Your agent handles a caller it already knows differently from a stranger. It greets them by name, skips the questions a new caller would face, and can go straight to helping them. It also remembers a few basic details between calls, so nobody has to repeat themselves.
None of this needs setting up — it is on for every agent, on every plan. This article explains what it does, so the behaviour on your calls isn't a surprise.
For callers who are not on file, see Setting up Prospective Resident Intake. For the documents your agent references about your business, see Adding a Knowledge Base.
Who counts as "already known"
Your agent checks the caller's phone number against your records at the moment the call connects. Someone counts as known when they hold a role in your account — a resident, an owner, a vendor, or a member of your staff.
Being in your contacts is not by itself enough. Someone who called once about renting, and has never become anything more, is treated as a new caller each time. That is deliberate: a prospect who has already spoken to you may still be shopping, and sending them down the returning-caller path would skip the leasing questions you want asked.
The switch is automatic. There is no setting for it and nothing to configure per caller.
What changes on a returning call
They're greeted by name, in the same breath as the recording notice.
They skip qualification — your agent doesn't ask a resident the questions it would ask a prospective one.
They can be transferred, if they ask for someone or something you've set up a destination for. Configure destinations under Agent → Transfers & Escalation.
They can book an appointment, if you've switched that on and connected a calendar. That toggle is under Agent → Schedule Appointments.
They can leave a message. Always available, whatever else happens on the call.
Residents also get their unit and their property's details, so your agent can answer questions about where they live without asking which building they're in. That happens only for residents you or an import added — never on a caller's say-so alone.
What your agent remembers
Three things, captured in the ordinary course of calls:
Name — from the first time a caller gives it.
Phone number — how the caller is recognised on every future call.
Email address — captured when they book an appointment.
Your agent uses these to greet people by name, pre-fill what it can when booking, and avoid re-asking. They're stored on the caller's record and can't be edited from a settings page — they're collected through conversation. To see what's on file for a particular caller, open the call under Calls and check the caller details.
What if a caller isn't recognised?
Nothing breaks. An unrecognised caller is simply handled as a new one — asked their name, asked which property they're calling about, and taken through intake. Caller ID can fail for ordinary reasons: a withheld number, a new phone, calling from work.
This is also why your agent never confirms who lives where. Caller ID alone is a weak signal, and anything it granted would be granted to anyone able to spoof a number.