How to set up the call flow builder

Tired of manually setting different call flows during business hours and after hours? With OpenPhone’s call flow builder, you only need to set up your call flows once — no manual adjustments needed. Check out this video for the full call flow builder experience!

We’ve updated your call flow settings so that you can customize how you ring users and set phone menus after business hours. You can also easily tweak your call flow settings with the new call flow canvas. 

In this guide, we’ll walk you through how you can access the new call flow builder and how you can set up and adjust your call flows.

How to access the new call flow builder

The call flow builder is available in OpenPhone on web and desktop. To edit your call flow:

1. Navigate to Settings.
2. Under Workspace, click Phone numbers.
3. Select the phone number you wish to add a call flow to.
4. Under Call flow, select the sample call flow canvas and select Edit call flow.

From there, you’ll be redirected to the call flow builder.

Navigating the call flow builder

The call flow builder uses a new visual layout to help you design call flows more efficiently and with greater control. 

Here are the elements to pay attention to as you explore the builder:

Steps: Each step in your call flow is represented in a step that you can add, replace, or modify to suit you.

Calling steps are call routing features you can add to your call flow. These include:

• Phone menu
• Ring users
• Voicemail
• Play audio
• Forward call

Condition steps are call routing features that adjust your call flow depending on whether a condition is fulfilled or not. 

The canvas: This is the visual layout where you can arrange your call steps to structure your flows. 

Adding steps

Adding call steps to your call flows is easy — just drag and drop call blocks into your call flows from the side panel of the builder.

You can also add a step by clicking the + button between two steps in a call flow.

Replacing steps in your call flows

Select the three-dot menu in the right corner of a block and choose Replace step to swap in a different step in the existing flow. 

You can also replace an existing step by selecting the step and selecting Replace step in the right panel of the builder. 

Configuring call steps

Configure your call steps to suit your team’s preferences.

To configure a step, select a call step in your call flow canvas. The step settings will appear in the right panel of the builder. You can then edit these settings to work best for you. 

Here are the different configurations available for each call block:

Business hours

Business hours is a condition block where calls are routed one way during business hours and another way after hours. 

You’ll need to configure your business hours from the main settings page and your hours will be applied to your call routing. 

To configure your business hours:

1. Go to Settings for your preferred phone number.
2. Toggle the Enable business hours switch on. This will result in an expanded menu where you can edit your availability. Note: OpenPhone currently only supports one, consecutive time period per day. You will not be able to add multiple time periods for one day.
3. Select the appropriate time zone and your (or your team's) daily availability by selecting the hours to the immediate right of Every day.
   If your team is off on weekends, you can click into Every day to set your schedule to Weekdays instead — or if your hours vary depending on the day, you can select Custom. Then add in your business hours.

To add a business hours step to your default call flow:

1. Drag and drop the Business hours block after your Incoming call trigger.
2. After you add a business hours block, the canvas will automatically create a During hours path and a After hours path. These paths are based on your business hours configuration in the previous menu. 

After adding your business hours step, you’ll need to add additional call steps to map out your call flows further for where callers get routed during and after hours.

Ring users

Add a ring order to your call flows with the ring users step. You can set up your ring order type and duration in this step.

• Ring order type: Choose from simultaneous ring, random batches, custom ring groups, and single users. 
• Ring duration: You can choose a total ring duration for simultaneous ring, a group ring duration, or a custom ring duration for each of your custom groups. 

To add a ring users step to your default call flow:

1. Drag and drop the Ring users step in the canvas. Keep in mind you can’t place it before the Incoming call trigger, Phone menu block, or Business hours block. 
2. Select the Ring users step and select your preferred Ring order type in the right panel of the call flow builder. You can choose from All at once, In random batches, Custom ring groups, and Single user ring order types. 

Ring order types

Below are descriptions of each ring order type in the ring users block and how to set each type of ring order.

All at once ring order

The All at once ring order is the default option for the ring users step. In this option, all team members that have shared access with an OpenPhone number will be notified at the same time of incoming calls.

Once you’ve selected the All at once option you can set a duration for which the call rings all your users. 

In random batches ring order

The random option allows you to specify a group size (based on the amount of team members with access to your OpenPhone number). Each random group receives incoming calls based on the ring duration you choose or until someone picks up. If no one in the last group takes the call, the call moves to the next step in your call flow.

To set In random batches ring order:

1. Select the In random batches ring order from the Ring order type dropdown menu.
2. Choose a batch size for your random batch ring order. 
3. Choose a group ring duration for your batches.
4. Your total ring duration will display below your group ring duration so you can see how long incoming calls will ring your team. 

Custom ring groups ring order

In a nutshell, custom ring order sends incoming call notifications based on the order of groups until someone picks up. If no one in the last group takes the call, the call goes to voicemail.

Custom ring order allows you to:

• specify which members with shared access to your OpenPhone are part of a specific group
• sort the ring order for each group if you want specific teammates to take calls first
• set the ring duration for each group that receives calls

Note: Custom ring order is only available to OpenPhone Business and Scale plan users. 

