How Inbound Calls Work - A Complete guide

Everything that happens from the moment someone calls your business number to when the call is answered or goes to voicemail.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• How Inbound Calls Work — Complete Guide
  • The Big Picture
  • Where to Find These Settings
  • Stage 1 — Smart Routing
    • IVR (Interactive Voice Response)
    • Voice AI — Primary vs. Backup Mode
      • How to switch between Primary and Backup mode
  • Stage 2 — The Simultaneous Ring
    • How the ring actually works
    • Which phone number gets dialed — the forwarding slot
    • Team Member & device types 1st Priority
    • Ring More Team Members
    • Timeout
  • Stage 3 — After the Timeout
    • Voice AI — Backup mode 3rd Priority
    • Backup — Voicemail or Voice AI
      • Voicemail greeting — where it comes from
  • Advanced Settings — Per-Number Features
    • Whisper Message
    • Call Connect
    • Call Recording
  • Voice Settings — Location-Wide Routing
    • Ring user assigned to called number
    • Forward calls to business phone number
  • Complete Call Flow Reference Chart
  • Common Setup Scenarios
    • 1. All calls ring directly to me
    • 2. Ring my whole team simultaneously
    • 3. Phone menu (Press 1 for Sales, Press 2 for Support)
    • 4. AI answers every call immediately
    • 5. Try humans first, AI handles missed calls
    • 6. Prevent calls from connecting to answering machines
  • Troubleshooting
    • My phone isn't ringing when a call comes in
    • Calls go straight to voicemail
    • Agent hears a message before the caller
    • Agent has to press a key before being connected
    • Ring More Team Members isn't ringing everyone
    • The wrong person is being rung
    • Voice AI isn't answering even though it's configured
  • Quick Reference Table

The Big Picture

When someone calls your business phone number, the system works through three stages. It stops the moment the call is handled. Options that aren't configured are skipped automatically.

Where to Find These Settings

All inbound call settings live in the phone number Configure modal:

The modal has three tabs:

Location-wide routing toggles (e.g. "Ring user assigned to called number") live separately:

Stage 1 — Smart Routing

These two options, if configured, always take priority. If either handles the call, Stage 2 never runs.

IVR (Interactive Voice Response)

IVR lets callers navigate a phone menu by pressing keys on their keypad.

IVR is built inside a Workflow, not directly in the phone number settings. The phone number only points to which workflow to use.

How to set up IVR:

1. Go to Automation → Workflows and create a new workflow using the Phone IVR trigger
2. Build your menu — play messages, collect keypad input, branch by digit pressed, route to team members or departments
3. Once built, open the phone number Configure modal → Call Forwarding tab → assign the workflow to the IVR field

Voice AI — Primary vs. Backup Mode

Voice AI lets an AI agent answer and handle calls. Whether it acts as the first responder on every call or as a fallback after humans don't answer depends on a single toggle — and that toggle lives in the AI Agent settings, not in the phone number settings.

How to switch between Primary and Backup mode

Look for this toggle:

What Voice AI can do:

• Answer calls 24/7 without a human agent
• Respond to questions in natural language
• Collect information from callers
• Transfer to a human agent when needed

Stage 2 — The Simultaneous Ring

How the ring actually works

When Stage 2 runs, the system fires a single outbound dial to all configured destinations at the same time. There is no sequential "try Team Member, then try External Phone" logic. Everything rings at once:

• Team Member's selected devices (Web App, Mobile App, VoIP Deskphone)
• One forwarding phone number (see priority below)
• All Ring More Team Members (their preferred devices)

First destination to answer wins. Everyone else stops ringing immediately.

Which phone number gets dialed — the forwarding slot

Only one phone number can be included in the simultaneous ring. The system fills this slot using the following priority — whichever resolves first wins:

If none of these are configured, no phone number rings — only digital devices (Web App, Mobile App) are included in the dial.

Team Member & device types 1st Priority

The Team Member is the primary recipient of the call. Their selected devices all ring simultaneously as part of the single Stage 2 dial.

Ring More Team Members

Enable this checkbox to simultaneously ring additional users alongside the primary Team Member — all in the same single dial.

• All selected members ring at the same time — first to answer wins
• Each member rings on their own preferred device (set per-user in their profile)
• Maximum of 6 additional people
• Does not apply when IVR or Voice AI (primary mode) is active

Timeout

The Timeout controls how many seconds the Stage 2 simultaneous ring runs before giving up and moving to Stage 3.

• Default: 20 seconds if not configured
• Check Incoming Call Timeout and enter your desired value (in seconds)
• Once the timeout is reached with no answer, the system moves to Stage 3

Stage 3 — After the Timeout

If nobody answers during the Stage 2 ring, the call moves here. This happens in order:

Voice AI — Backup mode 3rd Priority

If Voice AI is configured with the backup toggle ON, it's tried first after the Stage 2 timeout. The AI answers the call via a separate redirect — this is a distinct step from the simultaneous ring, not part of it.

Backup — Voicemail or Voice AI

If Voice AI backup doesn't apply (or as the absolute last resort), the Backup section determines what happens:

Backup is always the final step. It is never skipped.

Voicemail greeting — where it comes from

The system uses the first greeting it finds, in this order:

1. Team member's personal voicemail — set in the user's profile under Phone settings
2. Location voicemail — set under Sub-account Settings → Phone System → Voice → Voicemail & Missed Call TextBack
3. System default — "We are unable to take your call right now. Please leave a message after the beep."

