Campaign Types and Configuration

A campaign connects a specific job, the people it serves, the handler who takes the conversation, and the rules for follow-up. Start with the job you want done, then choose the campaign type that fits how those conversations begin.

This guide covers Voice AI, Inbound Agent Queue, and Outbound Agent Queue. All three use the same campaign workspace, with configuration tailored to their work.

Choose the Right Type

An Outbound Agent Queue can receive return calls. An Inbound Agent Queue can retain an explicitly configured outbound follow-up sequence. The primary type does not change the direction of an individual call: an incoming call uses incoming handling, and an outgoing Pulse call uses outgoing settings.

An AI transfer to a human is also different from an Agent Queue call. The AI conducts the initial conversation and invokes a configured handoff; an Agent Queue connects a customer directly to a human conversation.

Create a Campaign

1. Open Campaigns and select New Campaign.
2. Enter a descriptive name and choose Voice AI or Agent Queue.
3. For Voice AI, choose Create from template or Start with Assembly. A template supplies a starting configuration to review. Assembly begins with discovery of the job, audience, dialogue, and boundaries before constructing a reviewed draft.
4. For Agent Queue, choose Inbound or Outbound. This direction is fixed after creation; create another campaign if the primary job changes.
5. Complete configuration and review the draft before activation.

Campaign tags help organize your work. Tags and template names do not determine call routing, grant AI tools, or define success.

Understand the Workspace

Edit the campaign name and tags from the shared header. Edit details opens description settings; lifecycle and end-date controls are available on Overview where applicable. A description explains the intended job, but does not replace employee instructions or an enrollment rule.

Save, Publish, and Activate Are Different

• Save in Configuration applies registered campaign edits. If a command fails, inspect the error and retained drafts. Some resource commands can finish before another fails, so review any partial-completion message.
• Shared routing group and calendar editors have their own Save. Their changes affect all references to that resource.
• Pulse Save draft stores the editable sequence. Publish creates the executable version. A newer draft is not the currently published workflow.
• Assembly Apply applies the particular proposal you reviewed. A simulation or saved brief alone does not apply all campaign configuration.
• Activate or Resume enables the campaign's applicable operation after its requirements are met. Publishing a workflow does not automatically activate the campaign or enroll existing customers.

If another operator changed the configuration, reload and review your draft against the latest values before saving again.

Voice AI Configuration

Define the AI Employee's Job

Use Assembly to review the employee's opening, instructions, factual boundaries, and response to common situations. Specify:

• Who the employee is calling or answering, and why.
• The opening and ordered conversation, including busy, refusal, uncertainty, and no-further-help branches.
• Which customer or policy facts it can use, and what it should say when those facts are missing or unverified.
• Tone, desired next steps, and when the conversation should end.
• When it should request human help, book a future appointment, or log an inquiry.

An uploaded script is reference material for review, not automatic configuration or permission to contact anyone. Check that the resulting employee covers the intended caller context and any required after-hours conversations.

Configure Scenarios and Escalations

Under Configuration > Scenarios & escalations, choose what the employee should do for each situation. Recognition wording belongs to the scenario; the campaign assignment chooses its action and destination.

After-hours actions can inherit daytime assignments unless you configure a replacement. Review both periods deliberately. For a daytime human transfer, use an appropriate after-hours inquiry, future booking, or disabled replacement rather than promising a live connection to a closed team.

Attaching a routing group or calendar is not a blanket tool grant. The employee's declared behavior and its selected target must agree. See Assistant Behaviors.

Select AI Dispositions

AI dispositions are the enabled library outcomes and guidance used to classify the conversation. Review the meaning of each outcome, not just its name. System outcomes such as No Answer and Voicemail are handled automatically.

AI dispositions and Pulse branching are separate: the first describes the call result, while the second chooses the next sequence step. Certain handled outcomes, such as an appointment, inquiry, or transfer, can end the journey automatically instead of following a visible retry edge.

Incoming Calls and Calling Rules

Ordinary Voice AI campaigns use AI during operating hours. Incoming calls after hours can use AI or Unavailable handling. When unavailable is selected, review the campaign's after-hours message and its organization fallback.

