GuidesAI agents
Hand calls to your team
Let the AI agent pass callers to your team, an outside number or a Call Flow, choose what happens if nobody answers, and transfer calls between teammates.
When a caller asks for a person, or needs something the agent can’t do, the agent hands the call on. You decide where it can send callers, what the caller hears, and what happens if nobody picks up.
- Where
- Settings > Call destinations, then the agent’s Call Handling > Handoff
- Plans
- Every plan
- Who sets it up
- Workspace Admins and Managers, to start. Everyone else can see the destinations
Your team
Browsers and desk phones ring together
An outside number
A mobile, another office, an answering service
A Call Flow
Your own rules: a queue, voicemail, another agent
Kinds of handoff
Each place the agent can send a caller is a call destination. There are three kinds you can hand calls to, and one choice to make for outside numbers.
| Kind | What happens | If nobody answers |
|---|---|---|
| Your team (Internal ring group) | The people you choose ring in their browsers and on their desk phones at the same time. The first to answer takes the call | The agent comes back, or the call ends: your choice |
| An outside number, Bridge | Crulon stays on the call while the number rings, and the caller hears hold music | The agent comes back, or the call ends: your choice |
| An outside number, Refer | The call is passed to the carrier and leaves Crulon | The call ends |
| A Call Flow (Call flow) | A transfer flow you build takes the call: ring people in order, a queue, voicemail, another agent | Whatever the flow does next. The agent doesn’t come back |
People on your team can also transfer calls to each other, and anyone with the permission can take over from the agent while listening in.
Set up a handoff
Create a destination
Open Settings > Call destinations and select New destination. Give it a Name, such as “Billing team”, choose its Kind, and fill in the rest (see Your team, An outside number and A Call Flow).
The Key is a short name for logs, such as billing_team: lowercase letters, numbers and underscores, starting with a letter. It can’t be changed later. To limit when the agent can hand callers here, set Hours.
Tell the agent when to use it
Fill in When should the assistant send callers here? in one sentence. The agent reads it to choose between destinations; see Write the sentence.
Verify it
Select Verify in the list. Crulon checks the destination could take a call: that its members are active, its caller ID number can make calls, or its flow is published. No call is placed. Call flow destinations check themselves when you save.
An agent can only use a destination marked Verified. Changing who or what it rings sets it back to Unverified; changing its name or sentence doesn’t.
Add it to the agent
In AI Studio > Agents, open the agent and go to Call Handling. Turn on Handoff, select Add destination and pick it. An agent can have up to 10 destinations.
Set what the caller hears and what happens if nobody answers for each one; see Settings for each destination.
Publish the agent
Select Publish. Callers only reach published changes. With Handoff on, the agent needs at least one destination before it can publish.
Write the sentence
On each call, the agent sees the list of its destinations with their names and sentences, and picks the one that fits. A caller never gives it a number to dial: it can only use the destinations you’ve added.
Write each sentence about the caller, not about your team, and make each one different from the others:
| Destination | When should the assistant send callers here? |
|---|---|
| Billing team | When the caller asks about a bill, a payment or a refund. |
| On-call technician | When the caller has an urgent problem, such as a leak or no heat, and the agent couldn’t solve it on the call. |
| Front desk | When the caller asks for a person and nothing else fits. |
Left empty, the agent goes by the name alone. That works for an agent with one destination; with several, write a sentence for each.
Your team
Choose Internal ring group and pick the Members to ring. To ring one person, pick just them.
- 01
The agent decides
The caller asks for a person, or needs something the agent can’t do.
- 02
It checks with the caller
“I’ll put you through to our billing team. Is that all right?”
- 03
The announcement
“Let me get someone who can help.”
- 04
Your team rings
Up to 30 seconds, with hold music for the caller. The agent waits on the line.
Someone answers
They have the caller, with the agent’s note on screen. The agent leaves.
Nobody answers
The caller hears “No one picked up.” and the agent carries on helping.
Who rings:
- Members who are Available, in their browser. Members who are Away or already on a call are skipped.
- Desk phones registered to a member, even when the member is offline in Crulon. Desk phones are on Scale.
- Members need a seat and permission to answer calls.
If no one can be rung, the handoff fails straight away rather than ringing for nothing, and the caller hears “No one is available to take the call right now.” A handoff to your team never waits in a queue. To queue callers, hand off to a Call Flow with a Call Queue step.
