How to stop missing business calls: an AI bot for calls and messengers

Clients call at night, on weekends and at lunchtime, when all managers are busy. How to stop missing business calls at these hours is a question of money: every unanswered call is a booking or an order that goes to whoever answers first. And keeping an on-duty operator around the clock is expensive.

An AI voice bot is a robot that talks to a client on the phone instead of an operator. It picks up at any time and answers in about one and a half seconds. It speaks naturally, with emotion, and keeps the whole conversation in memory — it doesn't ask again about what the client said at the start. Even in the middle of the day, when the load is at its highest, the answer doesn't drag out into the pauses that give a robot away. The bot writes the client's data to the CRM by itself.

In the incoming scheme, the bot is connected with a single block — “Launch an autofunnel”. And for WhatsApp and Telegram, there's the “Chat bot” block: it messages the client right away and guides them through the answer branches.

Watch the two-minute video, and below you'll find the step-by-step setup.

Why businesses need it

• Clinic and salon: a bot receptionist in the “Off hours” branch books clients around the clock. Bookings at night and on weekends aren't lost.
• Car service and other services: if the technician doesn't answer, the bot picks up the call and takes the request. The client doesn't listen to endless ringing.
• Calling your contact list with a bot: a client calls back the bot's number and reaches the bot again, not the common queue.
• Online store: the “Chat bot” replies in WhatsApp or Telegram right away, and “Lead distribution” assigns a manager. The client gets an answer even when everyone is busy.
• Costs: instead of a round-the-clock on-duty operator — a bot whose minute costs $0.12 on average.

How forwarding a call to a voice bot works

Voice bots in the dashboard are autofunnels too (automated scenarios of calls and messages). The “Launch an autofunnel” block hands the call and the lead over to the selected bot, and the scheme ends there. That's why the block always goes last in a branch. Where to put it depends on how well trained the bot already is.

How to move incoming calls to the bot without risk

Connecting the bot takes a few minutes. Teaching it to answer every question takes a couple of days, no more than seven (how to prepare the bot itself is covered in the article 24/7 AI receptionist for incoming calls). Train it step by step, the way a child learns: listen to the calls, fix the answers. Tests will always miss about 10% of the way real clients talk. So move calls over in batches:

1. 1
   Missed calls first

   The bot in the “If the employee has not answered” branch takes only the calls managers didn't get to.
2. 2
   Then — by schedule

   The bot in the “Off hours” branch of the “Schedule” block answers at night and on weekends. How to set this up is covered in the article time-based call routing.
3. 3
   After that — all calls

   When the bot handles about 95% of situations, put it first in the number's group or link the number to the bot.

Don't want to deal with it yourself and need a guaranteed result? Order a turnkey setup — the button is at the end of the article.

How to make the bot pick up when a manager doesn't answer

1. 1
   Add the block

   “Incoming settings” → the entry you need → “+” in the “If the employee has not answered” branch → “Launch an autofunnel”.
2. 2
   Choose the bot

   The “Autofunnel” list contains all autofunnels and voice bots of the project. You can search by name or number.
3. 3
   Check the bot's schedule

   The bot's autofunnel may have a “Schedule” block of its own, and then a call outside the hours set there stops at that point.
4. 4
   Save

   The “Save” button at the bottom of the screen.
5. 5
   When the bot is ready for all calls, link the number

   Open “Phone numbers”, click ⚙ “Settings” next to the number and tick the bot in the “Autofunnels” list. The number automatically gets a branch in the incoming scheme with the “Launch an autofunnel” block.

This way, the bot replaces voicemail: instead of “leave a message after the tone”, it asks the client questions itself and writes the details to the lead card, so the manager calls back already knowing what it's about. If you need a record of the client's own words, put an autofunnel with a question and an “IVR menu” block of the “Words” type in this branch: its “Where to save the answer” field saves what the client said to the “Comment”.

Who the bot answers

When you link a number to the bot, the dashboard shows the “Add a step condition to the incoming scheme?” window. The “Yes, choose steps” answer means the bot takes the call only if the lead is at one of the selected funnel steps. The “Blacklist” is turned on in the same window: a call from a caller marked in the CRM ends immediately, even before it reaches the bot. In the incoming scheme, these conditions appear as “Condition” blocks before “Launch an autofunnel”.

This matters when the same bot both makes calls and takes incoming ones. Without the condition, a client calls back to “troll” the robot, and the “Interest” step gets overwritten by “Refusal”.

WhatsApp and Telegram chatbot for incoming messages

In the “Messengers” entry, the main block is “Chat bot”:

• “WhatsApp sender” and “Telegram sender” — a connected account or bot. The sender is shared by all chat bots in the scheme, and the “Settings” link leads to the messenger settings (how to connect them is covered in the article WhatsApp, Telegram and MAX in your CRM).
• “What to send” — “Text” or “File”: video, audio, images, PDF and office documents up to 100 MB.
• Answer branches: “If the client did not answer within 30 min” (the time is changed in the “Wait for the answer, minutes” field), “Any words” and branches with keywords. A new branch is added with the “+ answer branch” button.
• “Do not wait for the client’s answer” — no branches, the scheme moves on right away.

The “Lead distribution” block usually goes next to it — it assigns the responsible manager.

If an autofunnel chat bot is already messaging the client, the incoming scheme's “Chat bot” may cut into the conversation. To prevent this, put a “Condition” block after “Lead distribution” with the same filter the autofunnel uses, for example “Funnel stage = Send a proposal”. Leave the “Equal” branch empty: the incoming scheme ends there, and the autofunnel keeps working with the lead. Put the “Chat bot” in the “Not equal” branch.

Read also: 24/7 AI receptionist: how to set up a voice bot to answer every call, Virtual phone number for business: prices, SIP and a bot number, WhatsApp CRM integration with Telegram and MAX: never lose a message