HiloVoice
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All topics
  1. Getting started
    1. Create your account
    2. Get started with the guided welcome
    3. Invite your team
    4. Keep your number and forward it to your agent
    5. Set up your first agent
    6. A tour of HiloVoice
    7. Get help
  2. Concepts
    1. What HiloVoice does
    2. The five kinds of agent
    3. Phone numbers and caller ID
    4. Campaigns and recipients
    5. Calls, leads and contacts
    6. Roles and permissions
  3. Building an agent
    1. How the builder works
    2. Describe the business
    3. Name the agent and give it a purpose
    4. Set your opening hours
    5. Handle each kind of caller
    6. Choose what the agent asks
    7. Give the agent answers
    8. Shape how a call sounds
    9. Give a Receptionist its number
    10. Write an outbound agent's opening
    11. Set a follow-up's goal
    12. Set when an outbound agent may call
    13. Give an outbound agent a caller ID
    14. Turn callers into leads
    15. Book appointments on a call
    16. Hand calls to a person
    17. Turn away callers you can't help
    18. Let the agent check your records
    19. Send messages after a call
    20. Review and go live
    21. Start a new agent from one you have
    22. Pause, archive or delete an agent
    23. Call new leads within seconds
  4. Agent playbooks
    1. Set up a receptionist for a clinic
    2. Confirm tomorrow's appointments
    3. Check the details you hold
    4. Ask for feedback after a visit
    5. Follow up on open quotes
  5. Testing and going live
    1. Test an agent with Try it
    2. Put a Receptionist on the web
    3. Check an agent before real calls reach it
    4. Your responsibilities on calls
  6. Campaigns
    1. How a campaign runs
    2. Create a campaign
    3. Import a campaign's recipients
    4. Set a campaign's calling hours and retries
    5. Monitor a running campaign
    6. Work the Needs a person queue
    7. Call a recipient again
    8. Read a follow-up's progress
  7. Day-to-day operations
    1. The Usage page
    2. Review your calls
    3. Follow up your leads
    4. Keep your contacts up to date
    5. Set up transfer destinations
    6. Put callers straight through to a person
    7. Block a number
    8. Keep up with notifications
  8. Integrations
    1. What you can connect
    2. Connect your own Twilio account
    3. Connect your calendar
    4. Send email from your own address
    5. Connect HubSpot
    6. Connect Salesforce
    7. Connect Slack
    8. Connect Zapier
    9. Send leads to your own system
    10. Add a lookup source
  9. Administration
    1. Change your organization's settings
    2. Manage members and roles
    3. Manage your phone numbers
    4. Plans, minutes and limits
    5. Make and revoke API keys
    6. Check who did what in the activity log
    7. Manage your own account
    8. Join the HiloVoice affiliate program
  10. Reference
    1. Glossary
    2. Campaign statuses
    3. Recipient statuses
    4. Follow-up dispositions
    5. Call statuses and outcomes
    6. Agent builder fields
    7. CSV columns
    8. Error messages
    9. Frequently asked questions

Handle each kind of caller

For BuildersChecked against the app on October 1, 2026

A Receptionist hears from very different people on one number: new enquiries, existing clients, other businesses, sales calls. On the Caller Handling step you give each kind of caller its own questions and its own ending. The agent works out which kind it has from what the caller says; it never asks anyone to pick a category. The step is on a Receptionist only.

Before you start

  • You're an Owner, Admin or Builder.
  • The questions themselves are written on Intake Questions. This step decides who hears them.
  • To recognise callers from your own records, add a source under Settings → Lookups first.

Steps

  1. Open Agents, click the agent, and click Caller Handling in the step rail.

  2. Switch on Treat kinds of caller differently. Five kinds appear: Potential new clients, Existing clients, Other service providers, Spam and cold sales calls and Anyone else. Once the agent has an industry, they're named in your trade's words: patients rather than clients, say. Each row shows how many questions that kind hears and how its call ends.

    A dental practice's kinds of caller: new patients, existing patients, dental labs and specialists, solicitations and other callers, each with its questions and how its call ends.

