Phone

Enable voice calls with your customers through phone number integration. Your agent handles phone conversations naturally, providing the same quality experience as other channels.

How Phone Integration Works

When customers call your phone number, the call is routed to your agent. Your agent joins the call and handles the conversation using natural voice interaction, adapting its responses for phone audio quality.

The same agent that handles web chat and other channels also handles phone calls, ensuring consistent behavior and knowledge across all touchpoints.

Voice Mode Requirement

Important Prerequisite: Before setting up phone integration, you must enable Voice Mode in your agent's Call tab. Voice Mode is required for all voice interactions, including phone calls.

Voice Mode Availability

• Free trial: Available for testing purposes
• Growth plan: Fully available
• Scale plan: Fully available

What Voice Mode Does When Voice Mode is enabled, your agent can receive and process voice interactions. When disabled, no phone calls or voice interactions will reach your agent, even if you have a phone number configured.

To enable Voice Mode:

1. Navigate to your agent's configuration
2. Go to the Call tab
3. Toggle Voice Mode to "Enabled"
4. Configure voice settings (voice type, response rate, etc.)

Setting Up Phone Integration

Step 1: Purchase a Phone Number

1. Navigate to Phone Numbers in your dashboard
2. Click "Get New Number"
3. Select your country and area code
4. Choose phone number from the list, price is $1-8/month

Step 2: Enable Voice Mode and Configure Settings

1. Go to your agent page and navigate to the Call tab
2. Enable Voice Mode toggle (required for voice interactions)
3. Assign the phone number to your agent
4. Configure voice settings:
   • Select voice type and characteristics
   • Set response rate (rapid, normal, patient)
   • Configure silence timeout
   • Set maximum call duration
   • Configure greeting message

Step 3: Test Phone Integration

1. Make a test call to your phone number
2. Verify agent responds correctly
3. Test different scenarios (questions, actions, etc.)
4. Check call quality and audio clarity

Voice Call Features

Natural Conversation Your agent handles natural conversation flow, including interruptions, pauses, and follow-up questions. It adapts to phone audio quality and speaks at an appropriate pace.

Professional Greeting Your agent greets callers professionally and identifies itself. The greeting is optimized for phone conversations, keeping it concise and clear.

Action Support Your agent can use all enabled actions during phone calls:

• Check calendar availability
• Create support tickets
• Collect form information
• Process orders (with voice confirmation)

Progressive Feedback During longer operations, your agent provides verbal feedback to keep callers informed. For example, "Let me check that for you..." or "Looking that up now..."

Call Handling Your agent handles various call scenarios:

• Transfers when human assistance is needed
• Takes messages when appropriate
• Provides information about business hours
• Handles call quality issues gracefully

Voice Settings Configuration

Voice Selection Select from over 50 premium and included voices that sound human. Choose a voice that matches your brand:

• Natural-sounding voices
• Multiple language options
• Gender preferences
• Accent options

Call Greeting Configure the greeting where the agent responds. The greeting is the first message your agent will say when a call connects.

Response Rate Control how quickly your agent responds:

• Rapid: Fast responses, good for simple queries
• Normal: Balanced pace, recommended for most cases
• Patient: Slower, more deliberate responses

Silence Timeout Set how long to wait before responding when the caller is silent. Adjust based on your preferences and typical call patterns.

Call Timeout Set maximum call duration to prevent excessively long calls. Useful for managing costs and ensuring efficient interactions.

Phone-Specific Features

Phone Forwarding Phone forwarding is a phone-only action that allows you to create an agent that serves as the first point of contact for incoming calls. When a customer asks for a human or requests a transfer, the agent intelligently transfers the call to a specific phone number or extension based on the user's request.

Unlike traditional phone systems with menu options like "Press 1 for sales, Press 4 for support," phone forwarding enables a natural conversation flow. The agent first tries to help the customer, and only transfers when necessary or requested. This creates a more personalized and efficient customer experience.

Best Practices

Optimize for Phone Phone conversations differ from text chat:

• Keep responses concise
• Speak clearly and at a moderate pace
• Avoid complex information that's better shared via text
• Provide verbal confirmations for actions

Test Call Quality Regularly test call quality:

• Make test calls from different phones
• Test in various environments (quiet, noisy)
• Verify audio clarity and volume
• Check for latency or connection issues

Handle Escalations Configure clear escalation paths:

• When to transfer to humans
• How to handle complex issues
• What to do when the agent can't help
• Voicemail handling for after-hours

Monitor Call Analytics Review call analytics regularly:

• Call duration and volume
• Common topics and questions
• Escalation rates
• Customer satisfaction

Troubleshooting

Call Not Connecting

1. Verify phone number is active and assigned to agent
2. Check phone number connection
3. Review phone number configuration
4. Verify the integration is properly connected

Poor Audio Quality

1. Check network connectivity
2. Verify connection settings
3. Test from different locations
4. Review call configuration

Agent Not Responding

1. Verify agent is enabled and configured
2. Check voice settings are correct
3. Review system prompt for phone-specific instructions
4. Check error logs for specific issues

Call Drops

1. Check network stability
2. Review call timeout settings
3. Verify phone number configuration
4. Check for service outages

Next Steps

Learn about other products like Smart Forms and Smart Tickets that work seamlessly with phone calls, or explore Channels for multi-channel strategies.