Set up Language Based Routing in a Call Center campaign

Want your Spanish-speaking contacts to reach Spanish-speaking agents automatically? Language Based Routing connects each contact to an agent who speaks their preferred language, all within a single Call Center campaign. This article is for campaign managers.

ⓘ Language Based Routing works ONLY on Call Center campaigns that use the Predictive Dialer. Why: the routing decision happens inside the Predictive Dialer's queue, so other dialers cannot use it.

Why use this

Before this feature, running a campaign in multiple languages meant splitting it into separate campaigns (for example, one for English and one for Spanish). That caused slower Predictive Dialer queues, fragmented agent staffing, and extra setup and management work. Campaign managers also often did not know a contact's preferred language in advance.

With Language Based Routing, you handle a multilingual campaign in one place. During Predictive Dialing, the system:

1. Connects the contact to an agent with the same language first.
2. If no matching agent is available, routes the call to any available agent so the campaign keeps running fast without extra call drops.

What you can expect to achieve:

• More successful conversations, better understanding, and higher response rates because contacts hear their preferred language.
• Predictive Dialer performance that stays fast and within safe drop limits.
• No separate campaign for each language, which saves setup time and simplifies agent staffing.
• Automated agent assignment, so you spend less time managing who calls whom.
• Agents can update a contact's preferred language during or after the call, so your data improves with every conversation.

This is especially useful for political, advocacy, and support campaigns that engage diverse audiences across regions and languages.

Before you start

• You need campaign manager access to import contacts, manage agents, and create the campaign.
• Prepare your contact CSV and agent CSV with a language column before importing (details in the steps below).
• Your campaign must use the Predictive Dialer.
• Setup takes about 10 to 15 minutes on top of your normal campaign creation, mostly for preparing the CSV files.

Step 1: Import contacts with their preferred language

1. In your contact CSV file, add a new column header (for example, Preferred Language) and list each contact's preferred language.
2. Import the CSV into CallHub as usual.
3. During import, on the field-mapping screen, map the new CSV column to the Preferred Language field in CallHub.
4. If you are adding a contact individually instead, select the contact's preferred language while filling in the other fields, such as first name, last name, phone number, and mobile number. 

Once the contact is created, the preferred language appears in the Contact Profile.

Step 2: Set each agent's language capability

1. If you are uploading agents in bulk, add a new column to the agent CSV that lists the languages each agent speaks (their language proficiency), then map that column during the import, the same way you mapped contacts in Step 1.
2. If you are adding an agent individually, set the agent's language on the add-agent form. 
3. For existing agents, open the Agent Management list and bulk-edit or assign languages there. You can do this even after agents are activated.

ⓘ NOTE: CallHub has two separate language settings for agents. App Language changes only the agent's interface language (UI). Language Capability indicates which languages an agent can speak and is what the system uses for call routing. Set Language Capability for routing.

Step 3: Enable Language Based Routing in the campaign

1. Create your Call Center campaign and select the Predictive Dialer. Language Based Routing cannot be enabled with any other dialer.
2. In the Agents section of campaign creation, turn on the Language Based Routing slider. 

Step 4: Let agents view and edit Preferred Language on live calls

Agents can view and update a contact's Preferred Language during a live call, but only after you enable it.

1. In the campaign's Privacy tab, check Preferred Language under Fields displayed for each lead/contact.
2. In the same tab, check Preferred Language under Fields are editable for each lead/contact. 

Once enabled, agents can update the contact's language in real time if they discover a different preference during the conversation.

Notes & limits

ⓘ Language Based Routing works only on Call Center campaigns using the Predictive Dialer.

ⓘ If no agent with a matching language is available, the call goes to any available agent. This keeps the queue fast and drop rates safe, but it means a language match is not guaranteed on every call.

✓ Keep agent language data current. From the Agent Management list you can bulk-edit languages at any time, even after agents are activated.

FAQs

Does this work with the Power Dialer or Preview Dialer? 
No. Language Based Routing works only with the Predictive Dialer on Call Center campaigns.

What happens if a contact has no preferred language set? 
The call is routed to any available agent, just like a call with no language match.

Do I need separate campaigns for each language? 
No. That is exactly what this feature removes. One campaign can serve all languages, and the system matches contacts to agents automatically.

Can agents change a contact's preferred language during a call? 
Yes, if you checked Preferred Language under both the displayed and editable field lists in the Privacy tab. The agent can update it in real time during the conversation.