Blog · Trust and etiquette
How businesses react when an AI calls
Mostly they take the booking. The calls that go badly tend to go badly for reasons you can fix before anyone dials.
By the CosVoice team · · 5 minute read
Mostly fine, if it's brief and honest
When an AI caller rings a business with an ordinary request, the usual reaction is that the business deals with the request. A restaurant wants the table filled. A garage wants the car booked in. If the caller says who it's ringing for, asks for one clear thing and doesn't waste anybody's time, there isn't much to react to.
We can't put numbers on that and wouldn't trust anyone who did. What we can do is follow a call from the side of the person who picks up, show where it tends to wobble, and tell you what happens when the answer is a flat no.
The first ten seconds
This is where the call is won or lost. The person answering is working out three things at once. Who is this? What do they want? Is it going to take long? An opening like "Hi, this is Lloyd, Graham's assistant, calling to book his car in for a service next week" answers all three.
From there it tends to go one of four ways.
- Business as usual. They open the book and ask which day.
- A question. "Is this an AI?" The honest answer is yes, and on our line that's the answer they get.
- Curiosity. They want to chat about it. A good assistant is friendly for a moment and steers back to the booking.
- A refusal. "We don't deal with these." More on that further down.
The middle of the call
Once the request is on the table, the business starts asking things back. What's the make and year? Morning or afternoon? Will he need a loaner? This is the stretch where an assistant's call goes wrong, and it's rarely about the voice.
It's about not having the answer. If the assistant was told "book the car in" and nothing more, every follow-up is a dead end. The person on the phone gets irritated in exactly the way they would with a human who'd been sent to ring without the facts.
What trips a call up
A short list, seen from the receiving end.
- Follow-up questions the assistant can't answer. The one we'd fix first.
- Pace. Staff talk fast and they interrupt. A caller that plows on regardless feels like a recording. On our line you can choose a voice that stops and listens when someone talks over it, and choosing a voice for your phone line explains the trade.
- Noise. A kitchen at full volume, a workshop with the compressor running. Names and times get lost, so they need confirming back.
- Anything involving a card. The business asks for one, the assistant won't give it, and if nobody saw that coming the call stalls.
How to brief for a smooth call
Most of that list gets solved before dialing. Give the assistant what a person would need to make the same call, and no more. How to write a call brief your AI can actually use has worked examples, but the bones are these.
- The goal in one sentence. Book a full service for the pickup, next week.
- The facts they'll ask for. Make, year, rough mileage, your name, what's wrong with it.
- Your limits. Any weekday morning. Not Thursday. The week after is fine if they're full.
- What to do about money. If they quote, write it down. If they want a deposit, find out how much and how they take it.
If they refuse to deal with it
Some will, and they're entitled to. A small business might have had a bad run of automated sales calls. A receptionist might just not like it.
The assistant shouldn't argue, and it certainly shouldn't try to pass as something else. On our line the call ends politely and comes back to you with an honest status saying the business declined. Then you call. It takes two minutes, and you'll probably get a warmer reception for having rung yourself.
There's a middle road for places with long hold times. You can ask for the line to wait on hold and connect you once a person answers. It works the phone menu, sits through the music, and rings your mobile when someone who can help is on the line. The business talks to you. You just skipped the waiting.
When the business is right to want a human
Sometimes the reluctance is good judgment. A call about a complicated repair. A dispute over a bill. A job where the contractor needs to ask ten questions and hear how you answer them. Those go better person to person, and an assistant relaying answers slows everyone down.
If the summary comes back saying they'd like to speak to you directly, take it at face value and ring. They're not being difficult. They're telling you how to get the job done properly.
Hear what they hear
Wondering how any of this sounds from the other end? Ring an assistant yourself. Our own line, (949) 368-9902, is answered by an AI agent called Lilly, and there are recordings of full calls on the demo page. Ten seconds of listening will tell you more than this article can.
Common questions
Do businesses hang up on AI callers?
Some do. When a business won't deal with an assistant, our line ends the call politely and reports that honestly, so you can ring them yourself.
Will the business know it's an AI?
The line introduces itself as your assistant, and says it's an AI whenever anyone asks. It never claims to be you or a person.
What if the business calls back?
The callback number the assistant gives is the line's own. If they ring it, the line answers as your assistant, takes down what they have to say and sends you a written summary.
What happens if nobody picks up?
If the call reaches voicemail, it leaves a short message with the reason for the call and a callback number. The status in your summary says it reached voicemail.
Read next: Is it rude to have an AI call? · Let an AI wait on hold for you · An assistant's call is not a spam call
Hear it for yourself.
Call our own AI agent and ask her anything, or get a number in your area code in about a minute.