Masked Connect (Number Masking)

One business number that quietly connects each caller to the right person — without either side ever seeing the other's real phone number.

TL;DR

• What it is — a routing type that looks up the number a customer is calling from and connects them to a specific person's phone (their "follow-me" number), masking both numbers. If the caller isn't recognised, they can enter an order code or their registered number on the keypad to be matched.
• Who it's for — logistics and delivery operations (and any team that wants customer↔staff calls connected privately). Built so delivery agents never see customers' personal numbers, and customers never see agents'.
• Top outcome — the right two people talk, neither learns the other's number, and every call is recorded and reportable.

At a glance

How to find it

Sidebar: Settings → Calling → [your account] → Masked Connect.

Direct URLs:

• Masked Connect configurations: /crm/settings/calling/{accountId}/masked-connect
• Phone number routing: /crm/settings/calling/{accountId}/numbers
• Call flow view: /crm/settings/calling/{accountId}/call-flow — a read-only map showing which numbers route through Masked Connect.

📸 [SCREENSHOT: maskedconnect-landing.png — Masked Connect list with fallback mode, mapping count, and status]

What is Masked Connect?

The problem it solves

A delivery business hands out one support number. When a customer calls about their order, the call has to reach their delivery agent — not a random one — and it has to do so without exposing anyone's personal mobile number. Sharing real numbers is a privacy and safety problem: agents get called back off-platform, customers get unsolicited contact, and there's no record of any of it.

Masked Connect is the private switchboard in the middle. The customer calls your business number; Lodgestory recognises who's calling and patches them straight through to the exact agent handling their order. The agent's phone rings showing your business number, so they answer without ever seeing the customer's number — and the customer never sees the agent's. Either side can be reached only through your number, and every call is logged.

What you get

• Recognise-and-connect — match the caller's number to the right person's phone automatically, with both numbers hidden.
• A keypad fallback for callers you can't recognise — they enter an order code, or the registered number they placed the order with (useful when they're calling from a different phone), and get matched anyway.
• A rejection message for callers that still can't be matched — a polite recording or spoken message, then the call ends.
• Custom audio — a greeting on answer, a ringback tone while the agent's phone rings, optional hold music, and the rejection message.
• A simple mapping list — each row links a customer's number to the agent's follow-me number, with an optional order code and label. Edit it in the dashboard, import it from a file, or have your order system keep it up to date automatically.
• Automatic recording of every connected call, and per-call reporting on how each call connected.

How it's different

• Routing decided by who's calling. Most routing sends every caller to the same place; Masked Connect sends each caller to a different person based on their number.
• Two-way number privacy by default. The agent sees your business number, not the customer. The customer dialled your business number, so they never see the agent. No setup required to get this — it's how every connection works.
• Designed for "calling from a new phone." Real customers don't always call from the number on file. The order-code and registered-number fallbacks handle that gracefully instead of dead-ending.
• Keeps up with your operations. Map a customer to an agent the moment an order is dispatched, and clear it when it's delivered — by hand, by file import, or automatically from your order system.

Customer scenarios

• Last-mile delivery. A courier company gives customers one number. Asha calls about order #4821; she's connected straight to Ravi, the agent out with her parcel. Ravi's phone shows the company number, not Asha's. When the delivery is done, the mapping is cleared.
• Calling from a different phone. Asha's phone is dead, so she calls from a friend's. Lodgestory doesn't recognise the number, so it asks her to key in her order code — she enters 4821# and is connected to Ravi anyway.
• One customer, two live orders. Asha has two parcels out with two different agents. Because her number alone is ambiguous, Lodgestory asks for the order code to send her to the right one.
• After-hours. Outside delivery hours, the business number routes to a closed-hours message instead of Masked Connect, using a business-hours schedule.

How it fits with Lodgestory Voice

• Phone numbers point here. Set a number's routing to Masked Connect and pick a configuration.
• Business hours can switch it on and off. A time condition can route to Masked Connect during delivery hours and somewhere else after.
• Audio lives in your media library. Upload greetings, ringback, hold music, and rejection messages once and reuse them.
• Recordings and reports flow into the call log, with a tag on each call showing how it connected.
• It shows up in the call flow view so you can audit which numbers use it.

Core concepts

Quick Start — set up private delivery calls in five steps

Step 1 — Prepare your audio (optional)

In your media library, add any greeting, hold music, and a rejection message you want callers to hear. You can also use text-to-speech and skip recording.

📸 [SCREENSHOT: mc-qs-1-media.png — media library with greeting and rejection clips]

Step 2 — Create a Masked Connect configuration

Settings → Calling → [your account] → Masked Connect → Create Config. Name it (e.g. "Mumbai Hub"), pick your audio, and choose the fallback: Order code, then registered number is the most forgiving.

📸 [SCREENSHOT: mc-qs-2-create.png — create dialog with audio pickers and fallback selector]

Step 3 — Add your mappings

In the lookup list, add a row for each active order: the customer's number, the agent's follow-me number, and an order code. You can type rows in, or use Import CSV to paste many at once.

📸 [SCREENSHOT: mc-qs-3-mappings.png — lookup list with customer number, follow-me number, and code columns]

Step 4 — Point a phone number at it

Go to Phone Numbers, choose your delivery support number, set the routing type to Masked Connect, and select your configuration.

