State Type: Assisting
What It Does
Assisting is what it sounds like: the agent is helping the caller. It answers questions, looks things up, reads from the knowledge base, finds people in the phone directory, and transfers the call when asked. It is an open-ended working state, not a narrow step.
Technically, Assisting is identical to Greeting in how it runs — same prompt + tools + transitions shape. The difference is context and intent. Greeting is for the opening of the call; Assisting is for ongoing purposed help after the opening (or in flows where there is no meaningful distinction between the two).
When to Use It
- You want a dedicated state for ongoing help, separate from the opening greeting.
- The call returns to general help after a specialized state finishes (e.g. booking completes, transfer is cancelled, caller says "actually, one more thing").
- The flow has multiple entry points that all funnel into the same "keep helping" logic.
For simple flows, you do not need a separate Assisting state — the Greeting state does double duty. Reach for Assisting when you want the opening line to fire only once.
Writing the Description
Assisting prompts should focus on how the agent helps, not on the opening line:
- Be liberal with the scope. List the categories of request the agent can handle here — questions, transfers, lookups.
- Spell out how the agent should hand off. "If the caller asks to book, transition to scheduling." "If the caller sounds frustrated or asks for a person, transfer."
Tools to Include
A typical Assisting state carries the same broad toolkit as Greeting:
- Get Company Info, Search Knowledge Base — answer questions.
- Search Phone Directory, Transfer Call — connect to people.
- Transitions into Collect Information, Call Routing, or other focused states when the caller's need narrows.
If you have integration tools enabled on the agent's domain (Calendly, Google Calendar, Zoho, Heartland, etc.), Assisting is a reasonable state to put them in too — the agent can decide to use them when the caller asks.
Returning to Assisting
A common pattern is to transition back to Assisting after a specialized state finishes. For example, after a Collect Information state completes, a transition labeled "anything else?" brings the caller back to Assisting so they can ask a follow-up question. This keeps the conversation natural instead of ending abruptly.
Related Articles
State Type: Closing
The Closing state is where the conversation ends. The agent says goodbye, performs any final wrap-up, and hangs up. It is the flow's exit — when the agent reaches a Closing state with no outbound transitions, the call is over. What It Does A Closing ...State Type: Error Handling
The Error Handling state is the recovery branch of your flow — where the agent goes when something did not go as expected. A caller spoke a language the agent does not understand, a tool returned an error, a required field was not captured, an ...State based vs Prompt Engineering
There are two ways to control how your AI Agent behaves on a call: 1. Write one long system prompt that tries to cover every situation or 2. Build a flow with states that change the agent's focus as the conversation moves forward. This article ...Building Conversation Flows
A flow is the conversation blueprint for your AI Agent. It defines the stages of a phone call, what the agent does at each stage, which tools it can use, and when the conversation moves forward. Think of it like a flowchart: each box is a stage the ...State Calling Hours | OneCloud Support Portal
Many countries regulate the hours during which businesses are allowed to contact consumers by phone. In some countries, such calling hours may also be regulated at the state level. To be compliant with such regulations during your outbound campaigns, ...