Your Call Flows are the basis for configuring a phone number for your business or company needs, as you can configure different custom call routings with them (learn what you can do with them here).
To add a new Call Flow, click on the '+ Add New' button on the left menu, under 'Call Routing'. Remember to give the Call Flow a meaningful name (like 'Buyers Line', 'Website Number', 'Main Business Line', etc.), as we will tag all calls and texts that are made to this Call Flow, with its name, so you can keep track of them.
A Call Flow is structured in different sections. The configuration for each section is entirely optional, and will depend on your needs.
Check out the following explanation of each section so you'll know what to configure to fit your needs:
+ General Information
This first section is the place where you give your Call Flow a Name, and a Phone Number.
Just modify the 'Name' text field to change the Call Flow name. Remember that his name is important, as we will tag on your inbox any call or text received on this Call Flow. This will allow you to filter and find calls and texts more easily in the future.
You can also choose to assign an existing number to it, or to reserve a new phone number specifically for it. Learn how to assign a phone number here.
+ Receive Calls
The second section to configure is the "Receive Calls" section. Here you can:
Set an optional initial greeting you'd like callers to immediately hear when they dial your number. An example could be: "Thank you for calling BetterVoice. Please hold while we transfer your call to one of our agents"). And then the call will route to the Operators.
Secondly, you can configure "Operators" to receive calls immediately at the start of each call made to this Call Flow. An "Operator" is typically a user in your Better Voice account, but can also be an external phone number or an IP Phone if needed (if you need to add an External Phone Number here, please contact us).
In the following example, we will ring to both Alexander and Mabel for 30 seconds on our 'Sales' Call Flow, so they can receive calls at the same time, based on their own Find Me settings (learn more about Find Me here)
The "Receive Calls" section is optional and if no settings are in place calls will immediately move to the "Automated Menu", which is the next section on the Call Flow.
Alternatively, if a greeting is configured in the "Receive Calls" section and/or if any Operators are configured, calls will move on to the "Automated Menu" section after the greeting plays and/or if no Operators answer the phone.
It's important to note that if the"Keypress to Connect" feature is disabled and Operators are configured to receive calls on their cellphones, the Call Flow call routing will end here and the call will reach the operator's cellphone voicemail. So if you want to have the call to continue with the routing on the Call Flow, keep Keyrpress to Conenct enabled.
+ Automated Menu
The "Automated Menu" section gives you the opportunity to create a menu with options for your callers to interact with (also called IVR, or Phone Tree).
Check the following article if you want to know how to create an Automated Menu for your Call Flow
The Automated Menu is optional as well and if one is not configured, the call will move on to the next section.
+ Automatic Text Message
If the caller reaches this section on your Call Flow (either because Operators didn't answer the call, or didn't select an option on the Automated Menu if you have one configured), you can configure a text message (SMS) that will automatically be sent to the caller:
You can also use the 'Send to First Time Callers Only' checkbox if you want this text to be automatically sent to anyone that calls this line at anytime, or only the FIRST time a person calls the line.
If the Text Message field is empty, the Call Flow routing will simply ignore this and go to the Voicemail section.
+ Voicemail
Finally, at the bottom of the Call Flow form is the "Voicemail" section. Callers will reach this section if no Operator answered the call, and/or if no digits are pressed in the Automated Menu (if it's configured),
Here, callers can leave a voicemail message. You can select a greeting file to play to callers before they hear the recording tone (learn how to record a Greeting for your Audio Library here).
At the bottom of the Call Flow, you will see the following three buttons:
Notifications: You can configure Email, Text and App notifications for every call, text or voicemail received on the Call Flow. Find out how to configure Notifications here.
Auto SMS Responses: You can also setup Auto Text replies for the Call Flow. When someone texts a specific word or digits to the Phone Number assigned to this Call Flow, your Call Flow can reply back with an Automated Text that you can configure. Learn how to setup Auto SMS Responses here.
Archive: This will remove your Call Flow from the left menu, and will archive it.