How to Automate Outbound Voice Calls
How to use the Outbound Voice Call automation action to have your AI voice agent dial contacts automatically — with multi-channel follow-ups if the call isn't answered.
The Outbound Voice Call automation action lets your AI voice agent dial a contact automatically when a trigger fires — a new lead comes in, an opportunity moves stage, a form is submitted, or any other event in your pipeline. The call is handled entirely by your configured voice agent; no human needs to be on the line.
Before you start
You will need:
- An active TrustPager phone number — buy one at https://app.trustpager.com/settings/phone
- A published voice agent — build one at https://app.trustpager.com/auto/voice-agents
- An automation to attach the action to — start at https://app.trustpager.com/auto/automations
Step 1 — Add the Outbound Voice Call action
Open your automation and click Add action. Select Outbound Voice Call from the communications section.
Choose your voice agent and the phone number to call from. The call will go to the contact's primary phone number on the linked opportunity or contact record.
When should this send?
The action's content step includes a "When should this send?" picker with four options that control when the call actually dials:
- Send immediately — runs the action as soon as the trigger fires (default behaviour).
- Business hours only — fires immediately if the current time is inside your business-hours window, otherwise queues to the start of the next window. Visible in the Follow Ups Scheduled tab while waiting. Timezone is resolved from the contact's timezone field, the phone country code (E.164 prefix), then your company default — in that order.
- After a delay — wait N minutes after the trigger fires, then dial. Optionally combine with "Also respect business hours" to defer past the next window if the delay would land out of hours.
- At a specific time — schedule for an exact date and time.
Anything other than "Send immediately" lands the call in the Follow Ups queue at https://app.trustpager.com/inbox/dispatcher where you can monitor it or cancel it before it fires.
Scheduled calls also respect the auto-cancel rules: if the contact unsubscribes, opts out of SMS, replies via SMS or email, or the tied opportunity moves to Closed / Won (when configured), the queued call is dropped before it dials.
Step 2 — Configure follow-up steps
If the initial call isn't answered, you can configure a sequence of follow-up steps to try again or switch to a different channel. In the Follow-ups section of the action wizard, add one or more steps and for each one choose:
- Call again — redials the contact with your voice agent.
- Send SMS — sends a text message. Write the message body in the field provided. Supports
{{variable}}placeholders like{{first_name}}. - Send email — sends an email. Provide a subject and a message body. Also supports
{{variable}}placeholders.
Each step has its own delay — for example, "wait 1 hour after the previous step" — so you control the pace of the cadence.
The follow-up sequence runs step by step until it is exhausted. It stops automatically as soon as any of the following happen:
- The contact has a real conversation (a call lasting 10 seconds or more, not voicemail).
- The contact replies via SMS.
- The contact opts out or hits a DNC rule.
Tip: a common pattern is to call twice, then send an SMS, then send an email — giving the contact three chances to engage across different channels before the sequence ends. You can build exactly that by adding four steps: Call again (1 hr), Send SMS (2 hrs), Send email (24 hrs).
Step 3 — Enable the automation
Save the action and toggle the automation on. Test it by triggering the automation manually from a contact or opportunity record — the voice agent will dial immediately and you can watch the call log appear in real time at https://app.trustpager.com/voice/calls.
Reviewing call outcomes
Every call made through an automation is logged with a full transcript, duration, and outcome (answered, voicemail, no answer). Review them at https://app.trustpager.com/voice/calls or from the contact's activity timeline.
If your voice agent is configured to book appointments, confirmed bookings appear in the CRM calendar at https://app.trustpager.com/calendar.
Troubleshooting
- Automation fires but no call is made — check the automation run log. The most common cause is the contact having no phone number on record, or the voice agent not being published. Make sure the agent is published at https://app.trustpager.com/auto/voice-agents.
- Call was queued but disappeared before it dialled — an auto-cancel rule triggered. Check the Follow Ups history at https://app.trustpager.com/inbox/dispatcher for the cancellation reason.
- Call dialled but went straight to voicemail — this is expected behaviour. The voice agent will leave a message if your script supports it. You can review the voicemail transcript in the call log. If you have SMS or email follow-up steps configured, they will fire after the delay you set.
- Calls are going out outside business hours — switch the schedule picker to "Business hours only" or "After a delay" with "Also respect business hours" checked.
- Follow-up steps kept firing even after the contact replied — check that the contact's reply was received in the inbox at https://app.trustpager.com/inbox. A reply via SMS stops the sequence automatically once it is registered.