---
title: "No caller unanswered"
description: "A ready agent, then Voice AI or voicemail. Nobody rings out."
---
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# No caller unanswered
[Open original guide with interactive examples →](/originals/no-caller-goes-unanswered/)
Your team answers in business hours, the Voice AI answers after hours, and every agent tells the phones whether to ring them. If nobody on the team can pick up, the caller reaches the AI or can leave a voicemail. They never just ring out.
## What changed
Four pieces work together. Each one closes a gap where a caller used to fall through.
#### 1 Your call status
**Ready**, **Not Ready** or **Not Available**, set from your avatar in the dock. Only Ready agents get inbound calls.
Agent
#### 2 Team by day, AI by night
Your team takes inbound calls during the business hours you set. The Voice AI answers outside them.
Admin sets it up
#### 3 The AI covers gaps
If nobody is Ready, or nobody picks up within 30 seconds, the call goes to the AI. If the AI isn't set to cover, the caller can leave a voicemail.
Automatic
#### 4 Live Floor
A live view of who can take a call right now and how long they've been in their status. Managers can change a status in one click.
Manager
## Who answers a call? Try it
Pick a situation. The steps on the right are the path the call takes.
Voice AI takes inbound calls
**On** **Off**
Inbound Call Ownership
**Outside business hours** **Always**
When the call comes in
**Business hours** **After hours**
Your team right now
**Someone is Ready** **Nobody is Ready**
Not Ready, Not Available, offline or already on a call all count as not Ready.
Does a Ready agent pick up?
**Yes** **Not within 30 seconds**
Let the AI answer during business hours when no one is available
**On** **Off**
On by default.
## Your call status: tell the phones whether to ring you
The system knows you're signed in and whether you've used the keyboard lately. It can't know whether you _want_ a call. Your status tells it.
### Where to find it
1. Look at your avatar at the right end of the **dock**. The small dot on its corner is your current status.
2. Click the avatar.
3. Pick **Ready**, **Not Ready** or **Not Available** at the top of the menu.
It works from any window. The dot changes straight away, and your other open tabs catch up within about half a minute.
### Try it
Your status
**Ready** **Not Ready** **Not Ready · Lunch** **Not Available**
### The three states
| Status | Inbound calls | Messages | Your team sees | Use it for |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Ready | Ring you | Online | Available | Taking calls. This is your status when you sign in. |
| Not Ready | Skip you | Still online | Busy | Notes, admin work, a meeting. You're at your desk, just not taking calls. |
| Not Available | Skip you | Shows away | Away | Lunch, a break, the end of your shift |
You can add a reason to Not Ready: **Lunch**, **Break**, **Meeting**, **Admin work** or **Training**. Your manager sees it, so nobody has to ask where you went.
**Your conversations stay yours in every state.** Going Not Ready or Not Available never hands your open conversations to someone else. Only signing out fully, or leaving the browser closed for a long time, can release them.
### Idle doesn't mean Not Ready
If you're **Ready** and just haven't moved the mouse for a few minutes, calls still ring you. The system assumes you stepped away for a moment, not that you left. When that's happening the menu says _Idle — calls still ring you_.
**The system can't tell you went to lunch.** Set Not Ready or Not Available yourself before you step away. Nothing else stops the calls.
### "Set by a manager"
A manager can change your status from Live Floor, for example to set you Ready after a break you forgot to end. When they do, your avatar menu says _Set by a manager_, so you'll know why calls started or stopped. You can change it back at any time.
## After call work happens by itself
When you finish a call in the **Calling** window while you're Ready, you move to **After call work** while you write it up. Calls skip you until you're done. Then you go back to **Ready** on your own.
- If you were already **Not Ready**, you stay Not Ready. Wrap-up doesn't make you Ready.
- If you pick a different status during wrap-up, you keep the one you picked.
## If something looks wrong
| What you see | Usually means |
| --- | --- |
| Your phone rang while you were at lunch | You were still **Ready**. Set **Not Available** before you step away. |
| You're **Ready** but calls never reach you | Ask your admin to check the call routing rules. Your status makes you _eligible_ for calls, and the routing rules decide who actually gets them. |
| The dot is grey and says _Offline_ | The app lost its connection. Reload the page and your status comes back. |
| A teammate shows _Busy_ | They picked **Not Ready**. Only they can change it (or a manager), it's not a setting. |
## Business hours to the team, after hours to the AI
Most teams want people on the phone during the day and the AI covering nights, weekends, and moments when nobody can pick up. One setting controls this, and it shows who is answering right now.
### Where to find it
1. Open **My AI Agent** from the dock.
2. Open your **Voice AI** agent and stay on the **General** tab.
3. Scroll to the **Call Routing** card. **Inbound Call Ownership** is below the three switches.
4. Make your changes and click **Save Changes**.
The section is dimmed when **Inbound Calls** is off, because then the AI isn't taking inbound calls at all.
| Choice | What happens to an inbound call |
| --- | --- |
| **Outside business hours** | During your hours it rings your team. Outside them, the AI answers. |
| **Always** | The AI answers every inbound call, at any time. |
A badge on the right shows who is answering right now (_Your team is taking calls now_ or _AI is answering now_), using your office's timezone.
### Setting your hours
- Pick your office's **Timezone**. Hours follow it, not the caller's timezone.
- Tick each day your team takes calls and set its hours. Each day can be different.
- On an unticked day, the AI answers all day.
- Until you change them, hours are Monday to Friday, 8 am to 5 pm Pacific.
