My Front Desk Can't Keep Up With the Phone
Authava's Phone Bot answers the routine calls, such as hours, directions, and common questions, so your front desk can focus on the people in front of them. Callers get a real answer right away, and anything that needs a person arrives with the details and a transcript, so nobody plays phone tag.
Why Does the Phone Keep Winning?
Every call pulls someone away from a customer at the counter, a patient checking in, or a job that needs finishing. Most of those calls are the same handful of questions. When the desk is busy, calls go to voicemail, and callers who don't want to wait call someone else.
What Do Businesses Usually Try?
- Hiring another receptionist. It helps during the hours they work, but it's a full salary to cover the busiest few hours, and the phone still rings after close.
- Letting calls go to voicemail. It costs nothing, but many callers hang up without leaving a message, and the ones who do wait for a callback.
- An answering service. A person picks up and takes a message, which beats voicemail. The caller still waits for a callback to get the actual answer.
Each of these takes a message. What callers usually want is an answer.
How Does Authava Solve It?
The Phone Bot answers the question itself, from your own business information, and only involves your team when a person is needed.
- Answers from your facts. Hours, location, services, and policies come from information you approve, with must-be-right facts kept in one place. See How Authava Keeps Bots Accurate.
- Collects the details for anything that needs a person: name, number, and what the caller needs.
- Transfers the calls that matter, by rules you set with our team. See Only Some Calls Need a Person.
- Books the appointment when that's what the caller wants, by your scheduling rules, on your calendar, such as Google Calendar or Microsoft 365. See My Scheduling Rules Are Complicated.
- Keeps your number and phone system. Your phone system routes calls to the bot: after hours, when nobody picks up, or for every call. See Authava and RingCentral.
- Run by our team. We set it up, tune it as real calls come in, and send a weekly report on what callers are asking.
What This Looks Like in Practice
A caller asks whether you're open Saturday and whether you take their insurance. The Phone Bot answers both from your approved information, then offers to book them in. Your front desk never stops what it's doing, and the appointment and transcript are waiting for them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will the Phone Bot replace my receptionist?
It takes the routine calls off your receptionist's plate, so they can spend their time on the customers and calls that need a person.
How is this different from an answering service?
The Phone Bot answers the caller's question from your business information, and can book or transfer, instead of only taking a message.
Do I need a new phone number?
No. Your phone system routes calls to the Phone Bot, and customers keep calling the number they already know.
How does my team know what a caller wanted?
The Phone Bot sends a transcript of every call, with the details the caller shared.