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

Let the agent check your records

For BuildersChecked against the app on October 1, 2026

A lookup lets the agent search your records while someone is on the line: a customer by their phone number, an order by its reference, the homes for sale that match what a caller wants. Every kind of agent has Data Lookups, under Optional. The agent only ever repeats what it found.

Before you start

  • A lookup searches a lookup source: a spreadsheet you upload, your leads, your contacts, or your own API. Sources are set up once, under Settings → Lookups, and any agent can use them.
  • An agent can have up to five lookups.

Steps

  1. Open Agents and click the agent.

  2. In the step rail, click Data Lookups, under Optional. If the group is closed, click Optional first.

  3. Click the button with the source's name. The lookup is added and its drawer opens.

  4. Under Search by, check what the agent asks for to find a record. Each row is one value: its kind (Phone number, Email address, A person's name or Other text) and what the agent should put there. The source's other searchable columns are buttons below the rows; click one to add it. Any one value is enough to search, and a phone number can be the one the caller is ringing from.

    A lookup on a patient spreadsheet: searched by phone with its other searchable columns as buttons, Recognises callers on with the name check, Ask the caller instead if nothing's found, and 8 seconds to wait.

  5. Under If not found, choose what the agent does when the lookup fails or finds nothing:

    ChoiceWhat the agent does
    Ask the caller insteadCollects the details in conversation and carries on. The default.
    Carry on without itSkips whatever depended on it, and never guesses.
    Transfer to a personUses the transfer set up on Call Transfers; asks the caller if there's none.
    Flag for reviewMarks the call for someone to look at, then asks the caller.
    End the callApologises, promises a call back, and hangs up.
  6. Under Give up after, set how many seconds the agent waits for an answer: up to 15, and 8 unless you change it. A lookup that takes longer counts as failed.

  7. Click Done.

On a source of your leads, Only this agent's leads limits the search to leads this agent made, for lines that must not see each other's callers.

Recognise who's calling

On a Receptionist, Recognises callers checks the number someone calls from before the agent answers, and a match becomes the caller's record. The agent still asks their name and checks it, and never reads their details back. The lookup needs a Phone number row, and only one lookup can have it: the first you add with a phone number has it on.

Under Verify by, the name check always happens. Tick Then a code sent by text or Then a code sent by email to send a code to the phone or email on the record, never one the caller gives. Nothing on the account is discussed until the code is read back correctly. A code by email needs an Email address row under Search by.

Warning: A name is easy to know. If the record holds anything private, add a code.

On an outbound agent the switch is Recognises who it calls: the number the agent calls is checked before the call, and a match gives the agent what earlier calls left. The person is confirmed by name, with no search and no code.

Offer options from a list

On a spreadsheet or API source, switch on Finds options to offer when the records are things to choose from, such as homes for sale, cars in stock or menu items, rather than the caller's own record. The agent asks what they're looking for, reads out two or three, and can send what it found by text or email: up to five in the message, more as a link to a page of them all. The link works for sets how long that page opens: a day unless you change it. A lookup that offers options can't also recognise callers.

What happens next

  • While a lookup runs, the caller hears a short "one moment" and a sound rather than silence, unless Hold while looking things up is off on Conversation Style (the Holds tab).
  • When several records match, the agent checks with the caller which one is theirs.
  • More options in the drawer holds the lookup's Name and When to use it, the line the agent reads to decide when to look something up. Both start filled in.
  • Changes reach callers once you publish. On a live agent, until then, the step says Not live yet. and what the live agent does differently.

If it does not work

You seeWhyWhat to do
Nothing to look up yet: upload a spreadsheet or connect an API under Settings → Lookups.No lookup source is availableClick Manage sources and add one.
Recognises callers can't be switched on: Needs a phone-number input, so it can run from the number they're calling from.No row under Search by is a phone numberAdd the source's phone column, or set a row's kind to Phone number.
A lookup shows Source removedIts source was removed under Settings → LookupsRemove the lookup, then add one from another source.
This agent doesn't make leads, so it has none of its own and this lookup will never find anyone. …Only this agent's leads is on, and the agent makes no leadsTurn Only this agent's leads off.
An agent can have up to 5 lookups.The agent has fiveRemove one before adding another.