Preventing AI interruptions during phone number collection

Last updated: February 19, 2026

When using the AI assistant to collect phone numbers from callers, you may encounter issues where the AI interrupts customers before they finish providing their complete phone number. This commonly happens when customers pause naturally while reading out digits, causing an awkward back-and-forth conversation.

Enable the Phone Number Function

First, ensure you have enabled the phone number collection feature in your assistant settings:

  1. Go to Assistant Settings

  2. Navigate to Technical → Functions

  3. Add the phone number function

This setting connects the agent to a more powerful model with better understanding capabilities.

Use a Custom Prompt to Improve Behavior

To reduce interruptions during phone number collection, add the following prompt to your assistant's instructions:

BEHAVIORAL RULES FOR DATA COLLECTION (PHONE NUMBERS)
PATIENT LISTENING: Be extremely patient when the customer provides a phone number or other digits. People often make natural pauses (thinking pauses) when reading numbers.

INTERRUPTION STOP: NEVER interrupt the customer while they're providing a number. Even if there's a 1-2 second pause, actively wait.

END RECOGNITION: Only assume the number is complete when:
The customer explicitly says they're finished (e.g., "That's it" or "Did you get that?")
There's an unusually long silence of more than 3 seconds

BACKCHANNELING: While the customer is speaking, do NOT use confirmation words like "Yes," "Okay," or "Mhm," as this can disrupt the customer's speech recognition and interrupt their flow. Stay silent until the entire number has been provided.

CONFIRMATION: Once the number is completely captured, repeat it slowly and clearly in digit groups (e.g., "0176... 123... 45... 67") to ensure accuracy.

GOAL: A smooth, interruption-free collection of contact information without premature interjections.

Known Limitation

This interruption behavior is a known issue that currently affects all AI providers. While the prompt above can help reduce these interruptions, the development team is actively working on improving this behavior. Updates on progress will be communicated through weekly product updates.