A whisper message is a short message that plays to the person answering the phone before they’re connected to the caller. Only the person who answers the call hears this message; the caller does not hear the whisper message.
You can also customize whisper messages with keyphrases for added insight into which marketing campaign prompted the phone call so you can tailor your approach to every call, even before it begins.
This powerful knowledge gives you real-time feedback on which marketing campaigns are driving calls to your business. More importantly, it gives you an informational head start that helps your team convert more leads to customers.
Getting started
We recommend making the person or team that will be answering calls aware of the whisper message in place on a tracking number. Since the whisper message plays to the call recipient before the call is connected, they’ll need to wait for the whisper message to play in its entirety before greeting the caller.
Adding a whisper message to a new number
You can add a whisper message to each tracking number you create within the number creation wizard. Once your number is active, you'll begin hearing the whisper message on calls received by this tracking number before the call is connected.
- Click the Create (+) icon in the navigation bar on the left and select Phone Number.
- Choose the company where you'd like to add your new tracking number.
- Create your tracking number. On the last step of the number creation process, check the box for Whisper Message, and enter the message that you’d like to play when a call is received.
- Select Activate Tracking Number.
Adding a whisper message to an existing number
You can add a whisper message to any existing tracking number. Once you add the whisper message to a tracking number, all calls going forward will play the whisper message before connecting to the caller.
- Click the Settings icon on the left navigation bar.
- Choose the company whose tracking number you'd like to update.
- Click the pencil icon for the tracking number you’d like to update to go to its main configuration page.
- On the next screen, click the pencil icon in the upper-right of the Number Options menu.
- Select the checkbox to enable the Whisper Message, enter the message in the text box, and choose your preferred language.
- Select Save at the bottom of the page to save your changes.
Add a whisper message to multiple numbers
The Bulk Edit options in CallRail allow account administrators to add a whisper message to multiple tracking numbers at the same time. We'll send you a confirmation email once all of your numbers have been updated.
- Click the Settings icon on the left navigation bar.
- Choose the company where you'd like to bulk edit tracking numbers.
- Click Account-Level Numbers at the top right.
- Choose the number(s) you'd like to edit.
- Click the Bulk Actions button at the top right.
- Select Whisper Message, then click Next.
- Choose a Whisper Message preference for all of your selected numbers. Select Activate whisper message to add a whisper message to your selected numbers. Or, choose Deactivate whisper message to turn off whisper messages for your selected numbers.
- Click Save Changes
Adding keyphrases to a whisper message
There are few options that you can add to a whisper message for added insights:
[source] Keyphrase
The [source] keyphrase dynamically inserts contextual information such as a call's source in your whisper message. For example, you could create a whisper message that says, "This is an incoming call from [source]," and get a resulting whisper message like "This is an incoming call from Google Organic."
The [source] keyphrase automatically includes the [keyword] keyphrase described below for calls attributed to paid advertising channels. For example, you could hear something like "This is an incoming call from Google Ads for Spring Cleaning", where Spring Cleaning represents the keyword.
In addition, the [source] keyphrase can also be used in conjunction with the [tag].
[tag] Keyphrase
The [tag] keyphrase will dynamically insert call tags into your whisper message. For example, you could create a whisper message that says, "This called has been tagged as [tag]," and get a resulting whisper message like "This call has been tagged as Sales." The [tag] keyphrase can also be used in conjunction with the [source] and [keyword] keyphrases.
[keyword] Keyphrase
The [keyword] keyphrase will dynamically insert the PPC keywords the visitors used to find your website into your whisper message. The keywords we'll detect will only be keywords you're actively bidding on in your PPC platform. For example, you could create a whisper message that says, "This caller found your website using the following [keyword]," and get a resulting whisper message like "This call has been tagged as automotive Atlanta." The [keyword] keyphrase can also be used in conjunction with the [tag] and [source] keyphrases.
[campaign] Keyphrase
The [campaign] keyphrase will dynamically insert the name of the marketing campaign the visitors used to find your website into your whisper message. The campaigns we’ll detect will only be campaigns you’re actively running via PPC or other methods that deliver a campaign URL parameter automatically.
FAQs
Can I use whisper messages for calls that are forwarded to a team?
Whisper messages cannot be used for calls routing to a team or calls routing to a Queue step.
Why can’t I hear the whisper message?
If there is an automated answering service, greeting, or hunt group associated with a destination number, this may interfere with hearing the whisper message. Since the whisper message plays as soon as a call is connected, despite not being connected to a representative, these setups on a destination number will interfere with whisper message settings.
In this case, we recommend using the call flow builder to prevent automated systems from answering the call. This allows the whisper message to play when someone answers the call if your destination number is on a system mentioned above. Use this support article to learn more about this feature:
Prevent voicemails and automated systems from answering a call.
What does the caller hear while the whisper message plays?
The caller continues to hear ringing while the whisper message plays. Using a whisper message is only a feature that the call recipient will experience.
Can I delay a whisper message from playing?
The whisper message will begin to play as soon as the call is answered. If you’d like for important details in the whisper message to play later in the recording, we recommend padding the whisper message so the most important details play last. For example, instead of “Call from PPC campaign,” you could create a whisper that says, “This is an incoming call from your PPC campaign.