Checklist for Setting Up Real-Time Alerts in Follow Up Boss

Most teams under-configure alerts (they miss urgent events) or over-configure them (every update pings everyone and nobody pays attention). This checklist is organized around the five decisions that determine whether your alerting system actually changes agent behavior.

What types of real-time alerts does Follow Up Boss support natively?

Follow Up Boss has built-in notification settings for individual users, accessible under profile settings. Native alert types include:

• New lead assigned — push notification and optional email when a lead is assigned to you
• New incoming call — alert when a call comes in on the FUB dialer
• New incoming text — alert when a contact texts back
• Email reply — alert when a contact responds to a logged email
• Task due — reminder when an action plan task reaches its due date
• Team inbox message — alert when a message lands in the shared team inbox

These native alerts are per-user and driven by the FUB mobile app (iOS/Android) push notification system, email, and in-app banner. For team-level routing or custom business logic (e.g., "alert the team leader when a lead scores Hot"), you need Zapier or the FUB API.

Alert setup checklist — Part 1: Define the trigger precisely

Is this alert for a specific event, or any event?

The most common alerting mistake is triggering on "any update" to a contact. A contact can update dozens of times a day — note added, email opened, tag changed, custom field written. If your alert fires on all of them, it becomes noise within hours.

• For new lead alerts: trigger on Contact Created, not "Contact Updated."
• For stage-change alerts: trigger on Contact Updated AND filter to the specific stage value (e.g., "Under Contract").
• For inbound reply alerts: trigger on New Event AND filter to event type = "incoming_text" or "incoming_email."
• For Ace Score threshold alerts: trigger on Contact Updated AND filter on the Ace Tier field changing to "Hot."

Does the trigger fire too often for this alert to be actionable?

A high-volume trigger (every contact update) paired with a high-urgency channel (push notification) will cause alert fatigue within days. If a trigger fires more than a few times per hour per agent, consider batching into a digest or switching to a lower-urgency channel.

Alert setup checklist — Part 2: Route to the right person

Who specifically should receive this alert?

• Assigned agent only — use FUB's native "alert assigned agent" notification for lead activity. This scales automatically when leads are reassigned.
• Team leader — configure via Zapier using a filter for specific conditions (e.g., no response in 5 minutes for a Hot-tier lead).
• Whole team — reserve for truly team-wide events (a major new inbound source goes live, a closing happens). Do not alert the whole team for individual lead activity.
• Admin/TC only — for transaction milestone events (stage moves to Under Contract), route to the transaction coordinator's email or Slack, not the agent.

Does the routing change based on business hours?

Zapier does not natively support time-of-day routing without a workaround (a Date/Time formatter step or a Code by Zapier step). If you need after-hours alerts to go to an on-call person instead of the assigned agent, plan this logic before building the Zap.

Alert setup checklist — Part 3: Write a useful alert message

Does the alert message give the recipient everything they need to act?

An alert that just says "New lead" is barely better than no alert. A useful alert message includes:

• Contact full name
• Lead source (where they came from)
• Phone number or email (so the agent can call without opening the CRM)
• Any relevant context from the trigger (stage the lead just reached, score, event type)
• A direct link to the FUB contact record

In Zapier Slack alerts, use the FUB contact URL format: https://app.followupboss.com/2/people/[contactId]. Map the Contact ID field from your FUB trigger to construct this link dynamically.

Alert setup checklist — Part 4: Choose the right delivery channel

Alert setup checklist — Part 5: Define the expected response

What is the agent expected to do within what timeframe?

An alert without a defined response SLA is a suggestion, not an alert. For each alert you configure, document:

• The expected action (call back, send a specific message, tag the lead)
• The response time target (e.g., new inbound Zillow lead = call within 5 minutes)
• What happens if the response does not occur (escalation alert to team leader after 10 minutes)

This is not just operational policy — it helps you evaluate whether the alert is working. If agents consistently take longer than the target, the alert may not be reaching them effectively, or the target may need to be adjusted.

Testing your alerts before going live

1. Create a test contact in FUB that matches your trigger conditions.
2. Wait for the alert to arrive in the configured channel.
3. Verify the message content — name, source, link — is correct and complete.
4. Click the direct link in the alert to confirm it opens the right FUB contact record.
5. Delete the test contact.
6. Check Zap History for the Zap run and confirm no errors.

Preventing alert fatigue over time

Alert systems degrade over time as volume grows and edge cases accumulate. Set a monthly review:

• Check Zap History task volume for each alert Zap. If volume is much higher than expected, tighten the filter.
• Ask agents whether they are acting on each alert type. If an alert is being dismissed or ignored, either improve the message or turn it off.
• Remove or batch any alerts that fire more than 20 times per day per agent without generating a corresponding action.

How does Follow Up Ace help with real-time alerting?

Follow Up Ace writes the Ace Tier field (Hot, Warm, Cool, Cold, Dormant) to every contact in real time based on engagement activity. This gives you a signal to filter Zapier alerts on — rather than alerting on every contact update, you alert only when a contact moves into the Hot tier.

This pattern dramatically reduces alert volume without missing any genuinely high-priority leads. The Ace Trove adds deeper signals: paid Ace Trove fields like Ace Buyer Readiness and Ace Next Action give agents context in the alert message itself, so they know what to say before they pick up the phone.

For the full integration reference, see How Event-Driven Integration Works in Follow Up Boss and the API trigger checklist.

Complete real-time alert checklist — summary

• Trigger is specific to a meaningful event, not "any update"
• Filter step added for Updated Contact triggers to narrow to the specific field change
• Alert routes to a named person or role, not everyone
• Alert message includes name, source, phone/email, context, and direct FUB link
• Delivery channel matches urgency (push for critical, email digest for low-priority)
• Response SLA defined and documented
• Alert tested with a real FUB event before going live
• Zap History reviewed for errors on go-live day
• Monthly review scheduled to prune low-action alerts