Answer support calls on the first ring, day or night
A Loop Voice inbound agent answers your store's number, handles order status, returns, shipping and sizing questions, and hands anything else to your team as a ticket with the order and the recording attached.
Inbound agents and support tickets shipped in July 2026.
- Call comes inPicked up on the first ring, 24/7
- Answers from store dataOrder status, returns, sizing
- Transfer in your hoursBriefs your teammate first
- Ticket for the restSummary, order and recording attached
- Nobody starts overCallbacks get the full story for 7 days
The short answer
An AI phone agent should answer the calls your team handles the same way every time, such as where-is-my-order, returns inside your policy and sizing, and pass everything else to a person with the conversation attached. Loop Voice's inbound agent answers on the first ring, uses the same knowledge base, objectives and guardrails as your outbound agents, and opens a support ticket automatically when it hands off.
A real inbound call: a safety question handled well
A caller nine months out from knee surgery asked a health device store whether its product was safe for them. The agent quoted the store's safety guidance, sent them to their physical therapist and surgeon, and didn't push a sale. The caller's verdict: "a home run."
Full transcripts are in the call library.
Phone trees make a simple question feel expensive, and calls that come in after hours wait until morning. Many store calls ask the same few things: where's my order, how do I return this, will it fit. An agent with your order data and policies can answer those at once and pass the exceptions on cleanly.
When it works, and when to skip it
Works well for
- Stores whose calls are mostly routine: order status, returns, shipping times, sizing.
- Teams that can't staff the phone in the evenings or at weekends.
- Stores that keep their policies written down: the agent answers from your site, policies, catalog and uploaded documents.
- Stores that also call shoppers: a customer called this week reaches the same agent when they call back.
Skip it for
- Lines where most calls need a decision, such as refund exceptions or damage claims; the agent would hand off most of them.
- Medical, legal or safety advice beyond what your published guidance says.
- Taking payments by phone. Payment stays in your checkout, and Loop Voice never stores card data.
Set it up in Loop Voice
Connect a number
Buy a number from Loop Voice in 90+ countries, import one you own from Twilio, or connect a SIP trunk from Twilio, Vonage or Telnyx.
Load what callers ask about
Loop Voice crawls your site pages, policies and FAQ and syncs your catalog. Upload the documents your team opens most: return policy, shipping times, warranty terms, safety guidance.
Write the handoff rules
List what the agent resolves and what it hands off. Built-in rules stop or escalate on negative sentiment, a do-not-contact request, complex refunds, and legal or medical questions; add your own.
Connect the helpdesk
Handoff tickets carry the AI summary, the order and the recording, in Loop Voice and in Gorgias, Zendesk or Redo.
Test, then set the hours
Call the number with your hardest questions and use the retrieval test to see what the agent finds. The agent answers 24/7; to cover only evenings and weekends, forward your store line to its number outside your team's hours.
Settings that shape the support line
- Support hours and holidays
- Set the hours your team takes transfers, and add holidays in the same support settings, so a handoff on a day you're closed opens a ticket instead of ringing a phone nobody will pick up.
- Ring time
- The transfer rings your team for the ring time you set, 10 to 60 seconds, before a ticket opens instead. Set it from how fast your team really picks up: too short sends calls to tickets that a person could have taken, too long leaves the caller waiting for nobody.
- Escalation path
- Every handoff creates a Loop Voice ticket with the AI summary, the order and the recording. On each agent, add the helpdesk your team works in: Gorgias, where every escalation becomes a ticket, Zendesk, a support inbox by email such as Redo's, or SMS if you have no helpdesk.
- Greeting
- The optional support greeting tells callers they've reached your store's virtual assistant and that the call may be recorded. Keep it on: the calling rules guide lists the states that require every party's consent to record, and recording can also be switched off per number. Confirm the wording with counsel.
- Knowledge base refresh
- Synced product documents refresh nightly. Don't wait on policy pages: after you change your return policy or shipping times, re-crawl that page the same day and run the retrieval test on the question callers will ask about it.
- Missed inbound alerts
- Watch the missed inbound alerts in the first weeks after you forward your line. The agent picks up on the first ring, so treat each missed call as something to check that day, and call the customer back.
- Weekly support review
- Each week Loop Voice drafts help articles and coaching notes from the support calls. Read it next to the answer gaps list: the gaps show what callers asked that the agent couldn't answer, and the drafted articles are a start on filling them.
