A telecom provider needed to contact a high volume of customers with overdue balances without scaling up a human calling team, while staying compliant and capturing payment on the call itself.
- 01Lead ingestion
Overdue account lists land via FTP on a schedule; an automation reads the file, parses it, and upserts records into a Supabase table, avoiding duplicates on re runs.
- 02Call scheduling engine
A cron based scheduler checks each lead's status flags (active today, do not contact, time window) and batches outbound calls within permitted calling hours, with logic to skip weekends and public holidays.
- 03Conversational agent
An ElevenLabs voice agent places the call. It runs a staged conversation script with different stages corresponding to different points in the collections process (e.g. early reminder vs. formal notice vs. active enforcement), each with its own tone and required disclosures.
- 04Voicemail detection
The system detects whether a human answered or the call went to voicemail, and branches accordingly, leaving a compliant voicemail message versus continuing a live conversation.
- 05SMS fallback
For unanswered calls or as a supplement, an automated SMS is sent with a secure payment link.
- 06In call payment collection
For customers who want to pay during the call, the agent hands off to a DTMF (keypad) payment flow integrated with a payment processor, so a card payment can be captured without a human agent.
- 07Multi brand routing
The same underlying system serves multiple brands from one platform, each with its own script, voice, and caller ID, routed by which brand's lead the call belongs to.
- 08Post call logging
After each call, a webhook receives the call transcript and outcome, logs it against the lead record, and updates the account's status (contacted, promised to pay, disputed, escalated, etc.) for reporting and the next scheduling cycle.
Outbound collection calls run at scale without proportional headcount growth, with full call logging and status tracking feeding back into future scheduling decisions.
- voice AI for debt collection
- AI outbound calling agent
- automated payment collection voice AI
- ElevenLabs Twilio debt collection
How an AI voice agent handles outbound debt collection calls end to end. A deep technical walkthrough post, or a shorter explainer on why voicemail detection matters in voice AI.
Is this compliant with collections regulation?+
The system does not replace compliance decisions. It executes an approved script, respects opt outs, records consent, and escalates edge cases to human agents.
Can it be adapted outside telecom?+
Yes. The underlying pattern (list based outbound dialer, voicemail detection, payment capture, structured record) applies to utilities, subscriptions, and any recurring billing business.