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An action is a piece of real work your agent does during a conversation: booking into your calendar, passing the call to a person, sending a text, updating your CRM. Without actions your agent can only talk. With them it finishes the job before the caller hangs up.

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What your agent can do with actions

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When an action runs

Your agent decides during the conversation, based on what the caller asks for and what your instructions tell it to do. You do not script the moment. You switch the action on, and describe when it should be used. That means two things worth knowing. Your agent will sometimes not use an action you expected, usually because your instructions never said to. And an action that takes a few seconds is a few seconds the caller is waiting, so keep the set small and purposeful.

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What happens when an action fails

If your calendar is unreachable or your own system does not answer, the action fails and the call carries on. Your agent tells the caller it could not complete the task, so what it says next comes from your instructions. Writing that fallback down is the difference between “I am not able to book that right now, can I take your number” and an agent improvising. You can see which actions ran on any call afterwards. See An action did not run.

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What actions cannot do

  • They cannot take a card payment. Send a payment link by text instead.
  • They cannot make your agent do something it was never told about. An action switched on but never mentioned in your instructions may go unused.
  • They cannot fix a bad conversation. An agent that misunderstands the caller will run the wrong action just as confidently.

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What else you can do here

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FAQ

Actions let your agent do things rather than only say things: book an appointment, transfer a call, send a confirmation, update a record. An agent with no actions can hold a good conversation and finish nothing.
Yes. Connect Google Calendar, switch on the booking action, and your agent checks availability and books during the call with nobody on your side involved. See Book appointments.
Not for the built in ones or for anything in the app store: you connect the tool and choose what your agent may do. A custom action, which reaches your own software, needs someone technical for about an hour. See Do I need a developer.
Actions themselves do not. What they do can: emails count against your plan’s email allowance, and texts and outbound calls use your usual allowances. See Limits.
Yes. Each call record shows what your agent did, so you can tell an action that never ran from one that ran and failed. That distinction is the first thing to check when a booking did not appear. See An action did not run.
As few as do the job. Each action is another decision your agent makes mid call and another few seconds the caller may wait. Most agents need booking and transfer, and add a third only for a real need.
The call continues and your agent tells the caller it could not complete the task. What it offers next comes from your instructions, so write that fallback down: take a number, offer a callback, or transfer. See Write what your agent says.
Usually because nothing in its instructions told it when to. Switching an action on makes it available, and your instructions decide when it is used. Say plainly when the action applies, then test that exact situation.