What to look for in an AI receptionist (questions to ask)

On the call

Ask to hear real calls for a business like yours, not a generic demo.

• Does it answer with my company name, and can I change the greeting?
• What questions will it ask for my trade, and who writes them?
• What does it say when a caller asks for a price?
• What does it do with a call it does not understand?

Urgent calls

Good answer: you decide what is urgent, and those calls reach you or your on-call person right away, with a fallback if nobody picks up.

• How do urgent calls get to me?
• Can I set different rules for nights and weekends?
• What happens if my on-call person does not answer?

After the call

Good answer: a short text with name, number, address, what is going on and how urgent, within moments of the call ending.

• How does the lead reach me, and what is in it?
• Can I see a transcript or recording if I need one?

Setup and changes

Ask how long until it answers real calls, what you have to do, and how changes get made when your hours or services change.

• Who sets it up, and how long does it take?
• Do I keep my number?

Billing

Get the billing model in writing: per minute, per call or per customer, what is included, and the overage rate. Ask what a busy month like storm season would cost.

• What is included each month, and what does overage cost?
• Is there a contract, a setup fee, a trial or a guarantee?

Privacy and disclosure

Recording laws differ by state, and some states require everyone on the call to agree. Ask whether the greeting includes a recording notice and how long recordings are kept. Ask what it says if a caller asks whether they are talking to a real person; the honest answer is the only safe one. This is general information, not legal advice; check with a lawyer for your state.

Start with your own call mix

Before any demo, pull two to four weeks of calls from your phone or carrier account and sort them: new customers with a problem, new quote requests, existing customers, vendors and spam. That mix tells you what to test. A plumber whose missed calls are mostly leaks needs strong urgent routing. A fence company whose missed calls are mostly quote requests needs good intake questions. Count how long the calls usually run too; it matters when you compare per-minute, per-call and per-customer plans.

Test it yourself before you commit

A demo shows the happy path. Call it yourself, or have someone call for you, and play a few real situations from your own call log. Listen to what it asks, what it says it cannot do, and what lands on your phone afterward.

• An urgent call: water coming in, no heat, a tree on the roof. Does it reach you, and how fast?
• A price shopper: "How much for a new roof?" Does it stay inside what you approved?
• A rambling caller who gives the address halfway through. Is the lead text still right?
• A vendor or sales call. Does it waste your minutes or your attention?
• A caller who asks, "Am I talking to a real person?" Is the answer honest?

Red flags

Walk away, or at least slow down, if you hear any of these:

• Big promised results with no way to check them, like a number of extra jobs a month.
• Pricing you cannot get in writing, or an overage rate nobody will tell you.
• No clear answer on who sets it up and how long it takes.
• It claims to be a person when asked, or the vendor says that is fine.
• Booking is promised but nobody can explain which calendar it uses or how it knows when you are free.

Questions about the company behind it

You are trusting a vendor with your customers’ first impression. Ask who you talk to when something needs changing, how fast changes happen, and what happens to your number and your call records if you leave. Month-to-month terms and a clear way out are worth more than a long list of features you will not use.

Booking

Some AI receptionists can book appointments on your calendar; many plans cannot. If booking matters to you, ask exactly how it works: which calendar, how it knows when you are free, and what the caller hears.

At Vise, the AI Receptionist does not book. Booked Estimates is a separate service that puts the estimate on your calendar during the call.