What's new with Upfirst?

Before, you had to add contacts one by one or wait for them to build up from incoming calls. Now you can upload your full customer list at once via CSV.

When a known contact calls, your receptionist skips questions you already have answers to, like name and email. Go to Contacts > Import CSV, upload your file, map the columns, and click Done.

Tip: Use the Notes column in your CSV to give your receptionist context about specific callers, like "This customer prefers Spanish" or "Always transfer this call directly."

Every caller is different. Some pause to think or read out long details like addresses and order numbers. Others want quick back-and-forth. Before, your receptionist used a single default pace for all calls.

Now you can tune how patient your receptionist is before it responds. Go to Agent > Agent Settings and adjust Responsiveness. Choose from Auto (recommended for most businesses), Low (waits longer for callers who pause), Medium, or High (replies faster for snappier calls).

Tip: After changing the setting, place a few test calls and listen to the recordings. That's the fastest way to find what works for your callers.

If you wanted to push call data to another app after each call, Zapier was the only option. Now you can use Make too. Connect Upfirst to Make and build scenarios that automatically send caller details, summaries, and transcripts to your CRM, spreadsheet, or whichever apps you use.

To get started, visit our help center for the invitation link. Install the Upfirst app in your Make account, create a scenario, and search for Upfirst in the modules list.

Tip: Already using Zapier? Keep using it. Make is an additional option for teams that prefer it.

Until now, only the account owner could log in to Upfirst. Now you can invite your whole team so they can review calls alongside you.

Each person gets their own login. Owners have full access, including the ability to edit your receptionist's training. Members can view call logs, recordings, and transcripts and leave comments on calls, but cannot make changes to your receptionist.

To invite someone, go to Settings > Team, enter their email, and choose their role. They'll receive an invite email and set their own password when they accept.

If you use Calendly to manage appointments, your Upfirst receptionist can now book directly into it. Callers hear available time slots and book over the phone, without you being involved.

Set it up in Integrations (left sidebar), enable Calendly, and sign in. Then go to Agent > Scheduling to add your appointment types, event details, and instructions for when to offer each one.

Duration, buffer times, availability windows, and timezone are managed in Calendly, not in Upfirst. Event details will be the same for every booking (they can't be populated with info from the call). Requires a paid Calendly plan (Standard, Teams, or Enterprise).

Previously, call recordings stopped the moment your receptionist transferred a call. You'd get a recording of the AI conversation, but not what happened after the handoff.

Now you can keep recording the entire call, including the conversation after the transfer.

Go to Agent > Transfer calls, edit a transfer rule, and select Full call under Call recording. This gives you a complete record for quality assurance, training, or making sure no details were missed during the handoff.

Before, your receptionist could only answer questions using your knowledge base. Now it can pull live info from your tools (or push info into them) during a call.

With Custom Actions, you can connect your receptionist to any third-party API. Use it to find an order status, check inventoryt, add a caller to your CRM, or anything else you'd normally do by hand. Bearer token and OAuth authentication are both supported.

To set one up, go to Agent > Custom actions. Give the action a name and choose when it should run: When call starts, During call, or After call. Each option gives the receptionist a different set of variables to use in the request. Configure the request (method, endpoint, headers, auth, body), test it with sample values, and pick the response fields the receptionist should actually see.

If you use Acuity Scheduling, your Upfirst receptionist can now book appointments directly into your calendar. Callers hear available time slots and book over the phone, without you touching a thing.

To set it up, go to Integrations > enable Acuity Scheduling > sign into your Acuity account. Then head to Agent > Scheduling to create appointment types with your availability and booking rules.

This works the same way as our Google Calendar, Outlook, and Clio integrations.

Before, a call transfer went to one number. If that person didn't pick up, the call was stuck. Now you can add multiple transfer destinations to any rule. Upfirst rings them one by one, in the order you set, until someone answers.

Go to Agent > Transfer calls, edit or add a rule, and scroll to Transfer destinations to add your numbers. Set the Wait for time to control how long each number rings before trying the next.

If no one on the list picks up, the caller goes to voicemail for the last person (when you've set it to send to voicemail).

Sometimes you just need to jot down a quick note: "Already called back," "Not a lead," or "Waiting on a callback." Now you can. Click on any call in your call log and add a comment right beneath the summary. From the call log, you can see which calls have comments at a glance, so it's easy to tell what's been handled and what still needs follow-up. Go to Calls, click a call, and start adding comments.

Coming soon: multiple users under one account. When that ships, you'll be able to see exactly who left each comment.

With a cold transfer, you pick up and you're connected immediately. You don't know who's on the line or what they need until you're already on the call.

Warm transfers change that. When your receptionist transfers a call, it briefs you first: the caller's name and why they're calling. You decide whether to accept. If you decline, the receptionist takes a message on your behalf.

