Connect WelcomeHome

The assistant needs a CRM to recognise callers, save new prospects, log calls and book tours. AnswerStack works with WelcomeHome, and every account also gets a private sandbox CRM that behaves the same way, so you can build and test before you connect anything real.

Start on the sandbox#

Go to Connections. A connection called WelcomeHome Sandbox is already there, marked Sandbox, sample data and Connected. It was created with your account, it has its own sample communities, sales counselors and prospects, and it speaks the same API as the real thing.

Build your playbook against the sandbox, run test calls, show it to your team, and only then add the real connection. The sandbox stays available afterwards for training and demos. See Sandbox CRM.

Connect your real WelcomeHome account#

Only owners and admins can add a connection.

1. Get an API token from WelcomeHome

   Ask WelcomeHome for an API token for your organisation. The token identifies your WelcomeHome account, so one token covers every community in it.

   The token needs to be able to:

   • read your communities, users, activity types, activity results, care types, relationships, lead sources, stages and prospect fields (the assistant maps your answers onto these);
   • search prospects, and read a prospect and its activities;
   • create and update prospects;
   • create and update activities on a prospect, including calendar entries.

   Note

   If something goes wrong. If WelcomeHome has no prospect search endpoint on your plan, AnswerStack falls back to building a phone index from your prospect, resident and influencer table exports, so caller recognition still works. You do not have to do anything.

2. Open the connect dialog

   On Connections, under Add a connection, press Connect WelcomeHome.

   

3. Fill it in

   Field	What to put
   Name	How your team will recognise this connection, for example "WelcomeHome (live)".
   API token	The token from WelcomeHome. It is stored encrypted and never shown again.

   Under Advanced you can set an API address if WelcomeHome gave you a non-standard one (it must start with https://), and a few optional defaults:

   Advanced option	Default	Use it when
   Lead source name for new prospects	AI phone assistant	You track these leads under a different source name
   Lead source ID for new prospects	—	You would rather give the ID than the name
   Activity type for logged calls	Call	Your WelcomeHome calls its call activity something else
   Activity type for follow-up tasks	Call	You want callback tasks under a different type
   WelcomeHome time zone name for bookings	Taken from each community's time zone	Only if a booking is refused because no WelcomeHome time zone matches

4. Save it

   Press Check and save. AnswerStack calls WelcomeHome once to confirm the token before it saves anything. If the check fails, nothing is saved and the dialog tells you why.

   On success you see: Connected. WelcomeHome answered the connection check. Point a playbook at it to start using it.

   Note

   If something goes wrong. A wrong or expired token gives a credentials error: check you copied the whole token. A timeout usually means the API address is wrong or your network blocks it.

5. Point each community at its WelcomeHome community

   Open Communities, pick one, and under Details set CRM location to that community's number in WelcomeHome. Save the profile. Repeat for every community.

   

   Then, under Staff, put each person's CRM user number in so that booked tours land on their calendar.

   

6. Point your playbook at the connection

   Open your playbook, go to the CRM & calendar tab, and choose the new connection for both CRM and Calendar for booking. Set What the calendar calls a tour to the WelcomeHome activity type you use for tours.

   

   Publish the playbook. Until you publish, live calls keep using whatever the published version says.

What good looks like#

• The connection card says Connected, with a recent "last checked" time.
• Test connection reports Working and a response time.
• Every community has a CRM location and every staff member who gives tours has a CRM user.
• Your playbook's CRM & calendar tab shows the live connection, not the sandbox.

What syncs, and when#

Nothing is copied on a schedule. AnswerStack reads and writes WelcomeHome at the moment it needs to, during and just after each call.

If WelcomeHome is briefly unavailable, the call still works: the assistant carries on, takes a callback if it cannot book, and the call log is queued and retried for about an hour before it is flagged for your attention.

Integrations → WelcomeHome lists the exact records and fields.

Using another CRM#

If you do not use WelcomeHome, the Generic webhook connector sends new contacts, call logs and follow-up tasks to any URL, which you can wire into your own system or an automation tool. It cannot look callers up or book, so the assistant will capture callbacks rather than book tours. See Generic webhook.