Conversation design¶

Conversation design is how an agent runs the call. Vocadesk offers three modes, from simplest to most powerful. You pick one per agent on the agent page.

Mode	Best for	Who can use it
Questions & forwarding	Straight intake plus simple "if X, transfer" rules.	Existing agents already using it (legacy).
Questions & conditions	Intake plus instructions that fire only when a topic comes up.	Everyone — the default for new agents.
Decision tree	Fully scripted, branching conversations.	Super-admin users.

Defaults and availability

New agents start in Questions & conditions. Questions & forwarding is a legacy mode kept only for agents that already use it, so their setup is preserved. Decision tree is limited to super-admin users.

Questions & forwarding (simple)¶

The classic setup: the agent works through your intake questions and, separately, applies a flat list of call-forwarding rules — "if the caller says X, transfer to this number."

Use it when intake and forwarding are independent and you don't need the agent to change its behavior based on what the caller says.

Questions & conditions (scenario)¶

The recommended mode. You keep your standard intake questions and add conditional instructions — called triggers — that only activate when a condition is met.

A trigger has:

a condition in plain language (for example "the caller wants to book a viewing"), and
one or more actions: say something, ask extra questions, and/or forward the call.

When a caller raises a topic that matches a trigger, the agent acts on it immediately — even mid-intake — instead of finishing every standard question first.

Write specific conditions

Vague conditions ("the caller needs help") make the agent fire triggers at the wrong time, or miss them. Be concrete about what the caller says or wants.

Forwarding is just an action on a trigger here — see Call forwarding & transfers for how that behaves.

Decision tree (advanced)¶

A decision tree scripts the whole call as a branching flow: each step is either a yes/no condition or an action (say something, collect a field, transfer, answer from knowledge, or end). It replaces standard intake entirely and gives you precise control over every branch.

Decision tree is super-admin only and suits complex, highly-regulated, or heavily-scripted call flows.

Switching modes¶

The mode switcher on the agent page only shows the modes available to you. Switching to Questions & conditions brings your existing forwarding rules across as forward-only triggers, so nothing is lost.

Call forwarding & transfers — Set the conditions under which an agent hands a call to a human, and understand exactly how the transfer behaves.
Configuring an agent — Set an agent's persona, voice, language, greeting, knowledge base, and intake questions.
Agents — What an agent is and the three things you configure — who it is, how it converses, and when it transfers.
Web calls & embeds — Let website visitors talk to an agent from a button — create an embed, set its origins, and install the snippet.
Getting started — From signing in to your first live call — the fastest path through Vocadesk.