EliseAI Call Center Guide

Overview

With EliseAI Call Center, you can make and receive calls directly within AI Portal without the need for an outside phone service or physical phone. Call Center is set up and managed right within AI Portal, enabling your teams to save time by automatically pulling up contact and community information in a call dashboard.

Call Center integrates with VoiceAI. When setting up Call Center, you have two options: VoiceAI can answer first and hand off calls to your agents as necessary, or calls can route to Call Center first so that your agents can answer. If incoming calls route to Call Center first, VoiceAI will manage any overflow when agents are not available.

Access Call Center

Setting Up Users

You can set up your agents to receive calls in Call Center when VoiceAI needs to transfer to your team (Option 1), on the initial inbound call (Option 2), or both (Option 1 + 2). You can also simultaneous ring your agents in Call Center and the leasing office line (Option 3).

Option 1: VoiceAI Transfers to Agents in Call Center

1. In your AI Portal, navigate to Operations > Phone > Voice Hub.
2. Select your community.
3. Under VoiceAI Settings, find the dropdown for Who should pick up first? and select VoiceAI.
4. Navigate to the Teams section below. Click on the Routing Plan for each team you want working out of Call Center.
5. Under Point of Contact, select EliseCRM Call Center.
6. Add the users you want to be called in Call Center.
   • NOTE: You do not need to set up schedules for individual call center users. VoiceAI rings call center users when they are online and marked as available.
7. Navigate to Users > Manage Users and check the "Available on Call Center" checkbox for all users who will be receiving calls.

Option 2: Dial Call Center Agents First

1. In your AI Portal, navigate to Operations > Phone > Voice Hub.
2. Select your community.
3. Under VoiceAI Settings, find the dropdown for Who should pick up first? and select Elise Call Center.
4. This will automatically allow all users with the relevant permissions for that property to receive calls.
5. Navigate to Users > Manage Users and check the "Available on Call Center" checkbox for all users who will be receiving calls.

Option 3: Simultaneous Ring (ring Call Center agents AND office line at the same time)

1. In your AI Portal, navigate to Operations > Phone > Voice Hub.
2. Select your community.
3. Under VoiceAI Settings, find the dropdown for Who should pick up first? and select Leasing Office and enter a number.
4. Ensure the Connect to Call Dashboard toggle is set to On.
5. This will automatically allow all users with the relevant permissions for that property to receive calls.
6. Navigate to Users > Manage Users and check the "Available on Call Center" checkbox for all users who will be receiving calls.

Setting Up a User Group

You can also configure a group of users to be called. This is also a good option if you would like to automatically add all members of a certain role to a group.

To use this option: 

1. In your AI Portal, navigate to Operations > Phone > Voice Hub.
2. Select your community.
3. Scroll down to the Teams section and click on the Routing Plan for each team you want working out of Call Center.
4. Under Point of Contact, select EliseCRM Call Center.
5. Select Ring to EliseCRM User Groups.
6. Select the user group you want to be called, or click Edit User Groups to create a new user group.

To configure a user group, you can manually add individual users, assign a role, select a community, or a combination of these options. When assigning a role and community, all users with that role in the selected community will automatically be added to the group, including any new users onboarded in the future.

Example

If you create a group called "Leasing Agent Montebello Circle", all users with the Leasing Agent role at Montebello Circle will be included. When a new user receives an AI Portal account for Montebello Circle with the Leasing Agent role, they will automatically be added to the group and receive calls wherever that group is assigned.

Receiving Calls

To receive calls, click the headphones icon at the bottom left of the screen, then set your status to Online.

• If you set yourself as offline, you will no longer receive calls.
• Note that you must select a busy status before going offline. 

When a call comes through, Call Center rings all active agents who are available. 

When you receive a call, a notification appears in your browser's top right corner. The notification displays the caller's phone number and associated community. Press the green Accept button to connect.

Call Dashboard

Once you accept a call, the Call Dashboard automatically opens. Here, you can record information about your call.

The dashboard contains two panes:

• The left pane includes the guest card or resident contact card you can fill out while on the call.
  • The information will be pre-filled if the caller has previously contacted your property.
• The right pane includes unit information, a calendar, a searchable knowledge bank, and a conversation pane with previous conversations.
  • You can search the knowledge bank or add a tour while on the call.
  • If your community has Centralized Guest Cards enabled, the right hand panel will default to the Centralized Guest Card timeline, showing all inquiries, tours, and status changes for a lead.

After the call ends, you can submit the guest card, or exit without submitting if the conversation was not a prospect. Note that guest conversations must be activated (via message to resident) in order to appear as resident conversations and be logged in the correct thread.

Transferring and Muting Calls

Click the Transfer button at the top of the dashboard to transfer a call to another live agent. 

Click the Microphone button to the right of the transfer button to mute the call.

