What is an AI receptionist for a service business?
By the Margin Media team · Updated
An AI receptionist is software that answers a service business's phone in a natural voice, talks with the caller, answers common questions, takes their details and books an appointment or passes a message to the team. It works at any hour and on several calls at once, so a caller never gets voicemail or hold music.
What does an AI receptionist actually do on a call?
It picks up, greets the caller in your business's name and asks how it can help. From there it does what a good front desk does: answers the questions it has been given answers to, takes the caller's name, number and reason for calling, and offers a time.
What it should not do is guess. A well set up one knows where its knowledge ends. When a caller asks for a person, or asks something it was never told, it takes the details and hands the call to your team.
How is it different from voicemail, a phone tree or an answering service?
The difference is that the caller gets a conversation and an outcome. Voicemail asks them to wait for a call back. A phone tree makes them press buttons. An answering service has a person take a message, which is often the right choice when callers are upset or the questions are complicated.
- Voicemail: records a message, if the caller leaves one.
- A phone tree: sorts callers, but answers nothing.
- An answering service: a person takes a message and passes it on.
- An AI receptionist: answers, takes the details and books the time.
Which service businesses does it suit?
It suits any business where new customers phone and the phone is not always picked up: an HVAC company with every tech on a job, a dental office with the front desk checking someone in, a law firm with intake on another call. It suits a business less if nearly every call needs a trained person's judgement.
How does Margin set one up?
Margin's AI receptionist is called Mia. She answers every call day or night, or only the calls your team misses, and you choose which. She says she is an AI when asked, never puts anyone on hold, and tells your office when a caller asks for a person.
The limits are plain. Bookings land on the portal calendar and the office is told. Texting starts once phone carriers approve your business's number, which takes days to a couple of weeks.
What Margin sets up for this.
- Mia, the AI receptionist, on every call
- Booking onto your calendar
- Missed calls texted back within a minute
- Your portal: every call, text and booking
What a business needs is decided on its audit. It is a one-time setup fee and a monthly fee, with exact numbers on the audit.
Related questions
Is an AI receptionist the same as a chatbot?
No. A chatbot types on a website. An AI receptionist answers the phone of a service business and speaks with the caller out loud, then takes their details or books a time. Some also carry on by text after a missed call.
Does an AI receptionist replace my front desk?
It doesn't have to. Many service businesses keep the front desk and have the AI receptionist pick up only the calls the team can't get to: at lunch, after hours and when the lines are busy.
Can I hear an AI receptionist before I decide?
Yes, and you should. Any vendor selling an AI receptionist to service businesses should have a number you can call. Margin's is (689) 345-9108. Two minutes on the phone tells you more than a brochure.