> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.maple.inc/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Voice Configuration

> Customize your AI voice personality and settings

Customize how your Maple AI sounds and interacts with customers to match your brand personality.

## Voice Selection

Open **AI Agents** in the sidebar, open your agent, and go to **Audio & Voice** to choose your agent’s voice for phone conversations.

### Available Voices

Maple offers six voices: **Female 1**, **Female 2**, **Female 3**, **Male 1**, **Male 2**, and **Male 3**. Each is labeled with a style: **Upbeat** (Female 1, Male 1), **Dynamic** (Female 2, Male 2), or **Natural** (Female 3, Male 3). **Female 1** is the recommended default. Click a voice to preview it before you save.

Every voice works with every language you enable.

If a voice change doesn’t seem to stick, log out of the dashboard and log back in.

### Choosing Your Voice

Consider:

- Brand personality
- Customer demographics
- Regional preferences
- Type of restaurant

### Ambient Background Audio

Under **Advanced** in **Audio & Voice**, turn on **Ambient Background Audio** to play ambient background audio when customers are on the phone.

## Welcome Message

Under **Message**, edit the **Welcome Message**, the greeting customers hear when they call this number. You can write it in any language Maple supports.

> [!TIP]
>
> Test different settings with your team before going live.

## Advanced Configuration

### Language settings

Configure which languages your Maple AI supports. English is always enabled. You can add additional languages from the agent settings in your dashboard under **Message → Advanced → Languages**.

| Language         | Status                                                  |
| ---------------- | ------------------------------------------------------- |
| English          | Always on                                               |
| Spanish          | Available (beta)                                        |
| Mandarin Chinese | Available (beta)                                        |
| French           | Available (beta)                                        |
| Korean           | Available (beta)                                        |
| Cantonese        | Limited access (shown only if enabled for your account) |

When a caller speaks another language you’ve enabled, the agent switches to it.

Every voice works in every language, so enabling another language doesn’t change your voice options. The same voice speaks every language, so non-English speech may sound accented rather than native. This is a known limitation of current voice models.

> [!WARNING]
>
> Enable only the languages you actually need. Recognition and response quality degrade beyond roughly two languages. For best accuracy, use one primary language plus at most one additional non-English language.

> [!NOTE]
>
> Multilingual support is in beta and may contain bugs. Contact Maple support to enable Cantonese for your location or to request other languages.

### Difficult Words (Word Boosters)

Every restaurant has unique vocabulary – menu items, brand names, cuisine-specific terms – that can be tricky for the speech-to-text engine to transcribe correctly. The **Difficult Words** feature lets you build a per-store word bank of these terms so the AI recognizes them more accurately during calls.

**Where to find it:**

- **QA Dashboard** – scroll to the “Difficult Words” card at the bottom of the page (a store must be selected in the navbar)
- **QA Calls sidebar** – open any call, then click the **Words** tab in the right-hand panel

**How to use it:**

1. Click **+ Add Word** and type the word or phrase (e.g., “focaccia”, “pho”, “açaí bowl”)
2. Press Enter or click the add button to save it
3. The word immediately appears in the table and is linked to the selected store
4. To remove a word, click the trash icon next to it

> [!TIP]
>
> Review call transcripts regularly. When you spot a word the AI consistently gets wrong, add it to the Difficult Words list. The fix takes effect on the next call – no restart needed.

Words are unique per store, so each location can have its own tailored list. Once added, they are automatically sent to the speech engine whenever a new call comes in for that store.

## Testing Your Voice

1. Use preview mode
2. Make test calls
3. Gather team feedback
4. Adjust settings
5. Test again

## Call handoff & transfers

Maple can hand a caller off to your staff in two ways. Which one applies depends on how your line is set up.

### Ring Staff First (passthrough)

Your staff get the first chance to answer, and the AI takes over if nobody does. You choose how to set it up:

- **In Maple:** under **Call Handling**, turn on **Ring Staff First**. Maple rings your **Transfer to Staff** number for about 30 seconds, and the AI takes over if nobody answers. Under **Advanced**, turn off **If Staff Doesn’t Answer** to tell callers to try again later instead, and use **Active Schedule** to apply Ring Staff First always or only during specific hours.
- **With your carrier:** set up no-answer forwarding from your store line to your Maple number. Your carrier and phone control how many rings before Maple picks up, so adjust the ring count with your carrier.

### Transfer to Staff

The AI places an outbound call from your Maple number to your handoff number and rings it for up to 30 seconds on each attempt. If your carrier’s voicemail answers first (often after about 20 seconds, carrier-controlled), the caller hears “the restaurant is busy.”

Outside store hours, the agent transfers only if you turn on **After hours transfers** in **Transfer to Staff**. To send certain calls elsewhere, such as catering or large-party inquiries, add a **Transfer Call** action on the **Actions** tab.

To improve transfer reliability:

- Extend your carrier’s voicemail trigger time past 30 seconds so the handoff line rings for Maple’s full window before voicemail picks up.
- Make sure the handoff line is reachable and answered by a person.
- Enable SMS notifications so staff are alerted to missed transfers.

> [!NOTE]
>
> **Current limitations.** Only the Maple agent number appears in your carrier’s call history — Maple cannot forward the original customer’s caller ID, due to telephony regulation. Phone extensions are not supported.

## Call Transfer Settings

### Transfer Timeout

When transferring calls to staff, Maple uses a 30-second timeout on each attempt to determine if the transfer was successful. If the call isn’t answered within this timeframe, it routes back to the AI.

> [!NOTE]
>
> The 30-second timeout is optimized to prevent carrier auto-responses and voicemail systems from marking the call as complete, which would prevent it from routing back to the AI.

### SMS Notifications for Missed Transfers

When a transferred call isn’t answered, Maple automatically sends an SMS notification to alert staff about the missed call.

**Number Priority:**

1. **SMS number** (if configured in dashboard)
2. **Handoff number** (fallback if no SMS number provided)

**Automatic Validation:**

- Maple checks the line type before sending SMS
- Text messages are not sent to landlines
- Only valid mobile numbers receive notifications

> [!TIP]
>
> Configure your SMS number in the dashboard to ensure staff receive missed call notifications. If no SMS number is provided, the system will use your handoff number as a fallback.

## Next Steps

- [Get Phone Number](https://docs.maple.inc/voice-core/phone/getting-number.md)
- [Configure SMS](https://docs.maple.inc/voice-core/sms-a2p.md)