What an AI receptionist actually does
The most direct payoff from AI for a service business is answering the phone 24/7.
The idea
AI CSRs answer calls/texts/chat around the clock, triage emergencies ('no heat,' 'sewer backup'), book into your CRM, follow up on unsold estimates, and recover abandoned bookings. Vendors report 25–40% lifts in lead-to-booked-job within ~90 days (verify on your own numbers).
Do it now
Write your emergency triage rules: what's an emergency, what gets booked next-day, what escalates to a human.
You should now have: A triage + escalation outline ready to load into a tool.
Guardrail: Define escalation for commercial/contract accounts and anyone who refuses a bot; never let AI quote contract pricing it can't verify.
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