What the agent handles, and what it hands off
Start narrow. The skills listed for Loop Voice inbound agents are order status, returns and exchanges, sizing, shipping and subscription changes. Hand off refund exceptions, damaged or wrong items, and anything your policies don't answer.
When a caller asks for a person during your support hours, the agent can transfer the call to your team's number, briefing the teammate first. Outside those hours, or if nobody answers within the ring time you set (10 to 60 seconds), it hands off as a ticket: it opens automatically with the AI summary, the order and the recording, so your team can follow up without asking the caller to start over. Turn on the guardrail that stops on "human" so that request always ends the agent's attempt. Our setup guide has a starter list of escalation rules to copy.
First ring, any hour
The agent picks up as soon as the call connects and greets the caller for your store. A customer your outbound agent called this week reaches the same agent when they call back, with the earlier conversation in hand.
The agent answers 24/7. If your team covers the phones in the day, start by forwarding your store line to the agent's number in the evenings and at weekends, read a week of calls, then widen the hours.
Languages and handoff tickets
Agents speak English and Spanish, plus 30 more languages through ElevenLabs, Vapi and xAI voices, including Arabic. Turn on a language only if someone on your team can read the handoff tickets in it.
Handoff tickets land where your team already works, in Loop Voice and in Gorgias, Zendesk or Redo. Before launch, make a test call that ends in a handoff and open the ticket to check that the summary, the order and the recording are all there.
What it costs next to a person
Loop Voice costs about $0.95 to $1.49 per answered conversation on monthly billing, and a US support rep costs about $31.36 an hour with benefits. Our cost comparison works through the math.
Built for the questions between intent and action
Where is my order
Order status and delivery details from your store data, without hold music.
Returns and exchanges
Answered from your policy, inside the rules you set.
Sizing and shipping
Fit, materials and delivery times, from your site and catalog.
Clean handoffs
A ticket with the AI summary, the order and the recording, so nobody asks the caller to start over.
What to track in your first month
Loop Voice's benchmark covers outbound calls, so there are no inbound numbers to publish yet. Track these:
- Resolved without a handoff
- Calls the agent closed on its own, out of all calls answered.
- Handoff reasons
- What the tickets were about. The most common reasons are what to add to the knowledge base next.
- Answer gaps
- Questions callers asked that the knowledge base couldn't answer, listed for the last 7, 30 or 90 days.
- Missed calls
- Calls that rang out. Loop Voice can alert you to missed inbound calls.
Source: Loop Voice Ecommerce Benchmark
Works with
Common questions
Can the AI agent handle returns?
Yes, inside your policy. It answers return and exchange questions from the policy you load and hands exceptions to your team. Check that what it says matches what your store enforces, such as Shopify's self-serve return window.
How does handoff to a person work?
When a caller asks for a person, is upset or raises something outside policy, the agent hands off. During your support hours it can transfer the caller to your team's number, briefing the teammate first; otherwise, or if nobody answers, a support ticket opens automatically with the AI summary, the order and the recording, in Loop Voice and in Gorgias, Zendesk or Redo, or by SMS.
Which languages does the support agent speak?
English and Spanish, plus 30 more languages through ElevenLabs, Vapi and xAI voices, including Arabic. Turn on a language only if your team can read the handoff tickets in it.
Can I run it after hours only?
Yes. The agent answers 24/7, so forward your store line to its number only outside your team's hours, and change the forwarding for peak weeks.
Will customers mind talking to an AI?
Turn on the guardrail for clear identity as an AI, and the agent says it's an AI assistant whenever a caller asks. In the call above, the caller said they knew they were talking to an AI assistant and still called the conversation "a home run."
What does AI phone support cost?
Answered conversations use about 1.5 credits each, with plans from $119 a month for 120 credits. Our cost comparison sets that against a support rep's hourly cost.
Can the agent take payments over the phone?
No. Payment stays in your checkout, and Loop Voice never stores card data.
Read more before you set it up
- How to Set Up an AI Phone Agent for 24/7 Store SupportScope, escalation rules, knowledge and helpdesk routing.Read
- Best AI Phone Agents for Shopify Customer Service (2026)Ten phone agents compared on lookups, returns and handoff.Read
- AI Voice Agent vs Call Center: Cost Per Call in 2026What an answered conversation costs next to a person.Read
- Loop Voice vs RinglyA support-only AI phone agent, compared.Read
- Loop Voice vs GorgiasA helpdesk's phone features against a dedicated agent.Read
Keep the conversation moving
Ready to launch customer support?
Setup takes under 10 minutes. No code, no headcount.