Engagement is the part of xMatix where you talk to customers: phone calls taken in the browser, a log of every interaction on the record it belongs to, and outbound messages sent through the channels your organization has configured. Calls, notes, tasks and messages land on the same records as your cases, orders and invoices, so the whole history of a relationship is in one place. You don't have to piece it together from a phone system, a notes app and a mailbox.
This page is the map of the section. It explains what each piece does and who uses it, where it is on screen, and the order in which an administrator turns it on. Each piece has its own detailed page, linked below.
Overview
Engagement has four pieces. Two of them work in every organization; the other two need setup first.
| Piece | What it does | Needs setup first? |
|---|---|---|
| Activities | Tasks, calls, events, emails and notes logged on any record, plus reminders | No, they work everywhere |
| Outbound messaging | Email, in-app and push notifications sent by rules, workflows and subscriptions, with a delivery log | Email, in-app and push need no channel setup. SMS and other provider-backed channels need a configured channel |
| The softphone and the call register | Taking and placing calls in the browser. Each call becomes a record in the Call Register | Yes: phone numbers, a queue and routes |
| The supervisor console and call insights | Live view of every call and agent, silent listening and barge-in, and an AI reading of a call | Yes: telephony, a permission, and an administrator must place the console on a page |
The call register works without telephony. The Call record type exists in every organization, so you can log a phone call made on any phone with New. Telephony adds automatic call records, caller matching and the link to the record you create during the call. See Calls, dispositions and recordings.
When to use it
- Agents and sales or service staff use the softphone to take and place calls, log what happened at wrap-up, and create a case, lead or task straight from the call. They log activities and send emails from any record.
- Team leads and supervisors watch live calls and agent load in the supervisor console, listen in or join a difficult call, and review call volume and outcomes in the call register.
- Administrators set up numbers, queues, agents and routes; decide who can configure and who can supervise; connect messaging channels; and watch delivery in the message log.
- Trainers can teach activities and the call register in any sandbox. To practise the softphone, the sandbox needs telephony set up and a trainee in an active queue (see Training).
How xMatix handles it
Who sees the softphone. The Calls segment of the status bar at the bottom of the workspace appears only when all of these are true:
- The Telephony (CTI) module is switched on. It is on by default.
- Your user is linked to a resource that is a member of a resource group, and that group is the agent pool of an active queue.
- You are using the desktop browser. The mobile layout and the mobile app have no softphone.
xMatix checks this when you sign in. If an administrator adds you to a queue, sign out and back in to see the Calls segment. Everyone else sees the normal footer, with no call controls. The status bar also shows Chats and Macros. Macros runs support macros on the record you have open. Chats is an empty panel in this release: New chat is disabled.
Going online is a choice. Opening the Calls drawer doesn't make you reachable. Until you choose Go online, the drawer says you are offline and nothing rings for you. After that, set your availability to Available to receive queue calls.
No install, no desk phone. Call audio runs in the browser. Each call gets its own short-lived connection, so there is no desk-phone registration and no phone password for an agent to keep. The agent needs a microphone and must allow the browser to use it.
Calls are records. Every inbound call is saved as a call record from its first ring, and every outbound call from the moment you dial. When a call is linked to a business record and ends, xMatix writes one Call activity on that record's timeline. The call stays a full record in the call register. See Calls, dispositions and recordings.
Routing is per number. Each phone number has one route, and the route sends the number's calls to one target: a Queue, an AI agent or a Human agent. See Inbound routing.
Messages go through one pipeline. Every outbound message is written to a delivery queue, one row per channel and recipient, and is then sent and retried. Each row's status (Queued, Sending, Sent, Delivered, Failed or Held) is visible in the Message Log. Flood protection is always on: past a per-recipient or organization-wide hourly limit, new messages are Held for an administrator to review instead of being sent. See Messaging channels.
Prerequisites
- For telephony: your organization's licence must include Telephony (otherwise the telephony setup screens are hidden), and phone numbers must be provisioned for your organization. Trunks and numbers are allocated by xMatix, not created in Setup. Ask your xMatix account team, or request a demo.
