Outbound Workflow — Calling Out
What it’s for: bulk or scheduled outbound calls — reminders, confirmations, follow-ups — from a contact list, using a Workflow as the call script. Only visible if enabled on your plan.
How to use it:
- Open Outbound Workflow and create a template — title, description, and the phone number it should call from.
- This opens Create Workflow in outbound mode, including the extra IO tab. Write the call script like any other prompt.
- Start a run: upload a contact list as CSV, Excel (
.xlsx/.xls), or JSON. MIA auto-detects the phone number column by header name (phone,mobile,tel,phone_number). If it can’t, pick the column manually. - Every number is validated and must include a country code (e.g.
+14155551234, 7–15 digits after the+). Numbers without one are flagged — correct or exclude them. - Choose when to call: now or scheduled. Scheduled runs up to one month out, in 30-minute increments, in your timezone.
- Track progress in the runs table and download the results when complete.
What’s different about outbound
- The agent speaks first. Its opening line must establish who is calling and why — the person answering doesn’t know. Expect “Who’s this?” as the first reaction and write an answer for it.
- Keep it short. Unsolicited calls have seconds, not minutes.
- Offer a way out. “Is now a good time?” — and accept an ending if it isn’t.
- Choose times sensibly. Not early morning, not late evening.
- Clarify the legal ground rules for marketing calls internally in advance. Reminder and confirmation calls about existing appointments are far less problematic than cold outreach.
Example: a practice uploads a CSV of tomorrow’s appointments (first_name, last_name, phone_number, appointment_time) and schedules a reminder run for 5:00 p.m. today — using a Workflow whose prompt asks each patient to confirm or reschedule.