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AI phone answering, on your own number

The phone rings in the middle of service and asks one of the same 6 questions. An AI employee picks it up on your existing number, answers from what you told us, and texts you when a caller needs a person.

Phone enquiries are one of the jobs listed on the home page. This page sets that one out in full: where a call ends up, what it takes to switch on, what it will not do while a customer is on the line, and the questions owners ask before they hand the line over.

Where a call ends up

Most calls to a shop or a restaurant are one of a handful of questions with a fixed answer. Those are closed on the call. The rest come to you.

A call to your number

The questions it answers

  • Opening hours and days you are closed
  • Allergens and what is on today
  • Availability and bookings
  • Parking and how to find you
  • Prices and lead times
  • Where an order has got to

Closed on the call, without reaching you

Sent to you as a text, with the caller and the question

The list is yours rather than a template. We take it from the questions you actually get asked, and it changes when your week changes.

What it takes to switch on

3 things, once. After that the line is answered whether or not anyone is free.

  1. You answer the questions once

    We sit with you and write down the answers you already give 20 times a week, in your words, exceptions included.

  2. Your number is forwarded

    Calls keep arriving on the number printed on your door and your receipts. Your line is forwarded to us, you keep the number, and you can take it back.

  3. You hear it before your customers do

    You listen to the answers as a caller would hear them, and we change the wording until it sounds like your business. Only then does it take a call.

What it will not do on a call

This line talks to your customers, so the limits on it are tighter than anywhere else in the service.

  • Invent an answer

    A question with no answer in your list is not guessed at. The caller is told you will come back to them, and the question arrives with you.

  • Take a payment

    No card numbers, no deposits, no refunds. Money on a phone call stays a conversation with you.

  • Change what you promised

    A price, a delivery date, the exception you make for a regular: it repeats what you set and stops there.

Questions owners ask before handing over the line

Does it use my existing phone number?
Your line is forwarded to us, so calls keep coming in on the number on your door, your receipts and your listings. You keep the number and you can take it back.
What happens when it does not know the answer?
It tells the caller it is passing the question on, takes their name and number, and sends both to you as a text. It never fills the gap with a guess.
Do callers know they are not speaking to a person?
Yes, as soon as they ask, and the sentence it uses is one you have read and approved. We do not pretend a person is on the line.
Can it take a booking?
It can read your availability and write a booking into the tool you already use. Anything that touches money, a deposit or a refund, comes to you instead.
Does it answer in French and in English?
Both. A caller is answered in the language they open with, and the 2 sets of answers are written separately rather than translated from each other.

Where this sits in the rest of the service

Answering the phone is one of 6 jobs on that list. The home page sets out the same 6 tasks before and after they are handed over, and what an AI team is explains how a job done for you differs from a tool you use.

Describe one task

Write down the task, the kind of business you run, and how often it comes up. That is enough for us to tell you whether it is worth automating and what it would take.

Write to hello@agentiumlab.com

The people who will read it have run shops and restaurants themselves.