By the end of this tutorial, you’ll know how to turn on inbound call email notifications for your team and understand how caller ID passthrough helps reps identify leads when calls are forwarded.
Why this matters
If your team uses lemlist-bought numbers, inbound calls used to require forwarding to another phone number. That often forced reps to use a personal phone or keep an external calling subscription just to receive callbacks.
With this update, your team can get notified almost instantly when a lead calls back, and forwarded calls can display the lead’s real phone number instead of the purchased number. This makes it much easier to identify the caller, respond faster, and call them back directly in lemlist.
Prerequisites
You should already have a lemlist-bought phone number.
You must be a team admin to enable or disable this setting.
You should already know how to access your team settings in lemlist.
Core lesson
Phase 1: Open your team call settings
From the lemlist workspace, click your profile menu in the lower-left corner, then select Settings. This is where team-level calling options are managed by admins.
In the settings sidebar, open Call settings, then scroll to the Call settings section and locate the Enable email for inbound calls (Bought numbers only) toggle. Turn it on to activate inbound call email notifications for your team.
Phase 2: Understand what happens after you enable it
When a lead calls your lemlist-bought number, lemlist sends a transactional email in about 10 seconds after the call starts. This gives the assigned user fast context without requiring an in-app alert.
The email is sent to the last user who called that lead, not necessarily the lead owner. This is important for teams that share lead ownership or rotate outreach between reps.
The email is still sent even if the user has not configured a forwarding number. In other words, forwarding is no longer mandatory if your goal is simply to know who called and call them back quickly.
Phase 3: Use the email to call leads back faster
Open the inbound call notification email as soon as it arrives. It includes the lead’s key details so you can decide how to respond right away.
Review the context included in the email, such as the lead’s name, role, company, phone number, last campaign, and the 5 most recent activities. This helps you avoid calling back blind and gives you the context needed for a more relevant conversation.
Click the Call back in lemlist CTA to open the contact panel and continue the conversation from the lead record. This is the fastest way to return the call with full context.
Phase 4: Recognize callers on forwarded calls
If a user has call forwarding set up, inbound calls now use caller ID passthrough. That means the forwarded call displays the lead’s actual phone number instead of the bought number.
This helps reps instantly identify who is calling, decide whether to answer, and copy or paste the number later if needed. It’s especially useful for teams that still rely on forwarded calls but want better visibility.
What this feature includes
Email notification on inbound call: Sent shortly after the call starts with lead and activity context.
Admin-controlled team setting: Managed from Call settings.
Enabled by default: Teams can keep it on or adjust it as needed.
No forwarding required for email alerts: Users can still be notified without a forward number.
Caller ID passthrough: Forwarded calls show the lead’s real phone number.
Tip: This workflow is especially useful for teams that cannot use personal phone numbers for business calls. Even without forwarding, reps can still see who called and return the call directly from lemlist.
Practical application
Example: A sales rep calls a prospect from a lemlist-bought number in the morning. Later, the prospect calls back while the rep is away from their desk.
With inbound call email notifications enabled, the last rep who called that lead receives an email within seconds. The rep can see who is calling, which campaign the prospect came from, what the most recent activities were, and then click Call back in lemlist to continue the conversation with full context.
If the rep also uses call forwarding, the incoming call shows the prospect’s actual phone number, making it easier to identify the caller immediately.
Troubleshooting and pitfalls
Issue: A user did not receive the inbound call email
Root cause: The team-level setting may be turned off, or the user was not the last person who called the lead.
Fix:
Ask a team admin to go to Settings → Call settings.
Confirm that Enable email for inbound calls is turned on.
Verify which team member last called the lead, since that user receives the email.
Issue: The lead owner expected the email, but another rep received it
Root cause: Emails are sent to the last user who called the lead, not automatically to the owner.
Fix:
Review your team’s calling workflow.
Make sure reps understand that the most recent caller becomes the recipient of the inbound call email.
If needed, align outreach ownership before running call-heavy campaigns.
Issue: A forwarded inbound call still isn’t easy to identify
Root cause: Forwarding may not be configured on the user side, or the user may be relying only on email notifications.
Fix:
Check whether the user has set up call forwarding.
If forwarding is active, the lead’s actual phone number should display on the inbound call.
If forwarding is not set up, use the email notification to identify the caller and call back in lemlist.
Issue: The team expects in-app alerts, voicemail, or missed-call tasks
Root cause: Those capabilities are not part of this release.
Fix:
Use the inbound call email as the primary notification method.
Use the contact panel in lemlist to review the lead and return the call.
Do not rely on missed-call task creation or voicemail for this workflow yet.