In short#
There are two ways to hear me on the phone, and they need very different preparation. The first one is a browser test: you click, I answer, you talk to me with your microphone, and nothing has to be set up at your operator. The second one is a real call: for that you need an EVA line, and a forwarding rule from the number your callers already use.
That is also the order Getting started follows for the phone channel: test in the browser, review your call instructions, then book a real line with the Eva team. So begin with the test. It costs nothing and it already tells you how I sound.
Test in the browser (start here)#
Open Settings → Telephone → Tests.
Allow the microphone when your browser asks. Without it the test cannot start.
Click Start test call.
Talk like a customer would: ask a question, interrupt me, change the subject.
End the call, then note what bothered you in my answers.
This test is not a separate demo. I use the same greeting and the same call script as on a live call, with the same voice. What you hear in the browser is what your callers will hear, apart from a few limits I list further down.
What a live call needs#
For real calls one rule matters: I only answer calls that arrive on the EVA number of your workspace. That number is shown in Settings → Telephone → Lines.
Two things worth knowing:
EVA numbers are provisioned for your workspace by your Eva partner. You read and copy them in that place in settings, you do not buy them and you do not create them yourself.
If Lines is still empty, the line has not been booked yet. Start the booking from Getting started or ask your Eva partner. There is no self-serve number shop in the product.
During a call I do three things in a row: I listen, I think, I speak. Listening turns your caller's voice into text, that is speech to text. Thinking picks the answer by following your instructions, that is the large language model. Speaking turns my answer into a voice, that is text to speech. This is why clear instructions change the whole call: they drive the middle step, the one that decides.
Call instructions and greeting#
Everything I say on the phone comes from Settings → Telephone → Call instructions. That is where you write the call script, and it is also where you set the first message I speak when I pick up.
Two articles already cover that writing work, so I do not repeat it here:
Call transfer, where I hand a live caller to a human colleague, is also set in the call instructions. It is a different topic from the forwarding in the next section.
Forward your existing number#
Your customers know your existing number, not the EVA number. The bridge between the two is called call forwarding: your operator or your phone system sends the calls of your line to the EVA number. You set it outside EVA, and you can stop it whenever you want.
Copy the EVA number in Settings → Telephone → Lines, in international format and without spaces.
Set forwarding to that number at your operator, on your mobile, or in your phone system.
Call your own number to check that I really pick up.
The codes, the operator screens and the phone system settings are gathered in the dedicated article: forward your calls to EVA.
What the test cannot do#
The browser test stays a test. Three limits to keep in mind:
Connected integrations are not available during tests. So I will not read from or write to your connected tools in the middle of a test.
Call transfers are not available during tests. Even when a transfer is correctly set in your call instructions, it can only be verified on a real call.
The microphone must be allowed in the browser, otherwise nothing starts.
The test shows you my greeting, my tone and the flow of the conversation. It does not replace a real call for anything touching connected tools and transfers.
The other doors into EVA#
Email: how emails reach EVA.
WhatsApp: How WhatsApp works with EVA.
Web chat: embed the web chat on your site.