What exactly is Inbound Voice AI and who is it designed for?
Inbound Voice AI is an AI phone agent on the Hoop platform. It automatically handles, answers, and routes all your inbound calls 24/7. It is perfect for businesses that need to capture and qualify every lead instantly, regardless of when they call.
This feature frees up your staff to concentrate on complex tasks and high-value work. The AI handles basic inquiries, qualifies leads, and books appointments, ensuring instant response times and higher conversion rates on first contact. It's designed for any business struggling with missed calls, long wait times, or inconsistent lead follow-up.
How does the Inbound Voice AI work and what are its key benefits?
The AI uses advanced speech recognition and context understanding to converse naturally with callers, following their intent rather than rigid, pre-set menus. It can perform key actions like booking appointments directly into your calendar or instantly routing the call to the appropriate team or queue.
The key benefits for Hoop users include continuous 24/7 coverage and lead capture. The system dramatically reduces caller wait times and ensures consistency across every interaction. It offers flexible operation modes:
- Answer all inbound calls with AI.
- Answer only missed or after-hours calls.
- Forward to a human teammate when necessary.
What setup is required to start using Inbound Voice AI on Hoop?
Setup is straightforward and integrates into your existing phone system through the Hoop platform interface. You must configure your desired inbound call flows, choosing when the AI should engage—as the primary answerer, as a fallback, or only during missed calls.
A critical setup step is adjusting the inbound call timeout. You need to lower this setting so the AI picks up the call before a carrier or local device voicemail captures it. Once configured, the AI agent is ready to provide instant, consistent coverage, leading to an immediate increase in call handling efficiency and reduced missed opportunities.
How does Inbound Voice AI integrate with my existing CRM?
The Inbound Voice AI provides robust CRM integration to ensure seamless data flow and alignment across your team. It automatically captures essential information and logs every conversation in your system, keeping your records rich and up-to-date.
This tight integration supports faster follow-through by your human teams. When the AI handles a call, it performs these critical documentation tasks automatically:
- Auto-create new contacts or update existing records with key fields.
- Attach complete call transcriptions to the contact record for instant context.
- Trigger follow-up workflows or alerts based on the call's outcome.
What are the pricing plans and usage limits for this feature?
Inbound Voice AI is available across multiple pricing tiers on the Hoop platform. You can access the feature on the core, pro, and enterprise plans. The specific usage limits, such as the volume of calls the AI can handle per month, typically scale with the plan level.
For example, the core plan offers essential coverage, while the pro and enterprise tiers are designed for higher call volumes and advanced customization options for complex routing and lead qualification. Customers should review their current plan or contact sales to determine the exact call minute allocation and access to advanced features.
Can the AI agent handle complex appointment scheduling and routing needs?
Yes, routing, qualifying, and booking are core behaviors for the Inbound Voice AI. The agent can instantly send callers to the correct queue or number based on their stated need, eliminating misdirected calls and long hold times.
For scheduling, the AI can reserve calendar slots and accurately collect necessary details during the conversation. When a human touch is required, the AI performs a warm handoff, transferring the conversation to a teammate with full context. This capability ensures that inbound agents consistently qualify, book, and transfer calls with high efficiency.
How is caller data secured and what are the data handling practices?
Hoop ensures that all interactions handled by the Inbound Voice AI adhere to strict security and privacy standards. Call transcripts and collected data are secured within the platform's infrastructure and are protected by industry-standard encryption protocols, both in transit and at rest.
The platform is designed to manage data responsibly, focusing on anonymizing call data for model training purposes while ensuring customer-specific records remain confidential. Access to all transcripts and CRM logs is controlled via user permissions within your Hoop account dashboard, giving you full governance over sensitive caller information.