Volume Reach

Lead Arrived Trigger

Auto-dial new leads within 5 seconds of arrival. Configure quiet hours, rate limits and retry behavior from one settings page.

Overview

The Lead Arrived trigger is the engine behind Volume Reach's speed-to-lead promise. When a new lead lands at your POST /api/v1/leads/inbound endpoint — via a CRM webhook, a form post, or a Zapier action — Volume Reach normalizes the payload, persists the lead, and dials it with an AI voice agent within 5 seconds.

This page covers the settings page at /automation/lead-arrived. The underlying webhook endpoint contract is documented at Public API → Leads Inbound.

When the trigger fires

Webhook arrives at /api/v1/leads/inbound
    ↓
Lead normalized + deduped + persisted (LeadConsent ledger entry recorded)
    ↓
Lead Arrived trigger fires (this page's settings apply here)
    ↓
AI voice agent dials within 5 seconds
    ↓
Call outcome posted back; if INTERESTED, qualified-lead notifications fire

The trigger respects the settings on this page in order: enabled → quiet hours → rate limit → agent warmup → call placement. (The consent setting is not currently enforced — see below.)

Setup walkthrough

  1. Go to Automation → Lead Arrived in the sidebar (under Triggers).
  2. Pick the voice agent that will answer lead-arrived calls. Two choices:
    • Use my default agent — the same agent that handles your dialer campaigns
    • Use a dedicated agent — a separate agent tuned for first-touch warm leads (recommended; lead-arrived prompts tend to be shorter and more confirmation-oriented than generic campaign prompts)
  3. Configure trigger behavior in the panel below:
    • Enable / Disable
    • Rate limit
    • Quiet hours
    • Retry on no-answer
    • Require consent
  4. Click Save. New settings apply to the very next lead that arrives.

Settings reference

Default voice agent

When set, every lead-arrived dial uses your chosen agent regardless of which campaign or template was active when the lead arrived. Falls back to your account default agent if left as "Use my default."

Why use a dedicated agent: a "calling about your inquiry" prompt converts better than a generic pitch. The lead already raised their hand — your agent should acknowledge that, not re-pitch.

Trigger enabled

Toggle the entire trigger off without losing your configuration. Useful for:

  • Switching to manual-only follow-up during a launch event
  • Pausing automation during agent prompt testing
  • Temporarily disabling while debugging upstream CRM webhooks

When off, leads still land at /api/v1/leads/inbound and persist normally — the AI just doesn't dial them. They stay visible under Leads → Not called yet.

Per-source auto-call

The switch above is account-wide. Each lead source also has its own Call these leads automatically? setting (Lead Sources when you connect it, or Settings → API keys later). A source set to No — the default for Podio, whose leads already went through your own process — is saved and never dialed, even while this trigger is on. Automations still run for it.

No agent yet

If the trigger is on but you have no voice agent, leads arrive and nobody calls them. This page and the dashboard warn you when that has happened in the last 24 hours; create an agent, or turn auto-call off for the source.

Rate limit

Default 5 calls per hour, per tenant. Range: 1–100.

The limit applies across all leads from this trigger. If you receive 8 leads in 10 minutes with a rate limit of 5, the first 5 dial immediately; leads 6–8 are deferred and re-evaluated when the rolling 1-hour window clears.

When to increase: launch events (cap=20–50), high-volume real-estate wholesalers with proven consent flows (cap=50–100). When to decrease: when your wallet is tight, when your team is small and qualified-lead notifications would outpace your follow-up capacity.

Quiet hours

Two <input type="time"> fields with format HH:MM (24-hour). Set both to enable, leave both empty to disable.

Example: 21:00 start → 08:00 end means no dialing 9pm–8am. Overnight wrap is the common pattern.

Times are evaluated in your account timezone. The settings panel shows your current account timezone inline and warns if your browser is set to a different timezone (so you don't accidentally set "9pm Pacific" thinking it's "9pm Eastern").

Defer-don't-drop: when a lead arrives during quiet hours, Volume Reach does not drop the lead. It sets dialDeferredUntil to the next window-close time and the defer scheduler picks the lead back up automatically. The AI dials when the window opens.

Retry on no-answer

When enabled (default), leads that don't answer the first AI dial are re-attempted with backoff:

  • Attempt 1: original dial
  • Attempt 2: 1 hour later
  • Attempt 3: 4 hours later
  • Attempt 4 (final): 24 hours later

After the 4th unanswered attempt, the lead is marked dormant. Re-engagement is manual from that point.

When disabled, only the first dial fires.

This setting is not currently enforced. New leads are dialed whether or not a consent record came with them, and whether or not this toggle is on. Do not rely on it as a TCPA safeguard. Consent has to be captured at the source — the form or ad that produces the lead — before that lead is ever sent to Volume Reach.

When a lead arrives with a consent block, Volume Reach still records it (the language, the time and the page it was captured on) so you have it on file. A lead that arrives without one is saved and called like any other; in your activity feed it reads Received.

TCPA best practices

Disclaimer: Volume Reach provides tools — you provide compliance. The settings below are operator guidance, not legal advice. Consult your attorney for your jurisdiction's specific rules.

  • Capture explicit consent on the form/landing page where the lead enters their information. Use a checkbox with explicit language (e.g., "I agree to receive automated calls and texts from {Your Company} at the phone number provided"). Vendors like ActiveProspect TrustedForm can capture and timestamp the consent for you.
  • Store timestamp + source URL with each consent record. Volume Reach's LeadConsent ledger captures this automatically when you POST consent block to /api/v1/leads/inbound — see Public API → Leads Inbound for the payload shape.
  • Set Require Consent to true on this trigger when you can't fully verify consent at the CRM source. It costs nothing to enable as a backstop.
  • Configure Quiet Hours to the most conservative window your business hours allow. Federal TCPA defaults to 8am–9pm in the called party's local time; many states have stricter rules.
  • Honor the federal DNC list and state-level DNC registries. Volume Reach respects the doNotContact flag on Contact records; integrate your DNC scrubbing upstream of /leads/inbound.
  • Retention — Volume Reach retains LeadConsent rows for ≥4 years (TCPA statute of limitations). Don't manually delete consent records.
  • Lead-local timezone for quiet hours is the safest defaults for compliance; Volume Reach v1 evaluates in your account timezone with per-area-code lead-local evaluation on the roadmap. Until then, configure quiet hours conservatively in your account timezone (e.g., 8pm–9am if you sell nationally).

Common pitfalls

  • Quiet hours not firing when you expected — most often a timezone mismatch. Check the timezone label on the Quiet hours card. If your account timezone is America/Los_Angeles but you set 21:00 thinking it was Eastern, your quiet window starts at 9pm Pacific (midnight Eastern). The settings panel surfaces an amber warning when your browser TZ differs from your account TZ.
  • Rate limit blocking a launch event — if you're running a high-volume campaign, the default 5/hr is too low. Raise it temporarily before the launch and revert afterward, OR set it permanently higher for your business profile.
  • Require Consent blocking dials that should fire — if you turned the toggle on but your CRM isn't sending consent block at ingestion, no leads will dial. Either ensure the consent block reaches /leads/inbound, OR turn the toggle off and rely on form-side consent capture as your primary control.
  • No calls fire at all even with the trigger enabled — verify your default voice agent exists and is active. Visit Agents → Voice and confirm at least one agent has the "Default" badge. A trigger with no resolvable agent silently skips dialing.

Related

TriggersSpeed-to-Lead Trigger