How calls work

What a buyer hears when the agent calls them or they call you, and how a call starts and ends.

The same AI agent that answers on WhatsApp also talks on the phone, with the same knowledge and the same rules. It speaks naturally, in short sentences, and the buyer can interrupt it at any time. To hear it yourself, use the Voice console. See Testing the agent yourself.

Calls the agent makes

Calls go out from campaigns that use calls: Calls only, WhatsApp, then a call, or Call, then WhatsApp. Each campaign either dials by itself or leaves its calls for a person to place from the campaign's Call queue. See Calling. You can also ring one lead at once with Call now on their page, if they're in a running campaign that makes calls.

The opening line

The first thing the agent says is the campaign's What the agent says first, written when you create the campaign.

• Nothing about who is calling, or that it's an AI assistant, is added to it. If you want the call to say so, write that in. (If you record calls, a short recording notice follows the greeting: see below.)
• Use {{first_name}} to greet the buyer by name. If we don't have it, it drops out cleanly ("Hi, …").
• Left blank, the agent uses a short greeting with the buyer's name as it's stored, for example: "Hi Rahul Sharma, I'm calling on behalf of Acme Homes about Acme Lakeshore. Is now an okay time for a quick chat?"

The opening line is prepared before the phone rings, so the buyer hears it the moment they pick up. If they say "hello?" as they pick up, it keeps playing for its first couple of seconds rather than stopping. After that, if they start talking, the agent stops and listens.

If you record calls, the buyer hears "This call is recorded for quality purposes" just after the greeting. See Settings.

Language

• Each campaign has Calls open in, and your account has a default on Settings → New campaigns. The default is English (India), which also handles Hinglish.
• If we already know a buyer's language, from your audience file or an earlier conversation, the call opens in theirs whatever the setting says.
• Once the buyer speaks, the agent follows the language they use.
• Built-in greetings exist for English, Hindi, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu. For other languages, write your own opening line, which is translated for you. Without one, the call opens in English.

Calling hours and tries

• Automatic calls are only placed between 9:00 and 21:00 in the campaign's timezone (India time by default), whatever the campaign's send window says. A narrower window is kept. Call now outside those hours asks you to confirm first.
• If nobody answers, the line is busy, or it goes to voicemail, the number is tried again. By default that is 3 tries, 24 hours apart. Change it on Settings → New campaigns (If nobody answers) or per campaign.
• If an answering machine or a call-screening assistant picks up, the agent recognises it, ends the call without pitching, and counts it as unanswered so the number is tried again.

Calls buyers make to you

When a buyer rings one of your numbers and the agent answers calls, it greets them with What callers hear first (or the standard greeting, which thanks them for calling and asks how it can help) and takes it from there. See Your numbers.

How a call ends

A call ends when:

• the buyer says goodbye or asks to end the call; the agent gives a short closing line first;
• the buyer asks not to be called again; the agent confirms in one sentence and the lead is opted out of all further contact;
• the agent hands the buyer to your sales team; it tells them a colleague will follow up, then ends the call;
• nobody has spoken for about 15 seconds; the agent asks "are you still there?", and if there is still silence about 20 seconds later it hangs up;
• the call reaches 10 minutes, the longest a call can be.

Saying "no" or "stop" in the middle of a conversation doesn't opt a buyer out. Only a clear request not to be contacted again does.

After the call

The call appears on the lead's page under Calls, and what was said in the Conversation, along with what the agent learnt about the buyer. If the buyer interrupted the agent, the transcript shows what they actually heard and marks where they cut in. See A lead's page.