Your responsibilities on calls

Your agents talk to people on your behalf. Rules about recording calls, saying a call is automated, calling people who asked you to stop, and calling at reasonable hours differ from place to place and from business to business. HiloVoice gives you settings that help, but it doesn't know which rules apply to you, and it can't decide for you. Meeting them is your responsibility.

This topic says plainly what HiloVoice does, so you can check it against the rules that apply to you. It isn't legal advice.

Recording

• Calls are recorded from the start: Record calls is on, on the Recording tab of Conversation Style. A transcript is always kept, even with recording off.
• Every call opens with a recording notice, before anything else, while Say the call is recorded is on. A new agent starts with it off: turn it on if your callers need to be told. Left as it is, the notice is This call is being recorded for quality assurance., or This call is being transcribed for quality assurance. with recording off, in the agent's language. Wording changes it. It's said in a standard voice of its own, not the agent's, and the caller can't talk over it. If the greeting or opening line already says the call is recorded or transcribed, that line is the notice, in the agent's voice, and it isn't said twice.
• If someone asks, the agent says plainly that the call is recorded, giving no reason beyond the one the notice gives. It can't stop the recording: if the person doesn't want to go on, it ends the call politely.
• A Receptionist stops recording when it hands the call to a person. An outbound agent does the same while Pause recording on transfer is on, as it is to start with. With it off, the whole call is recorded, your staff member included.
• Calls from a Receptionist's public page are recorded the same way.

Warning: Some places need everyone on a call to agree to it being recorded, and a transcript can count as a recording. Turning Say the call is recorded off removes the only notice HiloVoice gives. Check what applies to you, and to the people you talk to, before you change it.

Saying the call is automated

• Every agent answers honestly when someone asks whether it's a person.
• An outbound agent can also say so first. On its Opening step, under Saying it's automated, Say so upfront opens every call with This is an automated call., right after the recording notice. A new agent starts on Say so if asked.
• A Receptionist has no such setting. To say so at the start of every call, put it in the Greeting on Conversation Style. The greeting is there while Who speaks first is The agent, as it is for a new Receptionist; one that lets the caller speak first says only the recording notice, then waits.

Warning: Some places require an automated call to say so at the start, and some limit automated calls to people who have agreed to receive them. Check what applies where you call.

People who ask not to be called

• When someone on a call asks not to be called again, HiloVoice puts their number on your block list as Don't call this number, with the reason Asked not to be called again, on a call. (on a campaign's call, … on a call for the campaign "<name>".). This happens on every real call: a campaign's, a Receptionist's, or one you placed with Call me. Test calls in Try it add nothing, and neither do calls from a Receptionist's public page, which come with no number.
• Every outbound call checks the block list first, whatever the agent or campaign. A blocked number on a campaign's list is added to it but never called.
• Someone who texts STOP, or another word for it such as UNSUBSCRIBE, to one of your numbers is marked Don't text this number. Texting START undoes that.
• Settings → Blocked numbers shows every number on the list and why it's there. You can add numbers yourself.
• HiloVoice checks your own list only. It doesn't check any national do-not-call registry, or a list you keep somewhere else.

Warning: If a do-not-call registry applies to you, check your list against it before you import it. Take a number off the block list only when the person has asked to hear from you again.

When outbound agents call

• A campaign calls only inside its window: the agent's Calling Hours, which each new campaign copies, or the campaign's own, under When calls may go out. Retries and callbacks wait for the window too.
• With no window set, a new campaign calls on weekdays, 9 AM to 6 PM.
• The window is read in the campaign's Time zone, which starts as the agent's Timezone. Under Whose clock, Each person's own, when known reads it in each person's time zone where the list gives one, and in the campaign's for everyone else.
• HiloVoice adds no limits of its own. Around the clock, a quick fill on the hours, sets every day from midnight to 11:59 PM. Call me, in Try it, rings when you click.

Warning: Many places limit the days and hours you may call people. Check what applies where the people you call are, and keep the window inside it.

Who you call, and what you keep

• HiloVoice doesn't check that you have permission to call, text or email the people on your list. Outbound agents are made for people who already deal with you: an appointment, a quote, a visit.
• After-call texts and review requests go to everyone they cover, whatever was said on the call. Google doesn't allow asking only the people likely to leave a good review. A number marked Don't text this number gets no text.
• What people tell your agents is kept: the transcript, the recording and the answers on each call, and the answers on its lead. Download everything, on Settings → Organization, has the calls, transcripts and answers, but not the recordings; only owners and admins can use it. Everyone on your team can read calls, Analysts included.

Warning: Health, money and identity details need particular care in many places. Have your agents ask only for what you need, and check the rules that apply to what you keep.

Related

• Shape how a call sounds — the recording notice and the greeting
• Write an outbound agent's opening — saying it's automated
• Set when an outbound agent may call — the calling window
• Block a number — the block list, and how numbers get on it
• Check an agent before real calls reach it — the checks before you go live