Outbound virtual agents overview in ServiceTitan Max: Configuration and management

Overview

Outbound Virtual Agents help home service businesses respond to new leads quickly and book more jobs. From the AI Concierge area in ServiceTitan, you can automate outbound Lead follow-up using AI-powered SMS and Voice Agents that offer real Appointment times from Adaptive Capacity and book jobs without CSR involvement.

Outbound Virtual Agents runs on top of your existing inbound voice system. If you already use ServiceTitan, you can keep the phone system you have today — Basic Phones or Phones Pro — and add Voice Agent to it. Contact Center Pro is one supported path, not a requirement.

This article explains what Outbound Virtual Agents is, who it's designed for, what you need to have in place to use it, and how Speed to Lead — its flagship goal — works alongside ServiceTitan and all available features. It also covers how to manage your Voice Agent settings, which shape how both the Voice Agent and SMS Agent talk to your customers. It is intended as a configuration and management guide. For step-by-step campaign setup, see Set up and launch outbound agent campaigns in Outbound Virtual Agents. For ongoing use, see The outbound dashboard with outbound virtual agents in ServiceTitan Max and Use Interactions in Outbound Virtual Agents.

Who uses this feature

Administrators and CSRs
Primarily benefits Residential Service and Replacement and Residential Construction business types
Primarily benefits Plumbing, HVAC, Electrical, and Garage Door (PHEG) trades
Region availability: United States and Canada

Feature configuration

Outbound Virtual Agents is available to ServiceTitan Max customers. Activation is handled by the ServiceTitan team. To get started, reach out to your Pro Product Specialist (PPS).
The following permissions are required to use this feature. Please contact the account administrator on your team.
- View Customer Chats — Required to access the Interactions page and view conversation transcripts.
- Send Message — Required to use the Takeover action on an in-progress interaction. Without this permission, the Takeover button is hidden, but conversation content is still visible if View Customer Chats is granted.
- Listen to Call Recording — Required to view Call transcripts and recordings in the interaction detail drawer. Without this permission, call data is hidden even if the user can see the rest of the interaction.

The permission required to configure the Voice Agent itself depends on your telecom system:

If you are using Basic Phones and Phones Pro you need the Forwarding Number Settings and Phone Settings permission.
If you are using Contact Center Pro, you need the Edit Voice Agent Settings permission, assigned through your Enterprise Hub network.

Things to know

Contact Center Pro is not required. Outbound Virtual Agents need an inbound voice system with Voice Agent enabled — that can be Basic Phones, Phones Pro, or Contact Center Pro routed to your Voice Agent Forwarding Number. Existing ServiceTitan customers can keep the telecom system they have today.
Speed to Lead requires Adaptive Capacity. If no availability exists, the agent cannot book jobs. This is the single biggest readiness check.
The SMS and voice agents share the same configuration. Any change you make to a Voice Agent's persona, skills, Job Types, knowledge base, follow-up questions, or escalation settings applies to both channels.
Leads and opportunities are handled separately. Outbound Virtual Agents distinguishes new leads from returning-customer opportunities. The recommended starting setting is to include both in Speed to Lead campaigns.
Audience logic uses AND conditions. When you start out, choose one targeting filter (Marketing Campaign or Source) rather than both, to keep the audience broad. Adding both will narrow your audience significantly.
Campaign sequences are fully customizable. A campaign can include any combination of SMS AI Agent steps, Voice Agent steps, Delays, and Manual Tasks. You control the number of attempts, the timing between each, and when the sequence ends.
Once a CSR uses Takeover on the Interactions page, the AI agent stops sending automated messages for that lead. The CSR must continue the conversation manually.
Existing auto-responders or other automated SMS tools must be turned off before launch to prevent duplicate messages.
Notifying customers they're speaking with AI is a legal requirement in some locations. Make sure your opening message complies with the laws in your area.
On Basic Phones and Phones Pro, the Enable Default Call Type feature configuration is not compatible with Voice Agent. Turn it off by going to Settings > Your Account > Feature Configurations before setting up your agent.
Once you customize an Account Level Voice Agent setting in Contact Center Pro, Global defaults no longer apply to that tenant — even if you later change the Global setting. Basic Phones and Phones Pro accounts are single-tenant and don't have this distinction.

Best practices

Before activating any campaign, confirm Adaptive Capacity is fully configured with current technician shifts, default capacity settings, available capacity, and Arrival Windows.
When you start out, choose one targeting filter (Marketing Campaign or Source) rather than both, to keep your audience broad.
Include both new leads and returning-customer opportunities in Speed to Lead campaigns as a recommended starting setting.
After uploading Knowledge Base files, test the Voice Agent using a dedicated test line rather than your live routing, and confirm it answers questions correctly using the uploaded content. On Basic Phones and Phones Pro, see Set up your Voice Agent routing for how to stand up a test line. Remember that test calls are billed.
For accurate attribution, give each campaign its own dedicated inbound tracking number.
Use the Interactions page after launch to spot conversations that need a human touch, and refine messaging, timing, or targeting based on what you see.

