Bot & IVR Outbound Communication Skills

Overview

Velaro bots and IVR workflows can send transactional SMS and email directly to visitors during a conversation. This lets your AI handle follow-up without requiring a human agent to step in.

Four workflow skills are available:

• send_sms — sends a text message to any phone number
• send_email — sends a transactional email to any email address
• send_sms_link — IVR/voice: sends a clickable link to the caller's phone number so they don't have to hear a URL read aloud
• send_email_link — IVR/voice: emails a clickable link to the caller's email address

send_sms and send_email work on any channel. send_sms_link and send_email_link are IVR-specific — they activate only during Twilio ConversationRelay voice calls and are controlled by the Link Delivery toggles in AI Config.

Enabling Bot Communications

These skills require a Pro or Enterprise subscription:

• Pro: Up to 50 SMS/hour and 25 emails/hour per site
• Enterprise: Unlimited (configured per account)

To check if your account has these skills enabled, go to Account → AI Settings and look for the "Bot & IVR Outbound Communications" section.

Using the Send SMS Skill

The send_sms skill lets a bot or IVR send a text message during a conversation.

What it's for:

• Sending order tracking links or confirmation numbers
• Delivering case/ticket numbers after a support interaction
• Sending CSAT survey links post-chat
• Providing follow-up instructions the customer can reference later

How it works in the bot:

1. The bot asks the customer: "Would you like me to text that to you?"

2. Customer confirms their phone number

3. Bot calls the send_sms skill with the confirmed number and message

4. Customer receives the text within seconds

Limits: Maximum 3 SMS per conversation, up to your plan's hourly site limit.

Using the Send Email Skill

The send_email skill lets a bot or IVR send a transactional email during a conversation.

What it's for:

• Sending a conversation summary or transcript
• Delivering case numbers, instructions, or documentation links
• Appointment confirmations
• Sending a CSAT survey or follow-up form

How it works in the bot:

1. The bot asks: "Should I email that to you?"

2. Customer confirms their email address

3. Bot calls the send_email skill with the address, subject, and body

4. Customer receives the email within minutes

Limits: Maximum 2 emails per conversation, up to your plan's hourly site limit.

Adding These Skills to a Workflow

1. Open Messaging → Workflows and open or create a workflow

2. Add an AI Node to the canvas

3. In the node's Skills panel, find "Communications" category

4. Enable Send SMS and/or Send Email

5. In the node's system prompt, tell the bot when to use these skills:

- "If the customer asks for a confirmation text, confirm their phone number first, then use send_sms."

- "After resolving the issue, offer to email a summary using send_email."

Best Practices

• Always confirm contact info before sending. The bot should say: "Should I send that to [number/email]?" and wait for confirmation.
• Keep SMS under 160 characters to avoid multi-part message charges.
• Use professional tone in email bodies — these come from noreply@velaro.com.
• Don't use for marketing — these skills are for transactional messages only. Promotional messages require the Email Campaigns feature.
• Combine with Click-to-Call — if a customer doesn't answer a Click-to-Call, the IVR can automatically send an SMS follow-up using this skill.

IVR Link Delivery Skills

When your bot is handling a voice call, reading out a URL is a bad experience — callers can't easily write down "https://..." from speech. The link delivery skills solve this.

send_sms_link — texts a link to the caller's phone number. Example: the caller asks for a checkout link; the bot sends it as a text instead of reading the URL.

send_email_link — emails a link to the caller's email address. Example: the bot emails a support article or appointment confirmation.

How the bot decides which to use:

• If Offer SMS links is on (AI Config) and the caller's phone number is known → bot can offer SMS
• If Offer Email links is on (AI Config) and the caller's email is known → bot can offer email
• If both are on → bot asks: "Would you prefer I send that by text or email?"
• If the caller hasn't provided a phone/email, the bot asks for it first

Enabling/disabling: Settings → Bots → AI Config → Link Delivery section.

Safety and Rate Limits

Velaro automatically protects against runaway bots:

• Per-conversation cap: 3 SMS, 2 emails maximum per conversation
• Per-site hourly cap: enforced based on your subscription plan
• If limits are hit, the bot gracefully tells the customer it can't send right now

These limits prevent accidental spam if a bot gets into a loop or is misconfigured.