Respond fast: first-contact deadline and round-robin
Last reviewed
Give every new enquiry a deadline for its first contact, alert a manager when it is missed, and share new leads out in turn.
A new enquiry goes cold quickly. Two settings help your team answer it while the person is still interested: a first-contact deadline, and handing new leads out in turn so no one person is buried.
The first-contact deadline
Find it at the bottom of Leads → Pipeline, for anyone whose role may manage the pipeline. It is off until you switch it on.
- Choose how soon a new lead must be contacted, from 1 minute to 4 hours (10 minutes to start with).
- Count working hours only (on by default): the clock runs inside the assignee's office hours and working days and skips their holidays, so a lead that arrives at night is due shortly after the office opens. Leave does not pause it.
- Choose which new leads start the clock: web forms, Third-party integrations and demo bookings. Leads you add yourself never do.
- The clock starts when the lead has a phone number. A lead that arrives with only an email waits until a number is added.
What counts as contacted
- Moving the lead to another stage, or logging a call, a remark or a change to how you reached them.
- A WhatsApp message a person sends from CRM Dost or the WhatsApp Business app. Automatic replies do not count.
- An email sent to 10 people or fewer that includes the lead. A campaign or a scheduled email does not count.
- A demo marked done.
Comments and simply opening the lead do not count, so the deadline measures a real reply.
What your team sees
- Each new lead shows when to call by, then a countdown in its final hour — amber, and red in the last two minutes — then Overdue.
- The lead itself says when first contact is due, or how quickly it happened ("Contacted in 6 min (WhatsApp)").
- If the deadline passes, the assignee's manager is alerted once — or every Owner, when the assignee has no manager — and the assignee is told too. A contact after that is recorded as late.
The alert arrives in the app, as a push notification and by email. Each person can change how they receive it under Notifications → My settings.
Hand new leads out in turn
In a web form or a Third-party integration, choose the people new leads go to, then pick Hand out in turn (round-robin) instead of Pick at random. Each new lead then goes to whoever was given one longest ago, so the work evens out. Someone who leaves your team is skipped automatically, and a repeat enquiry stays with the person who already has it.