Outreach & Callbacks

Outreach is Asisto calling outward instead of waiting. A lead arrives, a customer asks to be rung, or somebody hangs up before you answer, and the AI receptionist picks up the phone.

It is one engine with several doors. However a contact arrives, the same rules apply: the same limits, the same calling hours, the same do-not-call list.

The three things it does#

Calls new leads fast. A contact is created in HubSpot, or posted to your webhook, and the phone rings within seconds while they are still thinking about you.

Lets customers ask to be called. Mid-text-conversation, your AI offers a quick call. The customer picks a time, gets a reminder, and can cancel with one reply.

Rings back missed calls. Somebody calls, nobody answers, and the AI calls them back rather than losing them to whoever they dial next.

Calling a new lead#

By default each new contact gets at most three calls and three texts:

1. The first call, as soon as the contact arrives.
2. A text, straight after that call if nobody answered, while the missed call is still on their screen.
3. A second call about twenty minutes later, then another text.
4. A third call the next working day, and a final text with your booking link.

The sequence stops the moment it succeeds or the moment it should: the customer answers and has a real conversation, books an appointment, replies to a text, asks not to be called, or turns out to be a wrong number.

Where leads come from#

• HubSpot, connected in one click from Settings, Organization, Integrations. New contacts are picked up within seconds.
• Your own webhook, from a website form, Zapier, Make, n8n, or your own software. See Autodial API.
• Missed calls, ringing back anybody whose call went unanswered. Off by default.
• Inbound texts, following up by phone on a first text from a new number. Off by default.
• By hand, using Call now on any contact.

Every lead becomes a contact in your dashboard, tagged with where it came from.

Calls your customers ask for#

This is the one that closes deals. Texting is convenient but slow, and a two minute call finishes what twenty messages will not.

Your AI offers a call when it will help:

• The customer is comparing options, asking about price, or close to deciding.
• The question is genuinely involved, with several services or an unusual situation.
• The conversation has gone several messages without landing anywhere.
• They ask for a person, or ask to talk.

It offers concrete times rather than an open question, because "I could call you at 2:00 or after 4:30, which is easier?" gets an answer and "when would you like a call?" does not. It offers once per topic and then lets it go, so nobody feels pushed.

What the customer gets#

• A confirmation with the exact time, in their own timezone.
• A reminder text fifteen minutes before.
• The ability to cancel or move it in one reply. CANCEL CALL works, and so does simply saying so.
• A call that already knows what they asked about. The whole text conversation is carried onto the call, so nobody has to explain twice.

If they do not answer#

The AI leaves a voicemail and texts to offer another time. It does not simply ring again, because somebody who asked to be called at 2pm did not agree to be called at 2:20. If they name a new time, it tries again, up to three calls in a day. After that it stops calling and invites them to reply or book online whenever suits.

Requested calls have their own allowance#

A person who asks to be called is not a cold lead, so these calls do not consume the three-call limit above. Somebody you followed up last week can still text "call me" today and get through.

They also run on a wider window, 7am to 10pm in the customer's own time, and do not require your business to be open, because the AI can handle the call alone.

Booking by call, by text, or both#

The point is that a customer never has to change channel to get what they need.

• Anything that can be finished by text is finished by text.
• When a booking stalls on something awkward to type, the AI offers a call and finishes it there.
• On a call, the AI can text the address, the booking link, or the confirmation, because some things are easier to read than to hear.
• On a call, a customer can ask to be rung back later, and it is arranged the same way.

An appointment and a call are kept deliberately separate. An appointment is the service itself. A call is a conversation about it. The AI will not book one when you asked for the other.

When calls are allowed#

Two rules apply at once for lead follow-up, and both have to be satisfied.

Your customer's local time. Calls are placed between 8am and 9pm where they are, not where you are. Where the timezone has to be worked out from their phone number, the window narrows by an hour at each end, because an area code is not a reliable guide to where somebody lives.

Your opening hours. By default a call only goes out while you are open, so there is somebody to transfer to. You can turn this off.

A retry that would land outside either window waits for the next one. Nothing is lost, it simply has not happened yet.

Calls your customer booked themselves use the wider 7am to 10pm window and ignore your opening hours, as described above.

Answering machines, voicemail, and call screening#

When somebody's phone answers instead of the person, the AI works out which it is dealing with.

• An answering machine gets your voicemail message, left once per contact rather than on every attempt.
• Call screening, where an iPhone or Pixel answers and asks "who's calling and why?", gets a real answer: who is calling, and about what. The person reading the live transcript can then pick up, and the conversation continues normally. You can edit exactly what is said.
• A disconnected number ends the sequence and joins your do-not-call list, rather than absorbing two more calls and three texts.

Connecting HubSpot#

Go to Settings, Organization, Integrations and press Connect HubSpot. You are taken to HubSpot's own consent screen, where you approve the connection, and returned to Asisto. Nothing is typed into Asisto, and no HubSpot password is ever entered here.

Once connected, the page shows whether it is healthy, how many contacts it has picked up, how many were called in the last thirty days, and when it last checked. If HubSpot access is ever revoked from their side, the page says so plainly and you are emailed, because a silent CRM looks exactly like a quiet week.

There is one switch worth knowing about: call new contacts automatically. Turn it off and contacts still flow into your dashboard, but nobody is phoned. That is the setting to use while you are still deciding.

Disconnecting stops new contacts being picked up. Anybody already in a sequence is still called, because they have already been told they would be.

Consent and do-not-call#

By default a contact is only called if there is a consent record: a form submission, a HubSpot property, the fact that they rang you first, or the fact that they asked to be called. You can change this per business, and the change is recorded.

Everything is written to a ledger you can export as a spreadsheet: who consented, when, on what evidence, and every number on your do-not-call list with the reason and the date it was added.

Texting STOP stops texts, as always. A number added to the do-not-call list stops calls too, and stops anything already scheduled.

Limits and controls#

• Three calls and three texts per contact for lead follow-up. Configure fewer if you prefer.
• Three requested calls per number per day, on a separate allowance.
• A daily limit on new contacts per business, so a bulk import into your CRM does not become a calling list.
• A limit on simultaneous calls, so your team is not overwhelmed.
• An optional monthly minute cap, after which calling pauses and you are emailed.
• A cooldown before the same person is enrolled again, thirty days by default.
• Pause outreach on the Outreach page stops everything immediately, including calls already scheduled.

What you can see#

The Outreach page shows the funnel: contacts enrolled, contacts reached, appointments booked. Next to it sits speed to lead, as a median and a 95th percentile, because a good median hides the leads that waited an hour.

It also shows how many connections were reached only after answering call screening, so you can tell whether that answer is doing its job.

Every contact has an Outreach tab with the full story: each call, each text, what happened, and when the next attempt is due.

If something stops working#

You are emailed when outbound follow-up breaks: a disconnected HubSpot, a messaging registration that is not approved yet, a monthly cap reached. These are worth acting on, because when autodial stops nothing looks wrong. No calls going out looks exactly like no leads coming in.