An outside number
Choose External PSTN number to send callers to a number outside Crulon, such as a mobile, another office or an answering service.
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Address | The number with its country code, for example +15551234567 |
| How we transfer | Bridge or Refer. See below |
| Caller ID number | For Bridge: one of your numbers that can make calls. It’s the number the outside line sees, and the call goes out over that number’s carrier. With Refer, your carrier decides which number shows |
Bridge or Refer
Bridge is the default, and the one to choose unless you have a reason not to. Crulon stays on the call while the number rings, so it knows whether anyone answered, and the agent can come back if nobody does.
Refer hands the call to your carrier and Crulon leaves straight away. It’s simpler, but Crulon never learns whether the call connected, so there’s no hold music and no way back: if nobody answers, the call ends.
- 01
The announcement
“Transferring you now. Please hold.”
- 02
The number rings
For up to the time you set, 30 seconds to start. The caller hears hold music.
They answer
The caller is connected. The outside line sees your caller ID number.
Nobody answers
The caller hears “I’m sorry, I could not connect you at the moment.” and the agent carries on.
Crulon checks every transfer against your calling policy, so blocked countries and premium-rate or high-risk numbers are refused. Emergency numbers can’t be destinations: only a person can call emergency services.
Note
External SIP endpoint also appears as a kind, but calls can’t be sent to one yet. Use a phone number.
A Call Flow
Hand off to a Call Flow when you want your own rules for what happens next: ring people in order, put callers in a queue, check the time, take a voicemail, or pass them to another AI agent, such as one that speaks Spanish.
- In Build > Call Flows, create a flow that starts from A transfer, build it and publish it. Ring in order, then voicemail is a good start. See Send callers from the AI agent into a flow.
- Add a destination of kind Call flow and choose the flow under Transfer flow. It verifies itself when you save, and again whenever the flow is published.
- Add the destination to the agent.
- 01
The agent decides, and checks with the caller
As with any handoff.
- 02
The announcement
“One moment while I connect you.” This is the last thing the agent says.
- 03
The flow takes over
Its steps run from Transferred call: ring, queue, voicemail or another agent.
Someone answers
They have the caller, as with any call from a flow.
Nobody answers
The flow’s next step decides, for example voicemail. The agent doesn’t come back.
Call flow destinations work on inbound calls only, so outbound agents can’t use them. How long the flow rings and what callers hear are set in the flow, not on the agent.
Settings for each destination
Each destination on the agent has its own settings, in Call Handling > Handoff:
| Setting | Starts as | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Announcement | Empty | What the agent says to the caller before the handoff, up to 1,000 characters. Left empty, it uses a short line of its own, such as “Let me get someone who can help.” |
| Ask before transferring | On | The agent is told to say it’s going to transfer the caller and wait for a yes. A caller who asked for a person is put through without being asked |
| Play hold music while it rings | On | The caller hears hold music instead of silence. The music is Crulon’s own; you can’t choose it yet |
| Ring for | 30 seconds | How long to ring before giving up: 5 to 300 seconds |
| If it doesn’t connect | Hand the call back to the AI | Or End the call: the agent says goodbye and hangs up |
Refer and Call flow destinations show the last three greyed out, with the reason: Refer can’t play hold music or come back, and a flow decides those itself.
If you use the Live engine, the agent says the announcement in its own words rather than word for word.
What your team sees
The call rings in Crulon with the agent’s name, the destination, and a note the agent writes for whoever answers: why the caller is calling, in a sentence or two. The caller’s name shows if they match a contact.
Charged twice for October and wants the second payment refunded. Account found by their phone number.
Dana Reyes
+1 555 0142
Once answered, the note stays in the call bar as Handoff note, including after a page refresh. A call answered on a desk phone shows the caller’s name or number on the phone, and the note in Crulon, in the On a call on your device bar.
An outside number gets no note: just the call, from your caller ID number.
After the handoff
- Recording. The part with your team is recorded if your recording settings say so. Calls transferred to an outside number aren’t recorded after the transfer.
- Transcript and summary. They cover the part the agent handled. Nothing after the handoff is transcribed.
- AI minutes. The agent’s time counts up to the moment someone answers, including the ringing, up to your Ring for time. Your team’s talk time and outside calls aren’t AI minutes.
