Documentation
Set up inbound handling
From overflow-only to full first-line answering — the staged rollout that works.
The businesses that get the most out of inbound do it in stages. Each stage is reversible, each one earns trust before the next, and at no point does a customer have a worse experience than they did with voicemail.
Stage 1 — Overflow (start here)
Your phones behave exactly as today; a Specialist only catches what nobody answers.
- In Cloudphone → Routing, create a rule: any line → no human answer in 4 rings → Specialist.
- Set the Specialist's brief for overflow: take the enquiry, book what's bookable, and promise callbacks it then schedules as Tasks.
- Turn it on. That's the whole change.
What to watch in week one: the Caught calls report — every call that would previously have rung out, and what it became.
Stage 2 — After hours
Voicemail's last stronghold. Add a time rule: outside business hours → Specialist, with an after-hours brief — usually emergency triage (what interrupts your on-call human vs what books the morning slot) plus normal booking rules at after-hours rates if you charge them.
The 7am summary email lists everything that happened overnight, so the day starts with a run sheet instead of a red blinking light.
Stage 3 — First line
When the transcripts have convinced you, flip the order: Specialist answers first, humans get the calls that need them. Routing sends transfers based on the caller's intent — existing customers to their account manager, complex quotes to you, everything routine handled on the spot.
Most businesses keep a VIP list that always rings a human first. Add it under Routing → Caller rules before you flip.
Tuning tips
- Review the transfer log weekly. Too many transfers means the knowledge base needs more depth; zero transfers means the rules may be too loose.
- Keep the ring threshold honest. Four rings is ~20 seconds — enough for a human to genuinely try, short enough that callers don't bail.
- Name a fallback human per line for the Specialist's "always transfer" categories. If they're unavailable, the Specialist books a callback rather than dead-ending.