Pre-call workflow

This feature is not enabled by default. Please contact support to activate it on your account.

A pre-call workflow runs automatically when a call comes in, before the agent picks up. The workflow can look up data in your own systems and hand it to the agent as context. It can also change the agent configuration for this call only, or stop the call and trigger the failover action. Typical uses:

Retrieve the customer history before the conversation starts
Personalize the welcome message based on the data you find
Adapt the agent configuration to the caller’s profile

How it works

Every pre-call workflow follows the same sequence:

A call comes in and Volubile starts the workflow with information about the call.
Your workflow runs its steps, for example a lookup in your CRM.
The last step, Respond to the agent, returns the data the agent will use.
The call starts with that context and configuration.

A pre-call workflow always has two mandatory steps:

Pre-call trigger: starts the workflow and lets you define the test data.
Respond to the agent: structures the information available to the agent during the call. It must be the last step of the flow.

The caller is waiting while the workflow runs, and the maximum execution time is 15 seconds. Keep the workflow short and limit the number of calls to external systems.

Timeout

If the workflow doesn’t return a response within 15 seconds, it stops and:

if a failover action is configured on the agent, the failover action runs;
if no failover action is configured, the call proceeds normally, without the context or configuration the workflow would have returned.

Configure the pre-call trigger

The pre-call trigger is the starting point of the workflow. Use it to test and validate the data your agent will receive.

Generate sample data

In the trigger configuration, find the Generate sample data section and click Load sample data.

Edit the test data

Copy the data into the Test input data field and change the values to match the case you want to test.

Test the trigger

Click Test to validate the configuration.

The test data must be valid JSON. An invalid format causes errors when the workflow runs.

Trigger data

The trigger provides information about the incoming call. Every following step can use it.

Sample trigger data

{
  "callId": "call_8f3a2c1e",
  "agentId": "agent_42b7d9",
  "from": "+33612345678",
  "to": "+33498765432"
}

Use data from previous steps

Each step can use the output of the steps that come before it. To insert a value:

Click in any input field. The data selector opens.
Expand the items to check what they contain, then click a value to insert it at the cursor position. You can mix fixed text and dynamic values in the same field.

Test each step before adding the next one. A step that has not been tested has no data to offer in the selector. If a value is missing from the selector, write its path manually:

Data path syntax

{{step_name['output']['path']['to']['property']}}

To get the step_name['output'] part right, right-click the step on the canvas and select Copy reference.

Dropdown fields don’t accept data from previous steps by default. Switch the field to a dynamic value to use one.

Configure Respond to the agent

Respond to the agent is the final step. It defines what the agent receives for this call.

To return context or configuration for the call, the last step of the flow must be Respond to the agent.

In this step, write the response in JSON and use the data selector to insert values from the previous steps. Choose the structure that matches what you need to do.

Context only
Context and configuration
Failover

To provide information to the agent without changing its configuration, return your data directly:

Context only

{
  "customerHistory": "...",
  "preferences": "...",
  "additionalInfo": "..."
}

To also change the agent configuration for this call, use the context and agentConfiguration keys:

Context and configuration

{
  "context": {
    "customerHistory": "...",
    "preferences": "...",
    "additionalInfo": "..."
  },
  "agentConfiguration": {
    "initialMessage": "Hello, how can I assist you today?"
  }
}

When you use the agentConfiguration key, put the context in the context key. Anything outside context and agentConfiguration is ignored.

To see every parameter available in agentConfiguration, read Dynamic configuration.

If a condition prevents the call from running properly (critical data missing, external system unavailable, business rule not met), trigger the failover explicitly:

Explicit failover

{
  "failover": true
}

When the response contains failover: true, the failover action configured on the agent runs immediately. The rest of the response is ignored. The same action also runs if the workflow exceeds the 15-second limit.

Configure the failover action

Define the action that runs when the failover is triggered.

Complete example: greet a known customer

This workflow looks up the caller in a CRM and greets them by name.

Pre-call trigger

The trigger provides the caller’s phone number in the from field.

Look up the contact

Add a step for your CRM and search for a contact using the value of from. Test the step to see the fields the CRM returns.

Respond to the agent

Build the response from the CRM fields. If the lookup finds no contact, return a generic welcome message.

Response returned for a known customer:

Respond to the agent

{
  "context": {
    "customerName": "Camille Martin",
    "lastOrder": "Order 10482, delivered on 3 November",
    "openTicket": "Delivery address change requested on 4 November"
  },
  "agentConfiguration": {
    "initialMessage": "Hello Camille, thanks for calling. How can I help you today?"
  }
}

Test and debug

Test the whole workflow before enabling it on a live agent.

Use the Test button on each step to check its result and confirm that the data you need is available.
Check that the final JSON is valid and that the keys match one of the three structures above.
After real calls, open the workflow run history to review each run. Each step shows whether it succeeded or failed, with its input and output, so you can see where the data stopped.

Common issues

The agent doesn't use my data

Check that the last step is Respond to the agent. If you use agentConfiguration, check that the context is inside the context key: anything outside context and agentConfiguration is ignored.

The test fails with a JSON error

The test data or the response contains invalid JSON. Look for a missing comma, an unclosed quote, or a dynamic value inserted without quotes in a text field.

A value is empty in the response

The step that produces this value was not tested, or the lookup returned no result. Test the step, check its output, and handle the no-result case in your response.

The call starts without context or fails over

The workflow most likely exceeded the 15-second limit without returning a response. If a failover action is configured on the agent, it runs. Otherwise, the call proceeds normally without the pre-call data. Open the run history to find the slow step, and reduce or speed up the calls to external systems.

Workflows

How it works

Timeout

Configure the pre-call trigger

Trigger data

Use data from previous steps

Configure Respond to the agent

Configure the failover action

Complete example: greet a known customer

Test and debug

Common issues

Next steps

Set up pre-call actions

Dynamic configuration