Voice Assist and Call Flows

Voice Assist is enabled via CallRail’s Call Flows. If you have not added it to a Call Flow and turned the flow on, Voice Assist will not be enabled. Use Call Flows to decide when Voice Assist answers incoming calls.

Enable Voice Assist during non-business hours

If you want Voice Assist to answer your incoming calls during your non-business hours, you can first set up a schedule step.

1. Determine the hours you want Voice Assist to be used, then add a branch for a new step.
2. In the new step, select the Voice Assist option. The greeting you set up earlier will be copied here, but you can edit it for a specific call flow if desired.

Enable Voice Assist for overflow handling

To use Voice Assist for overflow handling during business hours or at any other time, add a Dial step, with Voice Assist answering if no one picks up the call first. Before the call is routed to Voice Assist, configure the ring duration. We recommend setting the ring duration to 15 seconds (about 4 to 5 rings) or fewer. After setting the ring time, assign Voice Assist as the next step in your call flow.

If you are using an external voicemail system or interactive voice response (IVR), select the checkbox for Prevent voicemail and automated systems from answering a call in the previous dial step. We also recommend either disabling voicemail and IVRs or adjusting their ring duration to prevent conflicts. Voice Assist may not be compatible with all external systems. For help with configuration, contact your account manager.

Two ways to use the Voice Assist step

There are two ways the Voice Assist step can be implemented: without a call transfer and with a transfer.

Without a transfer

This is the default implementation method. Once a caller reaches the Voice Assist step, Voice Assist collects caller information and follows all of the parameters you created earlier. When the caller is finished, Voice Assist hangs up the call. There cannot be any steps after this in the call flow.

Recommendation: Use this Voice Assist step instead of a regular voicemail step, as it serves a similar purpose and collects more information.

With a transfer (caller intent)

The Voice Assist call flow step has a checkbox labeled Enable Voice Assist to identify caller intent and route calls automatically. If you select this box and turn it on, you can add steps after the Voice Assist step. In this case, Voice Assist listens for language that matches your selected intent, then initiates the next step in the call flow. The transfer branch has an intent type dropdown, a branch name, an editable keywords and phrases field (CallRail pre-fills this with intent-specific defaults), and a button to enable caller insights.

There are 5 intent types you can choose from:

• Billing: financial and account questions
• Human Request: caller explicitly asks for a person
• Rescheduling: requests to reschedule an existing appointment
• Support: problems with existing service
• Custom intent: you can define the phrase detection and keywords

You can create up to 10 branches using dynamic transfer. To add branches, select Add Routing Branch. Then, to add steps after each branch, select the icon to the right. Any step can be used here except for another Voice Assist step.

Recommendation: If Voice Assist determines the caller wants to speak to someone, include a Dial step that connects them elsewhere, followed by a Voicemail step to end the call. If you want to give a caller options to select from, you can instead choose a Menu step.

Lead screening transfers

Voice Assist can qualify your incoming leads through lead screening, which checks each caller against your business profile to determine whether they are in your service area and need a service you offer. Lead screening is configured in your caller intake settings. On its own, lead screening records whether a caller is a good-fit lead but does not change how the call is handled, so every caller is treated the same way.

A lead screening transfer branch lets you act on that result. When you add a lead screening branch to the Voice Assist step in a call flow, you can route qualified leads differently from everyone else. The most common use is connecting a good-fit lead to a live person as soon as intake finishes, so you can reach interested leads while their interest is high.

How lead screening transfers differ from intent transfers

Both branch types live on the same Voice Assist call flow step, but they route on different signals at different points in the call:

• Intent transfers fire before intake, when the caller signals a specific need, such as billing, support, or rescheduling, or asks to speak with a person.
• Lead screening transfers fire after intake, once Voice Assist has collected the caller’s qualification answers and determined that the caller is a good-fit lead.

The two branch types work together in the same call flow, so you can use both at once.

Before you begin

Lead screening must be enabled in your caller intake settings before you can use a lead screening transfer branch. If lead screening is disabled, the branch displays a prompt to enable it, as shown below.

Add a lead screening transfer

1. In your Voice Assist call flow step, select Add Routing Branch. 
2. Choose the Lead screening branch type. You will see which screening questions are enabled. 
3. Add or edit the steps you want a qualified lead to follow. To connect the caller to a live person, add a Dial step. Any step can be used except for another Voice Assist step.

What the caller experiences

• After intake is complete, if the caller qualifies as a good-fit lead, Voice Assist offers to transfer them to the destination you configured.
• If the caller accepts, the call continues to the next step in your lead screening branch, such as a Dial step to a live agent.
• If the caller declines, Voice Assist continues with its normal end-of-call behavior.

When a lead screening transfer happens on a call, the lead screening branch name appears in the call’s message details, so you can see how the call was routed.

Recommendation: Pair a lead screening branch with a Dial step to a sales rep or on-call team member so qualified leads reach a person right away. You can follow the Dial step with a Voicemail step to capture the lead if no one answers.

Call Flow templates

In addition to creating a custom Call Flow, there are also pre-made Call Flow templates that include Voice Assist steps. These can be found on the Call Flows page by navigating to Settings > Workflow > Call Flows.

Assign the Call Flow to a number

Once the Call Flow is saved:

1. Select your desired tracking number from the Settings > Numbers table.
2. On the Number options page, select Call options. This opens the menu for editing the Forward calls to option.
3. Select Call Flow, then choose the call flow with Voice Assist enabled. Voice Assist will begin taking and answering calls.

If you want to set up your Voice Assist agent first, you can instead follow the steps for creating a new number, then choose to forward the calls to your Voice Assist-enabled call flow.

Voice Assist and spam prevention

Because Voice Assist answers all incoming calls when activated, each call counts toward your usage limits. CallRail is always working to improve spam detection and prevention, but you can also implement your own prevention strategies by using a menu within the Voice Assist Call Flow. For example, if a caller reaches the menu and does not respond after three attempts, CallRail automatically prevents that call from appearing in your call log. This lets you save Voice Assist connections for legitimate leads and avoid unnecessary charges due to spam.