Voicemail, Call Screening, and Undetermined Call Detection

Overview

When a voice campaign calls a contact, the call doesn't always reach a person. It may reach a voicemail box, an answering machine, or a call screening service that answers first. Detection settings let the virtual agent recognize these situations and respond the way you choose, instead of playing your Call Flow to a machine.

Detection is configured per campaign in the Call Behavior Settings section of the Flow & Schedule tab. It applies to every call the campaign places, including test calls.

What the agent can detect

  • Voicemail or answering machine — The call reached a recorded greeting or mailbox.
  • Call screening — A call screening feature picked up before the call reached the contact.
  • Undetermined or irregular — The system could not tell who or what answered, or detected an unusual call condition.
  • A person — The call continues with the Call Flow you selected for your campaign.

Each of the first three has its own setting, so you can handle them differently.

Turn on voicemail detection

  1. Open your campaign and go to the Flow & Schedule tab.
  2. In Call Behavior Settings, turn on Voicemail Detection.
  3. Under Voicemail Response, choose one option:
    • Hang up if reaching voicemail (will retry) — The agent ends the call and the contact is queued for another attempt, up to the number of Retry Attempts you set.
    • Leave a message if reaching voicemail — The agent plays a Guided Conversation of your choice, such as a short callback request.
  4. If you chose to leave a message, select the Guided Conversation the agent should play.

Voicemail Detection is off by default. When it is off, the agent does not check who answered and runs your Call Flow on every answered call.

Choose what happens with call screening

Some phones and carriers screen calls before connecting them. To control this, turn on Call Screen Handling and select a Guided Conversation for when call screening picks up. You can choose to hang up or to leave a message.

Handle undetermined calls

Turn on Irregular/Undetermined Scenarios to hang up when the system detects an undetermined or irregular call condition. The contact is queued for a retry, up to your Retry Attempts.

If detection cannot reach a confident result, for example because it times out or fails, the call continues as if a person answered. The agent will not hang up on someone who may be a live person.

Test your settings

Use Test Outbound Call on the Flow & Schedule tab to try your settings on a live call before you launch.

  1. Select a Call Flow. The Start Test Call button stays disabled until you do.
  2. Enter a phone number on the Phone Number tab, or choose a contact on the Contact tab.
  3. Check the Voicemail Handling summary, which shows what the agent will do if voicemail answers, such as "Voicemail: hangs up."
  4. Click Start Test Call.

To check voicemail behavior, send the test call to a phone that will go to voicemail, and then to a phone you answer, to confirm both paths.

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