Real estate inquiry fallback when a connection is down

The decision to make first

A CRM or calendar disconnect can leave a working assistant unable to perform the external action it previously offered to callers. Switch affected workflows to explicit request capture and staff review while preserving the inquiry and making connection failure visible to operators.

What the handoff should contain

Track affected integration, first failure, captured request IDs, fallback queue and the owner responsible for restoring or replacing access.

Suggested wording to approve

Example wording: “I can capture your inquiry for the team, but the connected system is unavailable. I cannot confirm that external action until the team reviews it.”

Test the difficult case

Disable a test connection and submit a fictional inquiry, checking the visitor message, fallback record and operator notification. Do not continue displaying a booking success or CRM-created status when only the local request was saved.

Worked example

Fictional example: A calendar connection is revoked during a controlled test while inquiry capture remains available. The visitor should receive a request status rather than a booking confirmation, and staff should see the fallback item. After reconnection, the team reconciles that request explicitly instead of assuming the original external action eventually completed itself.

Review it in operation

Review recovery time and reconcile captured requests after restoration so the same inquiry is neither lost nor duplicated.

Check before you launch

• Switch affected workflows to explicit request capture and staff review while preserving the inquiry and making connection failure visible to operators.
• Track affected integration, first failure, captured request IDs, fallback queue and the owner responsible for restoring or replacing access.
• Disable a test connection and submit a fictional inquiry, checking the visitor message, fallback record and operator notification.
• Review recovery time and reconcile captured requests after restoration so the same inquiry is neither lost nor duplicated.

Related guides