Inbound numbers

An inbound route says what happens when someone phones one of your numbers. The number they dial decides who answers.

Do this

1. Open Setup, then Numbers and carriers.
2. Under Numbers people can call, press Add a number.
3. Enter Phone number. It must be a US number with 10 digits.
4. Under Calls to it go to, choose A campaign, A queue of agents, A bot or A trap number.
5. Choose Which campaign (or queue, or bot).
6. Press Add number.

A number cannot be changed after you add it. Remove it and add a new one. Change only changes where calls go. Remove shows “Stop answering this number?”. People who call it then hear that it cannot be reached.

Note

Every route except a trap needs a campaign, because the call is handled as part of one. The screen only sends a campaign for A campaign today. A queue or bot route made on the screen can be refused with “campaign_id is required”. Use A campaign for now, or set the queue or bot route through the API with a campaign.

Where each kind sends the call

Kind	What answers
Campaign	The campaign’s first step that is a bot or a person. Steps for checking a list never take a call.
Queue	The first step of the campaign that goes to people.
Bot	The campaign’s step that uses that bot, else its first bot step.
Trap number	Nothing. The call is never answered or connected.

Trap numbers

A trap number is a honeypot. It is never bridged to a bot or a person. The call is rejected and an entry is written to the audit log with only the last four digits of the caller and the number. It helps catch numbers being called that should not be.

Unknown callers

If the caller is not already a person in the campaign, they are added to the campaign’s list named Inbound, with the state “new”. They are never dialed back until the list check has passed them. If the person is known, the call resumes their existing journey.

Counting and limits

• An inbound call is counted as inbound. It is never a dial attempt and does not use up the person’s attempts.
• Plan limits never refuse an inbound call. They still count toward the live totals, so your outbound calls have less room while callers are on.
• The carrier limits on adding a carrier apply to outbound only.
• A caller hears busy when the media server is full or draining, or when the campaign or the person’s record cannot be loaded. See media servers.
• Inbound calls always get the strict recording and AI wording; see honesty rules.

Test it

With the simulator, open the test phone at /dev/test-phone, use Call a number and enter your inbound number. See the simulator.

Not yet

Inbound calls have only been tried through the simulator. Pointing a real carrier’s number at VoDialer has never been done, and the SIP edge that would receive those calls has not been run.