Using Alivo's Dialer
Your team's business phone, running in a browser, with every call saved automatically.
The Dialer is how your team makes and takes phone calls inside Alivo. You might hear the term VoIP, which just means calls that run over the internet instead of a traditional phone line. In practice, that means your reps answer from a laptop in the office, a computer at home, or anywhere with a browser and a microphone, with no desk phones to buy or maintain. Your team gets hands-on Dialer training on your go-live call, so this page is the preview: what it does, how calls come in and go out, and why every call ends up on the right customer record without anyone taking notes.
What You Need to Get Going
Not much. The Dialer is enabled on your account as part of your setup, your outbound caller ID comes from your company phone numbers, and each person just picks their microphone and speaker the first time they use it. Everyone also gets a short 3-digit extension for calling teammates browser to browser. Turning on browser notifications is worth the one click, so incoming calls still ring when the Alivo tab is in the background.
Making Calls
There are three ways to place a call, and the one your team will use most is the easiest:
- Click-to-call. Click any phone number on a contact record and the Dialer opens with it ready to dial.
- Dial pad. Open the Dialer, type a number, and call.
- Extensions. Dial a teammate's 3-digit extension to reach them inside Alivo.
Before dialing, you pick which of your business numbers shows on the customer's caller ID. That means customers always see and call back your business line, never a rep's personal cell, and the return call routes through your normal call handling.
Receiving Calls
Inbound calls reach the Dialer through your call flow, the routing rules on your phone number that Alivo sets up during onboarding. When a call routes to your team, the browsers of the available reps ring, and whoever accepts starts talking, no handset required. Each person controls their own availability with a status: Available, Busy, Do Not Disturb, or Offline. Ring groups check that status before ringing you, so stepping out for lunch is one click, not a forwarding change.
Good to know: reps who spend the day in the field can be rung on their cell instead of, or as a backup to, the browser. The Dialer and your cell phones are not either-or.
Every Call Saves Itself
This is the quiet superpower. Every call, in or out, ties back to a contact automatically. Dial a new number and Alivo creates the contact for you. Someone calls in and Alivo matches or creates the record from their number and tags the lead source. On the contact's timeline, your whole team can see:
- The call journey. A step-by-step view of what happened: greeting, ring group, phone menu, AI agent, forward, or voicemail, and how each step ended.
- The recording and transcript. Playable audio when recording is on, plus full transcripts and summaries for AI-handled calls.
- The outcome. A label like Booked, Transfer, or Voicemail, so you can scan results without opening every recording.
Nobody logs calls by hand, nobody asks "did anyone talk to this guy?", and when the call syncs to your CRM, the same history is there too.
Keep in mind: the Dialer is how you answer, but your call flow decides who gets rung and when. If inbound calls are not reaching someone, the usual culprits are their availability status or the ring group setup, both of which your specialist can adjust with you.
Where to Go Deeper
For the full walkthrough, including in-call controls and how contact matching works, see Making and Receiving Calls in Alivo.
The takeaway: the Dialer turns any computer into your business phone. Calls go out under your business number, come in through your routing rules, and every conversation lands on the customer's record where your whole team can see it.
Still have a question this didn't answer? Reach out to our support team support@alivo.ai and we'll be glad to help.