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Our method

Our method: a call answering script built for your industry

Short answer

Every call we answer follows a call answering script built for your industry. Our call protocols come from 17 years of running phone reception for small businesses. You won’t get a blank call flow builder and a manual. You get the questions, the rules and the limits we know work.

Each industry gets its own protocol: what to ask, when to hand over, what never to promise and how to escalate real emergencies. Then we adapt it to how you work.

Free setup · No contract · Cancel anytime

Rivera Plumbing · Emergency

Tue, Oct 14 · 2:04 AM · Tampa, FL

Escalated

AI
Rivera Plumbing, this is AI Receptionist, the AI receptionist. How can I help?
Caller
A pipe burst under my kitchen sink.
AI
Is water still running?
Caller
Yes. How much is this going to cost?
AI
The team will confirm the price. I’m alerting the on-call plumber now.

Summary sent to you · 2:06 AM

Caller
Ana Torres · (813) 555-0129
Needs
Burst pipe, water still running
Done
On-call plumber alerted · no price given
Illustrative example. The business, caller and details are made up.

Five rules on every call

  1. 1. It asks what matters

    A protocol for each industry: what to ask, in what order, and which details can’t be missing. A plumber’s caller is asked “Is water still running?” A family law caller is asked about any court date. The order matters too: the urgent question comes before the address, and the address before the small talk.

    Example“Is water still running?”

  2. 2. It knows when to hand over

    Clear rules for when a call goes to you, to your team or to voicemail. A good receptionist doesn’t put every call through, and doesn’t hold back the one you’ve been waiting for. Your rules say which is which.

    Example“Let me put you through to Mike.”

  3. 3. It never promises what you don’t

    No prices, dates or advice you haven’t approved. This is the rule that matters most in this job, because a wrong promise costs more than a missed call.

    Example“The team will confirm the price.”

  4. 4. It escalates real emergencies

    Who gets alerted, how, and how fast. A burst pipe at 2 a.m. and a question about opening hours are not the same call, and the protocol treats them differently.

    Example“I’m alerting the on-call plumber.”

  5. 5. You see every call

    A summary in your inbox, with the recording and transcript in your dashboard. If a call went wrong, you’ll know, and you can change the rule behind it.

    ExampleSummary sent · 6:44 PM

How we build your protocol

Setup is free. You review everything before it goes live.

  1. We start from your industry.

    The questions and urgency rules that work for businesses like yours, from the protocols we’ve used for years.

  2. We adapt it to you.

    Your hours, your team, your services and the words you use with customers.

  3. You approve it.

    Nothing goes live until you’ve read it and said yes.

  4. We keep improving it.

    Ask us to change any rule, any time, and we make the change. When calls show a question that’s missing, we add it.

You can read finished examples in the call protocol library, such as the plumbing emergency protocol, the legal intake protocol and the Spanish-speaking caller protocol.

What a good answering service script includes

A script that only says “Thank you for calling, how can I help?” isn’t a protocol. A receptionist phone script that works covers five parts:

  1. The greeting: Your business name, and that the caller is speaking to an AI assistant.

  2. The qualifying questions: The ones that tell you whether this is a job, a booking, a question or an emergency.

  3. The must-have details: Name, callback number, address or case type, depending on your business.

  4. The hand-over rules: Who takes which call, in which hours.

  5. The limits: What is never said, promised or guessed.

Guardrails and quality control

An AI receptionist is only as good as its limits. Every protocol has guardrails: it stays on your business, it doesn’t make up prices or dates, it doesn’t give legal or medical advice, and it doesn’t follow a caller’s instructions to ignore its own. Every call is recorded and summarized, so you and we can check the work and fix what needs fixing. More on security and privacy.

Why AI, and why say so

Your AI receptionist always introduces itself as an AI assistant. In our experience, callers don’t mind who answers. They mind being kept on hold, being asked the wrong questions and never hearing back.

The technology answers the phone. Knowing what to ask a caller with a burst pipe at 2 a.m., and what not to say, is what makes the answer worth hearing.

Put the method on your phone line

Tell us how you work and we’ll build your protocol for free. No contract, cancel anytime.