Run outbound AI campaigns

An outbound campaign has an AI agent call everyone on a contact list, each with their own details. It keeps to calling hours, tries again when nobody answers, leaves voicemails and puts interested people through to your team.

Plan

Scale

Where

Outbound > Campaigns, Contact lists and Settings

Who can run campaigns

Workspace Admins and Managers, to start. People with the Agent role can see them

Who can change Outbound settings

Workspace Admins

Before your first campaignCopy Anchor Link

1. Build an outbound agent: the agent that makes the calls. See Build an outbound agent.
2. Make a contact list: who to call. See Contact lists.
3. Check Outbound settings: calling hours, the AI disclosure and retry defaults. See Outbound settings.
4. Accept the acknowledgement, asked once per workspace, before the first campaign: you’re responsible for having consent to call these people, for the calling rules where they live, and for honouring anyone who asks not to be called again.

Build an outbound agentCopy Anchor Link

In AI Studio > Agents, select Create Agent, then Outbound agent. Outbound agents have their own sections: who speaks first and what call screeners hear, a Conversation guide, Variables, what counts as a successful call, Voicemail and IVR navigation. Build an outbound agent covers every field.

A campaign needs a published agent, and its calls use the published settings, so publish your changes before the campaign starts.

Contact listsCopy Anchor Link

Open Outbound > Contact lists. A list holds the people you add; a smart list keeps itself up to date from rules.

To upload people, select Upload a CSV as a new list:

• One row per person, with a header row. A phone column is required: name it phone, phone_number, mobile or similar. A name column is optional.
• Every other column becomes a variable for the agent, such as amount_due.
• Up to 50,000 rows, 50 columns and 50 MB, saved as UTF-8 CSV. Download a template to start from.
• Numbers without a country code are read as your workspace’s country.

Each row is matched to your contacts by number. New numbers become new contacts; existing contacts aren’t changed. The import report lists invalid numbers and repeated rows.

Who’s left outCopy Anchor Link

When a campaign starts, Crulon leaves out people with no phone number, numbers on the STOP list, emergency numbers, numbers shared by several contacts, the same number twice, and people missing a detail the agent needs. The campaign form shows how many will be called and why the rest are left out.

Create a campaignCopy Anchor Link

Open Outbound > Campaigns and select New campaign.

Select Save draft, Schedule or Send now. Calls start at the next opening in the calling hours.

On each callCopy Anchor Link

1. 01

   Checks before dialling

   The number isn’t on the STOP list, it’s inside the person’s calling hours, and they haven’t had today’s calls.

2. 02

   The agent dials

   From the campaign’s number. Recording follows your workspace’s settings.

3. 03

   Someone answers

   The agent says the AI disclosure first, then its greeting, and follows the conversation guide.

• A voicemail answers

  The agent leaves your voicemail message, or hangs up if you haven’t set one.

• A call screener answers

  The agent says who it is and why it’s calling, then waits up to 45 seconds for the person.

After each answered call, Crulon reviews the transcript against the agent’s A call is successful when… and marks the call Successful, Partly successful, or another result such as Asked for a call back or Not interested. If transcripts are off for your workspace, calls can’t be judged successful.

Calling hoursCopy Anchor Link

Calls only go out inside each person’s calling hours, in their own time zone. The workspace starts with Monday to Saturday, 8:00 AM to 9:00 PM.

• Their time zone comes from the contact’s time zone if it’s set, otherwise from their number’s area code. Toll-free and some mobile numbers have no known time zone.
• If the time zone isn’t known, Crulon uses your workspace’s, or skips the person: your choice in Outbound settings.
• A campaign can call in narrower hours than the workspace. Wider hours need someone who can change Outbound settings.
• Calls due outside the hours wait for the next opening. There are no holiday closures.

A workspace can change its hours or turn them off, but you remain responsible for the calling-time rules where your customers live.

Tries and retriesCopy Anchor Link

The first call counts as a try. By default a campaign tries up to 3 times, 4 hours apart, at most 2 calls a person a day, and tries again after No answer, Busy or Screened, no answer. Change these per campaign, or the defaults for new campaigns in Outbound settings. Someone who asks not to be called is never tried again.

Stop calling meCopy Anchor Link

When someone asks not to be called, the agent checks (“Would you like us to stop calling this number?”), then adds the number to the STOP list and ends the call. After each call, Crulon also looks through what they said for phrases such as “stop calling” or “take me off your list”.

The STOP list is shared with texts: a number on it gets no texts and no AI calls. Someone who texts START gets texts again, but a voice opt-out stays. Manage the list under Outbound > Settings.

The AI disclosureCopy Anchor Link

Every answered call starts with: “This call is handled by an AI assistant and may be recorded for quality and compliance.” Change the wording or turn it off in Outbound settings; some places require it. It isn’t said in voicemail messages or to call screeners.

Budget and costCopy Anchor Link

Campaign calls use your plan’s AI minutes first. When they’re used up, calls cost 25¢ a minute from your credits, rounded up per call.

• Budget caps what a campaign spends beyond your included minutes. A monthly budget resets on the 1st.
• Each call holds its longest possible cost while it runs, so a campaign pauses a little before its budget is fully spent.
• When the budget runs out, the campaign pauses: select Raise budget, then Resume. A repeating campaign resumes on its own on the 1st.
• When credits run out, the campaign pauses until you add funds.

Watch a campaignCopy Anchor Link

Each campaign page shows how many people have been called, picked up and been successful, the budget spent, and a list of calls you can filter: Answered, Successful, Voicemail, No answer, Failed, IVR and Do-not-call. Open a call for its summary, recording, transcript, the details it used and who answered: a person, a voicemail, a phone menu or a call screener. Retry now calls someone again straight away.

Export CSV, in the ⋯ menu, downloads every call with its result.

Change, pause or stop a campaignCopy Anchor Link

• Edit settings changes the name, budget, end date, calling hours and retries while it runs. Changes apply to the next calls. The list, agent, number and call length can’t change once it starts.
• Pause keeps the queued calls; calls in progress finish. Resume carries on.
• Cancel campaign stops it for good. Queued calls are never placed; calls in progress finish.
• End date stops calls at the end of that day, in your workspace’s time.
• Reopen carries on calling a campaign that was sent.

Outbound settingsCopy Anchor Link

Outbound > Settings holds the rules for every campaign:

• Calling hours, and what to do when a time zone isn’t known.
• AI and recording disclosure: on, with the default wording, to start.
• “Stop calling me”: on to start. Off, people who ask aren’t added to the STOP list automatically.
• Retries: the defaults for new campaigns.
• Simultaneous calls: how many AI calls run at once across all campaigns, 20 to start, and how many lines to keep free for incoming calls.
• STOP list: add, remove, import or export numbers.
• Compliance log: what was checked before each AI call and what was decided.

If something goes wrongCopy Anchor Link