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Testing the whole system before you go live

Run one lead all the way through — text, call, AI reply, booked appointment, notification — using a real phone. Nearly every failure in this product is silent, so 'it looks configured' is not evidence.

Who this is for

Whoever is about to point real leads at the system.

Before you begin

  • A real phone you control that is NOT already in your lead database.
  • A2P registration approved — not merely submitted.
  • At least one agent fully set up: number (if agent-owned) and calendar connected.

Steps

  1. Create a test lead using your real phone number.
  2. Send it a text from the CRM. Confirm it arrives on the actual handset — not just that the CRM says sent.
  3. Reply from the phone. Confirm the reply appears in the CRM inbox. This proves inbound, which is a separate path from outbound.
  4. Let the AI respond, and confirm the reply reads the way you want your agency to sound.
  5. Ask for an appointment by text and confirm the AI books it — rather than creating a task for a human.
  6. Confirm the appointment appears on the assigned agent's real Google Calendar.
  7. Call the lead from the dialer. Confirm audio works both ways and the caller ID is the number you expect.
  8. Call one of your CRM numbers back from that phone and confirm it routes to the right agent.
  9. Call from a different phone that is NOT in the database, and confirm it reaches your fallback.
  10. Confirm the assigned agent actually received their notification.
  11. Text STOP from the phone and confirm messages stop and the opt-out is recorded.

Do this in one sitting, on a real phone, before real volume. Almost everything that goes wrong here fails quietly: carriers filter texts without bouncing them, the AI books without being able to see real availability, inbound calls with no rule go nowhere. None of those produce an error for you to notice — which is exactly why a walk-through beats a settings review.

How to check it worked

  • Every step above completed on a real device, not a simulator or a test tool.
  • The STOP test matters as much as the rest — if opt-out doesn't work you have a compliance problem, not a bug.

Common mistakes

  • Testing with a number already in the database, which skips the unknown-caller path entirely.
  • Confirming 'sent' in the CRM instead of 'arrived' on a handset. Filtered messages look sent.
  • Going live with A2P still pending.
  • Testing with one agent and assuming the rest of the team is equivalent.
  • Skipping the STOP test.

Related

Initial administrator setup — the order to do things inBranding, then telecom, then A2P, then calendars, then people.A2P 10DLC — registering so your texts actually deliverConnecting a carrier makes texting technically possible.Connecting your calendar (and why the AI can't book without it)One Google connection covers both Calendar and Gmail.Adding agents, permissions and lead routingAdding someone is the easy half.

Where this lives in the app

Open this screenOpens in the app

This is documentation for Virtual Closer. Book a walkthrough or sign in.