To set it up, go to Agent > Transfer calls, add or edit a rule, and select Warm Transfer. Set the fallback to Take a Message so declined calls still get handled.

Tip: You can choose the hold music your caller hears while the receptionist reaches you. Go to Agent > Agent Settings and pick from four options: ringing, gentle guitar, marimba, or soft keys.

Your Upfirst receptionist now remembers details from past calls, so it doesn’t have to ask the same questions every time. That means smoother conversations and more personalized greetings.

Memory is on automatically. To see what your receptionist knows, go to Contacts → select a contact to view their memory. After each call, the memory updates with new info. You can also add to it anytime by updating the contact’s Notes.

Tip: Use Memory to personalize your script—like greeting callers by first name when it’s known.

Your call log used to be a list of phone numbers. Now you can save Contacts, so when someone calls you’ll see their name instead.

Go to Contacts in the left sidebar, add a name to a phone number, and you’ll see that name everywhere they show up in your call log.

If you use Upfirst for lead generation, you can also export your contacts to follow up faster. This is just the beginning—soon your receptionist will be able to remember info about your contacts. Stay tuned.

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Your Upfirst receptionist now has noise cancellation enabled by default, so it can better separate the caller’s voice from background sounds. That means fewer interruptions from noisy environments and clearer conversations for you and your customers.

When a call gets transferred, you don’t want your customer to end up in someone’s voicemail. Now they won’t. If the person you transfer to doesn’t answer (or declines), Upfirst detects the voicemail pickup and routes the call back to your AI receptionist so they can take a message.

To turn it on, go to Agent → Transfer calls, edit (or add) a rule, and choose the new transfer option that keeps the receptionist in the loop if the person doesn’t pick up.

Tip: Pair this with custom notifications so the right person gets the message. Go to Agent → Notifications, add a teammate, set Only if, and write a condition (e.g., only notify email if the caller asked for Jessica).

You can now filter your calls by date. Go to Calls → Filter and select Date Range.

You can now download an XLSX file of your call history, so you can run your own analysis and build custom reports outside Upfirst.

Go to Calls in the left-hand menu, then click Download XLSX in the top right.

The export includes start time, end time, duration, caller number, summary, transcript, tags, whether the call was a hang up or spam, and any info you collect from callers (like name and email).

We expanded the information we pass to Zapier. You can now pass call recordings through Zapier (along with the caller details, summary, and transcript—which were previously available).

Upfirst will include a link to the MP3 recording so you can attach the actual call to whatever workflow you’re running next.

This is especially useful if you send calls into a CRM for follow-up. Now your team can listen to the original call right from the record, not just read the notes.

To use it, connect your Zapier account and the recording URL field will appear automatically.

Your Upfirst receptionist can now dial DTMF tones during a call—so it can get through automated prompts like “Press 1 to accept."

Set it up under Agent → Knowledge by telling your receptionist what to dial and when. For example: “If someone calls from Jackson Correctional Institute, dial 1 to accept the call.”

This helps you answer calls that used to get stuck behind call screening, collect-call systems, or building entry lines where you need to dial a digit/code to unlock the door.

You can now use bold, italics, underline, headings, and bulleted or numbered lists in your knowledge base and call transfer rules.

This makes it easier to keep instructions readable for you—and clearer for your agent—so important details stand out and step-by-step info is easier to follow.Go to Agent → Agent → Knowledge to use the new rich text editor.

Little but surprisingly life-changing update: you can now adjust the order of knowledge base items. This makes it easier to keep things tidy and organized.

With our new call tagging feature, you can automatically categorize calls based on what the caller is calling about. Call tags make it easy to find specific types of calls—like sales inquiries, scheduling requests, or urgent requests—and understand which call types are most common.Here’s how to create call tags:

• Go to your Settings > Tags on the left-hand side
• Click on Add tag
• Give the tag a name and brief description, and click ‘Save’

Now, your agent will automatically apply the tag after each call ends, letting you filter by the type of call and seeing how many calls you have per tag in your Home dashboard.

Learn more about our call tagging feature here.

You can now archive calls. Archiving clears it from your main call view so you can stay focused, without losing access to the recording or transcript.

Just click the archive icon to move a call out of your list.

You can filter to see archived calls anytime, and unarchive them with one click.

You can now add custom hours to any transfer rule, so transfers only happen when you or your team are actually available.

Head to Agent → Transfer calls, choose a rule, and check "Only allow transfers during specific hours" to set your schedule.

We released an update to your account: a new dashboard with call analytics. You can now see call data like how many calls were answered, how many events scheduled, and more. Here’s what you can view:

• How many calls were answered, how many were hang ups, and how many were spam
• The average duration of calls
• How many events were triggered, such as call transfers, texts sent, and scheduled events

You can also choose different date ranges to see how your call activity changes over time.

You can now download the audio from any call — perfect if you need to share it with someone on your team or save it for records. Just open the call details and click the arrow at the download button at the top right.

