Blog · Trust and etiquette
An assistant's call is not a spam call. Here's the difference
One has a customer behind it and a reason to ring. The other has a list.
By the CosVoice team · · 5 minute read
Two piles
If you answer the phone for a business, you sort calls into two piles before the caller has finished their first sentence. Pile one is somebody who wants something you sell. Pile two is somebody who wants something from you. Spam lives in pile two.
A call from an assistant belongs in pile one. It's a single call, made for one named person, with a purpose, to a business that wants the booking. A spam call is one of thousands, made for nobody in particular, to whoever picks up. The voice may be artificial in both, which is why people lump them together as AI spam calls. They're different things, and the difference is easy to hear once you know what to listen for.
One call, not ten thousand
Spam is a numbers game. The caller doesn't need you to say yes. They need a sliver of a very long list to say yes, so the list is the product and you're a row in it.
An assistant rings the bike shop because that's where the bike is. If the shop doesn't answer, it doesn't move on to the next shop in the directory. There was only ever one number that made sense to call.
For one person, who has a name
Ask a spam caller who they're ringing on behalf of and you get a company name that sounds like three other company names. Ask an assistant and you get a person. "I'm calling for Graham, he dropped his bike in on Monday." You can check that against the job sheet on the counter.
It also means somebody is answerable. If an assistant books a table and nobody turns up, the restaurant knows whose name is on it.
With a purpose you can act on
An assistant's call has an ask the business can say yes or no to inside a minute. A table at 7:30. Has the part come in. Can Thursday move to Friday. When it has an answer, it confirms the details back and gets off the phone.
Spam has a pitch. And a pitch is built to keep you on the line.
Why caller ID and a callback number matter
Spam hides. The number on the screen often isn't the number the call came from, and ringing it back gets you nothing, or a stranger as confused as you are.
A proper assistant does the opposite. Our line is a real phone number in its owner's area code, one number per line, so it's the same number each time it rings you. On a call it gives that number as the callback number, along with the owner's name and the line's own email address. Ring it back and it answers as the owner's assistant and takes down what you need passed on.
This matters in a dull, practical way. The restaurant needs to say the table is now 8:15. The garage needs to say the part is delayed. If no number works, the booking is worth less to everybody.
One honest caveat. Nobody can promise how another person's phone will label an incoming call, and an unfamiliar number is an unfamiliar number. When a call goes to voicemail, a good assistant leaves a short message with the reason for the call and the number to ring back.
When an assistant's call deserves the spam pile
It would be too easy to say assistants good, spam bad. An assistant can be used badly.
Point one at a list of strangers to sell something and you have a spam call with nicer manners. Have it ring the same business four times in an afternoon and it's a nuisance. If it won't say what it is, the person answering is right to be suspicious. The technology doesn't decide which pile a call lands in. The use does.
A human caller also gets a benefit of the doubt that an assistant has to earn in its first sentence. That's fair. We built our line without bulk dialing, and it dials only when its owner, or the owner's own assistant, asks for a call. The rules side is covered in general terms in AI calls and robocall rules, and the reactions you can expect in how businesses react when an AI calls.
A ten-second test for whoever picks up
You answer the phone and the voice sounds a touch too smooth. Before you hang up, ask one thing: who are you calling for, and what do they need?
A spam call has no good answer to that. An assistant answers in a sentence, and if the answer is a customer's name and a booking, you've kept a sale you were about to lose. You can ask whether it's an AI as well. An honest one says yes.
If you'd still rather deal with the customer directly, say so. A decent assistant passes that on and the customer rings you. Either way you've spent ten seconds. Isn't that better than guessing which pile it was?
Common questions
Why did my business get a call from an AI assistant?
Most likely a customer asked it to ring you: to book, to check on an order, or to return your call. Ask who it's calling for. If it can't name a person and a reason, treat it like any unwanted call.
Will calls from my assistant show up as spam?
We can't promise how somebody else's phone or carrier labels a call. What we can say is that the call comes from a real number in your area code, the same one each time, and that it's answered if someone rings back.
Can I call back the number an AI assistant rang from?
With our line, yes. The number is the line's own. It answers as the owner's assistant, takes your message in detail and sends the owner a written summary.
Can an AI assistant be used for sales calls?
Ours isn't built for that and we'd advise against it. Ringing strangers to sell is where the rules are strictest, so check what applies where you are before you try it with any product.
Read next: Can an AI legally make calls for you? · When a stranger calls your line · The rules our line keeps
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