creation of an eligible Event or Task. Existing Events or Tasks that already meet or are updated to meet the conditions will not trigger a record to exit the Hold Until Node. If these Activity-Based Triggers are used, subsequent nodes will be able to reference the specific Activity that triggered the exit from the Hold Until Node.

You can include as many rules as you would like. LeanData will follow the path for whichever rule is met first within the specified time frame or upon node entry if the record already satisfies the rule.

If a record does not meet the conditions when entering the node, the Expiration Time will begin to count down. If the record meets the condition before the time expires the record will be immediately routed through the edge of the rule it satisfies.

If you would like to set different conditions for subsequent evaluations, you can also direct records to another Hold Until node with different conditions.

Please Note: that a record can only be subject to one Hold Until node at any given moment.

If you do not add any conditions, a record will follow the Time Expired edge when the specified time frame has elapsed, and SLA tracking will be marked as "Missed".

Setting an Expiration Time

Under the Expiration Time section of the Hold Until Node, pick a time frame using the dropdowns. LeanData will follow this edge if no other rules are met within the expiration time. Currently, the default is 5 minutes with a max of 180 days as the longest time frame. 

Records that are not actioned upon (meeting the conditions of rules set above) prior to the expiration time will exit through the Time Expired edge. 

Please Note: When using Days in your Expiration Time, each "day" equals 24 hours. When using features like Evaluate while User is Working (below) each day will consists of 24 working hours, which may extend across multiple calendar days.

Evaluate while User is working

When the Evaluate while User is working option is selected, the Time Frame will only elapse during the current User's Schedule (Working Hours, Vacations, and Holidays) as it is defined at the time of record entry. The Current User is the User who is specified in the field you selected above in the Time-to-Action-Tracker User section. This will be the record owner by default.

To adjust the Schedules, visit People > Users > Schedules. If a User's Schedule is changed while a record is still being held during the specified time frame, LeanData will still utilize the User's original schedule.

When this option is checked, LeanData also automatically calculates/incorporates the User's Schedule in the Time-to-Action Tracker (see below) .

For example, if the Time Frame is 4 hours, the owner’s Schedule is 9AM-5PM, and a record enters this node at 3PM on a Friday, only two of the four working hours will have elapsed by the end of the day.  On Monday at 9AM, the remaining two hours will elapse and the time frame will have fully elapsed at 11AM that Monday.

Using the example above, let’s say the Rep creates a vacation for Monday at 9AM on Friday at 4PM (after the record entry time).  The record will utilize the Schedule as it was defined at the time of record entry, not the current/edited Schedule, and the record will follow the expiration edge at 11AM that Monday.

Please Note: When using Days in your Expiration Time, each "day" equals 24 hours. When using the Evaluate while User is Working feature each day will consists of 24 working hours, which may extend across multiple calendar days.

Using Triggering Activities in Subsequent Decisions

If you use any of the Activity-based triggers in the Hold Until Node (Related Event or Related Task), you can also reference these activities in subsequent Related Activity Decision Nodes. Within a Related Activity Decision Node, select the option for Triggered: Activity that triggered Hold Until Exit, and then you can define your logic rules to evaluate conditions on that triggering Activity.

This option will only be available if you used an Activity-based trigger in a prior Hold Until node.

Hold Until Metrics & Logs

In addition to being able to add Hold Until decisions to your Router graph, LeanData will allow you to track records that are pending evaluation in the Routing Insights, Audit Logs, and Salesforce Reports & Dashboards. 

Routing Insights

Records that have not met specified rules and are currently waiting for expiration will be indicated by a counter on the Hold Until node itself. This will detail how many records are still waiting to be qualified or expired via that Hold Until node.

In order to see which records are currently held in this Hold-Until Node, click on the orange circle in the Hold-Until node and you will be taken to a Routing Insights Detail page that lists out these records. On this page, you can see the records that are pending processing, the processing time, and the expiration time.

Click the Abort button on the right to abort the pending hold on the record. LeanData will stop processing the record as if it followed an End of Flow edge.

Please note: The use of a Hold Until node may create a situation where a record may enter via a particular version of your Router graph, but may not be finished evaluating until a subsequent version of your Router graph. Please note that this may cause some of the metrics for records processed in a particular deployment to appear higher than the number of records that entered that deployment.  

LeanData will always attempt to use the newest deployment as long as node names do not change.  If node names change, LeanData will abort the hold. 

Abort Reasons

In the case that any of the following occurs, LeanData will abort the hold on these records and mark the record status as “Aborted” in the Time-to-Action Tracker with an Abort Reason populated.

• Lead Converted
• Record Deleted or Merged
• Time-Based or Hold Until Conflict 
• Incompatible Graph Deployment
  • Node name changes or conditions are incompatible
• Manual Abort by a User
• Business Unit Changed
  • Only applicable for Multi-Graph customers

Audit Logs

Within the Audit Logs page, records that are still pending due to a Hold Until node will display with a “Pending Route” status in the Path Column. The time at which the hold is scheduled to expire will also be displayed.