  3. To add a kind of your own, type its name under Add a kind of caller (Insurance adjusters, say) and click Add. It goes in above Anyone else and opens straight away.

  4. Click a kind to open it. Under How to recognise them, describe these callers the way you'd brief a new receptionist; the agent gets your words as written. Write it for me drafts them.

  5. On the During the call tab, tick the Contact details to ask for: Full name, Phone number, Email address, Best time to call back, Address, Referral source. Each one ticked is a question on Intake Questions, limited to the kinds that ask for it. Write anything else as a question there and limit it with Only for certain callers….

  6. On the After the call tab, click Add an action to say how the call ends and what happens once it has. See How each call ends, below.

    New patients' After the call tab: Create a lead, a text to the caller with what to bring, and End the call.

  7. Click Done, then open the next kind.

Spam and cold sales calls is marked Always ends the call: the agent ends it as soon as it's sure, and that can't be changed.

Recognising an existing client

On Existing clients, the During the call tab starts with How to identify them: what the agent goes on. Tick The number they're calling from, Their full name, Their email address, Something else (say what under What to ask for, their matter reference for example) or A record in your lookups. Without that last one, the agent asks for these but can't search your records. With it, HiloVoice checks the caller's number against the lookup marked Recognises callers on Data Lookups before the agent answers, and the agent still confirms their name against the record.

Any kind but spam can also be Confirmed by a lookup, on its During the call tab. Their number is checked against a source before the agent answers, and they count as that kind only if the source says so. Under What counts, choose A record for their number exists, or A field on their record reads a certain way (on the leads list, the field customer is yes, say).

How each call ends

Under How the call ends, choose End the call (every kind starts with it) or Transfer the call and where it goes. Adding one takes the other away. Under Afterwards are Send a text, Send an email, Ask for a review, Create a lead and Call a webhook, plus Post to Slack, Send to Zapier and Send to your CRM once those are connected under Settings → Integrations. Send messages after a call covers each one.

A kind's list runs after each call the agent took to be that kind of caller.

With kinds of caller off

Everyone hears the same questions, and the step shows a single list instead: After every call. It runs after every call that did what it was for, not one that was cut short or went nowhere.

Switching kinds off keeps what you set for each kind, for when you switch back. Meanwhile their endings don't run, and a question limited to some kinds is asked of everyone. With kinds on, After every call stays on the step while it holds anything, and runs as well as each kind's own list.

What happens next

  • Changes reach callers once you publish: Go live on Review & Go Live, or Publish changes once the agent is live.
  • Ticking a kind under Who becomes a lead on Lead Capture adds Create a lead to its list here, and the other way round.
  • After each call, the call's After the call tab on Calls shows what ran and whether it went out.
  • Remove this kind of caller, at the foot of a kind you added, also removes the questions asked of that kind alone. It says how many before you click.

If it does not work

You seeWhyWhat to do
Needs a lookup source: upload a spreadsheet or use the leads list under Settings → Lookups.Confirmed by a lookup has nothing to check againstAdd a source under Settings → Lookups, then switch it on.
There's already a kind of caller called that.Two kinds can't share a nameChoose another name.
Add a kind of caller is greyed out, and its hint says You've added 5, the most an agent can have. Remove one to add another.An agent can add five kinds of its ownRemove one you added before adding another.
This can't be saved yet (or A few things need fixing before this can be saved), naming a kind of caller and After the callA text, email, transfer or webhook on that kind's list is missing who it goes to, its words, its number or its addressOpen the kind and finish the action, or remove it with X.
This can't be saved yet, with Say what the agent should ask for under "Something else".Something else is ticked with nothing under What to ask forType what to ask for, or untick it.
On Review & Go Live: <kind>: the call is transferred, but there's no number to transfer it to.Transfer the call has nowhere to goOn that kind's After the call tab, choose where the call goes.
On Review & Go Live: <kind>: the text message goes to the caller twice.The same message is on the list twice for one personRemove one. A thank-you and Ask for a review can both go to the caller.