Operator calls from CRM
When telephony is connected, an operator calls the client straight from their deal — without switching to a phone or copying the number. The call is linked to the deal right away, and its outcome and recording stay in the history available to the team.
There is no separate dialer or softphone window: the entry point for a call is the deal card itself. How an administrator connects telephony is covered in Telephony.
How to call a client
- Open the client's deal in CRM.
- Press the call button on the deal card.
- The portal starts an outgoing call: the connection is raised on your side first, then the client is dialed.
- When the client answers, the conversation begins. If the telephony setting allows calls to appear in chat, the active call is shown in the deal chat with its status and controls. In “existing conversation only” mode no chat is created automatically; in off mode the call is not shown in chat.
The call button appears only when four conditions are met: you have call permission, telephony is enabled on the portal, the deal has the client's phone number set, and voice eligibility permits the selected purpose. In the deal call-entry form, only a Can call verdict enables it; an unknown or expired verdict, an opt-out, or a block leaves it disabled and shows the reason. With write permission, Record lets you enter the basis, source, and expiry. This is a user-facing eligibility check, not a technical block or a legal guarantee that every downstream phone provider will enforce the rule; the number may still be dialled, but provider availability does not override the verdict. In List and Kanban, the compact handset is a different boundary: a device action may remain clickable with a warning and reason. A warning is not permission to call—do not dial; open the contact card or call-entry form and check the verdict. If the button is missing, see the diagnostics section below.
In-call controls
During an active call you can:
- Mute or unmute — temporarily silence your microphone;
- End the call — hang up;
- Transfer the call to a SIP address — only when the current session uses a SIP provider and you have SIP-transfer permission. Normal LiveKit telephony sessions do not expose transfer; end the call and record the next step instead.
Calls are voice-only. The conversation is linked to the deal automatically, so there is no need to link it to the client separately.
Incoming calls
Incoming calls are distributed among operators by the rules of the connected pipeline: the owner first, then the queue, taking availability into account. These rules are configured in the pipeline settings, not in the call window itself — see Pipelines and stages.
When an incoming call reaches you, it appears the same way as an outgoing one only when chat surfacing is enabled; in other modes handle it through routing and the call log.
Where to listen to the recording
If call recording is enabled with your provider and the call is surfaced in a linked conversation, the recording appears in the deal chat and its activity timeline — when you have media access for that call. If chat surfacing is off or there is no linked conversation, it will not appear there; use the call log or the provider's supported recording path.
Note: in the shared call log (CDR) the recording is not played back — the log shows a list of calls, and you listen to the recording from the chat of the specific deal.
If the call button is missing
A missing call button is almost never an operator error:
- the deal has no client phone number — add a valid number;
- you don't have call permission or an assigned extension — request access and an extension from the administrator;
- telephony is not enabled on the portal — check with the administrator whether the phone provider is connected.
If the PBX proxy is disabled or temporarily unavailable, the button may also be hidden or the call may fail; this is fixed in the connection setup, not by clicking the deal again.
If the button is there but the call doesn't go through, tell the administrator: the problem is usually in the provider settings or access rights, not in the deal itself.
Common scenarios
| Situation | What to do |
|---|---|
| You need to check a detail with a colleague while talking to a client | Transfer the call to the operator who knows the answer, instead of promising the client a callback |
| The client is speaking heatedly and the question is clearly not your area | Transfer the call right away, instead of trying to half-solve someone else's question |
| The conversation is over but the outcome isn't recorded yet | Write down the agreement and the next step in the deal before switching to another task |
| An incoming call arrives while you're already on another deal's call | It gets distributed by the queue rules to the next available operator — don't try to take both calls at once |
| You need to revisit the conversation a week later | Open the deal and listen to the recording in the chat, rather than relying on memory |
Good practices
- Call from the deal, not from a personal phone: this keeps the conversation and recording in the client's history.
- Record the call outcome in the deal — the agreement, the next step, the deadline — not just the fact that a call happened.
- Transfer the call when the question is outside your area, instead of promising that "a colleague will call back".
- Check the client's number in the deal in advance so the call button is available.
Common mistakes
- Calling from a personal phone — the conversation and the agreement are lost to the team.
- Not recording the call outcome in the deal — the next operator doesn't know what was agreed.
- Looking for the recording in the call log instead of the deal chat.
- Treating a missing button as a deal error, when it is more often about access rights or telephony not being connected.
Related pages