- For SMS and other provider-backed channels: an account with the messaging provider, set up as a messaging channel by an administrator.
- For agents: a user account linked to a resource. See Resources and Resource groups.
Where to find it
| What | Where |
|---|---|
| Softphone (dial, answer, in-call controls, wrap-up) | The Calls segment of the status bar at the bottom of the workspace |
| Your recent calls | Calls drawer → Call Register toggle |
| Call Register (all calls) | CRM app → Call Register, or Support app → Call Register |
| Activities on a record | The record's Activities panel |
| Supervisor console | The app page where your administrator placed the Supervisor Console widget. No page is seeded |
| Trunks and phone numbers | Setup → Feature Hub → Service → Telephony → Trunks & numbers |
| Queues | Setup → Feature Hub → Service → Telephony → Queues |
| AI and human agents | Setup → Feature Hub → Service → Telephony → Agents |
| Inbound routes | Setup → Feature Hub → Service → Telephony → Routing |
| Telephony on/off switch | Setup → Feature Hub → Service → Telephony → Settings (Enable Telephony (CTI)) |
| Messaging channels | Setup → Feature Hub → Platform → Messaging channels |
| Mailboxes for sending and syncing email | Setup → Feature Hub → Platform → Mailboxes |
| Message log | Setup → Platform → Monitoring → Message Log |
Procedure
These steps are the order in which an administrator brings engagement into use. Each step links to the page with the full detail.
Step 1 — Confirm telephony is provisioned
Open Setup → Feature Hub → Service → Telephony → Trunks & Numbers. The Trunks tab should list at least one trunk and the Phone numbers tab your numbers. Give each number a label and an outbound caller ID, and make sure it is active. An empty list means telephony hasn't been provisioned yet. See Telephony configuration.
Step 2 — Build the agent pool and the queue
- Make sure each agent's user is linked to a resource, then add those resources to a resource group.
- Under Queues, create a queue, choose its routing model, pick that resource group as its agent pool, and keep it Active.
The group's active members are the people the queue offers calls to. Membership in an active queue's pool is also what makes the Calls segment appear for an agent.
Step 3 — Add agents if you need them as route targets
Under Agents, the AI agents tab holds AI voice identities, and the Human agents tab links a user to a telephony identity with an optional outbound caller ID. You need an agent entry only to route a number straight to that AI agent or person. Agents who only take queue calls don't need one.
Step 4 — Route each number
Under Routing, choose New route, pick the phone number and set its target to a Queue, AI agent or Human agent. Check the route's sync status. A route that failed to sync shows the error and a re-sync action. See Inbound routing.
Step 5 — Grant the telephony permissions
On the security profiles of the people concerned, grant Manage telephony (CTI) to whoever configures telephony and Supervise telephony (CTI) to team leads. Check that agents' profiles give access to the Call record type, and that they include the Link to record server action on Call. Without that action, records created from a call are not linked to it. See Permissions.
Step 6 — Place the supervisor console
Add the Supervisor Console widget to an app page in the designer, and add that page to the app your team leads use. Only users with Supervise telephony (CTI) see calls in it.
Step 7 — Connect messaging channels
Under Setup → Feature Hub → Platform → Messaging channels, add a channel for SMS or the business chat app. Then use Test send on the row to queue a real message to an address you supply, and confirm in the Message Log that it reached Sent before a business rule depends on it. See Messaging channels.
Step 8 — Make a test call
Have an agent sign in again, open Calls, choose Go online and set themselves Available. Then call one of your numbers. The call should ring for that agent, appear in the call register as a call record, and after a wrap-up show the disposition you saved. See Using the softphone and Troubleshooting telephony.
What is not included
These are verified limits of the current release. Plan training and processes around them.
- Call transfer doesn't move the call. The Transfer button in the softphone only shows "Transfer requested (provider-dependent)." The call stays with you. To hand a caller over, ask a colleague to call back, or have a supervisor barge in.
- No whisper. The supervisor console offers silent Listen and Barge in (both parties hear you), but not coaching that only the agent hears.
