An AI receptionist: what it can and can't do yet.

We set these up, so we are biased. Here is the honest version anyway.

What it does well

• Answers every call, including the 7pm one. The missed call after hours is usually a real customer. An AI assistant picks up, says who it is, and takes the details.
• Books appointments. For a clinic, a salon, a service call: it checks the calendar and books. Confirmation by text. This alone pays for it.
• Answers the same twenty questions. Hours, areas you serve, do you do X, how soon can you come. It reads from a short document you approve.
• Hands off cleanly. A good setup knows when to stop: "Let me have Sam call you back about that" — and Sam gets the summary by text.

Where it fails

• Emergencies and anger. A burst pipe, a complaint, a confused elderly caller. The assistant should hand these straight to a human, every time. If it tries to be clever here, you lose the customer.
• Pricing nuance. It can quote a published price. It should never improvise a quote.
• Thick accents and bad lines. Better than two years ago, still not perfect. Keep "press 0 for a person" available.

How to roll it out without annoying people

• Start on missed calls only. Humans answer when they can; the assistant covers the gaps. Expand once you trust it.
• Tell callers it's an assistant in the first sentence. People don't mind an assistant; they mind being tricked.
• Give it a short, boring script. Every "personality" setting you turn up is a chance to embarrass you.
• Read the transcripts for the first two weeks. You will find three questions it answered badly. Fix the document, not the robot.

Who it's for

Any business where a missed call is a lost job: trades, clinics, salons, restaurants taking reservations, property managers. If your phone already gets answered within two rings all day and night, you don't need this. Almost nobody is in that position.

The practical setup

Phone number forwarding or a new number, a calendar connection, a one-page knowledge document, and a CRM to receive the summaries. A week to set up, a couple of weeks of tuning. We run these alongside the CRM and the website so a call, a form and a DM all end up in the same place. Ask us if you want to hear it answer your phone.