Use Shifts to manage work schedules

Overview

Front's Shifts allow admins to easily set shift schedules for your team. Shifts automatically specify when teammates are available and can be assigned conversations. This ensures that new customer messages aren't missed when shifts change.

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How it works

Shifts automatically manages teammates' Out of Office status based on their shift schedule, and assignment rules will skip any teammates not on a current shift. New replies from the customer will also trigger conversations to unassign from any teammates not working on the shift, so someone else can follow up.

Support multiple shift schedules 

• Admins can create as many shift schedules for their team as needed. If you have multiple teams in Front, admins can create shifts in each Workspace.
• Admins can add teammates to the shift. Teammates can be added to multiple overlapping shifts in a single Workspace or across multiple Workspaces. 
• Each teammate will be able to see a summary view of their shifts in their personal settings, under Shifts. Admins will also have access to these individual shift summaries via any teammate’s settings.

Automatic availability and out-of-office statuses

• If a teammate belongs to an active shift, they will be automatically set to Available at the start of their shift.
• When a shift ends, the teammates in the shift will be automatically set to Out of Office. When a teammate is out-of-office, new conversations can’t be auto-assigned to them via rules. When a new inbound message is received in a conversation assigned to an out-of-office teammate, the conversation will then be unassigned in the shared inbox.
• Individual teammates and admins will be able to manually change the status as needed.

Set shifts by time zone

• You can set the timezone for each shift you create to simplify scheduling. For example, an admin can create three 9 am-5 pm shifts for timezones PST, CST, and EST.
• Admins in different time zones can see a summary of all different shifts automatically converted to their own timezone.

Teammate-specific analytics 

• Teammates who are part of a shift will have their analytics calculated based on the shift hours, instead of Workspace or inbox business hours.
• Teammates who are not part of a shift will have their analytics calculated based on Workspace or inbox business hours. 

Manage Shifts via Front API

If your team uses a third-party app to manage scheduling or prefer to build your own integration to use Shifts, you can use Front’s API.

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Why use Shifts?

The Shifts feature is helpful for teams who are looking to:

• Deliver a great customer experience on a shift schedule: Teams that already utilize a support schedule internally to handle customer requests, Shifts can reflect this and automatically manage availability for you.
• Support internal SLA policies: Shifts will automatically set teammates out-of-office when their shift ends, ensuring new replies always go back to the shared inbox where it won’t be missed.
• Coordinate global teams: Create multiple shifts that reflect local time zones to easily manage scheduling within the same Workspace or across Workspaces.
• Capture teammate specific analytics: Reaction times will be calculated starting at the beginning of a teammate’s shift, instead of the start of Workspace or inbox business hours.

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Instructions

Create a shift

Step 1

Click the gear icon on the top right of Front and into the Company settings tab, then select Shifts. If you have multiple Workspaces in Front, click on Shifts under the specific Workspace you want to create the schedule in.

Step 2

Click the New Shift button at the top.

Step 3

Define your shift hours, timezone, recurrence schedule, and teammates using the settings in the popup window. Then click Create.

Step 4

You will see your new shift on the schedule. You can click on the shift to add teammates or make changes to the schedule at any time.

How teammates view their shift schedule

To view their own shifts, teammates will click the gear icon on the top right of Front and into the Personal settings tab, then select Shifts. Teammates can view their shifts, but only admins can edit them.

 

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FAQ

Can I have a shift for multiple Workspaces?

Shifts are defined per Workspace, so you will create the shift for each Workspace.

Can I be added to multiple overlapping shifts?

• Yes, a teammate can be added to multiple shifts within the same Workspace or across multiple Workspaces.
• The teammate will remain online as long as one of the two or more shifts is active. 
• They will be set to out-of-office when none of the shifts are active.

Can I override my shift to stay available?

• A teammate can always manually change their availability status and override the shift. If a teammate manually changes their status, they will stay on that status until the next shift status change. That teammate is responsible for marking themselves as out-of-office.
• For example, if a teammate’s shift is 9am to 5pm daily and they decide to work late and toggle themselves back online, they will remain available until 5pm the next day, unless they manually mark themselves as out-of-office again. 

Will rules assign to me when off shift?

• All auto-assigning rules behavior abide by the teammate’s shift within that Workspace. 
• For example, when a teammate is off shift for Workspace A but on shift in Workspace B, any responses they receive that originated in a shared inbox in Workspace A will cause that thread to become unassigned and returned to that shared inbox. In Workspace B, responses will continue to be assigned to the teammate. 

Do all teammates need to be on a shift?

No. Teammates do not need to belong to a shift. If a teammate does not belong to a shift, they can continue to manually set their availability/out of office status. Their analytics will be calculated based on Workspace or inbox business hours. 

How do I manage shifts when on vacation?

See here.

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Pricing

This feature is available on the Scale plan or above. Some legacy plans with different names may also have this feature.