- Hours can run past midnight (for example 20:00 – 02:00). The team keeps the overnight part.
### When nobody on the team can answer
Tick **Let the AI answer during business hours when no one is available**. It's on by default. With it on, the AI takes the call during business hours when:
- **Nobody is Ready**: everyone is Not Ready, Not Available, offline or already on a call.
- **The team doesn't pick up**: the call rings your available agents for 30 seconds and nobody answers.
With it off, those callers are asked to leave a voicemail. Either way, every caller reaches someone or can leave a message.
A small team going to lunch together is fine, as long as everyone sets their status. That's the kind of gap the AI is there to cover.
## Live Floor: who can take a call right now
When calls start going to the AI or to voicemail, the first question is who can actually answer. Live Floor shows you at a glance, and you can fix it without chasing people.
### Where to find it
Open **Agent Command Center** from the dock and choose **Live Floor**. It's for owners, admins and managers. It refreshes every 10 seconds while it's open and pauses when you switch away.
### The summary row
| Tile | What it counts |
| --- | --- |
| Ready | Agents that inbound calls will ring right now |
| On a call | Agents talking to a caller, and anyone whose phone is ringing |
| After call work | Agents writing up the call they just finished. Calls skip them until they're done. |
| Not Ready | Online, but skipped for calls: a meeting, admin work, a break |
| Not Available | Away from their desk, and shown to the team as away |
| Callers ringing | Callers waiting for someone to pick up, and how long they've waited |
**Ready at zero during business hours** means callers are going to the Voice AI (if it covers gaps) or to voicemail.
### The agent list
Each row shows the agent, their status, **how long they've been in it**, and more detail:
- **Reason**: Lunch, Break, Meeting, Admin work or Training, if they picked one
- **Set by**: the manager's name, if someone other than the agent changed it
- **With**: who they're talking to, while on a call
Offline agents are hidden by default. Turn on **Show offline** to see them and when they were last in the app. An agent counts as offline when they haven't had the app open for two minutes.
### Changing someone's status
Click the **⋯** at the end of a row and pick **Ready**, **Not Ready**, **Not Available**, or Not Ready with a reason.
- The agent sees _Set by a manager_ on their dock avatar, so they know why calls started or stopped.
- They can change it back at any time, and you'll see that change here too.
- If the agent is offline, the change takes effect as soon as they come back.
## During a shift
- [ ] **At opening**, open Live Floor. Everyone who should be on the phones should show **Ready**. Anyone still Not Available from yesterday forgot to switch.
- [ ] **Around lunch**, check **Ready** isn't zero. If the whole team is out and the AI doesn't cover gaps, callers are leaving voicemails.
- [ ] **Long Not Ready times** usually mean someone forgot to end a break. Set them Ready, or ask them.
- [ ] **Callers ringing** keeps showing waits close to 30 seconds? Your Ready agents aren't picking up, so those calls are going to the AI or voicemail.
- [ ] **At closing**, look at the badge in Inbound Call Ownership. After your hours it should say _AI is answering now_.
## If something looks wrong
| What you see | Usually means |
| --- | --- |
| The AI answered during business hours | Nobody was Ready, or the team didn't pick up within 30 seconds. Check Live Floor. |
| Calls ring the team at night | The timezone is wrong, or that day's hours end later than you meant. |
| Callers get voicemail instead of the AI | **Inbound Calls** is off for the AI, or the "no one is available" box is unticked. |
| Someone shows **Ready** but never gets calls | A call routing rule sends calls elsewhere, or their calls channel is off. Their row says which. |
| A caller disappeared from **Callers ringing** without anyone answering | Nobody picked up in 30 seconds, so the call went to the Voice AI or to voicemail. |
| The badge says _Timezone not recognized_ | Pick the timezone from the list again and save. |
| Live Floor says it's for managers | Your role is agent. Ask an owner or admin. |
## What it does not do
It doesn't change outbound calls
Calls your team or the AI place are not affected. Your status only decides whether _inbound_ calls ring you. You can still dial out while you're Not Ready.
It doesn't guess when someone leaves
Being idle for a few minutes doesn't take anyone off the phones. People have to set their status. Managers can fix a forgotten one from Live Floor.
It doesn't replace your call routing rules
Status decides who _can_ take a call. Your routing rules still decide who a call rings among them.
Numbers connected through the Voice Agent Studio work as before
Those numbers are routed through the Studio and ignore the business-hours setting.
Live Floor is a live view, not a report
It shows what is happening now and how long each agent has been in their status. It doesn't show yesterday's history.
## Start in three steps
1. **Admin:** open Inbound Call Ownership, set your timezone and business hours, keep _Let the AI answer during business hours when no one is available_ ticked, and save.
2. **Tell agents one thing:** click your avatar and set **Not Ready** or **Not Available** before you step away, and **Ready** when you're back.
3. **Manager:** keep Live Floor open for the first week. If Ready drops to zero, you'll see it and can fix it.
**Nothing to switch on.** Every workspace already has it. If the Voice AI takes inbound calls and you haven't set hours yet, your team gets calls **Monday to Friday, 8 am to 5 pm Pacific** and the AI answers nights and weekends. If your office is in another timezone, do step 1 first.
Channel Automation · Help · Last updated 2026-09-23.
Questions? Ask your account manager, or open **Help Docs** inside the app — the same guidance lives there.
Source: https://guides.channelautomations.com/calling/no-caller-goes-unanswered/index.mdx