To set a Custom ring order:

1. Select the Custom ring order from the Ring order type dropdown menu.
2. Add the number of ring groups you wish to have in your ring order.
3. Within each ring group, select the users you wish to receive calls under Users.
4. Under Ring order you can either choose for any of these calls to be dialed at random or in batches (like random ring groups). If you wish to have only part of that group receive calls, you can select In groups to specify how many users in that group will receive incoming call notifications.
5. Add the ring duration for each ring group.

Single user ring order

With this ring order type, you can skip ringing a group and dial a specific member of the team. This option is great for small teams where individual team members handle a specific function. 

To set a Single user ring order:

1. Select the Single user ring order from the Ring order type dropdown menu.
2. Select your preferred team member from the User to ring dropdown menu. Note that only the users who have access to your shared number will be displayed.
3. Add the ring duration for the user.

Phone menu

The phone menu call step lets you add a phone menu to your call flow. You can adjust your phone menu greeting and keypad options in this call block. 

Add as many menu options as you need. Callers can navigate the menu using voice commands or keypad options. 

To add a phone menu step to your default call flow:

1. Drag and drop the Phone menu step into the canvas. You can either have a phone menu after an Incoming call trigger or after a Business hours  condition block (during or after hours). 
2. Select the phone menu step and edit your custom menu greeting and menu options in the right panel of the builder.
3. Click Change greeting to set a greeting message. You can set the greeting by uploading an audio file, recording yourself, or doing text to speech. If you need inspiration on what to include check out our auto-attendant scripts guide!
4. Click Add keypad option to add up to 10 different options that callers can navigate by pressing a number on the keypad. To the right of each option, you can also enter a keyword so that callers can select an option based on that word. 
5. Once you’ve chosen how many menu options you want, you can customize the path of each of these menu options. By default, the call flow builder will add a Ring users step after each menu option. To edit these blocks, select them and click Replace step in the right panel of the builder to choose a different call block. You can choose from these other phone menu options: Voicemail, Ring users, Play audio and route to default action, and Forward call 
6. By default, if a caller stays on the call without selecting a phone menu option, the call flow builder will default to a Voicemail step. Select the Voicemail step and click Replace step in the right panel of the builder to replace this option with another default option, including Ring users, Play audio, Forward call, and Repeat the menu.

Add different phone menus during your business hours and after hours. Use two different phone menu steps to offer custom experiences to your callers.

Voicemail

Need to send callers to voicemail in a call flow? Add the voicemail block. Here’s how you can add a voicemail block to your call flow:

1. 1. Drag and drop the Voicemail step to the canvas. You can only add the voicemail step after the Ring users step.
   2. Select the voicemail step in the right panel of the builder to edit your settings.
   3. Upload your voicemail greeting in the Voicemail greeting section:
      • If you have an existing audio file you want to use, Upload a file. We support MP3 or WAV files. If you need to convert yours, try a free audio converter like this one.
      • If you want to record your own audio, select the Record option and do it right in OpenPhone.
      • If you have a voicemail script (or a rough idea of what you want to tell callers who get to voicemail), select Text to speech to turn text into a professional voiceover.

         4. Toggle the Transcribe voicemail switch on for voicemail transcriptions.

         5. Toggle the Profanity filter switch on to filter your voicemails for profanity.

Play audio

Play an audio message or greeting for callers with the Play audio step. You choose where to add this option:

• After an incoming call play a greeting at the start of your call flow, before routing the caller.
• After ringing users share a message if no one answers—before ending the call or instead of voicemail.
• As a phone menu destination provide helpful info like hours, FAQs, or announcements.

Here’s how you can add a Play audio step to your call flow:

1. Drag and drop the Play audio step to the canvas. 
2. Select the Play audio step and edit your audio file in the right panel of the builder.
3. You can choose to Upload a file, Record audio or use a Text to speech file that you can enter directly in the step. 

Forward call

Need to forward a call to an external answering service or a backup forwarding number? Use the forward call block. 

Here’s how you can add a Forward call step to your call flow:

1. Drag and drop the Forward call step to the canvas. You can add a Forward call step after your Incoming call trigger or after the Ring users block. 
2. Select the Forward call step and edit your forwarding number in the right panel of the builder.
3. When you pick a forwarding number, you can choose from:
   • Shared OpenPhone inboxes in your workspace
   • Specific contacts
   • Other numbers (Keep in mind this must be a US or Canadian local number) 

Publish changes to your call flow

Every time you add a new step or make a change to an existing step in your call flow, you’ll be prompted to Publish changes in the call flow builder. If you don’t publish your changes, modifications to your call flow will not be saved.

Forwarding all calls

You can program your standard call flows in our Default call flow. If you want to forward all your calls to a backup forwarding number with its own call flow, you can use the Forward all calls call flow. 

1. Select the dropdown arrow next to Default call flow and select Forward all calls.

2. Choose your backup forwarding number and select Create new call flow. Keep in mind this must be a local US or Canadian phone number. 

That’s it - you’ve now activated a new forwarding call flow. You can toggle between your Default call flow and your Forward all calls call flow as you need. 

Learn more about the call flow builder

The call flow builder can get you up and running with your call flows quickly and efficiently. If you already have existing call flows set up in your account, they’ll migrate over to the new builder seamlessly.

Want to dive deeper? Learn how to improve your customer experience with the new call flow builder for more tips and best practices.