Support Pre-recorded Voicemail Drop for Outbound Calls

Feature Requests
1

We’ve been running outbound sales campaigns on Retell and have noticed an interesting pattern.

Our AI conversations perform well when a prospect answers, but our callback rate from voicemail has been significantly lower than expected.

In previous campaigns, we had much better results when someone from our sales team leaves a real recorded voicemail. Prospects perceived it as a genuine outreach from a person instead of an automated system, which led to noticeably more callbacks.

Currently, Retell allows:

  • AI-generated voicemail prompts
  • Static text messages spoken by the AI voice

However, we haven’t found a way to upload and play an actual pre-recorded audio file (voicemail drop) when voicemail is detected.

It would be extremely valuable if voicemail detection could support something like:

  • Upload a WAV/MP3 recording
  • Play the recording after the voicemail beep
  • Support multiple recordings per campaign or agent
  • Optionally use variables before or after the recording (e.g. the prospect’s first name)

This would allow sales teams to preserve the authenticity of executive outreach while still benefiting from AI-powered outbound calling.

For many outbound campaigns, the voicemail is often the only interaction a prospect has with the company. Hearing a real human voice instead of a synthesized one can make a meaningful difference in callback rates.

Is this currently on the roadmap, or is there another way to accomplish this using Retell?

2

+1. Adding a workaround you can run today, plus one caution for whoever builds this.

Workaround: you do not have to wait for Retell to play the file. Have the agent detect voicemail and hang up immediately without leaving anything, then fire your post call webhook into a voicemail drop provider with the prospect’s number and the recording you want. You get your rep’s real voice on the drop, and Retell keeps the live answer path where it earns its keep. Costs you a second vendor, but it is live this week rather than whenever this ships.

One caveat though: direct to voicemail delivery carries real legal exposure in the US, since ringless voicemail has been treated as a call for TCPA purposes. If Retell does build this, playing an uploaded file after the beep on a normally dialled call is the safe shape.