How It Answers Calls

What a caller hears, and what it does while they talk.

On this page

Your receptionist doesn’t read a menu and doesn’t follow a rigid script. It has a conversation, and the shape of that conversation is the same every time.

The shape of a call

The greeting

It answers in one or two rings with your business name, says it’s an AI assistant, and notes the call may be recorded. Then it asks an open question rather than offering options.

The disclosure is not optional

Identifying as an AI and noting recording are built into every call and can’t be switched off. It’s a legal requirement in most places, and it protects you.

Finding out what they need

It listens to the answer in the caller’s own words — “there’s water under the sink”, not “press 2 for plumbing”, and asks follow-up questions to narrow it down. Which questions is up to you, in Call Behavior.

Answering their questions

Callers ask things back: prices, hours, whether you cover their area, how soon someone can come out. It answers from your services, hours, FAQs and knowledge, and only from those.

Collecting the details

Woven through the conversation, not fired off as a form: name, best callback number, service address, and whatever else you’ve asked it to collect.

Closing

It ends the call one of three ways:

Books it
Offers real open slots and puts the chosen one on your calendar.
Transfers it
Puts an urgent caller through to a person.
Promises a callback
Captures everything and tells them someone will follow up.

How it handles real callers

Real calls are messy. A few of the situations it’s built for:

  • They interrupt. It stops talking and listens, the way a person does.
  • They ramble. It picks the job out of the story and carries on.
  • The line is poor. It asks them to repeat rather than guessing at half a house number.
  • They ask for a person. It transfers if you’ve set that up, or takes a message and marks it urgent.
  • They hang up mid-call. Whatever it captured is still saved — a half-finished call is still a lead.
  • They’re angry. It stays calm, doesn’t argue, and escalates rather than trying to win.

An interruption, handled

Your receptionistThat usually points to the capacitor. I can get a technician out to take a look and —
CallerSorry — how much is this going to cost me first?
Your receptionistOf course. It's $89 for the diagnostic call-out, and we waive it if you go ahead with the repair the same day.

What it is doing while you listen

Underneath the conversation, four things run at once:

  • Working out what the job actually is, and whether it's work you take
  • Judging urgency, so an emergency is handled differently from a tune-up
  • Filling in the details you need before anyone drives out
  • Checking your live calendar, so any time it offers is genuinely free

That last one matters more than it sounds. An offered slot is a real slot — it never promises a time you’re already booked.

Yes. Tone, the questions it asks, what it collects and when it books are all set in Call Behavior. The AI disclosure and the recording notice are the only fixed parts.