What does an AI receptionist do in your phone system
This guide explains how an AI phone agent works in practice. You will learn how the agent resolves routine issues and when it transfers calls to your staff.
An AI phone agent takes incoming calls, answers common questions and routes the caller to the right place. The agent is designed to understand what the caller wants. It can act in your systems once it is connected to that system. Issues that require human judgement are handed over to a person along with a clear summary.
How the calls are answered
The agent replies immediately without any wait time. It has no telephone queue and can handle many incoming calls at the exact same time. The service is open around the clock. Callers state their issue using their own words and avoid long menus.
Real Talk assigns a dedicated phone number to the agent. You add this number to your current environment. You keep your existing phone system and you control which contacts are forwarded to the agent.
Actions inside your internal databases
A large portion of incoming traffic consists of routine questions. The AI phone agent can retrieve information and perform actions during an ongoing dialogue once it is connected to that system.
Using automations, the agent from Real Talk acts directly in your internal business systems. It can book appointments or check order status once it is connected to your systems.
When a person takes over the conversation
There are situations that an AI phone agent should not manage. It acts as a complement to your human staff. The service relieves you when your team is busy by taking the routine answers.
When a call moves on, your team gets direct access to all collected data. The caller avoids repeating themselves and you can continue exactly where the dialogue was paused. The agent transfers the following types of conversations to a human.
- Issues that require a human assessment.
- Calls where the person asks for human contact.
- Everything that falls outside the boundaries you have set.
Measuring the quality of each interaction
You can begin with a limited scope of your traffic. You can then expand the responsibility when you feel comfortable. Analysing the recorded calls shows exactly where an AI phone agent adds the most value.
Real Talk measures every single call against the instructions. A model reads the entire transcript to ensure high quality. We also ask callers if they got enough help to measure customer satisfaction. All data belongs to you and is stored in data centres within the EU.
The steps to get started
A common approach is to create a test version based on current documents. The company can then call internally to evaluate the responses.
You send your existing material to Real Talk and we build a demo agent. You call it yourself to test it. You select the pace, tone and guidelines yourself. You then test the service in peace before any real traffic is let through.
Frequently asked questions
Do we need to replace our switchboard to use the service?
No, you keep your existing platform. You place the AI phone agent behind your current switchboard using a standard phone number that we assign.
Which languages can the agent speak?
The agent commands Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Danish and many other languages. It can switch languages during the call if the caller prefers it.
How does the agent introduce itself?
The agent says it is an AI at the beginning of the call. You decide the wording.
What is the cost when a conversation is forwarded to our staff?
At Real Talk you pay a subscription fee and then a price per started call minute. Calls that are transferred are billed by the minute at a lower cost than incoming ones.
This guide is written by Real Talk, the Nordic AI phone agent.