In short
- Agree on the SLA first: which leads, what counts as a first touch, and the response window.
- Stamp an SLA due time on every new lead, and a first-touch time when the rep acts.
- A record-triggered flow with scheduled paths alerts the owner before the deadline and escalates after it.
- Report on SLA met and missed by rep, source and hour, and fix the gaps the report shows.
1. Define the lead management SLA
- Which leads: all new leads, or only some sources or record types.
- What counts as a first touch: a logged call, a sent email, a text, or a status change.
- The response window, and whether it counts business hours or every hour.
- Who gets alerted, who it escalates to, and what happens to the lead if nobody acts.
Write it down and share it with sales. The Salesforce setup only enforces what the team agreed.
2. Assign every lead to an owner
An SLA needs an owner on the clock. Use lead assignment rules to route each new lead to a rep or a queue, by source, region or product. Make sure web-to-lead and every integration run the assignment rule too.
3. Add SLA fields to the lead
- SLA Due: a date-time set when the lead is created.
- First Touch: a date-time set the first time the rep acts.
- SLA Status: Pending, Met or Missed.
- An aging flag (red, yellow, green) on the record and in list views, so reps see which leads are close to the deadline.
To count business hours only, set up Business Hours in Setup and calculate SLA Due with the BusinessHours class in Apex. A flow on its own adds calendar time.
4. Record the first touch
A flow on Task, or on your call and SMS records, sets First Touch on the lead when the first call, email or text is logged. If the status change is the touch, set it from the lead flow instead. When First Touch is set, set SLA Status to Met or Missed by comparing it with SLA Due.
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5. Build the alert and escalation flow
A record-triggered flow on Lead, on create, with scheduled paths based on SLA Due.
Before the deadline
If First Touch is still empty, send a custom notification to the owner. It shows in the Salesforce bell and on mobile.
At the deadline
If First Touch is still empty, set SLA Status to Missed and notify the owner's manager by notification, email or a Microsoft Teams channel.
After the deadline
If the lead is still untouched, reassign it to a queue or the next rep, and log why.
Scheduled paths check the record again when they run, so add the "First Touch is empty" condition on each path. A lead that was worked does not trigger an alert.
6. Report on lead SLAs
- SLA met and missed by rep, by lead source and by hour of day.
- Leads with no first touch at all, the leads nobody called.
- Time from creation to first touch, from the two date-time fields.
Missed SLAs at night or on weekends point to a coverage gap, not a rep problem. Missed SLAs on one source can point to a broken integration. Add alerts when a form or call tracking integration stops sending leads, so a quiet hour is a real quiet hour.
Where to start
Start with the fields and the report. Seeing the real response times first tells you which window to set. Then add the alerts, then the escalation.
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