Use cases

After-hours plumbing lead from Angi. A plumbing company receives a lead from Angi at 7:45 PM when no CSRs are available. Speed to Lead texts the homeowner within seconds, offers the next available appointment slot from Adaptive Capacity, and books the Job — all without human intervention.
Comparing lead source performance. An HVAC company runs separate Speed to Lead campaigns for integrated lead sources (e.g., Yelp, Facebook), each with a different tracking number and virtual agent persona, so they can compare conversion rates by source in the Outbound Dashboard.
Voice fallback for non-responders. An electrical company adds a Voice Agent step after two unanswered SMS messages, so leads who don't respond to text still receive an outbound call from the AI agent.

What Outbound Virtual Agents is

Outbound Virtual Agents gives administrators and customer service representatives one place to manage outbound lead campaigns, monitor AI agent conversations, and measure automated outreach. Two channels power the outreach:

SMS Agent — Sends automated, personalized text messages to leads.
Voice Agent — Places automated outbound calls to leads using your virtual agent's configured persona, skills, and escalation rules.

The SMS and Voice Agents share the same virtual agent configuration. Persona, skills, job types, dispatch fees, and escalation settings you define for the Voice Agent also inform how the SMS Agent behaves and what its messages say. You can create multiple virtual agents to support different campaigns or goals.

Outbound Virtual Agents lives in the AI Concierge section of the ServiceTitan navigation bar. Within AI Concierge, you'll use three surfaces:

Outbound Dashboard (AI Concierge > Dashboard > Outbound) — Tracks campaign performance over a selected time period. Surfaces top-level metrics (Agent Workflows, Average Response Rate, Conversions, Average Conversion Rate) and per-goal detail including Conversion Rate, Response Rate, Total Revenue, Scheduling Rate, Appointments Scheduled, and Job Completion Rate.
Agent Workflows (AI Concierge > Operations > Agent Workflows) — Where you create, configure, and activate outbound campaigns. Each goal can have multiple campaigns targeting different lead sources, audiences, or virtual agents. Campaigns can be paused or reactivated at any time, and campaign priority can be set using the drag-to-reorder Workflow Priority tool when a lead might qualify for more than one active campaign.
Interactions (AI Concierge > Operations > Interactions) — A log of every conversation the agents have had. Each interaction record displays the channel, contact name, lead or opportunity link, goal, status, and an AI-generated summary. Full conversation transcripts and call recordings are accessible from each record.

Available goals today

Speed to Lead — AI contacts newly captured leads within seconds via SMS, and continues follow-up until conversion or exit criteria are met. You can add a Voice Agent call to the sequence so leads who don't reply to text still receive an outbound call.
Schedule Parts Follow-Up — AI reaches out to schedule return visits once ordered parts have arrived. Administrators set up a campaign that watches for a "parts ready" signal (either a job tag or a Dispatch Pro rule), confirms the job is eligible, and reaches out through the selected channel.

How Outbound Virtual Agents fits in ServiceTitan Max

ServiceTitan Max gives you the full Pro Product suite plus Atlas, working in tandem with ServiceTitan Core. Outbound Virtual Agents is designed to coordinate activity across that stack rather than operate as a standalone tool. A typical Speed to Lead workflow weaves together capabilities from across your platform:

Adaptive Capacity is the source of Real-time availability the AI agent quotes to leads. Without configured technician shifts, arrival windows, and capacity settings, the agent cannot offer appointments or book jobs.
Voice Agent is the ServiceTitan capability that shapes how your virtual agents talk to leads — persona, transcript, skills, job types, dispatch fees, and escalation rules. Voice Agent runs on your existing telecom system— Basic Phones, Phones Pro, or Contact Center Pro that routes calls to your Voice Agent Forwarding Number — so it works no matter which telecom path your business uses.
Marketing provides audience and campaign attribution data the AI agent uses for targeting. When Marketing is present, the CRM Leads page serves as the source for outbound campaigns, and Marketing unlocks advanced audience targeting and the email channel.
Scheduling booking links can be embedded in agent SMS messages, giving leads a direct path to self-book if they prefer.
ServiceTitan is where bookings created by the AI agent land as scheduled jobs and where lead, customer, and opportunity records live.
Field and Atlas carry the work forward into the field once the booking is made.

The intent is that you do not think of Outbound Virtual Agents as a separate product you log into. The agents identify the opportunity, the right ServiceTitan capability engages on it, and the outcome shows up back in the Interactions view — so the entire team has a single thread of context.

