AI receptionist

Books

Into Google, Outlook, Apple or CalDAV: the calendar you already keep, not a request form

Refuses

It will not diagnose, will not price what it has not seen, and says so in your words

Flat

No per-minute billing. Plans are sized on unique customers, not on how long people talk

Everything else on the category's feature lists is now table stakes. These are the differences that show up on a real call.

Whether it can book

The common shape is answer, capture, email you a transcript. That is a nicer voicemail. This reads the capacity remaining in each window of the calendar you already keep, creates the appointment, and texts the caller a confirmation before they hang up.

Whether it knows your business

Your hours, the services you actually offer, the prices you have set and how far you travel. That is what separates a receptionist from a voice: only something configured can tell a caller you do not do commercial work, or that they are outside your radius, before either of you wastes a visit.

Whether it refuses

It does not diagnose, does not price what nobody has seen, and does not give professional advice. Each refusal has a sentence it actually says, set per trade. An AI receptionist with no floor under it is a liability wearing your business's name.

When it can't wait

Urgent calls where the price cannot be known until someone has looked. The agent triages, states your service call fee and books the visit — it never quotes a repair.

Every other Tuesday

Where the recurring book is the business. Rates are quotable from a few facts, and most of the call volume is schedule churn the agent absorbs without calling you.

Where the quote is the sale and a site visit costs half a day. The agent qualifies hard enough that the visit is worth making, and prices nothing it has not seen.

Have you got anything Thursday?

Where the calendar is the product and the people who could answer the phone are all with someone else. The agent books, reschedules and fills cancellations — and gives no professional advice.

Your trade is not on the list

Then it is a configuration rather than a wait. The agent's goal, its questions, its call types, its urgency rules and its guardrails are all data. Tell it what to ask and what never to say, and it answers your phone.

The questions change per trade. These do not. They are the rules every agent runs under, whatever it is answering for.

It never invents a price

It states the call-out fee and the rates you configured, and nothing else. Where it does not know, it says so and brings it to you rather than guessing — a number said on the phone is a number you are held to at the door.

What it actually says

“I'm not going to guess at the repair before someone's seen it — you'd only be annoyed if I got it wrong.”

It never promises an hour it cannot keep

Work in the field is booked in windows, because a specific time is a promise the traffic breaks. It offers the window that actually has capacity left, and it will not invent one to end the call politely.

What it actually says

“I can do Tuesday morning, between eight and twelve — I won't give you an exact hour and have you waiting in all day.”

It never sends anyone to voicemail

If the transfer ladder runs out and nobody accepts, it takes the details, commits to a specific callback window and flags it. A beep is the one outcome worse than not answering at all.

What it actually says

“I can't reach anyone this minute, so let me take the details and someone will call you back before nine tomorrow.”

…and a lot more besides

• Warm transfersWarm transfersAnnounced — who is calling and why, before you take the line.
• Spam never billedSpam never billedRobocalls are spotted, zero-rated, and never become a customer.
• A number per sourceA number per sourceVan, yard sign, Google listing — see which line brings the work.
• Team & on-callTeam & on-callTries you, then a second number, then whoever is on call.
• Run it by textRun it by textReply to a text to move a job, block a morning, clear a day.
• Clear a day, everyone toldClear a day, everyone toldCall off a wet Tuesday; every customer is told and re-offered.
• Never invents an answerNever invents an answerNo price or slot it was not given. It takes a message instead.
• Any trade, no codeAny trade, no codeGoal, questions and guardrails are settings, not a rebuild.

The booking lands where you already work

Google, Outlook, Apple, Exchange, CalDAV, then your payments, your CRM and whatever you automate with. Nobody has to check a second system to find out what the phone did.

Still deciding what to buy

The pages written for somebody comparing rather than browsing: what the category costs, how it differs from an answering service, and who else sells one.