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AurionAI

Escalate to a human

5 min readBy Emmanuel Yazbeck

The voice agent can transfer a call to a person on your team. On the Escalation Rules page you choose where the agent sends the call, when it transfers on its own, and what it says before the transfer.

Availability: AI Voice and AI Voice + Helpdesk profiles. Administrators only.

Prerequisites

  • You have the Owner or Admin role.
  • Your organization uses the AI Voice or the AI Voice + Helpdesk profile. In the Helpdesk profile, the page is not available.
  • For a transfer to a phone number: prepaid calling credits. Read Usage, prepaid credits and alerts.
  • For a transfer through your own phone system: an active outbound SIP trunk on the SIP Trunks page. Read Bring your own SIP trunk.

When the agent transfers a call

The agent tries a transfer in three cases:

  • The caller asks for a person.
  • The conversation is about one of your trigger topics.
  • The agent's confidence drops below your threshold.

The last two cases are automatic escalation. They work only when Automatic Escalation is on and a channel is selected.

If the transfer cannot take place, the agent tells the caller that no one is available. It then offers to create a ticket.

Choose where the call goes

  1. In the sidebar, select Configuration.
  2. Open the AI category.
  3. Select Escalation Rules.
  4. In Outbound Channel, select one option:
    • Phone number via Twilio: the agent calls a phone number.
    • Outbound SIP trunk: the agent calls through your own phone system.
    • Disabled: the agent never transfers calls.
  5. Fill in the fields of the channel you chose. The sections below explain them.
  6. In Ringing timeout (seconds), set how long the phone may ring, from 5 to 120 seconds. The default is 30 seconds.
  7. Select Save Changes.

The Escalation Rules page with the outbound channel, the triggers and the escalation message.

Phone number

  1. In Phone number, type the number in international format, for example +33612345678.
  2. Wait for the rate check under the field. It shows whether the destination is allowed.

Transfers to a phone number use your prepaid calling credits. They work only for supported countries. To see the list, select See supported destinations.

This channel also needs a phone line that AurionAI sets up for the service. If the agent never transfers to the number, contact AurionAI support. Read Get help.

Outbound SIP trunk

  1. In SIP trunk, select an active outbound trunk.
  2. In Destination, type a phone number in international format or a SIP address.

If no outbound trunk exists, the page shows No outbound SIP trunks are configured, so this channel cannot be saved. Create a trunk on the SIP Trunks page first. Read Bring your own SIP trunk.

Set automatic escalation

  1. Turn on Automatic Escalation. Selecting Disabled turns it off.
  2. In Confidence Threshold, set a value from 0 to 100. The agent escalates when its confidence drops below this value.
  3. In Escalation Trigger Topics, type the topics that start a transfer at once, separated by commas. For example: billing, security, emergency. If you leave the field empty, the agent uses billing, security and emergency.
  4. In Max Retry Attempts, set a value from 1 to 5. This is how many transfers the agent tries in one call. After that, it stops trying and offers to create a ticket.
  5. Select Save Changes.

The channel you selected decides where calls go.

Write the escalation message

The agent says this message when the person has accepted the call, just before it connects the caller to them. The person hears it too. While the person's phone rings, the caller hears soft hold music. While the agent checks the person and briefs them, the caller is on hold and hears nothing.

  1. Under Escalation Message, select the tab of a language.
  2. Type the message for that language. The message can have up to 500 characters.
  3. Repeat for each language you need.
  4. Select Save Changes.

The agent uses the message in the caller's language. If that language has no message, it uses the English message.

Test the transfer

The page has no test button. To test, place a call to your agent and ask for a person. Check that the destination phone rings and that the call is connected.

Result

The message Escalation rules saved appears. The new rules apply to calls that start after you save. A call that is already in progress keeps the rules it started with. In rare cases a new call can still use the old rules for up to one minute after you save.

If something goes wrong

  • Enter a valid phone number in international format (e.g. +33612345678). Type the number with a plus sign and the country code.
  • Outbound escalation calls to this country aren't allowed. Choose a number in a supported country, or use an outbound SIP trunk.
  • Premium-rate numbers can't be used for escalation. Use a standard number.
  • No rate is available for this destination yet. or Pricing for this destination is temporarily unavailable. Try again later. Try again later, or choose another number.
  • Destination must be a valid E.164 phone number or SIP URI. Type a number in international format or a valid SIP address.
  • The saved SIP trunk is inactive or was deleted, so escalation cannot dial it. Choose an active trunk. Select an active trunk, then save.
  • Couldn't load outbound trunks. Reload the page or try again shortly. Reload the page.
  • Failed to save escalation rules The message on the page gives the reason. Correct the value and save again.
  • The agent says that no one is available. The destination did not answer within the ringing timeout, or the channel is not set up. Check the number or the trunk. For a phone number, also check your prepaid credits.

Still stuck? Submit a request or .