Meet Your 24/7 AI Receptionist

November 03, 2025•3 min read

Meet Your 24/7 AI Receptionist

Answer FAQs, book appointments, route by region—without missing a call.

When a prospect hits voicemail, momentum dies. A 24/7 AI Receptionist catches that intent—at 08:00, 18:00, or midnight—answers essentials, confirms a slot, and routes the case to the right branch or specialist. No waiting, no missed notes, no “please repeat that.” The win isn’t just speed; it’s orchestration across voice and WhatsApp with clean hand-offs and reporting.

What a real AI Receptionist does (beyond IVR menus)

Understands natural speech. “Need a Thursday service in Claremont” → the system detects booking, service type, and region in one pass.
Answers FAQs consistently. Hours, pricing ranges, required documents—grounded by your policies via our Chatbots + AI WhatsApp Chatbots layer.
Books appointments in-call. Checks live calendars and confirms valid times—then sends the .ics file and map in WhatsApp.
Routes by region & skill. Cape Town callers → Cape Town branch; enterprise installs → certified staff only.
Switches channels gracefully. Long questions or missed calls move to WhatsApp with a helpful recap (launched from your site via WhatsApp Website Integration).

Explore the product: AI Receptionist · AI Callers

Voice + WhatsApp together = fewer drop-offs

Voice is the fastest way to express a need; WhatsApp is the easiest place to finish the job. The receptionist confirms the essentials on the call and drops a WhatsApp follow-up: booking, directions, checklist, or secure payment/quote link. Everything threads under one contact in InOne CRM for SLAs, metrics, and audit trails.

Interesting AI fact: Modern speech models can detect city names, dates, and “urgency cues” in ~300ms—so your bot can bias earlier slots or VIP routing automatically.

Guardrails that keep it brand-safe

POPIA by design: The receptionist explains purpose (“to confirm your booking”), collects the minimum data, and stores consent timestamps in InOne CRM.
RAG with citations: Answers come from your docs; when confidence dips, the bot asks one clarifying question or escalates.
Action whitelist: Book, share pricing ranges, send directions, request docs—nothing outside approved playbooks.
Template discipline (WhatsApp): Outside the 24-hour service window, we use approved business-initiated templates with a clear opt-out; see the FAQ.

What your team experiences

Every call/WhatsApp thread appears in the Unified Inbox inside InOne CRM with: caller number, region, recognised intent, transcript summary, and any assets sent (booking, quote link, directions). If the bot escalates, agents step in with the last 5–10 turns attached—no backtracking, no duplicated effort.

Outcomes to expect in 30–60 days

Faster first response: seconds on voice; minutes on WhatsApp.
More bookings from the same traffic: no more voicemail black holes.
Fewer no-shows: T-24h and T-2h WhatsApp reminders that people actually read.
Happier staff: fewer basic calls; more time for high-value deals.
Cleaner reporting: call → booking → revenue, fully traceable.

What to measure (and improve weekly)

Track these tiles in your dashboard:

Call answered by AI (%) and time to assistance
Call → booking/quote rate (by region & service)
Warm hand-off quality (right-reason escalations, time to human, post-handoff FCR)
No-show rate after WhatsApp reminders
Revenue per conversation across voice + WhatsApp