Inbound calls and texts

Which campaigns answer

Three objectives answer people who contact you first: Answer support questions, Take refund requests and Qualify inbound leads. Each one answers calls and texts to a single number attached to it. Campaigns of the other objectives do not answer calls; a text to one of their numbers is handled as a reply, as Phone numbers describes.

Calls to an attached number reach the agent only after Growth Dept connects that number to the voice service, and that is not done for any store yet. Until live sending is on, replies to texts are recorded but not sent. Inbound answering has been tested with simulated calls and texts only.

Attach a number

1. Make sure the store has a number under Phone numbers.
2. Open the campaign's first setup step, which the sidebar calls Your phone number.
3. In the Phone number card, choose a number and press Attach. Only numbers that answer no other campaign are listed. Detach frees it again.

One number answers one campaign, and a campaign answers on one number. Keep giving customers your usual number and forward it to this one; then you can change the setup later without telling anyone.

ACR does not yet stop outbound campaigns from calling or texting from an attached number, so pick a different number on the Outreach channels step of each outbound campaign. On the Phone numbers page an attached number is still listed under Outbound, and Remove country removes it with the others.

Switch answering on

Publishing needs the number attached, hand-offs on in General settings and at least one way to hear about them, email or Slack. After publishing, switch on Incoming call and Incoming text on the first step; each switch asks you to confirm. While a trigger is off or the campaign is paused, people who contact the number are told it cannot take their call right now.

When someone calls

Before the agent speaks, ACR checks the caller and starts a conversation, or continues the one already open with them. Calls are answered at any hour. The agent opens with the campaign's greeting and speaks the campaign's default language. On Answer support questions it can text a link the caller asks for, when General settings holds one, unless their number has opted out of texts. It cannot schedule a call back, because these campaigns never call anyone. The conversation ends when the call does.

When ACR turns a caller away, the agent reads one of the messages below and ends the call.

When someone texts

STOP, HELP and START are handled first, as opt-outs describes. Anything else goes to the agent, which replies from the same number in the language the person writes in. A text conversation stays open until a day passes without a new message.

• Replies wait for the legal hours where the person is, so a text sent at 2 a.m. is answered at 8. Test leads are exempt.
• Replies go only to countries allowed under Geo permissions. A person in a country that is not allowed, or in Texas, where the recommended schedule sends no texts, gets no automatic reply; their text becomes a hand-off for your team.
• Someone who opted out of texts and writes in gets no automatic answer. You get a notification, "A customer who opted out wrote in", and can reply from your own phone.

Who gets turned away

The repeat limits count finished conversations with the same campaign. Answer support questions turns away a sixth in 30 days, and Qualify inbound leads a sixth in 24 hours. Take refund requests turns away a second in 30 days, and anyone who has called or texted that line more than four times in all. A call or text during a conversation that is still open is part of it and does not count again. Test leads are exempt.

What an inbound contact never does

Contacting your number records no marketing consent, so it can never start outbound outreach to that person later. An answering campaign never calls or texts anyone first.