Setting Up Call Flows in Alivo

A call flow is the step-by-step path an inbound call follows after someone dials your business number. Alivo gives you a visual builder where you connect steps like a flowchart, so you can ring your team during the day, send calls to an AI agent after hours, play a phone menu, or record a voicemail without calling a phone company every time something changes. This guide walks through creating a flow, every step type, and the most common setups roofing teams use.

Before You Start

Three things should be in place before you build your first flow:

A phone number. Go to Settings → Phone System → Phone Numbers. You need at least one number assigned to your account.
Business hours. Go to Settings → Company Details and set your open and closed schedule. The Business Hours step in a call flow reads this company-wide schedule.
Ring groups (optional but common). Go to Settings → Phone System → Ring Groups and create the groups you want to ring. You can also create ring groups on the fly and link to them from the call flow editor.

Create a Call Flow

Go to Settings → Phone System → Call Flows and click New Call Flow. Give it a name that tells you what it does, like "Main Line" or "After-Hours Only."

When the editor opens, you pick a starting template:

Business Hours (recommended). Builds a greeting, a business-hours branch, a ring group for open hours, and an AI agent for closed hours.
Simple Ring. Builds a greeting, a ring group, and an AI agent fallback if nobody answers.
Start from Scratch. Empty canvas. You add every step yourself.

After you pick a template, the visual editor opens. Steps appear as cards on a canvas. Lines between cards show where the call goes next. Click a step to configure it in the side panel. Click a branch line (like "Open Hours" or "No Answer") to connect it to the next step.

Rule of thumb: One call flow can serve multiple phone numbers. Build the flow first, then assign it to each number under Phone Numbers.

Assign a Call Flow to a Phone Number

A call flow only runs when it is linked to a number. Go to Settings → Phone System → Phone Numbers, click the number you want, and choose the call flow from the dropdown. Save the number.

If a number has no call flow attached, inbound calls to that number will not route correctly. The phone numbers list will flag numbers that are missing a flow.

Call Flow Step Types

Click Add Step on the canvas to see every step type. Here is what each one does and when to use it.

Step	What It Does	Common Use
Greeting	Plays a short spoken message when the call connects	Welcome callers before routing starts
Business Hours	Splits the call into an open path and a closed path	Ring the team by day, AI or voicemail at night
Phone Menu	Keypad menu (press 1, press 2, etc.)	Route sales vs. service vs. billing
Ring Group	Rings a group of people you set up ahead of time	Get a live person on the line
AI Agent	Hands the call to Lilly, Alivo's phone agent	After hours, overflow, or first-line answering
Voicemail	Plays a greeting and records a message	Capture details when no one can pick up
Forward Call	Forwards to an outside phone number	Send a call to a cell phone or another line
Smart Routing	Routes by area code, zip code, or a custom question	Send each territory to the right team

Greeting

Write the message callers hear when this step runs. You can preview how it sounds right in the editor. After the greeting plays, connect the Next Step branch on the canvas to whatever should happen next (usually a Business Hours step or a Ring Group).

Business Hours

This step does not have its own schedule. It reads your company business hours from Settings → Company Details. Two branches come off this step:

Open Hours. Connect this to the path you want during business hours (usually a Ring Group).
Closed Hours. Connect this to your after-hours path (usually an AI Agent or Voicemail).

This is the standard way to ring your team during the day and handle calls differently at night, on weekends, or during lunch, all in one flow with no manual switching.

Ring Groups: Reaching Your Team and External Numbers

A ring group is a named list of people to ring when a call comes in. You build ring groups under Settings → Phone System → Ring Groups, then pick one inside a Ring Group step in your call flow.

Create a Ring Group

Click New Ring Group and fill in:

Name. Something clear like "Sales Team" or "Storm Response."
Strategy. Choose Ring all to ring everyone at the same time, or One at a time to ring members in priority order until someone answers.
Ring timeout. How many seconds to ring before the call moves to the no-answer path (default is 25 seconds).

Add Members

Each member can be:

An Alivo user. Pick someone from your team list. They can be rung in the browser Dialer and/or on a phone number saved to their profile.
An external number. Choose "Other" and enter a name, phone number, and optional extension. Use this for subcontractors, an owner's cell, or anyone not logged into Alivo.

For Alivo users, you will see a Browser only checkbox. When checked, the system rings their browser Dialer only and does not forward to their cell. When unchecked, it can ring both. This is useful when someone is in the office and does not want their personal cell ringing on every call.

