Your voice assistant asks: who is calling?
A voice assistant picks up before a human does. It does not know who is calling – but it can ask. This page shows how to teach it the question.
It takes no contract and no partner status. You create a key in your portal and enter five items in your assistant. If your platform allows its own API calls, you are done in ten minutes.
- The phone rings the assistant answers
- The assistant asks for the number
- Haus iT Caller ID standardises it
- Your CRM or ERP looks it up Your customer data stays here
- The conversation opens with the name
- Handover to Webex the sidebar shows the same person
First: can your platform do this?
Three things are required. If one is missing, the rest does not help – and it is better to know that now than after the third attempt:
- Call an external interface during the conversation. Depending on the vendor this is called "function calling", "custom tool", "webhook tool" or "API request"
- Set its own header while doing so. Without it the key does not travel, and without the key there is no answer. This is where most platforms fail
- Use the answer in the dialogue. An assistant that only writes it to a log never says the name
The five entries
Every platform names the fields differently, but it is always the same five:
- Address: `https://hausit-portal.de/api/anrufer`
- Method: `POST` – a phone number does not belong in a URL; it would end up in every access log
- Header: `Authorization: Bearer YOUR_KEY` and `Content-Type: application/json`
- Body: `{"nummer": "+49…"}` – on most platforms this is built automatically from the function description
- Function description: see below
The function description
This block tells the assistant when to ask and what the parameter is called. It can be pasted unchanged; your portal shows it again ready to copy.
The parameter is named `nummer`. International format (`+49…`) is preferred, but other notations are understood as well.
What comes back
- `treffer` – true or false. On false the caller is unknown; your assistant should then simply ask for the name and not pretend to know it
- `name` and `firma` from your system
- `kundennummer` if your system keeps one
- `quelle` – which system the answer came from
- `mehrdeutig` – true if several contacts share that number
- `hinweis` – a sentence for the assistant on how to treat the name
- `ansprache` – the same name, but to be spoken: no legal form, "and" spelled out
A name to display is not a name to speak
The Webex sidebar shows the name; your assistant says it. That is not the same: "Mustermann - Beispiel & Partner oHG" is read aloud as "Mustermann dash Beispiel and Partner o-H-G".
That is why `ansprache` sits next to `name` – the same name without the legal form, with "and" spelled out and without dashes between words. `name` stays unchanged: it belongs in the display and in every log. Use `ansprache` to greet, `name` to mean the record.
The two fields that are easily missed
`mehrdeutig` and `hinweis` belong in your assistant’s instructions. The reason: a name says something about the line, not about the person on it. Whoever calls from a law firm, a practice or a switchboard is often not the person listed beside that number.
The assistant may use the name to address the caller. It is no proof of identity: anyone asking for customer-specific information still has to identify themselves – on the phone as at the counter.
One key per assistant
Create a separate key with its own label for each assistant. The portal then shows which one is asking and how often – and a single key can be revoked without switching off the others.
A key is valid for one tenant. That is not a limitation but the protection: an assistant answering for another company cannot resolve contacts that are not its own.
When it does not work
The portal has a function test: you enter a number you know and see exactly the answer an assistant would get. The key is deliberately not checked – it is not held by us.
If the test answers with a name and your assistant still does not, the cause is the key or the address, not the data. If the test does not answer either, the CRM connection is missing – then the assistant is not the problem.
If the far system stays silent, the request aborts after at most 4.1 seconds. Your assistant waits no longer than a conversation can bear.
Frequently asked questions
What do I need so my voice assistant knows the caller?
A key from the Haus iT portal and five entries in your assistant: address, POST, a header carrying the key, the phone number in the body, and a short function description. That is all.
Does this work with my platform?
If your assistant can call an external interface during the conversation and set its own header: yes. If it can only send a webhook after the call, that is not enough – the answer arrives too late.
What does the connection cost?
Access is part of the portal. The Webex sidebar is billed per user and month; the assistant interface is not charged on top.
Is the content of the call processed?
No. We receive a phone number and answer with a name. What is said in the conversation never reaches us.
What if several contacts share the same number?
The answer says so: the field "mehrdeutig" (ambiguous) is then true. At a switchboard or a practice the name says nothing about the person on the line – your assistant should not treat it as proof of identity.
Can I connect several assistants?
Yes, and you should: each gets its own key with its own label. The figures in the portal then show which one is asking – and a single key can be revoked without switching off the others.