# What Is Call Routing? Rules, Types & Examples Source: https://insertchat.com/glossary/call-routing > Call routing decides who answers each incoming call: by schedule, ring time, skill, or caller. Learn common routing rules and how AI answering fits into them. Call routing is the set of rules that decides where an incoming call goes and who answers it. Rules can depend on the time of day, whether a person picks up within a set ring time, the number dialed, the caller’s choice in a menu, or which team member is available. Good routing gets each caller to an answer quickly. ## How call routing works Routing runs on the phone system or service that receives the call. Time-based rules check opening hours and time zones. Ring rules try one phone or a group for a set number of seconds, then move on. Menu-based routing uses an [auto attendant](https://insertchat.com/glossary/auto-attendant) or IVR, and contact centers add skills-based routing that matches callers to qualified agents. For a small business, the routing question is usually simple: should a person or the answering system take this call right now? The most common pattern is “ring the team during open hours, send everything else to the answering service,” with a short ring time so callers aren’t left waiting. ## Example: a pest control office A pest control company’s office manager answers calls Monday to Friday, 8 to 5. Routing rings her desk phone for 20 seconds, then the AI receptionist answers if she’s busy. Evenings and weekends go straight to the assistant, which books inspections and flags anyone reporting a wasp nest near a doorway. This scenario is illustrative. ## Call routing in InsertChat InsertChat has [call routing](https://insertchat.com/product/after-hours) built in. Choose who answers: the AI receptionist always, the AI after hours, the AI when your team doesn’t pick up, or your team only. Set weekly opening hours, including overnight shifts, your time zone, the number to ring, and a ring time between 5 and 60 seconds. If a call reaches a staff voicemail box, it returns to the assistant so the caller still gets an answer. InsertChat does not route by menu or to extensions; requests are assigned to teammates in the shared inbox. See the [pest control setup](https://insertchat.com/industries/pest-control). ## What is AI call routing? It usually means an AI understands the caller’s request and decides where it should go, instead of a keypress menu. In InsertChat the assistant answers the request itself and marks anything that needs a person for your team. ## What ring time should I use before the AI answers? Long enough for your team to reach the phone, short enough that callers don’t give up. Start around 15 to 25 seconds, then adjust after a week of real calls. ## Related terms - [Overflow calls](https://insertchat.com/glossary/overflow-calls): Overflow calls are incoming calls that arrive when everyone who normally answers is busy or unavailable, so they would otherwise ring out, hit voicemail, or wait on hold. - [Conditional call forwarding](https://insertchat.com/glossary/conditional-call-forwarding): Conditional call forwarding redirects a call only when a condition is met: nobody answers within a set number of rings, the line is busy, or the phone is off or out of coverage. - [After-hours answering service](https://insertchat.com/glossary/after-hours-answering-service): An after-hours answering service answers a business’s calls outside its opening hours, such as evenings, weekends, and holidays. - [IVR (interactive voice response)](https://insertchat.com/glossary/ivr): IVR, or interactive voice response, is an automated phone system that interacts with callers through recorded prompts, keypad tones, and limited speech recognition. - [Auto attendant](https://insertchat.com/glossary/auto-attendant): An auto attendant is a phone system feature that answers calls with a recorded greeting and a menu, such as “press 1 for sales, press 2 for support,” then routes the caller to an extension, department, or voicemail based on the key pressed. ## Related InsertChat pages - [After-hours and overflow routing](https://insertchat.com/product/after-hours) - [AI receptionist](https://insertchat.com/product/phone) - [AI receptionist for pest control](https://insertchat.com/industries/pest-control)