Text your on-call technician when a call is dispatched
An emergency call comes in after hours. Your AI Voice Receptionist screens it — gathering who is calling, what the emergency is, and where the service is needed — then dials your on-call technician. Sometimes the technician answers and hears the announcement; sometimes the call goes to voicemail or isn't picked up. Either way, your technician needs the details in hand to get on route: the caller's name, the issue, the location, and a number to call back.
This automation closes that gap. Whenever the AI dispatches a call, it texts the full call details to the on-call number — so the information arrives even when the live call didn't connect. The On-call dispatch capability treats this automation as an essential part of setup: when the technician can't be reached live, the caller is told the on-call technician has been notified, and this text is that notification.
When to use this
| Situation | Notification | Benefit |
|---|---|---|
| Technician missed the dispatch call | SMS with caller, issue, location, and callback number | The technician can still respond without the live handoff |
| Technician answered the dispatch call | SMS with the same details | The spoken announcement is backed up in writing — no scribbling down an address |
| Multiple on-call numbers with different criteria | SMS to whichever number received the dispatch | Each technician gets the details for their own calls |
| You want a record of every transfer | SMS on every outcome | A complete, timestamped log of dispatches in one thread |
Example: Text the call details to the on-call number
- Trigger: Set the trigger to
An AI-handled call is transferred. The trigger has aTransfer outcomemulti-select filter with the options Answered, Voicemail, No answer, Busy, Failed, and Unknown. Leave it empty to fire on any transfer. - Action: Add the Send an SMS message to a phone number step. For the phone number, insert
{.WorkflowStep.trigger.transferred_to_number}— the number the call was dispatched to. This is what makes the message follow whichever on-call number received the dispatch when you have more than one. - Message: Build the body from the trigger's dynamic fields:
After-hours dispatch: {.WorkflowStep.trigger.outcome}
Caller: {.WorkflowStep.trigger.caller_name}
Issue: {.WorkflowStep.trigger.reason_for_call}
Location: {.WorkflowStep.trigger.service_location}
Call back: {.WorkflowStep.trigger.caller_number}
When the automation runs, the placeholders are replaced with the real call details, and the text lands on the on-call phone moments after the dispatch.
Available fields
The An AI-handled call is transferred trigger provides these dynamic fields. The supported way to insert them is the Insert dynamic content button in the message editor — see dynamic content for how the syntax works.
| Field | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
transferred_to_number | The number the call was dispatched or transferred to | +15551234567 |
caller_number | The caller's phone number, captured automatically from the call | +15559876543 |
outcome | The transfer outcome: answered, voicemail, no_answer, busy, failed, unknown | no_answer |
caller_name | The caller's name, as collected by the AI during screening | Jordan Smith |
reason_for_call | The emergency or issue in the caller's own words | Burst pipe in the basement |
service_location | The service location the AI confirmed with the caller | 123 Main St, Springfield |
contact_id | The CRM contact, when matched | CON-12345 |
crm_contact_created | Whether a CRM contact was created for the caller | true |
namespace | Internal account identifier; rarely needed in messages | ABC123 |
Choosing which outcomes to text
The Transfer outcome filter controls when the text goes out:
- Leave it empty to notify on every transfer. The technician gets the details in writing whether or not they answered, and the SMS thread doubles as a complete dispatch log.
- Filter to Voicemail, No answer, Busy, and Failed to text only when the technician missed the live call. There is one dispatch attempt per call, so this is the safety net that makes sure a missed call still carries the details.
The intake fields — caller_name, reason_for_call, and service_location — are collected by the AI during dispatch screening, so they are present only for dispatched calls. For a standard call transfer, they are empty. If you use this trigger beyond dispatch, build your messages on the always-present fields (such as caller_number, transferred_to_number, and outcome), or keep the outcome filter scoped to your dispatch setup.
Tips
- Write your on-call criteria so the AI knows what counts as an emergency — the clearer the criteria, the more reliably the right calls dispatch. See On-call dispatch for setup.
- Test the automation by placing a call that matches your criteria and confirming the text arrives with the details filled in.
- Keep the message scannable — the technician may read it while heading to their vehicle. Lead with the outcome and the issue.
- For the full list of triggers, see Automation triggers.