What your callers hear

Here's the experience a caller gets, start to finish.

The greeting

Your receptionist opens in your business's name, along these lines:

Thanks for calling [your business]. This is [name], their AI receptionist. I record my calls, just so you know. What can I help you with?

Some businesses are on a shorter opening we're rolling out, which gets to the question sooner and sounds less like an answerphone:

Good afternoon. [your business]. [name] speaking, how can I help?

It is the same line on every call, with a good morning or good afternoon by your clock and a plain hello outside those hours, and callers your receptionist recognises hear "Hello again. [your business]. [name] speaking, how can I help?" On that opening, every caller, new or returning, hears a line like "Just so you know, I'm an AI assistant and this call is recorded" at the start of your receptionist's first reply, straight after they've said why they're ringing and before it asks them for anything. If you'd like your line on it, message us.

On the standard opening, the exact wording varies a little from call to call, and often opens with a good morning, afternoon or evening in your time zone, so regular callers don't hear an identical take every time. Callers your receptionist recognises get a short welcome back instead of the full introduction: it still tells them the call is recorded, but it doesn't tell them again that they're talking to an AI, since they heard that the first time they rang. If you'd like the welcome back worded differently, ask us. The greeting's wording is ours to set: if you'd like your own, message us, and first-time callers then hear it word for word.

[name] is the name your receptionist introduces itself with. It starts as the name of the voice you picked, and you can change it in Settings, under Personality (see Name and voice). Every call opens by naming your business, so callers always know they've reached the right place.

Recording and the AI mention

Every caller hears that the call is recorded before your receptionist asks them for any details.

Who is told they're talking to an AI depends on how your receptionist opens the call. On the standard opening, the standard greeting tells first-time callers, and callers your receptionist recognises are welcomed back without being told again. On the shorter opening, every caller hears it, together with the recording notice, at the start of your receptionist's first reply. Either way, your receptionist never claims to be a person: if a caller asks whether it's an AI, it says so.

Answering questions

Your receptionist answers from your business details and your common questions, and gives the prices and timeframes you've provided. Anything you haven't covered gets taken down as a message rather than guessed at.

Taking the details

Your receptionist gets the caller's name, confirms the best number to reach them on (usually the one they're calling from), and writes a short summary of what they're after. If your phone forwards calls to us showing your own number rather than the caller's, your receptionist asks every caller for their number instead, since the one they're calling from would ring you. If you've added extra questions, your receptionist works those in too.

Setting expectations

If you've set opening hours and a call-back window, your receptionist tells the caller roughly when to expect to hear from you, and never promises sooner than you've said.

Cold sales and time-wasters

Your receptionist screens out cold-sales and spam callers politely and ends those calls, so they never land in your leads. See Spam and cold callers.

Updated on: 29/10/2026