Getting an inbound call is only part of the story. Managers also need to know whether the call was answered, who received it, how long the conversation lasted, and what happened when a call didn’t connect.
Shape’s inbound call reporting gives teams visibility into how incoming calls are handled across their organization.
You can use inbound call reports to answer questions such as:
- How many inbound calls are we receiving?
- How many calls are actually connecting with our team?
- How many calls are being missed?
- Which inbound call routes are generating the most activity?
- Who answered a particular call?
- Why wasn’t a call answered?
- Which users were attempted during the call?
- Did a user decline the call or simply not answer?
- Did the caller hang up?
- Was a user’s phone unavailable?
For managers, this makes it much easier to evaluate call coverage, troubleshoot routing questions, and identify opportunities to improve how quickly customers reach your team.
Inbound Call Reporting in Shape
Shape provides different levels of inbound call reporting depending on what you’re trying to understand.
Two of the most useful are:
Inbound Call Routing Report — Use this report for a higher-level view of inbound call performance, including connected and missed calls.
Inbound Call Summary — Use this report when you want to investigate individual inbound calls and see detailed information about what happened.
Together, these reports let you move from “We’re missing a lot of calls.” to “This route is generating a higher number of missed calls, and here’s what happened when those calls attempted to reach our users.”
Inbound Call Routing Report
The Inbound Call Routing Report helps managers understand how inbound calls are performing across configured call routes.
Rather than looking only at total inbound call volume, you can use this report to evaluate whether callers are actually reaching your team.
Total Connected
Total Connected represents inbound calls that were answered by a person and lasted longer than two minutes.
Voicemail-only calls are excluded, even when the voicemail itself lasts longer than two minutes.
This distinction is important because a two-minute voicemail and a two-minute conversation represent very different customer experiences.
Total Connected is designed to provide a more meaningful view of inbound calls that resulted in an actual conversation.
Total Missed
Total Missed represents inbound calls that were not answered by a user and instead resulted in a missed call or voicemail.
Looking at Connected and Missed calls together can help managers identify routes that may need additional attention.
For example, a route could be receiving plenty of inbound calls while still missing a significant percentage of those opportunities.
That may be a reason to review:
- Which users are included in the route
- User Call Availability
- Calling permissions
- Webphone availability
- Ring duration
- Business-hours coverage
- Fallback routing
- Voicemail configuration
- AI answering or other fallback options
The goal isn’t simply to count calls. It’s to understand whether your inbound call strategy is successfully connecting callers with your team.
How to Investigate an Individual Inbound Call
For a more detailed look at individual calls, use the Inbound Call Summary.
From the Reports area in Shape, search for Inbound Call Summary.
This report includes inbound calls and the related call activity behind them.
It’s particularly helpful when someone asks “The customer said they called. What happened?” or “Why didn’t that call come through to me?”
Instead of trying to reconstruct the interaction manually, you can review the call details and related call attempts directly in Shape.
Filtering the Inbound Call Summary
The Inbound Call Summary includes filters to help you narrow the report to the calls you’re investigating.
Available filters include:
- Inbound Call Route Name
- Call Status
- Answered By
- From Date
- To Date
The date range defaults to the current day, making it easy to start with recent calls and expand the timeframe when necessary.
What You Can See in the Inbound Call Summary
The report provides information about each inbound call, including:
- Inbound Call Route Name
- Duration
- Date
- From Number
- To Number
- Direction
- Answered By
- Call Status
- Hangup Cause
- Hangup Source
- Call Outcome
- Call Relations
Because this report focuses on inbound activity, the call direction displays as Inbound.
When a Shape user answers the call, Answered By identifies that user.
If the call was not answered, no answering user is displayed.
Understanding Inbound Call Status
Call Status provides a quick indication of whether the inbound call was answered.
Answered — A Shape user answered the inbound call.
No Answer — The call did not result in a user answering it.
