Can AI answer my business phone?
The short answer
Yes. A voice assistant can pick up your line, greet callers in your business's name, answer the common questions, book appointments and pass urgent or tricky calls to a person. It does best on the calls you get every day, with simple rules for when a human takes over.
Do this
List your top ten call reasons
Booking, prices, hours, directions, "is my job done yet". Most businesses find a handful of reasons cover most calls.
Write the answers you would give
One or two lines each, the way you say them. Those lines become what the assistant knows.
Decide what it may do alone
Booking, rescheduling and taking messages are safe to hand over. Discounts, refunds and anything unusual go to you.
Set the handoff
Pick a live transfer for urgent calls and a text summary for the rest, so nothing sits in a voicemail box.
Test it like a tough customer
Call it yourself twenty times: angry, rushed, in Spanish, asking "am I talking to a real person?". Fix what sounds off.
Go live in stages
Overflow calls first, then after hours, then every call if you like how it sounds.
Questions owners ask
Can it speak Spanish?
Yes. It can answer in the caller's language and switch in the middle of a call, as you can hear in the sample calls on this site.
Can it transfer a call to a person?
Yes. You choose who gets which calls, and it can pass a caller to your cell or a staff line with a one-line summary first.
Does it work with my calendar?
It can book into the calendar or booking tool you already use, as long as that tool lets outside software add appointments. Most do.
Related answers
- How do I stop missing calls after hours?
- Does an AI assistant have to say it's AI?
- What does an AI receptionist cost to run?
- A Voice Agent for Any Business: Answers, Books, SummarizesGo deeper
- Answer Every Call in English and Spanish, Even After HoursGo deeper
- AI customer supportWhat we build for this
- All answers
General information, not legal, tax or medical advice.