Phone calls & SMS with Twilio

Connect a Twilio account and your team can call and text candidates and contacts from Kepler. Every call and text lands on the person's record. Recorded calls get a transcript with each speaker separated and a written summary, and Kepler fills in the call's outcome for you.

Twilio is the telephone service: you open the account, buy the numbers, and Twilio bills you directly for them and for calls and texts.

Before you start, in Twilio

Most setup problems come from Twilio's account rules, not from Kepler. Do these in the Twilio console first:

1. Upgrade to a paid account. Trial accounts can't buy numbers or text other countries.
2. Get your business profile approved under Trust Hub → Primary profile. Twilio won't sell you a number until it's approved.
3. Buy a number for each person who calls or texts under Phone numbers → Buy a number. In many countries, including the UK, Twilio asks for proof of a local address before it issues a number, so allow a few days.
4. Switch on the countries you call and text in Twilio's geo permissions for voice and for messaging.

Connect Twilio

An admin opens Settings → Phone & messaging, chooses Connect a provider, picks Twilio and pastes the Account SID and Auth Token from the Twilio console home page.

Kepler then shows Finish setting up Twilio, a checklist that checks your account for you: numbers found, every number assigned to a person, calls from the browser, and countries switched on. Each step that needs Twilio links straight to the right page there. If you bought a number after connecting, choose Sync now from the account's Manage menu.

Give each person a line

Your Twilio numbers appear as lines on the same page. An admin sets Assigned to on each one. Each member calls and texts from the lines assigned to them; nobody can call or text until they have one.

Call from the browser

In the checklist, choose Turn on next to Call from the browser. Kepler sets it up in your Twilio account, so there's nothing to copy. Calls then use your computer's microphone and speakers. Your browser asks for the microphone the first time.

Record browser calls is a setting on the account. When it's on, the other person hears a notice that the call is recorded before it connects. You are responsible for any consent your local law requires.

Make a call

Select Call in a candidate's or contact's header, or the phone icon next to a number. If you have more than one line, choose which to Call from. Numbers need to be saved in international format (for example +44…).

While you talk, the call card shows who you're speaking to and takes notes that save as you type. When you hang up it asks How did it go?: pick an outcome, add notes, and add a follow-up task if you need one. When the call was recorded and transcription is on, Kepler writes the call up and sets the outcome itself; you can change it.

Answer incoming calls in Kepler

Turn on Ring in Kepler for a line (it needs browser calling and an assigned member). Calls to that number then ring in the member's Kepler tab with the caller's name, title and company. Answer opens their record. If nobody answers, the call goes to the number's usual routing and appears in your inbox as a missed call with Call back. Use the phone icon in the header to Pause for 1 hour.

Recordings, transcripts and summaries

Each call has its own page with the summary first, then the transcript with the two speakers separated. Select a line of the transcript to jump to that moment in the recording. Admins choose, on Settings → Phone & messaging:

Text messages

Select Text in a record's header, or the message icon next to a number. Replies come into the same conversation and onto the record. Turn on Receive texts for each line that should bring replies in.

• Opt-outs: when someone replies STOP (or UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END, QUIT), Kepler records it on their record and won't text them again until they reply START.
• Texting rules: set quiet hours (campaign texts wait until they end, in the recipient's local time where known), an opt-out footer for campaign texts, and extra STOP words.

Who sees calls and texts

For each account, an admin picks Everyone (everyone can read texts and open calls on these lines) or Activity only (others see who was contacted and when; the content stays with the line's member and admins).

Call outcomes

The outcomes start as Spoke to them, Left voicemail, No answer and Wrong number. Admins can rename them or add their own under Call outcomes; calls already marked keep their outcome under the new name.