📸 [SCREENSHOT: mc-qs-4-number.png — number routing set to Masked Connect]

Step 5 — Test

Call the number from a mapped customer's phone — you should be connected to that agent, and the agent's phone should show your business number. Then call from an unmapped phone and confirm the order-code prompt connects you too.

What's next

• Have your order system add a mapping when an order is dispatched and remove it on delivery (see API), so the list stays current with no manual work.
• Set an expiry on mappings so stale ones drop off automatically.
• Review Reports → Call Log to see how often callers connect directly versus using the keypad.

How it works

flowchart TD
  A[Customer calls your business number] --> B{Is the caller's number in your list?}
  B -- "One match" --> C[Connect to that agent's phone]
  B -- "Several live orders" --> D[Ask for the order code]
  B -- "Not found" --> E[Fallback: ask for order code and/or registered number]
  D --> C
  E -- "Match" --> C
  E -- "No match" --> F[Play rejection message and end the call]
  C -- "Agent doesn't answer" --> G[Call ends]

• A customer calls your business number.
• Lodgestory checks the number they're calling from against your mapping list.
• One match → it connects them to that agent's phone. The agent sees your business number; the customer only ever dialled your business number. Neither sees the other.
• Several live orders for that number → it asks the caller to key in their order code to pick the right one.
• Number not recognised (including callers who withhold their number, or call from a new phone) → it runs your fallback: enter an order code, enter the registered number, or try the code first and then the number.
• Still no match → it plays your rejection message and ends the call.
• The agent doesn't pick up → the call ends (there's no voicemail step in this flow).

Edits go live immediately — update a mapping or the audio, save, and the next call uses it.

Features in depth

The mapping list

Each row links one customer number to one agent follow-me number, plus:

• Order code — optional, used for keypad matching and to tell apart multiple live orders for the same customer.
• Label — a free-text note like the order reference or customer name.
• Active toggle — switch a mapping off without deleting it.
• Expiry — an optional date after which the mapping stops matching automatically.

You can manage rows by hand, paste many at once with Import CSV, or keep the list current automatically from your order system (see API).

📸 [SCREENSHOT: mc-mapping-list.png — editable mapping rows with add, import, and per-row toggle]

Fallback options

Choose what happens when a caller's number isn't recognised:

You set how many digits an order code has, how many tries the caller gets, and how long the agent's phone rings before the call ends.

Audio

Four points in the call can have your own audio (uploaded, recorded, or text-to-speech):

• Greeting — plays when the call is answered, before connecting.
• Ringback — what the customer hears while the agent's phone rings. Defaults to a standard ringing tone.
• Hold music — an optional short clip before a keypad prompt.
• Rejection message — played when nothing matches, before the call ends.

Recording & transcription

Every connected call is recorded automatically; you can turn recording off for a configuration if you prefer. If transcription is enabled for your account, masked calls are transcribed too, with the customer and the agent shown separately.

Per-call reporting

Every call is tagged with how it connected — matched by number, by order code, by registered number, or not matched — so you can see how often customers reach their agent directly versus needing the keypad, and spot configurations that need attention. Calls appear in your call log like any other.

Roles & permissions

Connections

• Phone Numbers — point any number at a Masked Connect configuration.
• Business hours (time conditions) — route to Masked Connect during delivery hours and to a message or voicemail outside them.
• Media library — greetings, ringback, hold music, and rejection messages live here.
• Call Recording & Reports — masked calls are recorded and logged with their match type.
• Call flow view — see at a glance which numbers use Masked Connect.

Limits a user will run into

Errors & FAQ

Does the delivery agent ever see the customer's real number?
No. The agent's phone shows your business number on every masked call. The customer never sees the agent's number either, because they only ever dialled your business number.

What if the customer calls from a different phone than they ordered with?
They won't be recognised by number, so Lodgestory asks them to key in their order code (or the number they ordered with, depending on your fallback) and connects them anyway.

What if one customer has two orders out at once?
Because their number alone can't tell the orders apart, Lodgestory asks for the order code. Give each active order a unique code so this always resolves cleanly.

What happens if the agent doesn't answer?
The call ends. There's no voicemail step in this flow — it's built for live, time-sensitive delivery calls.

Can my order system manage the list automatically?
Yes. Mappings can be added, updated, and removed automatically as orders move through your system, or bulk-loaded from a file. See API.

Can order codes contain letters?
No — callers type them on a phone keypad, so codes must be numeric.

Does it work for both India and US numbers?
Yes.

Can the same configuration be used on more than one number?
Yes. Build it once and point multiple numbers at it.

Troubleshooting

API

A partner API is available on request for teams that want their order system to drive Masked Connect:

• Add or update a mapping when an order is dispatched (customer number, agent follow-me number, order code, optional expiry).
• Remove or deactivate a mapping when an order is delivered.
• Bulk-import a whole list at once.

This lets the list stay perfectly in sync with live orders without anyone touching the dashboard. Contact your account team to enable it.

Changelog

• Jun 2026 — General availability: recognise-and-connect routing with two-way number masking, order-code and registered-number keypad fallbacks, custom audio, automatic recording, per-call match reporting, and file/API mapping management. Available on India and US numbers.

Related modules

• Phone Numbers — where you point a number at Masked Connect.
• Voice Menus (IVR) — for menu-driven routing when you want callers to choose, rather than be matched.
• Business Hours — gate Masked Connect by your delivery hours.
• Call Recording — where masked call recordings land.
• Voice product hub — the overall picture.