Under Calling rules, review:

• Enable dialing outside operating hours: permission for proactive calls outside the organization schedule. Incoming after-hours AI does not enable outgoing after-hours dialing. Customer contact windows and other delivery checks still apply.
• Concurrent calls: the campaign's call limit. An unset limit uses automatic capacity allocation, subject to platform and organization capacity.

Outreach, Sources, and Calling Numbers

For proactive work, configure Enrollment Automations and the Pulse sequence: calls, optional pre-call texts, standalone texts, waits, outcome paths, bounded loops, and exits. Review the actual published workflow before activation.

Sources are optional attribution for lead vendors or acquisition channels; existing-member work does not need a source merely to run. An assignment's acquisition type describes the records or calls coming from that source, not whether the campaign's handler is AI or human.

Choose Main number or Number pool for outgoing caller ID. A campaign pool needs enabled, campaign-owned numbers appropriate to its calling service. Review number rotation separately when using a pool.

Outgoing Voicemail

Review the campaign's default voicemail where the configuration/editor exposes it, then check each Pulse Call step's mode:

• Inherit uses the campaign default.
• Override uses that attempt's message.
• Silent leaves no message.

Existing call steps with a nonempty older message retain their per-attempt override. Older AI steps without an explicit mode or campaign default can retain employee voicemail behavior. Inspect the saved step before assuming a new default changes every attempt. Incoming unavailable announcements are separate settings.

Inbound Agent Queue Configuration

An Inbound Agent Queue is a human reception operation. Configure how callers reach the queue, which agents can answer, and what happens when nobody connects. It does not require an AI employee just to provide campaign Assembly.

Routing Group and Agent Workspace

Select the Routing group for incoming calls during operating hours. Open its editor to configure the shared agent experience:

• Active agents and groups, routing strategy, and priority.
• State-licensing rules and any fallback when no matching licensed agent exists.
• Per-agent ringing and overall maximum wait.
• Customer/previous-agent preferences, source restrictions, and relevant readiness.
• The script or screen opened for the answering agent.
• Human wrap-up dispositions.
• Incoming callback offer and unavailable messages.

A configured roster is not a count of ready agents. Presence, reservations, on-air state, licensing, source access, and the particular call path determine who can actually receive an offer. Preferred-agent settings can supplement the configured roster; review them if you intend an exclusive pool.

Routing groups are shared. Changing their script, agents, disposition set, or fallback can affect other campaigns. See Routing and Scripts.

During and Outside Operating Hours

During operating hours, careCycle tries eligible agents sequentially according to the routing group. If nobody is eligible or the ringing/wait budget is exhausted, the group's incoming fallback applies.

Outside operating hours, the ordinary new setup uses Unavailable. New AI selection is marked Coming soon; an existing saved AI configuration can remain represented. Do not assume AI answering is available simply because the control or an old assistant exists.

For unavailable handling, campaign queues inherit the routing group's appropriate announcement, then organization/system defaults. The announcement ends the call; it does not record a caller voicemail message.

Incoming Numbers and Sources

Assign a dedicated incoming number when this queue should receive calls on its own line. Showing the organization main number as outgoing caller ID does not make that number a dedicated entry line for this queue. Main-number calls follow the Receptionist and customer-context routing rules.

For tracked vendor or website calls, attach a compatible source with the Live inbound calls acquisition type and an explicit tracking number. Source assignment does not purchase a number or switch its service. See Source Tracking and How Inbound Calls Route.

Optional Follow-Up

The follow-up disclosure keeps any configured Pulse, enrollment automation, and dialing settings accessible. Receiving a call does not automatically enroll the caller into campaign Pulse. Configure the enrollment relationship explicitly.

A requested callback from incoming fallback is a separate promise: careCycle reserves an agent before dialing the customer. It is not the campaign's ordinary Pulse cadence or the Receptionist's AI inquiry-callback workflow.

Outbound Agent Queue Configuration

An Outbound Agent Queue manages proactive calls that your human team handles. Its main setup connects an audience, a routing group, caller IDs, and a published Pulse sequence.