Prerequisites

Inbound Voice (Voice Agent)

An active inbound voice system with the Voice Agent capability is required. Outbound Virtual Agents does not include Voice Agent — it uses your existing Voice Agent configuration.

Any of the following inbound voice paths supports Voice Agent:

Basic Phones — Voice Agent is configured in ServiceTitan; live-line call routing is configured in your third-party phone system.
Phones Pro — Voice Agent is configured in ServiceTitan; call routing is configured in Dialpad.
Contact Center Pro — Voice Agent is configured in Contact Center Pro and requires an Enterprise Hub network.

Note: Existing ServiceTitan customers do not need to change phone systems. If you already run Basic Phones or Phones Pro, you can keep it and add Voice Agent to what you have. Contact Center Pro is optional — Outbound Virtual Agents works on every supported inbound voice path. Talk with your PPS about which telecom path best fits your business.

On Basic Phones and Phones Pro, two additional steps apply before your Voice Agent can take calls:

Purchase Voice Agent. Owners and Administrators can buy it through the in-product purchase flow, or contact your PPS. See AI Voice Agent Onboarding Part 1: Set up for Basic Phones and Phones Pro
Route calls to your Voice Agent Forwarding Number. The number appears in Settings > Phones or Phones Pro > Voice Agent Settings. Add it to your call routing as an overflow, after-hours, or emergency-fallback destination. See Set up your Voice Agent routing. Never give this number to customers — calls dialed to it directly are not logged in Search > Calls.

Before Outbound Virtual Agents can be activated, your Voice Agent must be configured — Persona, Transcript, Skills and Capabilities, Job Types and Dispatch Fees, and Escalation and Rules must all be defined for at least one Voice Agent. The Manage your Voice Agent settings section below walks through what to configure and how the setup differs based on your telecom tier.

Because the SMS Agent shares the same configuration as the Voice Agent, anything you set for your Voice Agent also shapes the content and behavior of SMS outreach.

Adaptive Capacity

Adaptive Capacity is the most important prerequisite for accurate scheduling. The AI agent uses Adaptive Capacity to find and quote real appointment times to leads. If no availability exists, the agent cannot book jobs.

Before activating any campaign, confirm the following are configured and current:

Technician shifts — Including any after-hours shifts your business uses. Set these up in Schedule.
Adaptive Capacity settings — Default capacity settings should be present and aligned with your calculated capacity. Configure these under Settings > Adaptive Capacity > Settings.
Available capacity — Confirm capacity is actually showing in Schedule > Capacity Reporting for the dates the agent will be booking into.
Arrival windows — These are the time ranges the agent quotes to customers. Set these under Settings > Operations > Arrival Windows.
Job Types — Job types the Voice Agent is allowed to book must be defined and available.

CRM Leads and Tasks pages

Outbound Virtual Agents requires the CRM Leads and Tasks pages to be enabled on your tenant. This is a scoped, lighter-weight surface — you do not need full ServiceTitan CRM to use Outbound Virtual Agents. The CRM Leads and Tasks pages become available when Outbound Virtual Agents is enabled on your tenant.

Lead source configuration

Where your leads come from determines how they reach Outbound Virtual Agents.

Marketing: Confirm leads are appearing in the CRM All Leads tab with tasks and activities available. The CRM Leads page serves as the source for outbound campaigns. Marketing also unlocks advanced audience targeting — including static and dynamic filters, inclusion and exclusion criteria, targeting scoring, and prebuilt retention audiences (such as Idle Accounts, Aging Equipment, Membership Renewal, and Open Estimates). For details, see Manage Marketing Pro Audiences.

For accurate attribution, each campaign should have its own dedicated inbound tracking number.

Disable conflicting auto-responders

Before launching any campaign, disable existing auto-responder or automated SMS tools under Settings > Communication > Chat. Competing automations will send duplicate messages to leads and create confusion.

Configure your Voice Agent

Your Voice Agent configuration drives both channels. Persona, transcript, skills, job types, dispatch fees, and escalation rules shape how the Voice Agent speaks on calls and what the SMS Agent says in text — so anything you set for your Voice Agent also shapes your outbound SMS outreach.

