How to recognize the problem
- In the email summary, or on the call in the assistant interface, your own office number appears instead of the caller’s number.
- All calls come in under the same number. If that number is saved as a contact, anny AI assigns every call to that one contact. The name and the greeting are then wrong.
- SMS messages the assistant sends during the call, for example a booking link, do not reach the caller.
- In your CRM or ticket system the phone number is missing, or the call lands on the wrong record.
- You cannot call back because the number is missing.
- The assistant has to ask for a callback number in every conversation.
Possible cause
Your phone system or your provider does not pass the original caller number to anny AI when forwarding. The feature that allows this is usually called CLIP no Screening or CLI Passthrough. If it is not active, your own number arrives instead of the caller’s caller ID.Check it in a minute
A test call through your business number shows immediately whether the number arrives. The Test call button in the admin area is not suitable, because it skips the forwarding.- Call your business number from your mobile phone. Your mobile phone must not withhold its own number.
- Wait until anny AI answers, and say a few sentences.
- Open the email summary or the call in the assistant interface and check which number is shown as the caller.
How forwarding works
Whether the number arrives depends on where your forwarding is set up. When a call is forwarded, it is passed to your anny AI number. The place that forwards the call sends a caller number with it. Most providers only allow numbers that belong to your line. That is why anny AI often receives your own number. For the caller’s number to come through, the forwarding has to send it explicitly. Depending on the provider, this feature is called CLIP no Screening, CLI Passthrough, or “pass the caller’s number” (“Rufnummer des Anrufers übermitteln”). On phone systems connected via SIP, the original number is in the SIP data of the call. The system has to pass it on when forwarding.How to fix it
The most reliable option is forwarding directly at your provider. If that is not possible, your phone system has to send the original number along. How to set up forwarding in general is described in Set Up Call Forwarding. If anny AI shows your own number on the test call, the setting is at the place that forwards the call. That is your phone provider, your phone system, or the company that looks after your system. We cannot change this setting from anny. Ask them to send the original caller ID when forwarding. A template for that is further down.Deutsche Telekom
- Set up call diversion directly in the Telekom network, for example in the Telekom Kundencenter. The caller’s number is then transmitted.
- You set the delay before diversion in steps of 5 seconds. 15 seconds is about three to four rings.
- You can add CLIP no Screening at Telekom. It only helps if your phone system registers the numbers itself via SIP. If the numbers are set up on a FRITZ!Box and passed to the system via ISDN, the original number still does not arrive.
FRITZ!Box
- Call diversion in the FRITZ!Box usually transmits your own number. Your phone provider decides which number is signaled, and most providers only allow your line’s number.
- Set up the diversion in your provider’s customer portal, not in the FRITZ!Box.
Placetel
- When Placetel forwards a call to an external number, anny AI receives the Placetel number. CLIP no Screening at Placetel is only available for Placetel’s own numbers.
- Connect anny AI via SIP instead. In the Placetel admin, create a new VoIP target and connect anny AI with the SIP credentials. We’re happy to help you set it up.
Your own phone system or IT provider
- Ask your provider whether the system can signal the original caller number on external forwards. The option is often called “pass the original caller number” (“ursprüngliche Rufnummer übermitteln”) or “CLIP no Screening”.
- Your SIP provider must have enabled CLIP no Screening for your line.
- Set up the forwarding in the phone system, not on an individual desk phone.
Template for your provider or IT provider
Copy this text and send it to your phone provider or to the company that looks after your phone system.Hello, we forward calls from our business number [your business number] to an external phone assistant (destination number: [your anny AI number]). Our own number is currently transmitted, not the number of the person who is calling. Please set up the forwarding so that the original caller number (CLI or caller ID) of the person calling is passed to the destination. If CLIP no Screening is required for this, please enable it for our line. If the forwarding can be set up directly in your network, that is fine for us as well. Thank you, and kind regards
The number is correct in anny AI, but not at the transfer destination
If anny AI shows the correct number, but your employees’ phone does not after the transfer, the cause is at the destination. Check whether the provider or phone system on the receiving side accepts the transmitted number. Many systems have a setting for which number appears on the display for forwarded calls: the caller’s number, or the number of the line that forwarded the call. How transfer works is described in Transfer Calls to Employees.Why the original caller number matters
anny AI needs the caller number for much more than the display:- Callback: In the email summary you immediately see who you need to call back.
- SMS: The assistant can send links and confirmations only to the correct number.
- Contacts: anny AI recognizes known callers by their number and addresses them by name.
- CRM and ticket system: The call lands on the matching record.
- Shorter conversations: The assistant does not have to ask for a callback number.