Guides / Phone answering
Phone answering
Taking messages and booking callers in. Typical: about 3 hours a person a week. AI could take roughly 30% (illustrative).
5 steps
- 1
Write what callers usually want.
- 2
Set an after hours message that sends a booking link by SMS.
- 3
Trial an AI receptionist for simple calls only.
- 4
Send urgent calls to a person.
- 5
Tell callers they are speaking with an automated system.
🧰 Tools that can do this
AI receptionist services, Microsoft Teams Phone, Google Voice.
🆓 Do it free
Cal.com booking links. See free tools and StackSwitcher for switching guides.
🔒 Keep it safe
Do not paste personal, staff or client details into public AI tools. A person checks the output before it counts.
🆓 Option 1: Do it free
Open source tools you can run yourself, no licence fees. You will need someone handy to set them up and keep them updated.
- Cal.com: booking links and scheduling.
📦 Option 2: Get the click by click pack
Plain guides and prompts in a ZIP. Pay once, no subscription. It is a set of guides, not software. This job (Phone answering) has its own click by click setup in the Full pack.
Last checked 4 Nov 2026. Menus change, so check the tool's own help pages.