Call routing
Where the AI sends a caller who asks for a person
Where the AI sends a caller when they ask for a person.
What it does
Each department is a name and a phone number. When a caller asks for Service, the AI hands the call to the number you put against Service.
Two settings change how that plays out:
- Ring time. How long that number rings before the call moves on.
- Fallback. Another destination to try when the first one does not answer.
The caller hears ringing the whole time and is never told anything went wrong.
Whoever picks up hears a short whisper first, naming the caller and what they want, before they are connected.
What it does not do
- It does not use your phone system's own transfer. The call is handed off by us, so you get the caller's number on your screen, a recording of the human half, and an honest record of whether anyone actually answered.
- It does not treat voicemail as answered. A voicemail box picks up like a person. We detect it and do not count it.
- It does not leave a caller stuck. If nothing in the chain answers, the AI takes their details and raises an Inbox item instead.
Setting it up
1. Open Settings, then Call routing. 2. Give each department a name and a direct number. 3. Set a ring time. Twenty seconds is a good default. 4. Give the important ones a fallback.
The one thing that matters
Set a ring time short enough to beat your own voicemail.
Most desk phones send a caller to voicemail after about thirty seconds. If you let a number ring that long, the machine answers and the caller is talking to a recording. Ring for twenty seconds instead and the call moves on to your fallback before voicemail ever gets the chance.
This is the single change that moves the most callers to a real person.
Common mistakes
No fallback on your busiest department. One number that happens to be away from the desk ends the chain. A second destination costs nothing and catches most of them.
A number that was reassigned. It looks identical to a working one in every report except the count of transfers that connected to silence. Check them once a quarter.
Ringing forever because it feels thorough. It is not thorough, it is a longer wait followed by voicemail.