- No transcription of built-in calls. Calls are recorded where recording is set up, but they are not transcribed, so call insights on these calls have no transcript to read. An integration can load transcripts instead (see Conversation transcripts).
- No IVR menus or voicemail boxes. Calls go straight to the route's target.
- No dialer campaigns. The Campaigns tab in the Calls drawer shows sample content only.
- No calls in the mobile app. Tapping a phone number in the field app opens the phone's own dialer, and that call is not recorded in xMatix.
Training
Practice exercise
In a sandbox where telephony is set up and you are a member of an active queue's resource group:
- Sign in, open Calls, choose Go online and set yourself Available.
- Ask a colleague to call one of the organization's numbers, and accept the call.
- During the call, use Create from this call to create a Task, and save it.
- Hang up, choose the Follow-up chip, type a wrap-up note and choose Save disposition.
Expected result: the call appears in CRM → Call Register with Outcome Follow-up and your note. The task you created has one Call entry on its timeline. That entry was written when you hung up, so it may not carry the disposition you chose afterwards.
In a sandbox without telephony, practise the same record-keeping by hand: open Call Register, choose New, log an inbound call with an outcome, then add a call activity to a contact's Activities panel.
Quick reference
- No Calls segment? You are not in an active queue's agent pool, or telephony is switched off. Sign in again after you are added.
- Nothing rings? Choose Go online, then Available.
- Every call is a record in the Call Register. Unanswered calls end as Completed with an empty Answered.
- One timeline entry per linked call, written once, when the linked call ends.
- Transfer doesn't hand the call over. Arrange a call-back instead.
- Supervisors need Supervise telephony (CTI) and a page with the Supervisor Console widget.
- Messages that didn't arrive: look in the Message Log first. Held means flood protection stopped them.
- Activities work everywhere, telephony or not.
Permissions
| To… | You need |
|---|---|
| Use the softphone | No capability. The Telephony (CTI) module on, and membership of an active queue's agent pool |
| See, log or edit calls in the register | Access to the Call record type in your security profile |
| Have a record created from a call linked to it | The Link to record server action on Call |
| Watch live calls, listen and barge in | Supervise telephony (CTI) |
| Configure trunks, numbers, queues, agents and routes | Manage telephony (CTI) |
| Switch telephony on or off | Manage module settings |
| Configure messaging channels | Manage messaging channels |
| Connect mailboxes | Manage mailboxes |
| View the message log | View message log |
Capabilities are granted on security profiles. A user who lacks one doesn't see the matching Setup menu entry, and the supervisor console shows "Supervisor access required". See Security profiles.
Common questions
Do agents need to install anything to take calls?
No. The softphone runs in the browser inside the xMatix workspace, with call audio, controls and the caller's matched record in one window. Agents need a microphone, browser permission to use it, and a desktop browser. There is no desk phone to register and no phone password to manage. What decides whether an agent gets the softphone is queue membership: their user must be linked to a resource in the agent pool of an active queue. After an administrator adds them, they sign in again, open Calls and choose Go online.
Is telephony available to every organization?
Not automatically. Phone numbers are provisioned per organization, and the telephony setup screens appear only when your licence includes Telephony. Until then the softphone doesn't appear for anyone. Activities, outbound email and notifications, and the call register for hand-logged calls all work without it. If you'd like telephony for your organization, talk to your xMatix account team or request a demo. The product overview describes what it adds.
How do calls relate to the activities I see on records?
When a call that is linked to a business record ends (a case, an order, any record type), xMatix writes one Call activity on that record's timeline. That entry holds the direction and the other party's number in its subject, the call times, the duration and the call's outcome at that moment. The call itself stays a full record in the call register. The activity is the short timeline entry colleagues see when they open the related record. Later changes to the call don't update it. See Activities.
Can I send SMS from xMatix without telephony?
Yes. Messaging and telephony are separate. SMS is a messaging channel: an administrator connects your organization's messaging provider under Messaging Channels, and then business rules, workflows and other senders can use it. Every message, on every channel, shows in the Message Log with its status and any error. Telephony is only about voice calls, so you can have either one without the other.