You can transfer a call to:

•  A Voice Hub Team (e.g. Resident)
• An individual agent assigned to the community
• Another phone number entered manually. 

Online or offline status icons appear next to each team and agent.

You may also select a Transfer Reason for logging and reporting purposes. 

Once you enter your transfer recipient and reason, you can select Warm Transfer or Cold Transfer. 

Warm Transfer

Select Warm Transfer to place the call on hold and connect with the receiving agent or team. This allows you to provide context for the receiving agent while the caller is on hold.

A call notification will appear in the receiving agent's AI Portal. The notification includes an Agent to Agent label, the transferring agent's name, and the original caller's number and community. 

The receiving agent can accept the call to speak with the transferring agent. Once the receiving agent is ready to speak with the original caller, they must click Connect Back to Caller.

Once the receiving agent connects with the caller, they can view the Call Dashboard containing the caller's information.

Cold Transfer

Select Cold Transfer to transfer the call to the receiving agent or team immediately, without providing context. The original caller will not be placed on hold.

A call notification will appear in the receiving agent's AI Portal. The notification includes the original caller's number and community, and the transferring agent's name.

Once the receiving agent accepts the call, they can view the Call Dashboard containing the caller's information.

Making Calls

You can also make outbound calls through AI Portal using the Call Button. You can find this button at top of: 

• A prospect or resident's conversation history.
• The AI Portal Home Page and Activity Page

On the Conversation page, the system defaults to calling the phone number of the selected contact.

On the Home Page or Activity Page, you must manually enter the recipient phone number.

Outbound calls follow the same flow as inbound calls: 

• The Call Center dashboard with prospect or resident information appears for all outbound calls. See the Call Dashboard section for details.
• You can transfer outbound calls to voice teams or individual agents. See Transferring and Muting Calls for details. 

• You can place outbound calls on hold by using Warm Transfer.

   

Outbound Bridge Calling

You can place bridge calls from the AI Portal. This allows you to record calls made from your leasing office line or mobile phone.

Follow these steps to place an outbound bridge call: 

1. Click the Call Button in the Home Page, Activity Page, or Conversations Page.
2. Enable the "Call from your office or mobile phone" switch.
3. Select the preset leasing office number, or click Edit Personal Number to call from your own mobile phone. 
4. Click the green Call button. The call will connect to your leasing office line or mobile phone. Then, it will ring the recipient prospect or resident.

Wrap-up Mode

After a call ends, your agents will be put into "Wrap-up mode" for three minutes

• A countdown timer will start for 3 minutes so that they can finish adding information to the prospect guest card or resident contact
• The agent will be temporarily placed offline for this time and will not receive any calls
• The agent will be placed online again after either a) Three minutes is up and wrap up mode ends or b) They submit the guest card/resident or discard the conversation

Ending Calls

After you end the call, you must either

1. Submit the Guest Card / Save Resident Contact
2. Discard the Call

If you discard the call, it will not be saved and no guest card entry will be created! This is important. You must save the guest card if you would like an entry of the call created.

Call Log

Call recordings and transcripts are saved directly in a conversation history. You can review call recordings and transcripts in your AI Portal's call log. 

To view your call log, click Phone in your AI Portal's left sidebar, then click Call Log in the Phone dropdown menu. Use the call log to view and filter calls by different call characteristics, and to view call transcripts, recordings, and score.

By collecting all this data in one place, Call Center improves call reporting and visibility so you can determine actionable insights. 

See the Call Log Guide article for more information on using your call log. 

Call Center Reporting

Navigate to Reports > Agent Reporting > Call Center to view your organization's Call Center report. Use this report to: 

• View time-based heat maps for inbound and answered calls.
• Determine coverage needed for specific communities, days of the week, and times of day.
• Track Key Performance Indicators and identify opportunities for improvement.

See Agent Reporting Article > Call Center section for more details.

Frequently Asked Questions

When does Elise send calls to the Call Center?

• Elise only rings the Call Center if 1) there is an agent online and 2) the agent is ready to receive calls, and not on another call. If all call center agents are engaged on calls, Elise will not ring the Call Center. If someone asks to speak with a leasing agent, your VoiceAI will take a message and that message will exist in the activity and task pages.

How does Elise decide when a call is sent to voicemail? Once the voicemail is recorded, where is it stored?

• Elise will send calls to Voicemail if a call is transferred to the Call Center and no one answers. The voicemail will be included in the recording and pushed to AI Portal and other CRMs as a “task,” so that your team knows to follow-up with the prospect or resident.

Are calls being handed-off or transferred to Call Center after hours, when all agents are turned to “off,” or when all agents are busy on a call?

• No. For a call to be transferred to Call Center, the call must be made during your office hours and when there are active agents. Otherwise, AI would not transfer the call and instead take a message.

Flows

Transfer to Call Center Flow

Call Call Center First Flow