Enrollment and Exit

Configure Enrollment Automations for supported events or date anchors, plus conditions that identify the intended customer records. Manual/import/API enrollment can also be part of your process. Check the exact field, date, policy, and source semantics before enabling a rule.

Exit rules end the specified membership under their configured conditions. Enrolling someone in another campaign does not inherently cancel their existing journeys. Configure any intended transition or stop explicitly.

Routing, Script, and Wrap-Up

Choose the routing group that supplies the agents for new campaign calls. Review its agents, screen/script, human dispositions, and outgoing no-agent fallback. Human disposition sets belong to the routing group, with organization defaults used where applicable; they are not the AI disposition selections.

Pulse uses the human disposition's stable outcome type, such as Contacted, No Contact, Bad Contact, Voicemail, Sale, or Callback, to choose a next step. Renaming a disposition is not the same as changing its outcome type. Do Not Call stops outreach and suppression takes precedence over a saved branch.

Calling Numbers and Rotation

Choose your outgoing Main number or Number pool. A pool must contain enabled campaign-owned numbers. Rotation can limit daily use per number and configure eligible procurement states and maximum pool size. Lowering a limit does not itself release existing numbers.

Customers returning a missed call use this campaign's incoming handling when calling its dedicated number. Review the daytime group and after-hours unavailable behavior even if the campaign's primary job is outbound.

Dialing Ratio and Capacity

Under Dialing, choose Dials per ready agent. A ratio of 1.0x allows one dial per ready agent before other limits; higher ratios allow more customer lines to compensate for unanswered calls. They do not let one agent handle several conversations simultaneously.

The platform can lower the effective ratio when the measured abandonment rate rises. Shared-pool usage, retained campaign caps, and other eligibility/capacity checks still constrain calls. Zero ready agents means no new normal customer dials. Review the effective cap and outgoing-hours explanation in the disclosure; ordinary Agent Queue setup does not expose the Voice AI concurrency or after-hours dialing controls.

For governor thresholds and timing, see Agent Queue Operations.

Pulse Call Flow and Voicemail

Normal Agent Queue Pulse calls are dial-first:

1. careCycle checks capacity and dials the customer.
2. Answering-machine detection screens the answer.
3. A live-person result proceeds to eligible agent offers. An uncertain or failed classifier can fall through to agents rather than discard a possible person.
4. An answering machine follows the Pulse step's voicemail setting.
5. The agent who connects handles the conversation and completes wrap-up.

If nobody is ready before dialing, the customer waits. If a person answers but no agent connects, the outgoing no-agent path can offer an eligible callback or play the system-managed message. That abandonment has separate recovery ownership and does not simply follow an authored no-contact branch.

Open Pulse to review global/per-attempt voicemail and the call outcomes, messages, waits, and exits. A message for an answering machine is different from the live-person no-agent message and the incoming unavailable announcement.

Explicitly requested callbacks are accept-first: an agent accepts before the customer is dialed. Read Agent Queue Operations for the detailed routing, callback, pacing, and message contracts.

Review Before Activation

An employee simulation checks the simulated conversation and tools. It does not prove live phone routing, agent readiness, SMS delivery, or every enrollment and publication interaction. Use supported test controls and review any setup blockers before activation.

Pause and Monitor

Pausing stops proactive campaign calls and texts while keeping customer progress. Already connected calls continue. Dedicated paused campaigns can still receive incoming calls, while new callback offers require an active campaign. Pausing does not migrate queued work, rebind existing calls, or restart completed journeys.

On Overview, use the selected period for activity and recorded outcomes. Inbound queues emphasize offered calls, human answers, wait, exits, and callback promises. Outbound work also has enrollment/attempt/cohort measures. Lifetime journey counts and live staffing have different time bases from period activity.

Cadence completed, a connected call, a transfer, an appointment created, and an inquiry resolved are separate facts. Define the business outcome you want and use evidence that actually measures it. Use Wallboard for current operations and Why Wasn't My Customer Called? for delivery investigations.

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