Assignment Rules
Assignment Rules allow you to automatically assign incoming requests based on your support setup and team structure. This automation helps streamline your workflow and ensures requests are directed to the right people quickly. You can configure assignments to:
Automatically assign requests to the first team member who responds.
Distribute requests among the eligible members of a Rotation using a round-robin method.
For integrations with external ticketing systems like Zendesk or HubSpot, assign both the ClearFeed request and the linked external ticket simultaneously to the first team member who responds.
Auto-assign to First Responder (for ClearFeed Requests and Tickets)
This rule automatically assigns the ClearFeed request to the first team member who takes an action on the request within Slack, such as replying to the initial message or reacting to it. Follow the steps to enable:
Navigate to the Collection where you want to enable or modify assignment rules.
Open Settings for that Collection.
Select Assignment Rules.
Select the assignment rule: Auto-assign to the first responder.
Click Save.
Auto-assign to First Responder (for Tickets in Zendesk, Salesforce, HubSpot)
Note:
This section only applicable when Ticketing is enabled and has been set to Zendesk, Salesforce or HubSpot in the Collection settings.
If the ticket is already assigned to some agent on Zendesk/HubSpot/Salesforce at the time of the first response on Slack, no assignment will be performed by ClearFeed.
When this rule is enabled, the first team member who interacts with the request in Slack will be automatically assigned both the ClearFeed request and the linked Zendesk, HubSpot or Salesforce ticket. Follow the below steps to enable:
Navigate to the Collection where you want to enable or modify assignment rules.
Open Settings for that Collection.
Select Assignment Rules.
Select the assignment rule: Auto-assign to the first responder for ClearFeed requests and external tickets.
Click Save.
When auto-assignment occurs, ClearFeed sends a private (ephemeral) notification message in Slack to the assignee. This message is only visible to the assigned team member and is not visible to customers. you can also just dismiss and ignore the message but if you do not wish to receive these auto-assignment notifications, you can:
Turn off the auto-assignment feature in your Collection's Assignment Rules settings (only advised if you are using an external system and ClearFeed is not being used to assign requests)
Select 'Don't show again' to suppress future pop-ups for yourself.
Round Robin Assignment
With Round Robin, ClearFeed picks the next assignee from the eligible members of a Rotation. A rotation defines who is on-call and how availability is tracked. See Rotations for the full explanation, including how to create one.
Setting Up Round Robin Assignment
Navigate to the Collection where you want to enable or modify assignment rules.
Open Settings for that Collection.
Select Assignment Rules.
Select the assignment rule: Round Robin Assignment.
Select the desired Rotation from the dropdown menu.
Optionally Enable Shared Rotation: When enabled, the round-robin order is shared across all collections that use this rotation. This prevents the same person from receiving back-to-back assignments from different collections.
Click Save.
Important Notes for Round Robin:
Internal Helpdesk: In an Internal Helpdesk Collection, only users designated as agents within ClearFeed are assigned tickets via Round Robin, even if the rotation contains non-agents.
Self-Assignment Skip: If an agent creates a request and is up next in the round-robin sequence, they are skipped and the request goes to the next eligible member.
Assign to Customer Owner
If your account is on the External Product Edition and uses the Customer-Centric Inbox, you can configure requests and tickets to be automatically assigned to the Customer Owner.
How it works
Each customer has a Customer Owner:
Explicitly set on the customer, or
Inherited from the collection the customer belongs to
When a new request or ticket is created, ClearFeed assigns it directly to the Customer Owner
This policy ensures requests are handled by the person most familiar with the customer.
Assign to Customer Owner with Round-Robin Fallback
This policy is available if your account is on the External Product Edition and configured with the Customer-Centric Inbox.
It extends the Assign to Customer Owner policy by adding an availability-aware fallback.
How it works
When a new request or ticket is created, ClearFeed identifies the Customer Owner (explicit or inherited).
ClearFeed checks the owner’s availability using their Slack status based on the linked rotation's unavailability statuses.
If the Customer Owner is available, the request is assigned to them.
If the Customer Owner is out of office, ClearFeed picks an eligible member from the configured fallback Rotation.
This ensures requests are never blocked due to unavailability while still prioritizing customer ownership.
Triggering Reassignment via Automations
You can use the Reassign automation action to reassign requests/tickets based on the collection's assignment rules. This is useful when customers re-open tickets or post new messages and the current assignee is no longer available, has been removed from the workspace, or no longer matches the configured assignment rule. See Automation Actions > Reassign for details.
FAQs
If users are marked as unavailable on Slack, how are requests assigned on Round Robin Assignment? Answer: If a user's Slack status matches one of the rotation's unavailability statuses, they're skipped and the request goes to the next eligible member of the rotation.
What if nobody in the rotation is eligible when a request comes in? Answer: No round-robin assignment happens for that request. For a Native Rotation, this means no shift is active; for a Slack Group Rotation, it means the linked group is empty or every member is on an unavailability status. Make sure your rotation covers the hours you expect requests to be auto-assigned.
See Rotations for FAQs about rotations themselves (shifts, Slack groups, sharing rotations across collections, migration).
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