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Phone agent
The phone agent is an optional AI that answers calls to your business number when nobody else can. It runs on Twilio and has to be set up by an administrator. See AI setup.
This page is about what it does and how the office works with the results.
What a caller experiences
- The agent greets the caller by your business name. It always says it's an automated assistant and that the call may be recorded and transcribed.
- It looks up the caller by the number they rang from, so a known customer isn't asked for details twice.
- It can check which days have room and which windows (morning or afternoon) are open.
- It records a booking request or takes a message. It doesn't book a visit and won't promise a time. The office confirms.
- For an emergency, such as a tank overflowing or sewage backing up, it pages your on-call staff by text straight away. It tells the caller to stay clear of the area and puts them through to the transfer number if you've set one.
A call ends after a set number of turns or minutes (14 turns or 8 minutes by default). If the AI isn't available, the caller is put through to your transfer number, or told someone will call back.
When it answers
The agent has an "Answers" setting:
| Setting | Answers |
|---|---|
| After hours | Outside the opening hours you set. This is the default |
| Business hours | During opening hours, for overflow when the office is busy |
| Always | Every call |
What the office sees
Each call it takes is listed under Admin > Calls, with the caller, outcome, summary, length and time. A matching customer is named. Open a call to read the transcript, turn by turn. "Call back" shows the number to ring.
Filter by outcome:
| Outcome | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Booking request | A request was saved for the office |
| Message | A message was taken |
| Urgent | An emergency was flagged and on-call staff were texted. Shown in red |
| Transferred | The caller was put through to a person |
| Ran long | The call hit its time or turn limit |
| AI unavailable | The AI couldn't be reached |
| Hung up | The caller left before anything was captured |
Booking requests appear in the same list as website requests, under Admin > Online booking > Recent requests. Messages also create a notice for the office. Check Calls first thing each morning.
Seeing the calls
You need the calls permission to see Admin > Calls. Setup needs the AI manage permission.