Running a contact center means balancing speed with service quality. When your lines are busy, giving callers the option to request a callback—rather than waiting on hold—can reduce abandoned calls and boost customer satisfaction. Aircall now offers two types of callback management:
- Manual Callbacks
- Automated Callbacks (new and recommended)
⚠️ Available for customers on the Professional Plan and above. Enabled by default for new customers. Requires manual opt-in for existing accounts.
🆕 Why Choose Automated Callbacks?
Automated callbacks significantly streamline your operations by taking the manual workload off agents and ensuring timely follow-ups. Instead of appearing as to-dos in the phone app, callback requests stay in the queue and are automatically handled when an agent becomes available.
1. Automated Callbacks (Recommended)
Automated Callbacks offer a more efficient, customer-friendly way to handle callbacks.
How It Works
- Callers press * while waiting in the queue.
- A confirmation message plays, and the call ends.
- Aircall saves their place in the queue.
- When an agent is free, Aircall automatically triggers a call back to the customer.
- The agent receives a labeled Callback Request call.
- Presses “Call back” to initiate the outbound call.
- The interaction behaves like any standard outbound call.
Setup Steps
- Go to Admin Dashboard > Numbers.
- Select a number, go to Settings > Callbacks.
- Enable both:
- Allow callback requests
- Automated Callbacks
- Set a confirmation message.
Reporting
Each callback creates two linked entries (both visible in Live Monitoring and Call History):
- Inbound Missed Call tagged Callback Request.
- In Live Monitoring, the inbound call appears in a special “Callback Pending” state until a callback request is sent to the available agent and this agent picks up.
- Outbound Call tagged Callback, linked to the original call.
- This will only be displayed if the agent accepts the callback request call.
Callback pending in Live Monitoring (after a callback is requested)
Callback execution (outbound callback call has been triggered and accepted by the original caller).
To help you better track callback activity, we’ve added the following fields to Call History:
- Callback Details: Provides a direct link to either the original inbound call’s timeline or the Conversation Center page for the outbound callback.
- Callback Failed Reason: Explains why a callback wasn’t completed (e.g., no answer, agent declined).
- Callback Pending Time: Shows how long the callback request waited in the queue before being handled.
2. Manual Callback Requests
With manual callbacks, callers can press the * key during certain audio messages (e.g., Welcome Message, Waiting Music) to request a callback.
How It Works
- Callers press * while waiting in the queue.
- A confirmation message plays, and the call ends.
- A notification appears in the agent’s Conversations and Calls list in Aircall Workspace
- Agents must manually call the customer back.
- The request remains in the Calls list in Aircall Workspace until someone initiates a callback.
Setup Steps
- Go to the Admin Dashboard.
- Choose the number > Settings tab.
- Scroll to Callback request and enable it.
- Customize the callback message and configure an Audio Widget instructing customers to press *.
Reporting
- These calls appear as Missed calls tagged with Callback Request.
- After an agent calls back, the tag updates to Callback Request / Called Back.
Notes
- Callback requests are only supported during specific audio widget phases (Audio Widgets and Waiting Experience widgets), not during IVRs.
- Visibility of callback requests is limited to users assigned to the phone line where the feature is active. Only those users will see the request in their Calls section in Aircall Workspace.
- Manual callback requests remain visible in the Calls list until an agent completes the actual callback to the customer’s number. If the customer calls back on their own and reaches an agent before the callback is made, the original request will still be listed as pending.
- Calls from masked/anonymous numbers will always require manual follow-up.