Connect Zirko to ElevenLabs

An admin connects it

It is off by default. An Office – Admin turns on the “Connect a phone service” switch in the settings under “AI phone service” and creates a key — a kind of password your phone service uses to sign in to Zirko. Zirko shows it exactly once.

Connect a phone number

This is the step that takes the most work: according to ElevenLabs, it does not sell phone numbers. Either you get a number from Twilio, a provider of phone numbers over the internet, and import it into ElevenLabs. Or you connect your phone system over a SIP trunk, an internet line for phone systems — then you keep your number; your phone provider knows whether your system can do this.

Create four tools

In your agent — that is what ElevenLabs calls the phone assistant — you create four tools under “Tools” with “Add tool”: get rules, recognise caller, create inquiry, report emergency. Each one is a webhook, a request the agent uses to check with Zirko during the call. You enter the key in the secret “Authorization” field; for the caller’s number, you choose the variable that ElevenLabs fills in itself. Zirko shows you every field ready to copy; the addresses are these:

GET  zirko_get_business_rules
     https://app.zirko.io/api/telefondienst/vorgaben
POST zirko_recognize_caller
     https://app.zirko.io/api/telefondienst/anrufer
POST zirko_create_inquiry
     https://app.zirko.io/api/telefondienst/anfrage
POST zirko_report_emergency
     https://app.zirko.io/api/telefondienst/notfall

Instructions and greeting

You copy two texts from Zirko into the agent: the instructions (“System prompt”) and the greeting (“First message”), which says that an AI is speaking and the call is being recorded. Do not set up a lookup right at the start of the call: if Zirko happened to be unreachable, ElevenLabs could not answer the call. According to ElevenLabs, it also stores the audio by default. Zirko does not need it: switch off “Audio saving” in the agent’s “Privacy Settings”, or get consent for the audio recording.

Put emergencies through (optional)

If you want to take an emergency call yourself, set up the transfer to a person in the agent (“Transfer to Human”) — to your emergency number, in international format with + and the country code. Zirko shows it to you in exactly that form.

You keep your rules up to date

Opening hours, what an emergency is and where it goes, and the greeting with the notice that an AI is speaking: your phone service gets them from Zirko on every call.

Test

Call your number and ask for the opening hours. If the key in Zirko then shows “Last used: just now”, the connection works.