Passing calls to the front desk or a colleague

Anyone with the User or Owner role in your clinic account can set this up. You need the phone number of each line that should take calls, with its extension if it has one. The phone number box takes Canadian and US numbers.

Good to know:

• The call is passed directly, without an introduction. The person who answers gets no summary, so they may need to ask the patient why they’re calling.
• Once the call is passed, your AI agent leaves it. If nobody answers, the call goes on as usual for that line, for example to its voicemail. Choose lines that someone answers during opening hours.
• Your AI agent isn’t an emergency service. Its instructions should tell patients to call 911 in an emergency.
• If your clinic has its own phone system, your IT team can send calls straight to it (see Connecting your clinic’s phone system).

1. In the menu on the left, click Tools & Actions, then Call Transfer.
2. Click + Transfer. If your clinic has none yet, a new blank one is already open.
3. On the Parameters tab, fill in Function Name: a short name with no spaces or accents, for example pass-to-staff. You can use letters, numbers, dashes, dots and underscores.
4. In Description, say in plain words when your AI agent should pass the call. For example: “Pass the call to a person when the patient asks to speak to someone, has a billing question or has an urgent symptom.”
5. Click the Destinations tab, then Add Destination. Leave Destination Type on Phone Number.
6. Fill in the line’s Phone Number, and its Extension (Optional) if it has one. In this destination’s Description, say when to use this line. In Message to Customer, you can write what the agent says just before it passes the call. To add another line, click Add Destination again.
7. Click Save Settings at the bottom right. It stays grey until Function Name and Description are filled in.

You can leave the list of parameters on the Parameters tab empty, leave the Messages tab empty, and leave a destination’s other settings as they are.

Clinique des Érables uses one call transfer action with two lines:

• Nurse line, extension 210. Description: “A patient with an urgent symptom who needs advice today.” Message to Customer: “I’m passing you to our nurse. Please stay on the line.”
• Front desk. Description: “A billing question, or a patient who asks to speak to a person.” Message to Customer: “I’m passing you to the front desk. Please stay on the line.”

Your AI agent reads both descriptions and picks the line that fits what the patient says.

1. In the menu on the left, click Voice Agents, then click your AI agent in the My Agents list.
2. Click the Tools & Actions tab.
3. Find your action: it has a Transfer label. Turn on its switch.
4. Click Save Settings at the bottom right.

See Turning actions on or off for your AI agent.

When the patient asks for something that fits your description, your AI agent says your Message to Customer, if you wrote one. Then it passes the call and leaves. The patient stays on the line until someone answers.

If the call can’t be passed, for example because the number is wrong, your AI agent stays on the line with the patient.

In Call Logs & Analytics, a call passed to a person shows Call Forwarded in the Ended Reason column.

The Forwarding Number field on the agent’s Call Control tab doesn’t pass calls during a conversation. Use a call transfer action, as shown above.

Speak with Agent can’t pass a call. In a test from your browser, the agent may say it’s passing you, but nothing happens. Test with a real call instead.

1. Make sure your clinic number goes to this AI agent. See Choosing which AI agent answers a number.
2. From a mobile phone, call your clinic number.
3. Ask for something that fits one of your descriptions, for example: “I have a question about my bill.”
4. Check that the right phone rings, and that you can talk to the person who answers.
5. In Call Logs & Analytics, find the call. Check that it shows Call Forwarded.

• The agent never passes the call: check that the action’s switch is on for this agent and that you clicked Save Settings. Then make the description clearer, with the words patients use.
• The agent passes calls too often: make the description narrower, for example “only when the patient asks to speak to a person”.
• The wrong line rings: make each destination’s Description clearly different.
• The agent says it can’t pass the call: check the phone number and extension on the Destinations tab, then click Save Settings.
• Nobody answers at the other line: your AI agent has already left the call. Choose a line that is answered, or that has its own voicemail.