- The call record. In Conversations, the call’s outcome shows Transferred or Forwarded. People who can see call diagnostics get a Handoffs list: where each attempt went, who answered or why it didn’t connect, and whether the caller asked for a person or the agent decided.
Test a handoff
Talk in browser can’t hand a call off: the agent tells you handoff isn’t available in a test session. To check a handoff, publish the agent and call your number from a phone, at a quiet time if you can. Ask for the thing each sentence describes and check the right destination rings.
Hours
Each destination can have opening hours. Outside them, the agent keeps the caller rather than handing them over, and tells them when the destination opens.
To set them, edit the destination in Settings > Call destinations and, under Hours, choose Only during these hours. Always available is the default.
- Windows: each one is a set of days and a From and To time, such as Mon–Fri, 8:00 AM to 5:30 PM. Use Weekdays, Weekend or Every day to pick days quickly. Add a second window for a lunch break or a late day, up to 20.
- Timezone: starts as your workspace’s. Select Change to use another, for a team in another city. Changing the workspace’s time zone later doesn’t move these hours.
- Overnight: a window that runs past midnight covers both ends of each day you pick, not the next morning. For a night shift, pick every night it runs.
- Holidays: there are none, so change the hours for a day off.
Changing hours doesn’t reset verification. The list shows each destination’s hours under Hours.
When a destination is closed
The agent knows each destination’s hours from the start of the call, so it can mention them before it offers a transfer. If it hands off while a destination is closed, Crulon doesn’t try the transfer. The agent tells the caller, in its own words, something like “Billing is closed now. It opens tomorrow at 8:00 AM.” It stays on the call, and can help another way or offer a destination that’s open.
If it doesn’t connect doesn’t apply, because nothing was tried. A ring that’s already going at closing time isn’t cut off. In the call’s details, the attempt shows as outside hours.
Hours only stop handoffs from the AI agent. Transfers between teammates and the Forward Call step in a Call Flow ignore them.
Hours and Call Flows
A Call Flow can check the time itself, with a Time Condition. If a destination’s flow already does, Crulon says so under Hours. Choose one clock:
| Set up | Use it when |
|---|---|
| Always available on the destination, a Time Condition in the flow | Callers out of hours should get what the flow does then, such as voicemail or an on-call number |
| The same hours on the destination and in the flow | The AI agent should keep callers out of hours and handle them itself |
Don’t give them different hours: the agent would refuse callers the flow would still answer.
Transfer a call to a teammate
During a call, select the transfer button in the call bar and search for a person, a group or a number.
- A person or a group. Add a note if you like, up to 140 characters, and select Transfer. The caller is put on hold with music and you stay on the line while it rings, for 30 seconds. Your teammate sees Transferred by your name, with your note. If nobody answers or they decline, the call comes back to you: select Resume to talk to the caller again, or Transfer… to try someone else.
- An outside number. Pick one of your verified outside-number destinations, or type a number. The call leaves Crulon straight away and you can’t take it back.
Only people who are Available can be picked. You can’t transfer an internal call between teammates, or a call you answered on a desk phone.
Everyone with the Workspace Admin, Manager or Agent role can transfer calls to start. To stop your team typing in any number, turn off Let agents type a transfer number in Settings > Call destinations (here “agents” means your team, not the AI); transfers to outside numbers then go only to saved destinations.
Note
Transfers are cold
Crulon doesn’t do warm transfers: you can’t speak to a teammate privately before handing the caller over. Use the note to tell them what the call is about.
If something goes wrong
It can’t take calls yet, and the reason shows next to it: Disabled, Not verified yet, Its call flow is not published, or Verification failed with the cause. Fix it in Settings > Call destinations and select Verify.
Handoff is on but has no destinations. Add one, or turn Handoff off.
Outside numbers need a Caller ID number: one of your Crulon numbers that can make calls.
The flow is still a draft. Publish it, and the destination verifies itself.
Nobody in the group was Available when the agent handed off. Check your team’s status, or hand off to a Call Flow that queues callers or takes a voicemail.
The destination has opening hours and it’s outside them. Check its Hours in Settings > Call destinations, including the time zone.
The destination uses Refer, so Crulon can’t tell when nobody answers. Switch it to Bridge to have the agent come back instead.
Make each destination’s When should the assistant send callers here? sentence describe a different kind of caller, then publish the agent and call again.
Call flow destinations work on inbound calls only. Use your team or an outside number.
Last updated 18 Oct 2026