If you use the One at a time strategy, drag members to set priority order. The first person rings first. If they do not answer within the timeout, it moves to the next.

Connect the Ring Group in Your Call Flow

In the call flow editor, add or select a Ring Group step and pick the group from the dropdown. On the canvas, connect the No Answer branch to whatever should happen when nobody picks up: an AI Agent, a Voicemail step, or another Ring Group.

Ring groups respect each team member's availability. If someone is set to Do Not Disturb or Offline in the Dialer, they are skipped.

Good to know: To reach people inside Alivo, use a Ring Group step with Alivo users as members. The Forward Call step is for outside phone numbers only, not for routing to teammates in the app.

Setting Up a Phone Menu (IVR)

A phone menu, also called IVR (interactive voice response), lets callers press a number on their keypad to reach the right department. In Alivo this step is called Phone Menu.

Configure the Menu

Add a Phone Menu step and set:

Menu message. Tell callers what each option does. Example: "Press 1 for new estimates, press 2 for existing customers, press 0 for the operator."
Menu options. Click Add option for each digit you want (0 through 9, plus * and #). Each option gets its own branch on the canvas labeled "Press 1," "Press 2," and so on.
Timeout. Connect the Timeout branch to a fallback step. If you leave timeout empty, the menu repeats.

On the canvas, wire each "Press X" branch to the step that option should reach. Press 1 might go to a sales ring group. Press 2 might go to a service ring group. Press 0 might go straight to an AI agent.

Setting Up Voicemail

Add a Voicemail step anywhere you want callers to leave a message. Write a Voicemail greeting (for example, "We are on another line. Please leave your name, address, and a brief description of the work you need."). When the greeting finishes, the system records the caller's message.

Voicemail is a common no-answer fallback on a Ring Group step. It also works as the closed-hours path on a Business Hours step if you do not want AI answering at night.

Recorded voicemails show up on the contact's conversation timeline and can be transcribed so you can read them instead of listening.

Forward Call (External Numbers)

The Forward Call step sends the live call to an outside phone number. Fill in the phone number, an optional extension, and a ring timeout in seconds (default 30).

Connect the No Answer branch to a fallback if the forwarded number does not pick up. Common fallbacks are Voicemail or an AI Agent.

Use this when you need to send a call to a cell phone, a subcontractor, or any number that is not an Alivo user in a ring group. To reach your own team inside Alivo, use a Ring Group instead.

AI Agent Step

The AI Agent step hands the live call to Lilly, Alivo's phone agent. Pick which active agent's scripts and settings to use from the dropdown. Lilly can qualify the lead, answer questions, book an inspection, and warm-transfer to a human when needed.

Typical placements in a call flow:

Closed-hours path on a Business Hours step.
No-answer fallback on a Ring Group step.
Overflow when call volume is too high for the office to handle.

Smart Routing

Use Smart Routing when one phone number serves multiple territories. Pick a routing mode:

Area code. Routes based on the caller's phone number prefix.
Zip code. Asks the caller for their zip code, then routes based on the answer.
Custom question. Asks a question you write and routes on the answer.

Add one routing rule per territory and connect each rule to a target step (usually a Ring Group). Set a Fallback step for callers who do not match any rule.

Example: Business Hours with Team, AI, and Voicemail

Here is a setup most roofing companies can start with:

Greeting: "Thanks for calling ABC Roofing."
Business Hours → Open: Ring Group "Office Team."
Business Hours → Closed: AI Agent (Lilly).
Ring Group → No Answer: AI Agent (same or different agent).

During the day, the office team rings in the browser Dialer. After hours, Lilly picks up. If the team misses a daytime call, Lilly catches it instead of the caller getting a dead line.

Save Your Call Flow

Click Save in the top bar when you are done. The editor validates your flow before saving. If something is missing (like a ring group not selected or a branch not connected), it highlights the step that needs attention.

You can also turn on Record calls for this specific flow using the toggle in the top bar. That only works if inbound recording is already turned on at the company level under Settings → Phone System → Call Recording. See the Call Recording article for details.

Your call flow is the backbone of how every inbound call gets handled. Start with a template, connect your ring groups, and add phone menus or smart routing as your team grows.

Still have a question this didn't answer? Reach out to our support team support@alivo.ai and we'll be glad to help.