What is geo-routing in Aloware?
Geo-routing sends inbound calls to agents based on where the caller is calling from. Aloware reads the area code of the incoming number, maps it to a US state or Washington, DC, and rings only the agents whose Operating States include that location.
Callers reach agents who know their region, time zone, and language, and calls stay away from agents assigned to other areas.
Operating States is a per-user setting. Each agent's coverage is independent of every other agent's, so two agents on the same team can serve completely different regions.
How Aloware decides where a call goes
Aloware compares the caller's area code against each agent's Operating States and applies the same three rules to every inbound call and every transfer.
A call from an area code inside an agent's selected states rings that agent normally.
A call from an area code outside an agent's selected states goes straight to missed. It does not ring the agent.
Warm and cold transfers follow the same check. Aloware transfers a call to a user only when that user's Operating States include the caller's state.
Any area code that does not map to a selected state counts as out of state, including international numbers.
An agent set to Florida only does not receive a call from area code 807, because that area code belongs to Ontario, Canada and falls outside the selected states.
How to set up geo-routing
Configure Operating States on each user you want to route by region. Group agents by regional knowledge or language skill, for example Spanish-speaking agents on Texas and Southern California, or French-speaking agents on Louisiana and Maine.
Log in to Aloware admin and open the Users menu.
Select the user, then click Settings.
Open the Inbound Call Settings tab.
Under Operating States, check the states where this agent should receive calls, then save. Click Check all if the agent covers the entire United States.
Once saved, a caller from one of the selected states rings that agent's phone automatically.
Agents who take calls from anywhere
Select Do not enable geo-routing for this user on agents who handle calls from any region, including international callers. Those agents receive calls regardless of area code.
Geo-routing inside inboxes
The same check runs on every member of an inbox, so only part of the group rings on any given call.
When an inbox rings its users, only the agents whose Operating States include the caller's state ring. The rest do not.
When the caller's state matches no agent in the inbox, no one in that inbox receives the call.
Assign at least two agents to each state your business covers so a region still has someone available when one agent is busy.
Verifying geo-routing
Confirm routing on an agent by placing test calls from different area codes.
Open the agent's Operating States and confirm only the intended states are checked and saved.
Place a test inbound call from an area code inside a selected state and confirm it rings the agent.
Place a test inbound call from an area code outside the selected states and confirm it goes straight to missed.
If your team uses transfers, run a warm or cold transfer to the agent from an out-of-state number and confirm the call does not route to that agent.
If a call reaches the wrong agent, check the states saved on that specific user. Operating States are configured per user, so one agent's settings do not affect another's.