Adjust Rule Settings for Dispatch Pro Console

Overview

Rules are the prerequisites that must be met for tasks to appear in the console. You can edit, deactivate, or delete these rules and you can also create new rules. This gives you control over what types of tasks should appear in the console.

Things to know

• The console shows tasks for all jobs and all technicians, not just Dispatch Pro-enabled jobs and technicians. This is helpful, for example, if you use Dispatch Pro for service and maintenance jobs but not for install jobs.

• Tasks for jobs scheduled on past or future days may take up to one hour to appear in the console. Tasks for jobs scheduled for today appear within 1–5 minutes.

• After a task is resolved, it may take a minute or so to disappear from the console task list.

Best practices

• Apply multiple conditions to each rule you create to prevent cluttering the console with unnecessary or irrelevant tasks.

• Add instructions to each rule so your dispatchers have clear steps to take for their tasks.

Use cases

• Use console settings to highlight everything the business wants dispatchers to pay attention to. Some common rules you might want to set up include all jobs scheduled for today that have Research tag or all jobs that have a Parts Received tag. For more, see the Understand Rule Conditions section below.

Open Rule Settings

1. Go to the navigation bar and click Settings.

2. In the side panel, go to Dispatch Pro > Console Settings.

3. On the Console Settings screen that opens, click the Rules tab.

When you first open the Rules tab, you see that some rules are preconfigured for you by default.

Preconfigured rules include:

Note: This list is subject to change.

Add a rule

While some rules are preconfigured for you, you might want to add additional rules to suit your business needs. For example, if you ask your CSRs to book certain jobs with a tag called High Value Job, you might want your dispatchers to review these jobs. You could create a rule called Big Opp Research that looks for the High Value Job tag so that jobs tagged with it appear as tasks in the console.

To add a new rule:

1. On the Rules tab, click Add Rule.

2. On the screen that opens, enter the following information:    

   1. Name: Enter a concise name. This is the task name dispatchers see in the console.

   2. Priority: Select a priority level for the rule. This determines how tasks for this rule appear in the console. Urgent tasks appear at the top, High tasks appear below Urgent tasks, and so on.

   3. (Optional) Description: Enter a description of the rule.

   4. Activate this rule after creating: Select this to activate the rule immediately after you create it. If you don't select this, the rule will be inactive and won't generate tasks in the console.

   5. Conditions: Click Job or Technician and then add at least one condition for the rule. All conditions must be met for this rule to appear as a task in the console.

      Tip: We recommend that you apply multiple conditions to each rule you create to prevent cluttering the console with unnecessary or irrelevant tasks. The more conditions a rule has, the more it narrows down which job or technician tasks appear in the console. This helps to ensure the right tasks appear for your dispatchers. For more on conditions, see the Understand Rule Conditions section below.

   6. Actions: Select at least one action for dispatchers to take when tasks come in that meet the conditions of this rule; Troubleshoot Dispatch Pro, Call Customer, Chat with Customer, Call Technician, Message Technician, or Resolve.

      Note: If you select the Resolve action, you must confirm that you understand manually resolved tasks can't be undone and brought back to the console task list.

   7. Instructions: Enter instructions for dispatchers to follow when they address the tasks that come for this rule.

      Tip: We recommend that you add instructions to each rule so your dispatchers have clear steps to take for their tasks. The Instructions field is HTML-compatible.

   8. Snooze Option: Select one of the following:

      1. Yes: Dispatchers can snooze tasks.

      2. Yes, with a note: Dispatchers must enter a reason before they can snooze tasks.

      3. No: Dispatchers cannot snooze tasks.

3. When finished, click Add.

Edit a rule

To edit an existing rule:

1. On the Rules tab, click Editnext to the rule you want to change.

2. On the screen that opens, edit the name, priority, description, activation, conditions, actions, instructions, or snooze option as needed.

3. When finished, click Save.

Deactivate a rule

To deactivate a rule without permanently deleting it:

1. Go to the Rules tab.

2. Turn off the Active toggle next to the rule you want to deactivate.

The rule is now no longer active and tasks for it will no longer be visible to your dispatchers. If needed, you can reactivate the rule later to make tasks for it come in again.

Delete a rule

To permanently delete a rule:

1. On the Rules tab, click Deletenext to the rule you want to permanently remove.

2. On the confirmation pop-up that opens, click Delete.

A message appears letting you know the rule was removed.

Understand Rule Conditions

Rules are configured using conditions, which are the main components that tell the console which types of tasks should appear for dispatchers.

There are two types of conditions:

1. Job conditions: Job conditions can include any fields within the job, invoice, estimate, purchase order, appointment, and technician assigned to the appointment.

2. Technician conditions: Technician conditions only look at technicians individually, without considering jobs. This can include things like a technician's business unit, skills, number of assignments, timesheet activities and more.

All conditions must be met for a rule to appear as a task in the console. When you add or edit a condition, you use the following indicators to teach the rule how to determine which tasks appear in the console:

• Field: This determines where the rule should look within the job record or technician profile. For example, Business Unit, Skills, Tags, and so on.

• Operator: This is the action or instruction the rule follows to refine how it compares the field and value. Different operators are available based on the type of field you select. For example, Equals, Contains, Start With, and so on.

• Value: This is the specific field entry the rule looks at within the job record or technician profile. For example, Dispatched, Today, In the last week, and so on. If you select Empty for Operator, the value is removed.

For each rule, we recommend that you ensure multiple conditions are applied. The more conditions a rule has, the more it narrows down which job or technician tasks appear in the console. This helps to ensure the right tasks are addressed by your dispatchers.

For example, if you ask your CSRs to book certain jobs with a tag called High Value Job and you want your dispatchers to review these jobs, you might want to create a rule that looks for the High Value Job tag using the following conditions:

Job Condition 1

Job Condition 2

Job Condition 3

With these conditions, any jobs scheduled for today that are tagged as High Value Job and don't have a technician assigned will show up in the console as tasks for your dispatchers.

Note: If a rule has multiple conditions and one of the conditions is no longer true for a given task in the console, then the task disappears. For example, if a task comes in for the conditions listed in the above example, and then the High Value Job tag is removed from the job tied to the task, that task will disappear from the console.

Want to learn more?

• See Dispatch Pro Console settings overview