VideoAsk is many things: It's a video-based form, a way to nurture leads through asynchronous video conversations, and now...it's a way to allow your strongest leads to hop on a live video call with you.
If you're on a paid plan, you can use the live call answer type to allow respondents to call you directly through VideoAsk. Used in conjunction with other steps or answer types, this is a great way to qualify leads or clients and then, if qualified, give them the option to call you directly.
Check out the tutorial video below ⬇️ or scroll down for a step-by-step guide!
Currently, you can answer a live call from inside your VideoAsk account on your web browser, or directly from the VideoAsk app on your iOS device. Keep reading for more details!
💡 Tip: If you want respondents to schedule an appointment before getting on a live call, you have this option with our Calendly, Hubspot Meetings, Acuity, or OnceHub integrations.
✨ Good to know: Using the live call answer type does not use up any processing minutes.
Jump to:
Set up working hours and vacation mode
Accept or decline an incoming call
Set up a live call step
1. Once you've created a new step, click the answer type to change it.
2. Select Live Call from the dropdown menu.
3. If desired, update the Call to action text (the button that will prompt respondents to call you).
If respondents click the Call to action button, they will start calling you.
4. If desired, you can also customize the Rejection text.
If respondents click the Rejection button, they'll skip the live call and go to the end screen.
5. Finally, set up the logic to determine where respondents will be taken after they've called you.
You can choose a route for when a call has been completed (the respondent and creator connect on a live call) and a different one for when a call is incomplete (the respondent starts and then ends a call before it is answered, or they choose not to call).
To do this, either create a new step:
And follow the prompts:
Or update the logic for existing steps in the Logic tab:
Note: The logic you set for Call incomplete will be used when a respondent clicks the rejection button (ie chooses not to call you) and when they click Hang up & continue (after choosing to call you but hanging up before their call is answered).
Set up working hours and vacation mode
You can set up working hours and turn on vacation mode to make sure live calls don't come through to you when you're enjoying a cocktail on a tropical island somewhere. 🍹
⚠️ Important: If you've invited team members to your organization, make sure all members set their working hours. Otherwise, respondents will be able to start a live call at any time of day (or night), even if you've set up your working hours as the organization owner.
1. Click Account & Org settings in the bottom left-hand corner of your account.
2. Click Notifications.
3. Scroll down until you see Set working hours and Turn on vacation mode.
Set working hours
1. Toggle on Set working hours.
2. By default, your working days will be set as Monday-Friday. Edit your schedule by clicking on the letter representing the day of the week. If the letter has a purple border, this means it's set as a working day.
We work Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays, so we'll set that up below:
3. Choose the time your workdays start and end from the dropdown options, and make sure to set the correct timezone depending on where you are on the planet.
Changes you make will save automatically. Now, you won't receive any live calls outside of your working hours. If all team members have set working hours, respondents will see the following screen when they get to the live call step in your videoask but nobody is working at that time:
Turn on vacation mode
1. Toggle on Turn on vacation mode.
2. Choose the start and end date of your vacation by clicking in the date box and selecting the dates.
3. Make sure the correct timezone is selected from the dropdown options.
And that's it! All changes will be saved automatically. Now when a respondent gets to the live call step in your videoask (and providing you don't have other team members in the organization who can take the call) they'll see the following screen:
Note: If you've set up permissions to restrict team members' access to specific folders, they'll only receive incoming calls made from videoasks located in folders they have permission to view, or in the Default folder.
Accept or decline an incoming call
Respondent initiates a call
When a respondent reaches your live call step, they can click the call to action button to start calling you.
They will see this screen while waiting for you or a team member to accept their call:
Should the respondent click Hang up & continue before you accept their call, they will advance to the step you set for Call incomplete.
Accept or decline a call
Meanwhile, when a respondent calls you through VideoAsk, you and any of your team members will see (and hear!) an incoming call wherever you are in the app with the option to accept or decline the call.
Note: If you've set up permissions to restrict team members' access to specific folders, they'll only receive incoming calls made from videoasks located in folders they have permission to view, or in the Default folder.
If you have multiple team members in your VideoAsk organization, you can take multiple live calls simultaneously.
If you accept the call, a live video call will immediately start with the respondent (so make sure you're camera ready!)
Once on the call, you and your respondent can turn off your camera or mute yourself at any time by clicking the microphone and camera icons.
Once the call is completed respondents will advance to the step you set for Call completed.
If you decline the call, the respondent will advance to the step you set for Call incomplete.
Call retries
If no one on your team answers their call and it times out, the respondent will be given the option to retry the call. If they click Retry call it will once again ring and you and your teammates will have another opportunity to accept it.
If the respondent clicks Never mind, let's continue, they will advance to the step you set for Call incomplete. You can think of this step as a kind of answer machine fallback step and if you choose the open ended answer type you can encourage your respondent to leave you an asynchronous message via video, audio, or text.
Answer a live call in the iOS app
If you use our VideoAsk iOS app and would like to answer live calls you receive in your videoask on the go, you absolutely can!
Note: To use this feature, make sure you are using version 3.5.3 or above.
Enable push notifications
In order for your phone to ring when you receive a call in a videoask, you will first need to enable push notifications.
1. In the VideoAsk app, go to My Account.
2. Select My Notifications.
3. Tap to enable Push notifications.
Note: Enabling push notifications in the VideoAsk app is separate from your iOS notification settings. This means you can turn off all other push notifications (ie seeing a banner when you receive a new videoask response) but your phone will still ring when a respondent starts a live call.
Answer an incoming call
1. When a live call comes through, you will see it on your lock screen with the option to answer it, just like you would a regular phone call. Tap Accept to open the VideoAsk app and start the call.
2. You'll then be prompted to give VideoAsk access to your camera and microphone (if you've never granted these permissions before). Tap Continue.
3. Give permission to access your camera by tapping OK.
4. Give permission to your microphone by tapping OK.
5. This may seem a little redundant, but we'll ask you one more time for access to your camera and microphone - tap Allow.
6. Make sure to get your camera face ready while the call is connecting. At the top of your screen, you'll see a green dot to indicate your camera is on.
7. That's it! You'll now connect with your client or customer for a lovely conversation. When you're ready to end the call, tap the red X icon.
Note: You may need to tap your screen for the Mute, Turn off video, and End call options to display.
FAQ
Can I record my call?
Currently, this is not built into VideoAsk. If you would like to record a live call that is done through VideoAsk, you can do so with your native screen recording app or a third-party app (such as CloudApp or Loom).
How will this affect my minutes?
We calculate the usage of your plan based on the number of minutes of audio or video files that are transcribed per month. Because we do not save recordings of live calls, no video is transcoded, and therefore the time spent on a live call will not affect your overall usage for the month.
What's the best way to be notified when someone calls?
You'll need to be logged in to your VideoAsk account to receive live call notifications on your desktop or iOS device. You can schedule an appointment with your respondents before getting on a live call and know when to expect the notification. You can schedule appointments with our Calendly, Hubspot meetings, Acuity, or ScheduleOnce integrations.
If I'm logged into VideoAsk on multiple devices, where will the live call ring?
The live call will come through to all the devices where you're logged in to VideoAsk so you can choose which device you'd like to answer with.