The agent cuts the caller off mid-sentence
The agent decided the caller had finished speaking when they had not — usually because they paused to think, or read out a number in chunks.1
Raise Linear Delay
Linear delay exists specifically to absorb mid-sentence pauses. Try 400–500 ms as a starting point and increase for callers who dictate numbers or addresses.
2
Raise Endpointing
Endpointing is how long the agent waits after speech stops before responding. 200–300 ms suits natural conversation; below that the agent will clip people.
3
Move off the Fast response rate preset
If the agent is on Fast, switch to Balanced or Custom and tune the two values above. Fast trades conversational safety for speed.
4
Re-test with a real caller, not a clean read
Have someone dictate a 12-digit number and a street address. Those are the cases that expose aggressive endpointing.
The agent keeps talking when the caller interrupts
1
Lower the interruption threshold
The threshold is the number of words the caller must say before Bolna treats it as an interruption. A high value makes the agent stubborn; lower it so short interjections land.
2
Check whether background noise is being transcribed
A threshold set low enough to catch “stop” will also catch a TV in the background. Enable noise cancellation on the Call tab before lowering the threshold further.
Stopwords such as “stop”, “wait” and “hold on” always pause the agent immediately, whatever the interruption threshold is set to.
If tuning does not settle it
- The agent may be responding slowly rather than interrupting — the caller starts a second sentence into the gap and collides with the reply. Check Responses feel slow and the per-call latency metrics.
- A long, list-heavy reply is more likely to be interrupted. Instruct the agent to answer in one or two sentences — see Write better prompts.
- Enable Generate precise transcript on the Engine tab while debugging, so the transcript shows exactly what the transcriber heard at the moment of the collision. See Capture precise transcripts.
Next steps
Tune interruptions and speed
Every setting on one page
Responses feel slow
If the real problem is delay
Read latency metrics
Per-call timings