Route Incoming Calls Automatically Based on CRM Data

Overview

Not every caller deserves the same experience. Registered customers should reach your support team instantly; unknown numbers should go to a general queue. Managing routing rules in the phone system by hand does not scale — and it breaks the moment your CRM data changes.

This guide shows you how to use Web Service-Based Smart Routing to query your CRM in real time before the call is answered and return a routing decision.

How it works

When a call comes in, Hipcall's Smart Routing feature calls your HTTP endpoint with the caller's phone number. Your server looks the number up in your CRM and responds with an extension number. Hipcall routes the call accordingly — all of this happens within milliseconds, before the caller hears a single ring.

Architecture

flowchart TD
    A[Incoming call] --> B[Hipcall Smart Routing steps in]
    B --> C[POST sent to your endpoint\nwith the caller's number]
    C --> D{Found in CRM?}
    D -- Yes --> E[Return the VIP extension\ne.g. 1093]
    D -- No --> F[Return the general extension\ne.g. 1094]
    E --> G[Call is routed to the VIP queue]
    F --> H[Call is routed to the general queue]

Step 1: Configure Smart Routing in Hipcall

In your Hipcall dashboard, go to Settings > Phone System > Smart Routing.
Click New and select Web Service as the route type.
Enter your endpoint URL (e.g. https://your-server.example.com/api/smart-ivr).
Save the rule and assign it to the phone number or IVR menu you want to control.

Local development: Use ngrok to expose your local server. Run the ngrok http 5008 command and use the generated URL as your endpoint.

Step 2: Receive the webhook

As soon as the call arrives, Hipcall sends a POST request to your endpoint, along with the caller's phone number.

Example request from Hipcall:

{
  "caller": "90543XXXXXXX",
  "number": "+90850XXXXXXX",
  "timestamp": 1719843672,
  "uuid": "564aff1e-2141-4925-9c2e-b7dd28b87c16"
}

caller: your customer's number
number: your number in Hipcall
timestamp: Unix timestamp of the operation
uuid: the call's unique UUID
The caller field contains the caller's phone number in E.164 format. Your endpoint must respond within the timeout period — keep your CRM lookup fast.

Step 3: Look up the caller

Normalize the phone number to match your database format, then query your CRM.

Example normalization (Python):

def normalize_phone(phone):
    # Remove non-numeric characters
    phone = ''.join(filter(str.isdigit, phone))
    # Handle Turkish local formats
    if phone.startswith('0') and len(phone) == 11:
        phone = '9' + phone
    elif len(phone) == 10:
        phone = '90' + phone
    return phone

Query your database using the normalized number:

caller = data.get('caller')
normalized = normalize_phone(caller)
 
customer = db.execute(
    'SELECT id FROM customers WHERE phone = ?',
    (normalized,)
).fetchone()

Step 4: Return the routing decision

Respond with a JSON object containing the extension value the call should be routed to. Use one extension for registered customers and another for unknown callers.

Registered customer:

{ "extension": "1093" }

Unknown caller:

{ "extension": "1094" }

Hipcall reads the extension value and transfers the call to that extension immediately. The caller experiences no delay.

Tools used

Tool	Purpose
Web Service-Based Smart Routing	Triggers your endpoint on incoming calls and routes them based on the response

Next steps

Smart Routing documentation — Configure route types, timeouts, and fallback behavior
How To Get A Hipcall API Key And Make Your First Request — Secure your endpoint with API keys or Basic Authentication
Webhooks documentation — Combine it with call events for post-call logging and analytics