Choose what the agent asks

Every agent works down a list, in order: what a Receptionist asks each caller, or what an outbound agent reads back, checks or asks. On a Receptionist the step is Intake Questions. On Confirmations and Detail checks it's Details, on Feedback it's Questions, and on Follow-ups it's Questions under Optional. Every kind needs at least one to go live, except Follow-ups, whose job is the goal.

Before you start

• To limit questions to some services, list them under Services you offer on Business Information. To limit them to some kinds of caller, switch on Treat kinds of caller differently on Caller Handling (Receptionist).
• On an outbound agent, know which details you already hold: they come from the campaign's list.

Steps

Add and order the questions

1. Open Agents and click the agent.

2. In the step rail, click Intake Questions, Details or Questions, whichever the agent has.

3. Click Add a question (Add a detail on Confirmations and Detail checks).

4. In the drawer, type the question as the agent should ask it (for a detail, What to establish), or click Write it for me. With wording in the box, Suggest another writes a different one.

5. Click Done. A question left with no wording is removed.

6. To reorder, hover over a row and click its up or down arrow. On a Receptionist, anything a caller answers early isn't asked again.

   

Tip: With the list empty, click write them for me for a full set written for your business. It needs an industry or services on Business Information first. If the agent already has answers on Knowledge Base, HiloVoice asks before the set's own answers and transfer rules replace them.

Decide how each one is answered

1. Click a question to open it.
2. On The answer tab, choose the Answer type and whether it's Required.
3. Click More options for the rest.

Ask a question only sometimes

1. Open the question and click When it's asked.
2. Click Only ask this if… and choose an earlier question and its answer: Which hospital? only when Were you injured? is Yes. Add more with Add another condition; all must be true.
3. Or click Only for certain services… or Only for certain callers… and pick which. The agent works out the service, and the kind of caller, from what the caller says.

A question can only depend on one above it, so a move that breaks that removes the condition. As one caller hears it, above the list, shows what one kind of caller can be asked.

Use what an outbound agent already knows

1. Open a detail or question. Under Where it comes from, choose We already know it for a value on the campaign's list, or Ask on the call.
2. For a value you hold, choose Read it back to them or Check it's right under What to do with it. With Check it's right, tick Take corrections to record what the person says when what you hold is wrong.

Note: On a Confirmations or Detail checks agent, a new one starts as We already know it. On Feedback and Follow-ups, it starts as Ask on the call.

Offer a form, and check the answers (Receptionist)

1. Switch on Let them fill in a form instead. The agent can text or email the caller a link to these questions as a web page, to fill in while it waits or after hanging up. When they call back, it picks up where they left off.
2. Click Change under the switch to choose how the link goes and how long it works (an hour unless you change it). To keep a question off the form, open it and tick The agent asks this one under More options. Photo and document questions are never on it.
3. Leave Check the details before ending on. Once everything is asked, the agent reads back the few answers most likely misheard, in one turn, and fixes what the caller corrects.
4. To always read one answer back, such as the email a booking goes to, open it and tick Always check at the end under More options.

What happens next

• Edits save as you go. Callers get them once you publish on Review & Go Live.
• On a Receptionist, Lead Capture chooses which answers become columns on the Leads page.
• A campaign's list needs a column for each We already know it detail. When you import it, HiloVoice matches columns to details by name and says which no column fills: those would be blank on the call.
• A Follow-ups goal of Information has been given is met once everything asked here has been given and recorded.

If it does not work

Related

• Handle each kind of caller — the kinds of caller a question can be limited to
• Turn callers into leads — which answers become columns on the Leads page
• Turn away callers you can't help — rules an answer decides
• Campaigns and recipients — where an outbound agent's known details come from