What happens on an inbound call
1
The phone rings
The caller hears normal ringing for the agent’s Pickup delay (5 to 30 seconds) before anything answers. A short ring feels like a real reception desk; an instant pickup can feel automated.
2
Your system can say yes or no
Optional. With the pre-call gate on, Nixflex asks your server first. Reply accept and the call connects; reply reject and the caller hears a busy tone, the call is never answered, and nothing is charged. You can also hand over what you know about the caller in the same reply.
3
The number decides how the agent behaves
The dialled number tells the engine which agent answers, and which per-number settings apply - business profile, voice, calendar, webhook, recording. One agent can answer as many different businesses this way. See Phone numbers.
4
The agent knows who is calling
What is on file for this caller on this number is loaded before the first word - their name, email, reference and so on - so the agent uses it instead of asking again. See Caller context.
5
The greeting
With AI speaks first on, the agent opens with your welcome message, or improvises one when Dynamic message is on, and greets a known caller by name when Greet by name is on. With AI speaks first off, the agent does not open the call - the caller speaks first.
6
The conversation
The caller’s speech is turned into text, the agent decides what to say, and a natural voice speaks it. Interruptions, silence, and the caller switching language are handled for you. Mid-call the agent can transfer to a person, text the caller, take keypad input, book into a calendar, or call your own systems through custom functions.
7
The call ends
The caller hangs up, or the agent ends it with
[END_CALL], or the silence limit is reached, or the maximum call length is hit. Fifteen seconds before the maximum, the agent is told to wrap up.8
After the call
The recording is saved - by your carrier or by the voice engine, depending on your recording setting, and into your own bucket if you have connected one. The transcript, summary, sentiment and any fields you defined are produced. Your webhook fires. Anything the caller stated about themselves is remembered for next time.
Handled automatically
None of this needs configuring:- Interruptions - the caller can speak over the agent and it stops and listens
- Silence - if the caller goes quiet the agent asks whether they are still there, then says goodbye and hangs up if there is no reply
- Language - with the agent in
multimode it follows the caller between languages - Spoken details - emails, phone numbers and times are written out properly in the transcript
- Reliability - if a model or speech engine has a problem mid-call, a backup takes over without dropping the call
- Analysis - every call gets a summary, sentiment and a success flag
The agent knows who is calling
When a number that has called before calls again, the agent is given what is on file for that caller: name, email, phone, location, a reference, a stated preference, and anything still open from a previous call. It confirms details before acting on them and never asks for something it already has. What it is not given is what happened last time - bookings, outcomes, summaries. That is deliberate: feeding a past booking into a live call once made an agent confirm an appointment it had not made. The agent checks the calendar itself. Details are kept per business number, so a caller known to one business is a stranger to the next, even on the same agent.Can one number behave differently from the rest?
Yes. Each number can carry its own business profile (name, hours, prices), voice, speaking speed, recording setting, calendar and webhook. Leave a setting empty and the number follows the agent. This is how a single agent answers for hundreds of separate businesses. See Phone numbers.Can I make the agent wait before it answers?
Yes - Pickup delay on the agent, from 5 to 30 seconds. The caller hears ordinary ringing for that long. Most businesses use 5 to 10 seconds.What happens if the caller says nothing?
After the silence limit you set (5 to 45 seconds), the agent asks if they are still there. If there is still no answer it says goodbye politely and ends the call. You are billed for the time the call was connected.Can I stop certain callers getting through?
Yes, with the pre-call gate. Nixflex asks your server before answering; reply reject and the caller hears a busy tone. A rejected call is never answered and is not charged. Common uses: an end-customer who is out of credit, a blocked number, out-of-hours handling.What happens when more calls arrive than my plan allows?
Each API key has a limit on calls running at the same time (10 by default). When a new call would go over it, the caller hears a busy tone - the call is never answered and nothing is charged. They can call back a moment later. Raise the limit on your account if you expect bursts.Reading the call back
The same information arrives on your webhook as soon as the call ends, so you rarely need to poll. See Webhooks.
Related
- Outbound calls - when the agent calls someone
- Phone numbers - importing numbers and per-number settings
- Caller context - what the agent remembers about a caller
- Pre-call gate - accept or reject before answering
- Agents - every setting mentioned on this page