How it works
Someone dials your number. Fourteen seconds later they are describing a broken heater, and ninety seconds after that the job is in your calendar. Here is what happens in between.
One call, start to finish
Caller
“Hi, my heater stopped overnight and it's four degrees in the house. Can someone come out?”
What happened next
- Booked Wednesday 8:00am, first slot
- Marked urgent: no heat, young child at home
- Texted the on-call tech with the address
The assistant answered on the first ring, said who it was, and asked what the caller needed. It checked real availability rather than promising a callback, read the slot back, and confirmed the address. The caller never waited and never heard a beep.
You get the transcript, not a summary of a summary. The words above are what the customer actually said, which matters when you are deciding whose job to move.
Setting it up
An afternoon, and nothing changes for callers until you forward the number.
Tell it about the business
Your hours and closure dates, the services you offer, the prices you are happy to quote over the phone, and what counts as an emergency. Type it in plain English, or point it at your website for a first draft and correct what it got wrong.
Connect the calendar
Google Calendar and Outlook write directly, so a booking lands in the same place your team already looks. Field-service and practice tools are reached through Zapier: we send a webhook, and you catch it with Webhooks by Zapier, which needs a paid Zapier plan. Our integration matrix says which is which rather than calling everything an integration.
Decide what it should do when it is unsure
Transfer to a mobile, with a second number to try if the first doesn't answer, take a message, or text whoever is on call. You set this per situation, and you can have it hand over the moment a caller asks for a person.
Forward your number
Every call, or only the ones you miss, after the number of rings you set. Your number stays yours, so nothing is ported and nothing is irreversible.
What it does on a call
Each of these is a setting, not a fixed behavior.
| The caller | What happens |
|---|---|
| Wants to book | Checks live availability, offers real slots, writes the appointment to your calendar. |
| Asks a question you have answered before | Answers it from what you told it, in your words. |
| Asks something it was not told | Says it will find out rather than guessing, then takes a message or transfers. |
| Asks for a person | Hands over. Asking is always enough; it never argues. |
| Describes an emergency | Flags the call urgent and follows your escalation rule, which is usually a text to whoever is on call. |
| Is a robocall, a silent line or a call it screens out | Ends the call. It does not count toward your plan, and neither does a very short call. |
| Calls while another call is live | Both are answered. There is no queue and no engaged tone. |
What you get afterwards
The point of the product is not the call. It is what is waiting for you at nine the next morning.
| Artifact | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Transcript | The caller's own words, so you can judge the job rather than a paraphrase. |
| Summary | Two lines for skimming an evening's calls in a couple of minutes. |
| Outcome | Booked, message taken, transferred, or ended. This is what you filter on. |
| Calendar entry | Written at the time of the call, with the caller's name and reason attached. |
| Recording | Optional, and paired with a disclosure setting you control. |
What it does not do
Questions about the mechanism
How long does setup actually take?
An afternoon for a single-location business, and most of that is deciding what the assistant should say rather than configuring anything. Forwarding the number is the last step and takes minutes.
Do I have to change my phone number?
No. You forward the number you already advertise. Nothing is ported, and you can stop forwarding whenever you want.
What happens if two people call at once?
Both get answered. There is no hold queue, which is the main practical difference from a single receptionist at a desk.
Can I change what it says?
Yes, and you will. Most people spend the first week tightening the greeting and adding answers to questions they had not thought of.
How accurate are the transcripts?
Good enough to act on, and not perfect. Accents, background noise and crosstalk all cost accuracy, so the recording is there when a transcript reads oddly. We publish no accuracy percentage because we have not measured one on real calls.
Does it work with a landline?
If the line can forward to another number, yes. Most can, and your carrier can confirm it in a minute.
Hear it take one of your calls
Two minutes, your own scenario, no card.