Step-by-step guide

1. 1

   How Optiphone starts answering your calls

   You keep the business number that's already on your website and marketing. To switch on your AI agent, you (or your phone provider) forward that number's calls to your Optiphone agent. Nothing about your public number changes — customers keep calling the same number they always have.

2. 2

   What a preview call is

   Before your agent answers a caller, it rings you first so you have the chance to pick up and take the call yourself. If you don't answer within your chosen preview time — for example ten seconds — the agent answers on your behalf. You control this with the Call Preview Wait Time setting in Settings under the Organization tab.

3. 3

   How whitelisted callers are handled

   When a caller is marked as Whitelisted on their contact (the Call Handling section of the contact), the preview call rings you and keeps ringing past your preview time instead of handing back to the agent. If you never pick up, they reach your voicemail. Whitelisting means 'always transfer to owner' — those callers skip the AI entirely.

4. 4

   Why one number can't do both jobs

   Here's the catch. The preview call has to reach you on a number you can answer. If that number is the same one that's forwarded to the agent, the call loops: the agent rings your number, your number immediately forwards it straight back to the agent, and it goes around in circles. That loop is exactly what the second number is there to prevent.

5. 5

   The fix — a separate direct number

   You need one number that rings you directly and is NOT forwarded to the agent. If you already have a personal line that's separate from your business line, you're set — just use that. It's never shown to callers; it's only how Optiphone reaches you. If your business and personal calls both come through the one number, you'll need to add a second number you can answer for previews.

6. 6

   Getting your second number

   You have two options. Optiphone can provide a number for you for $15 per month, or you can bring your own from any provider you like — whichever you prefer. Either way, it just needs to be a number you can pick up when a preview call comes through.

7. 7

   Set it as your number in your profile

   Whatever number you want your preview and whitelist calls to ring, enter it in Settings under the Profile tab, in the Mobile Phone field ('Your personal phone number — used for return calls'). That profile number is the one the system actually uses to reach you. The number on your website isn't used for previews at all — only the number you set here is.

8. 8

   Good to know

   This second-number setup is our current workaround while we build a way to preview calls without any forwarding. It's the approach we've found works most reliably for everyone in the meantime. If anything here is unclear, your success manager or the support team is happy to walk you through it.

Related articles