When a call shows No Answer, the additional call details become particularly useful. Review the Hangup Cause, Hangup Source, and Call Relations to better understand what happened.
Understanding Hangup Cause
The Hangup Cause describes why a call or individual call attempt ended.
Common examples include:
- Normal Hangup: The call ended normally, such as after a completed conversation.
- No Answer: The destination rang but nobody answered.
- Rejected: The call was actively declined by the user or system.
- Busy: The destination was busy when Shape attempted to connect the call.
- Destination Unreachable: The intended destination could not be reached. For Shape users, this can sometimes occur when the user’s calling environment is unavailable, such as when the webphone isn’t open or calling functionality is disabled.
Understanding Hangup Source
While Hangup Cause helps explain why the call ended, Hangup Source helps identify who or what ended it.
Common values include:
- Caller: The person placing the inbound call ended it.
- User: The Shape user ended the call.
- System: The platform or carrier ended the call. This can occur because of a timeout, missed call, connection issue, or another system-level event.
Looking at Call Status, Hangup Cause, and Hangup Source together provides much more context than simply seeing that a call was missed.
Call Relations: See What Happened Behind an Inbound Call
One inbound call can create multiple individual call attempts, sometimes referred to as call legs.
This is especially important when using inbound call routing.
For example, a customer may call a shared sales number that is configured to attempt several available users.
To the customer, it’s one phone call.
Behind the scenes, Shape may attempt to connect that call with multiple people.
The Call Relations details let managers see those individual attempts and better understand what happened during the routing process.
What You Can See in Call Relations
Depending on the call, the Call Relations view can include technical information such as:
- Answer Time
- Call Direction
- Call State
- Call UUID
- CNAM Lookup
- Conference UUID
- End Time
- From Number
- To Number
- Hangup Cause Code
- Hangup Cause Name
- Hangup Source
- Initiation Time
- Parent Call UUID
- Post Dial Delay
- Source IP
- STIR Attestation
- STIR Verification
- Voice Network Group
- Additional routing and network information
Most managers won’t need every technical field during normal reporting.
The important part is that Call Relations provides visibility into the individual attempts associated with the inbound call.
Example: Why Was an Inbound Call Missed?
Suppose a customer calls your main Sales line and nobody answers.
At the top level, you might see Call Status: No Answer.
That tells you the outcome, but not necessarily why it happened.
Open Call Relations and you may find that Shape attempted several users.
One user’s call leg may show Rejected. This indicates that the call attempt was declined.
Another may show Destination Unreachable. This can indicate that Shape was unable to reach that user’s calling environment.
Other users may simply show No Answer.
Now the manager has a much clearer picture.
Instead of assuming the inbound call route didn’t work, you can see that the route attempted to connect the caller and investigate whether the issue was related to availability, user behavior, configuration, or the destination itself.
Using Inbound Call Reporting to Improve Coverage
Inbound call reporting becomes especially valuable when you look for patterns instead of reviewing calls only when someone reports a problem.
For example, imagine two sales routes each receive 100 inbound calls.
Looking at volume alone, the routes appear to perform identically.
But if one route consistently connects callers while the other has significantly more missed calls, those teams are providing very different customer experiences.
That gives managers a reason to investigate the second route.
You might find that:
- Too few users are included in the route
- Users aren’t consistently available for calls
- Calls need to ring longer
- Business-hours coverage needs adjustment
- The fallback path needs improvement
- Users need to keep their calling environment available
- Another routing strategy would better fit the team
Inbound call analytics give managers the information they need to make those decisions based on actual call activity.
Inbound Call Summary vs. Other Shape Call Reports
Shape provides several ways to review calling activity. The right place to look depends on what you’re trying to answer.
- Inbound Call Routing Report: Best for understanding overall inbound route performance, connected calls, missed calls, and coverage.
- Inbound Call Summary: Best for investigating an individual inbound call and understanding how it was handled.
- Call Relations: Best for seeing the individual call attempts associated with an inbound call.