Before, when you scheduled a meeting from a call, the appointment description on your calendar was pretty basic. Now, you can make it way more useful by pulling in details from the call itself:

• Caller’s name
• Phone number
• Email
• Call summary

That means your calendar can show you exactly who the call was with and what it was about.

Until now, everyone got an email and a text after every single call. For a lot of you, that was overkill.

With this update, you get to decide exactly when and how notifications are sent:

• Only want a text if it’s an emergency? Done.
• Want certain team members emailed only if a caller asks for them by name? Easy.
• Want the sales team looped in only when a new lead calls? You got it.

You can also fine-tune what happens with spam, sales calls, and hang-ups. So if you’re tired of seeing emails about calls that don’t need your attention, you can simply turn those off.

Earlier this month, we introduced scheduling for Google Calendar. We're excited to add two more widely requested options: Outlook and Clio.To get started:

• Go to Integrations and connect your Outlook or Clio calendar
• Go to Agent > Scheduling and add the types of appointments you want to offer
• Set when you're available for each one

A few notes:

• This only works for new appointments (for now). Rescheduling is on our roadmap.
• You can connect multiple calendars to support your whole team.
• Clio is management software made for lawyers and legal professionals.

We only want you to pay for real, valuable phone calls.

That why we’ve always excluded calls under 15 seconds (so that you don't pay for people saying "oops, wrong number").

With our latest update, we’ve taken it a step further: even if the call goes longer but the caller never speaks, it won’t count against you. No more paying for butt dials.

You can now connect Google Calendar with Upfirst. That means your virtual receptionist can look at your availability and book appointments directly into your calendar.

To get started:

1. Connect your Google Calendar by going to Integrations, enable Google Calendar, and follow the sign in instructions.
2. Go to Agent > Scheduling and click ‘Add appointment type’.
3. Fill out the event details and set your availability, then click ‘Create appointment type’.

Your receptionist will now be able to tell callers about your availability and book the appointments directly in your Google Calendar. You can connect multiple calendars to support your whole team.

A few notes:

• This works for new appointments only (for now). Rescheduling is on our roadmap.
• Outlook users, we haven't forgotten about you! That's coming next.

Your virtual receptionist can now block spam calls. Here's how it works:

• Before the call: When someone dials in, Upfirst checks the number against a spam database. If it’s a known spammer, the call is blocked automatically.
• **During the call: ** If the conversation shows signs of spam or robocall behavior, the AI will hang up.

You can also choose to block toll-free numbers entirely.

To turn it on go to Agent > Call filtering.

You'll still get notifications about calls that were flagged as spam—so you can review them if needed—but you won’t be billed for them.

You can now train your receptionist by scanning information from your website and adding it to your Knowledge Base. For example, you can import a link of your FAQs page from your website directly to your receptionist, instantly teaching it about your business.

Here’s how to do this:

Visit Agent > Knowledge

• Click on Add Knowledge, and then click Fetch URL
• Copy and paste the URL of the exact page you want scanned, then click Import URL
• Once all the necessary information has been scraped, hit Add Knowledge

You can do this for the services you offer and much more.

Your virtual receptionist can now transfer callers to specific people or departments. For example, if one of your callers wants to speak to you or a person on your team, your receptionist can forward the caller to the right destination.Here’s how to set this up:

Visit Agent > Call Transfer

• Set the name or department for the call transfer, and input instructions on when to transfer the call (e.g., “Transfer the call if it’s a new lead asking for a quote”)
• Enter the number to transfer the call to
• Customize what your receptionist should say before transferring the call

Your virtual receptionist can now send text messages (SMS) to your callers. For example, if someone calls asking to schedule an appointment, your receptionist can text them a link to your booking page.

Here's how to set this up:

• Go to the "Agent" section and click on "Send texts"
• Write the message you want to send to callers
• Tell your receptionist when to send this message (for example: "Send this when someone asks about scheduling" or "Send this when someone requests pricing information")

You can now send summaries of your phone calls to multiple email addresses and phone numbers. No more manual forwarding summaries to your team members.

Visit Agent > Actions to update your email summary settings and add new email addresses.

Previously, our virtual AI receptionist automatically collected name, email, and phone number from all callers. We've enhanced this feature to give you complete control over what information is collected and when!

Visit Agent > Info Collection to customize your setup with these new capabilities:

• Add custom fields beyond the standard name, email, and phone options
• Easily turn individual fields on or off—only collect what you actually need
• Provide specific instructions for when your agent should ask each question

This feature is perfect for qualifying leads and gathering the details that matter most to your business—whether that's budget information, location, invoice numbers, or anything else you need.

Stay on top of incoming calls with our new SMS alerts! Go to Agent > Actions to enable them and add your phone number. You’ll receive short text messages for each inbound call—including a link to the transcript—so you can stay informed on the go. If you need a break, simply toggle SMS alerts off any time in the same settings.