AI Receptionist for Small Businesses

It is not a person. It will say so. What it does is cover the hours and moments when nobody is there: the job site, the lunch break, the evening, the weekend, the second line ringing while you are on the first.

The same technology also runs as a chat assistant on your website. Same rules, same limits, different front door. We cover both on this page.

It fits owners who answer their own phone and lose calls because of it:

• A contractor who answers from a ladder.
• A salon, spa or barber with the owner in the chair.
• A pet groomer, dog trainer or boarding business with a lot of the same few questions.
• A cleaning or lawn company where callers ask "do you serve my area" and "how do I get a quote."
• An office with one front-desk person who is out sometimes.

It fits less well where calls are long, sensitive or emotional. A person should answer a call about a medical symptom, a legal problem or a grieving family.

Please read this section before you decide.

It can be wrong. Voice AI misunderstands names, street addresses and noisy calls. We keep it on a short leash for that reason. We write what it may say, and everything outside that list goes to you.

It does not know your business unless you tell it. It will only say what is in the information we load. If your prices change and nobody updates it, it will keep quoting the old ones. We set a reminder to review that information with you.

It should not negotiate, diagnose, promise, or give advice. Prices, schedules and any promise to a customer stay with you unless you give it an exact rule.

It can annoy some callers. Some people hang up when they hear a machine. Others like skipping voicemail. We can make it easy to ask for a person, and we show you what share of calls ended that way.

We do not quote results. Every assistant is tested on call scripts before it answers a customer, and we report what the transcripts show, not what we hope.

The greeting. What it says first, including that it is an AI. We write it with you, in the way you talk.

A knowledge sheet. One page of your hours, service area, services, what you do not do, how to get a quote, and common questions with the answers you want given. It is the only source the assistant draws on.

Guardrails. Topics it may answer. Topics it must pass on. Words it must never use. For example, it can say "we serve Logan, Hyrum and Smithfield." It cannot say "that will cost that much."

Hand-off. When someone asks for you, sounds upset, mentions an emergency, or asks something outside the sheet, it takes their name and number and sends you a message with a summary. You can also have it ring your phone while the caller waits, if you are free.

Booking. If you use Google Calendar or a booking tool, we connect it. It offers real open times and creates the appointment. If you don't, it takes a callback request.

After-hours behavior. You choose what it does at night and on weekends: take a message, offer next-day times, or send urgent calls to your cell.

A website chat option. If you want it, the same knowledge sheet powers a chat box on your site that answers common questions and captures contact details after hours.

1. A call about your calls. We look at who phones, why, and when you miss them. We listen for the repeating five or six questions. Those become the knowledge sheet.
2. Write the sheet and the rules. You review them in plain language. You can change anything.
3. Build and connect. We attach it to your phone number, calendar and the place you want messages to arrive.
4. Test with real calls. We call it, you call it, and we try to break it: odd questions, mumbled names, a caller who gets angry. We fix what we find.
5. Go live in a limited way. Often that means after-hours only for the first week, so you see how it behaves before it takes daytime calls.
6. Review weekly at first. You get the transcripts and summaries. We tighten the rules based on what actually happened.

A person reads the transcripts. That is part of the service, not an extra.

This is an illustration of the kind of exchange we aim for, not a transcript from a client.

A caller reaches a dog groomer after hours. The assistant says it is the AI assistant for the shop, that the groomer is with a client, and asks how it can help. The caller asks if the shop does large dogs. The knowledge sheet says yes, over 80 pounds adds time. The assistant answers that, then offers two open Thursday times from the calendar. The caller picks one, gives a name and number, and the assistant confirms. The groomer gets a text with the name, dog size and time.

If the caller had asked, "Will you take my dog, he bites?" the assistant would not decide. It would say that is a question for the groomer, take the name and number, and flag the message as needing a call back.

That is the whole design: answer what you have approved, book what you have opened, and hand over anything else.

1. The call reaches your number. If you keep your current carrier, we set conditional call forwarding: calls forward to the assistant only when you do not answer, are busy or are unreachable. Or you forward everything after hours. A forwarding code on your phone does this, and we walk you through it.
2. Speech to text. The assistant converts the caller's voice into text as they speak. Accents, noise and bad connections reduce accuracy, so we test with real examples.
3. Language model. A large language model reads the transcript with your knowledge sheet and rules, then decides what to say. Rules take priority. A forbidden topic always triggers a hand-off.
4. Text to speech. The reply is spoken in a synthetic voice we choose with you.
5. Tools. The assistant can call a calendar to check openings and book, or log a message. It can use only the tools we connect.
6. Hand-off. A warm transfer rings your phone with the assistant's summary, or a message with name, number, reason and transcript goes to you.
7. Logging. Each call's transcript and outcome are saved for review for the retention period we agree.

Latency matters. A pause longer than about a second feels awkward, so we test response time and shorten answers.

A phone assistant hears names, numbers, addresses and sometimes private details. These are the rules we follow.

• We tell you which AI and phone providers are involved, what they store, and for how long, before you agree.
• We set the shortest retention that works for you and show you how to delete recordings.
• We do not paste customer details into a general-purpose chat tool.
• Your accounts stay in your name. If you leave, the setup and the data are yours.
• If your work involves health, legal or financial information, we talk about whether this tool belongs in your business at all.
• Some states have call recording and disclosure laws. The assistant announces itself, and we check which rules apply to you.

The AI Receptionist is an add-on on our plans, and it can sit on any plan. Phone minutes and AI usage are billed separately at cost and estimated for you before launch, using your actual call volume. A custom build, such as an assistant that connects to a special booking system or your own software, is scoped separately in a statement of work (SOW).

Most small setups take two to three weeks: one for the sheet and rules, one for building and testing, and a short limited launch after that. A website chat option can usually be live sooner.

KORB is a small studio in Logan, Utah. We set these up for businesses across Cache Valley and the rest of Utah, and for remote clients anywhere in the US. Local owners can sit down with us for the first call and test it together.

Ask for the free website review and mention the receptionist. We will look at how callers find you and what happens when you miss them, and tell you plainly whether an AI receptionist, a simple text back, or just better call forwarding fits.