Somebody picks up. It just isn't a person.
The phone gets answered on the second ring, day or night. It works out what's going on, gets the address and the problem, and texts you the summary. Anything that sounds dangerous rings your cell directly, with no robot in the middle.
Straight answer first: you can't buy this today.
It isn't finished, and we're not going to take your money for something that isn't. We don't have a date we're willing to put in writing yet, and we don't have a price we're willing to print. When we have both, the people on this list hear first — and if it turns out we can't build it the way it's described here, we'll tell you that instead of going quiet.
What the list is actually for: we want to know which branches of your phone tree you'd hand to a machine and which you never would. That answer changes what we build.
Answer the parts of the call you'd hand to somebody else.
Not the whole call. Specific branches of it — the ones where the answer is the same every time and the caller just needs somebody to pick up.
It answers, day or night
Second ring. Takes the name, the address, the trade, and what's actually wrong. Texts you the summary before you've finished what you were doing.
Emergencies go to a human. Yours.
Anything that sounds like water, gas, no heat or no power stops the conversation and rings your cell. The machine is not the last line on a burst pipe.
It says what it is
Callers are told they're talking to an automated assistant, at the start, in plain words. We're not interested in fooling anybody's customer.
It's your call tree, not ours
You decide which branches it handles and which ring straight through. If you want it answering nothing but after-hours overflow, that's a valid setup.
Two things we'll be up front about.
Recording, and who has to be told
If a call is recorded, both you and the caller get told at the start of the call — every time, in every state, not just the ones that require it. Some states require every party on the call to consent, and we build to that standard everywhere rather than keeping a map of which rule applies where. Recording is off unless you turn it on.
What it will cost
We haven't set it. When we do, it goes on the pricing page in public, with the same detail as everything else — not in a quote you have to ask for.