What’s “fail-safe” routing in automation?

Fail-safe routing handles system failures and error conditions:

Error scenarios: API call fails, cannot retrieve data. External system timeout. Data format unexpected or corrupted. Integration temporarily unavailable.

Fail-safe behaviors: Default to safe action: If unsure, do not send rather than send incorrectly. Fallback content: Generic content when personalization fails. Retry logic: Attempt operation again before failing. Alert and queue: Notify team, hold message for review.

Design principles: Automation should not break silently. Failures should not cause harm to recipients. System should recover when issues resolve.

Monitoring integration: Alert on fail-safe activations. Track failure rates and patterns. Investigate root causes.

Fail-safe assumes things will go wrong. Good automation handles failure gracefully.