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How to review phone calls in Monitors

Use this article to add phone calls to a Monitor, score them with AI criteria, manual criteria, or both, and understand what a Monitor can and can't judge on a call.

Written by Dawn Perrott

What is phone call review in Monitors?

Phone call review in Monitors lets you review phone calls the same way you review chat and email conversations. Fin Voice calls and teammate calls both use the Phone call channel, so a Monitor can cover both. Add the Phone call channel to a Monitor and pick any Scorecard. AI criteria score the call transcript automatically, and manual criteria go to your reviewers, who can read the transcript and play the recording.

Why use phone call review in Monitors?

Reviewing phone calls in Monitors gives your team the same QA coverage on calls that you already have on chat and email:

  • Bring phone calls into the same QA workflow you already use for chat and email conversations.

  • Score what was said automatically with AI criteria, and score tone of voice by listening to the recording with manual criteria.

  • Catch quality issues on calls that previously had no review process at all.

Note: Phone call review is available to teammates on the Pro plan for Monitors. It covers calls that Fin Voice answers and calls that a teammate takes. If you use Fin for platforms, it's available with the Pro add-on.

How to set up phone call review in Monitors

To review phone calls in Monitors, an admin sets up a Monitor with a channel filter and a Scorecard.

  1. Create a Monitor and set the Initial channel filter to Phone call. Without this filter, the Monitor also takes chat and email conversations. Writing "phone calls" into AI flag criteria doesn't filter by channel; the channel filter does.

  2. Attach a Scorecard to the Monitor. Any Scorecard works: all AI criteria, all manual criteria, or a mix.

  3. Add any other filters you need, such as attributes or whether Fin was involved. Don't add a CX score filter to a Monitor for calls, because CX score filters only work for text conversations.

  4. Once these are in place, a call that ends and matches the Monitor's filters appears in the Monitor about 15 minutes after the call ends. The wait gives the transcript time to arrive.

AI criteria are scored when the call arrives in the Monitor. If every criterion on the Scorecard is AI-scored, the call is fully reviewed with no human step. If the Scorecard has manual criteria, the call waits in the Unreviewed conversations queue until a reviewer reads the transcript, plays the recording, and fills in each manual criterion. The call's score is calculated once every criterion has a value.

Note: Nothing changes for the customer on the call. This setup only affects how your team reviews calls afterward.

What can AI criteria judge on a phone call?

AI criteria read the call transcript, which contains every turn of the call from the caller, Fin, and teammates as text. AI criteria don't hear the recording, so they can't judge tone of voice, hold time, dead air, how long someone waited for an answer, background noise, or interruptions. Make any criterion that depends on one of these manual, so a reviewer can play the recording.

Scorecard and Monitor templates for phone call review

Instead of building a Monitor from scratch, you can start from one of two templates when you create a Monitor. Both templates come with a manual Scorecard.

  • Fin over phone manual review — review calls that Fin Voice answers, found under Fin monitors.

  • Teammate phone manual review — review calls that a teammate takes, found under Teammate monitors.

To use a template, click + Monitor from the Monitors page. The Create monitor dialog groups templates by reviewee: select the Fin monitors tab for the "Fin over phone manual review" template, or the Teammate monitors tab for the "Teammate phone manual review" template.

Picking either template creates a Monitor and a manual Scorecard for phone call review, so you can skip the setup above and start reviewing calls right away. Each Scorecard has five manual criteria: Communication, Clarification, Escalation Ease, Efficiency, and Customer Sentiment. Customer Sentiment is not scored. The Scorecard passes a review at a score of at least 50%.

The Edit scorecard page for the Fin over phone manual review Scorecard. Fin AI Agent is selected under Who's evaluated, and five manual criteria are listed, with Customer Sentiment not scored.


What are the limitations of phone call review in Monitors?

  • CX score filters only work for text conversations. A Monitor with a CX score filter and a Phone call channel filter matches no calls, and the Monitor side sheet says so. A Monitor with a CX score filter and no channel filter takes chat and email conversations and leaves calls out without a message.

  • Short phone calls are skipped from Monitors. A call needs at least 2 turns from the caller and 2 turns from Fin or a teammate to be included in a Monitor. Unanswered calls, very short calls, and calls that were mostly hold time don't appear. This is the same rule used for chat conversations.

  • Teammate calls before October 13th, 2026 aren't backfilled. Before that date, the transcript of a teammate call wasn't stored as messages in the conversation, so Monitors can't read it. From October 13th, 2026, every recorded call writes its transcript into the conversation turn by turn. A Monitor pointed at older teammate calls only finds the ones that also had a text exchange.

  • Nothing after an external transfer is captured. If a call is transferred to an outside phone system, the transcript ends there. Hold music and IVR (interactive voice response) menus aren't in the transcript either. Call recording and transcription must be on in your workspace for calls to be reviewed.

  • Scorecards have no channel setting. A Scorecard can't be marked "for calls." The same Scorecard can be used on calls and on chat, and criteria written for a transcript work on both.

  • The workspace limits for AI apply to calls. Each workspace can have 20 live Monitors with AI flag criteria and 20 AI-scored Scorecard criteria. Filter-only Monitors and manual criteria are unlimited, and calls count like any other channel.

  • The same limits that apply on chat and email apply on calls. For example, there's no check against your knowledge base.


FAQs

Can AI score phone calls in Monitors?

Yes, AI can score phone calls in Monitors. AI criteria on a Scorecard score the call transcript automatically, and manual criteria go to your reviewers. AI reads the transcript, not the audio, so make any criterion about tone of voice, hold time, or background noise manual.

Why are no calls showing up in my Monitor?

Calls most often don't show up in a Monitor for one of these reasons:

  • The Monitor doesn't filter on Initial channel is Phone call, so calls compete with chat and email and may be hidden by other filters.

  • The Monitor has a CX score filter. CX score filters only work for text conversations, so the filter leaves calls out.

  • The call was too short. A call needs at least 2 caller turns and 2 Fin or teammate turns.

  • The call ended less than 15 minutes ago. Calls take that long to appear while the transcript arrives.

  • The call was a teammate call from before October 13th, 2026. Those transcripts aren't backfilled.

  • Only calls handled in Intercom are included. Nothing after a transfer to an outside phone system is captured, and hold music and IVR menus are not in the transcript.

Is there a faster way to set this up than building the Scorecard and Monitor from scratch?

Yes, you can set up phone call review faster by starting from a Monitor template. When you create a Monitor, the Fin monitors tab includes a "Fin over phone manual review" template and the Teammate monitors tab includes a "Teammate phone manual review" template.

Both templates come with a manual Scorecard, so picking one skips building a Scorecard from scratch.


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