Before Outbound Virtual Agents can be activated, at least one Voice Agent must have all five sections defined:

Section	What it controls
Persona	The agent's name, your customer-facing business name, and the Knowledge Base files it draws on to answer questions
Transcript	Opening and closing messages, custom follow-up questions, objection handling, and dispatch fee messaging
Skills and Capabilities	Which scheduling actions the agent can take — booking, rescheduling, cancelling, after-hours booking
Job Types and Dispatch Fees	Which job types the agent may book and how fees are communicated
Escalation and Rules	When a conversation hands off to a human, and where it routes

Where to configure it

The available options and the path to reach them differ by telecom system. Use the article that matches yours:

Basic Phones or Phones Pro — Go to Settings > Phones or Phones Pro > Voice Agent Settings. See Configure your Voice Agent Settings in ServiceTitan. This tier also offers voice and language customization, call flow selection, escalation paths and notifications, and Inbound SMS settings.
Contact Center Pro — From your Contact Center Pro account, click Settings > Voice Agent in the side panel. See Configure your Voice Agent settings in Contact Center Pro. Contact Center Pro adds a Global and Account Level layer for Enterprise Hub networks — Global covers Persona, Transcript, and Skills and Capabilities, while Job Types and Dispatch Fees and the Knowledge Base are set per tenant at Account Level.

For a worked example of Voice Agent configuration in context, see Abandoned Call Recovery with Contact Center Pro: Setup and Workflow in ServiceTitan Max.

Featured use case: Speed to Lead

Speed to Lead is Outbound Virtual Agents' flagship goal, designed to address one of the highest-impact problems in residential service: response time on inbound leads. Lead response time has direct, measurable impact on conversion, especially for leads from third-party aggregators where the first contractor to respond is often the one who wins the job.

What Speed to Lead does

When a new lead enters ServiceTitan from a supported lead source, Speed to Lead:

Identifies the lead as a match for an active campaign based on your audience configuration.
Sends a personalized SMS through the SMS Agent — typically within seconds of the lead entering ServiceTitan.
Offers real appointment times pulled from Adaptive Capacity.
Books the job when the lead confirms — without CSR involvement.

If the lead doesn't respond to SMS, you can build follow-up into the campaign sequence: additional SMS attempts, a Voice Agent call, delays between contact attempts, and a final Manual Task that hands the lead off to a human team member for personal follow-up.

How Speed to Lead works with your ServiceTitan features

Speed to Lead is a clear example of why ServiceTitan Max content describes the platform as connected rather than as separate products:

Adaptive Capacity provides the available appointment slots the agent offers.
Voice Agent shapes how the SMS and voice conversations flow — persona, transcript, follow-up questions, knowledge base, and escalation rules — regardless of whether it runs on Basic Phones, Phones Pro, or Contact Center Pro.
Marketing supplies attribution and audience data to the agent.
Scheduling booking links can be embedded in agent messages.
ServiceTitan is where the booked job lands.

You do not configure Speed to Lead as a standalone product. You configure your Adaptive Capacity, your Voice Agent, your lead sources, and your campaign — and Speed to Lead emerges from those pieces working together.

What "getting started" looks like

Because activation is handled by the ServiceTitan team rather than through a self-service setting, here's what to expect as a ServiceTitan Max customer:

Talk with your PPS about Outbound Virtual Agents. They'll confirm your tenant's readiness — that you have Adaptive Capacity configured with current shifts and arrival windows, a Voice Agent set up on your telecom system of choice, and lead sources configured the way you want them attributed. If you're an existing ServiceTitan user, you can keep the phone system you already have — Basic Phones or Phones Pro. Contact Center Pro is one option, not a requirement, and your CSM or PAM can help you decide whether moving makes sense for your business.
Confirm permissions are granted. Your account administrator will need to grant View Customer Chats, Send Message, and Listen to Call Recording to the right users, plus the permission that lets them edit Voice Agent settings on your telecom system — Forwarding Number Settings and Phone Settings on Basic Phones and Phones Pro, or Edit Voice Agent Settings on Contact Center Pro.
Confirm your Voice Agent is configured on your telecom system. Set the Persona (including any Knowledge Base files), Transcript (including Custom Follow-up Questions), Skills and Capabilities, Job Types and Dispatch Fees, and Escalation and Rules. The Manage your Voice Agent settings section above walks through each piece and how the access path differs by telecom tier. If you're on Basic Phones or Phones Pro, also confirm your call routing points to your Voice Agent Forwarding Number.
Your tenant is activated by the ServiceTitan team. Once activated, you'll see the AI Concierge section appear in your ServiceTitan navigation bar with the Dashboard, Agent Workflows, and Interactions surfaces, and the CRM Leads and Tasks pages become available.
Configure your first campaign. Your CSM or PAM will help you build your first Speed to Lead campaign — choosing the lead source, the Voice Agent, the tracking number, the audience filters, and the message sequence. The first time you open a goal, you'll be prompted to confirm an outbound phone number and agree to transactional SMS terms and conditions.
Review and adjust. After launch, use the Outbound Dashboard to track performance and the Interactions page to spot conversations that need a human touch. Refine messaging, timing, or targeting based on what you see.

For the full step-by-step setup walkthrough, see Set up and launch outbound agent campaigns in Outbound Virtual Agents.