- Call Recording Reports: Best for locating and listening to applicable recorded conversations.
- Contact Log: Best for reviewing calls and other communication activity associated with a specific CRM record.
Used together, these tools give managers both a high-level view of inbound call performance and the detail needed to investigate individual calls.
Best Practices for Inbound Call Reporting
Review Connected and Missed Calls Together
Don’t evaluate inbound call performance based only on call volume.
A route receiving a large number of calls isn’t necessarily successful if callers aren’t reaching your team.
Review connected and missed activity together for a more useful picture of performance.
Look for Patterns
Every team will miss calls occasionally.
Pay more attention to recurring patterns.
If the same route, department, group of users, or period of the day consistently generates missed calls, it may be time to review your configuration or staffing.
Use Call Relations Before Assuming There Is a Technical Issue
When someone reports that a call “never came through,” review the Call Relations.
You may find that the call was attempted but went unanswered, was declined, or could not reach the user’s calling environment.
This can save a significant amount of troubleshooting time.
Give Inbound Call Routes Clear Names
Descriptive route names make reporting much easier to understand.
For example, Consumer Direct Sales is much more useful in a report than Route 3.
Clear naming becomes especially valuable for organizations with multiple branches, departments, sales teams, or inbound numbers.
Test Your Routing After Making Changes
After changing an inbound call route, place test calls and review the results.
Don’t test only the ideal scenario where the first person answers.
Test what happens when users don’t answer so you can confirm that your fallback routing works as expected.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where Can I See Detailed Inbound Call Activity in Shape?+
Go to Reports and search for Inbound Call Summary.
This report allows you to review individual inbound calls and their related call activity.
What Is the Difference Between the Inbound Call Routing Report and Inbound Call Summary?+
The Inbound Call Routing Report provides a higher-level view of route performance.
The Inbound Call Summary provides detailed information about individual inbound calls and their related call attempts.
How Can I Tell Who Answered an Inbound Call?+
Review the Answered By field in the Inbound Call Summary.
When applicable, this identifies the Shape user who answered the call.
How Can I Tell Why Nobody Answered?+
Review the call’s Call Relations.
The related call attempts can help you determine whether users didn’t answer, declined the call, were unreachable, or experienced another call result.
Does a Long Voicemail Count as a Connected Call?+
No.
For the Total Connected metric in the Inbound Call Routing Report, the inbound call must have been answered by a person and lasted longer than two minutes.
Voicemail-only calls are excluded.
What Counts as a Missed Inbound Call?+
An inbound call that isn’t answered by a user and instead results in a missed call or voicemail is considered missed.
What Does Rejected Mean?+
Rejected generally means the call attempt was actively declined rather than simply ringing without an answer.
What Does Destination Unreachable Mean?+
Destination Unreachable means Shape was unable to reach the intended destination.
For a Shape user, this may occur when their calling environment is unavailable, such as when the webphone isn’t open or calling is disabled.
What Is the Difference Between Hangup Cause and Hangup Source?+
Hangup Cause explains why the call ended.
Hangup Source identifies who or what ended it, such as the caller, a user, or the system.
Reviewing both provides more context about what happened.
Can I Export the Inbound Call Summary?+
The Inbound Call Summary is designed for in-system review and troubleshooting and isn’t currently exportable.
Where Can I Find the Call Recording?+
Call recordings are available through applicable call recording areas and reports in Shape.
You can also review record-specific communication activity from the Contact Log on the associated record.
Turn Inbound Call Data Into Better Call Coverage
Inbound call reporting gives managers more than a count of how many times the phone rang.
You can see whether callers are reaching your team, identify routes with higher missed-call activity, understand who answered a call, and investigate the individual call attempts behind an interaction.
Start with the Inbound Call Routing Report to identify broader patterns. When something needs a closer look, use the Inbound Call Summary and Call Relations to understand what actually happened.
That combination gives managers the information they need to troubleshoot inbound calls, improve coverage, and make better decisions about how calls should be routed.