When the time frame expires or when the record qualifies for one of the rules within the Hold Until node, another log will be generated showing the routing outcome and detailing the path from the Hold Until node onward. If you expand the “More Info” section, you will see a link to the Parent Log that triggered the initial routing process.

Time-to-Action Tracker

A complementary functionality of this node is the Time-to-Action Tracker, an object that tracks each record held in the Hold Until node and various details on the Time-to-Action.  You can use the object to report on SLA Compliance, Performance or Action by Team, Division, Manager, or identify bottlenecks in your process. 

You can now answer questions such as:

• What is the average Time-to-Touch for each team?
• What is our organization’s overall SLA Compliance? 
• What part of the process is taking the longest time to fulfill/finish? 

To configure the report, please see this guide: Routing - Time to Action Tracker Guide.

Fields & Definitions 

The following fields are available for Reporting on the Time-to-Action Tracker: 

• Status
  • Pending
    • Default value when the record enters the node
    • Record has reached the node and is awaiting conditions to be met or the expiration time
  • Met
    • Record’s conditions were successfully met in the specified time frame 
  • Missed 
    • Record’s conditions were not met in the specified time frame and the hold expired
  • Aborted
    • Tracking was aborted due to conflicts (see Abort Reasons above)

• Entry/Start Time
  • Date/Time LeanData completed record routing and started the hold

• Exit Time
  • Date/Time record qualified for exit (conditions met or expiration time)

• Calculated Time-to-Action (in Seconds)
  • Incorporates Schedule calculations.  If Schedule is off, this will match the Raw Time-to-Action
    • With “Evaluate while Owner is working” ON, logic = [CCIO Processed At Time] - [Trigger Time of Exit] - non working hours 

• Raw Time-to-Action (in seconds)
  • End Time-Start Time 
  • Does not incorporate Schedule calculations

• Timer (in minutes)
  • User determined expiration time

• Evaluate while Owner is working
  • Whether the Hold Until Node is configured to evaluate the time frame only while the User is working.

• User
  • Lookup to User object indicated within the hold until node
  • Note - if the User changes while the record is held, LeanData will not update this field.  To release the hold when the User changes, add a rule for “Owner has changed.” 

• Queue/User ID
  • ID of the User

• Entry Log
  • Lookup to Entry Log

• Node Name 
  • Name of the Node

• Exit Edge Name
  • Name of the edge through which the record exited the Hold Until Node

• Primary ID
  • ID of record routed

• Business Unit

FAQs

Can you schedule a Hold Until node for a specific date/time?

Currently, a Hold Until node can only schedule a time frame relative to the time a record is initially evaluated in the graph and cannot support a specific date or time. However, you can support User Schedules using the option to Evaluate while Owner is Working option.

How will this affect records that are re-triggered via an Update (Object) Entry Node?

Records can still be routed via an update condition without affecting the expiration time. If a record is held in this node, it will not prevent that record from getting routed otherwise. If you need to prevent this scenario, you will have to design your update conditions or your Hold Until criteria with this in mind.

Will Updates that Meet Both an Update Entry Node and Hold Until Exit Condition Be Processed Through Both Nodes?

No, if a record update meets both an Entry Node Condition and a Hold Until Exit Condition simultaneously, the Hold Until Node takes priority. The record will follow the exit edge for that condition from the Hold Until Node. Design your entry conditions and Hold Until Node conditions with this behavior in mind.

Can a record be scheduled for two different time frames at the same time?

No. If a record that is currently held by a Hold Until node happens to re-enter the LeanData routing process and proceed to another Hold Until node, the initial hold will be canceled and the new hold will initiate. A particular record can only be subject to one Hold Until node at any given time.

If I modify a Hold Until node and deploy a new Router graph, will this affect records that were previously scheduled?

Possibly. If you either change the name of a Hold Until node or add, edit, or modify a condition using the “has changed” operator within the node, all the records held via the previous version of that node will no longer be evaluated, and no further action will be taken.

If you edit conditions other than “has changed” conditions, records will be subject to the new conditions at the time of evaluation. 

If you only change the time frame in the node, records will still be subject to the original time frame before the edit. 

Do Hold Until nodes account for working hours or weekends?

If you have the Evaluate while User is working option enabled in the Hold Until Node, the hours and minutes set in your timeframe will only elapse during the current Owner/User's schedule (at the time of record entry).

How long will Time-to-Action records be kept in SFDC?

By default, Time to Action records will be deleted after 365 days. You can adjust this if you would like to change the retention time by going to the LeanData Dashboard > Admin > Settings > Reporting > Time-to-Action Log Retention.

Can the Hold Until Node be used in Scheduled Routing?

Yes. There is a setting on the Routing Scheduler page where you will be able to indicate whether a Hold Until Node should be respected for that job, or whether you would like records to terminate at a Hold Until Node.

Best Practices

• When utilizing the Updated entry node, please note that records that are currently awaiting action in a Hold Until node will still be evaluated.  You may want to ensure that your Updated entry node conditions exclude records that would otherwise be affected by a previously scheduled Hold Until action, or ensure that your Hold Until node excludes criteria that might satisfy an Updated condition.

For questions or additional assistance please contact LeanData Support.