Supported upload formats: MP3, WAV, AIFF, GSM, ULAW

Advanced Settings — Per-Number Features

These settings control how individual calls behave once they reach a human agent during Stage 2.

Whisper Message

A short audio message played only to the agent (not the caller) the moment they pick up — before the two parties are connected.

Example: Agent answers → hears "Incoming call from your Facebook Lead Ad — John Smith" → is immediately connected to the caller.

• Supports template variables: {{contact.name}}, lead source, campaign name, etc.
• The caller hears hold music while the whisper plays to the agent
• Call connects automatically once the whisper finishes — no action required from the agent

Call Connect

When enabled, the agent must press any key on their keypad to confirm they are a real person before being connected to the caller.

Why this matters: When calls forward to an external phone number, they may reach an answering machine instead of a human. Without Call Connect, the caller gets connected to the answering machine. With Call Connect enabled, answering machines don't press any key — so the system treats it as no answer and moves to Stage 3 instead of wasting the call.

What the agent experiences:

1. Their phone rings — they answer
2. They hear the whisper message (if configured), then: "Press any key to connect"
3. Agent presses any key → caller and agent are connected
4. If no key is pressed → system moves to Stage 3 (Voice AI backup or Voicemail)

Call Recording

When enabled, the system records both sides of every inbound call on this number.

• Recordings appear in the Conversations view for each contact
• A recording warning can be played to callers at the start of the call — toggle this on/off in Advanced Settings (required by law in some regions)

Voice Settings — Location-Wide Routing

These two toggles apply across your entire location and sit on top of all per-number call forwarding settings.

Ring user assigned to called number

When ON: the system first attempts to ring the specific user assigned to the phone number that was called, before following the standard Call Forwarding chain.

When OFF: the system routes based on the contact's assigned user or the general Call Forwarding settings.

Forward calls to business phone number

Controls whether your location's Business Phone Number is available as the last-resort option in the forwarding phone slot. This is enabled by default for all accounts.

Disable this if you don't want calls falling through to your business line when no other phone number is configured.

Complete Call Flow Reference Chart

Common Setup Scenarios

1. All calls ring directly to me

1. In Call Forwarding, set Team Member to yourself
2. Check the devices you want to ring (Web App, Mobile App, etc.)
3. Set Backup to Voicemail

2. Ring my whole team simultaneously

1. Set a primary Team Member
2. Enable Ring more Team members and add your team (up to 6 additional people)
3. Each team member sets their preferred device in their own user profile

3. Phone menu (Press 1 for Sales, Press 2 for Support)

1. Go to Automation → Workflows, create a workflow with the Phone IVR trigger
2. Build your menu branches for each keypress option
3. In Call Forwarding, assign that workflow to the IVR field

4. AI answers every call immediately

1. Go to AI Agents → Voice AI → your agent → Phone & Availability
2. Turn the "Enable AI Agent as a backup" toggle OFF
3. Assign the phone number to this agent — AI answers every inbound call immediately

5. Try humans first, AI handles missed calls

1. Go to AI Agents → Voice AI → your agent → Phone & Availability
2. Turn the "Enable AI Agent as a backup" toggle ON
3. Configure your Team Member and External Phone normally in Call Forwarding
4. Voice AI will appear as 3rd Priority and only answer after the Stage 2 ring times out

6. Prevent calls from connecting to answering machines

1. In the Advanced Settings tab, enable Call Connect
2. Agents must now press any key when they answer to confirm they're human
3. Answering machines won't press a key — call automatically moves to Stage 3 instead

Troubleshooting

My phone isn't ringing when a call comes in

• Check which device types are ticked in the Team Member row — at least one must be enabled
• For Web App: you must be actively logged into LeadConnector in your browser
• For Mobile App: push notifications must be enabled on your device
• Check if IVR or Voice AI (primary mode) is capturing the call before Stage 2 runs
• Check the Timeout — if it's very short, the ring may be ending before you can answer

Calls go straight to voicemail

• The Timeout may be too short — increase it in the Timeout section
• If Call Connect is enabled and forwarding to an External Phone: an answering machine may be picking up without pressing a key, sending the call to Stage 3
• Check Other Settings → Inbound Calls — if "Ring user assigned to called number" is ON but no user is assigned to the number, the call may fall through to Backup faster than expected

Agent hears a message before the caller

This is Whisper Message working as intended — it plays context information only to the agent. To disable it, go to the Advanced Settings tab and turn off Whisper Message.

Agent has to press a key before being connected

Call Connect is enabled. The agent must press any key to confirm they're a human (not an answering machine). To disable this, turn off Call Connect in the Advanced Settings tab.

Ring More Team Members isn't ringing everyone

• Each team member must have at least one device type enabled in their own user profile
• Ring More Team Members only works in Stage 2 — it has no effect when IVR or Voice AI (primary) is active

The wrong person is being rung

• Check Sub-account Settings → Phone System → Voice → Other Settings → Inbound Calls — "Ring user assigned to called number" may be overriding your Call Forwarding setup
• Check whether the contact has an assigned user — that assignment can affect who receives the call

Voice AI isn't answering even though it's configured

• Check the backup toggle in AI Agents → Voice AI → Phone & Availability
• If backup is ON, Voice AI only answers after the Stage 2 ring times out — it won't interrupt an active ring
• If you want AI to always answer, turn the backup toggle OFF

Quick Reference Table