AI receptionist or forwarding calls to someone else?

What forwarding means here

By forwarding we mean setting your phone so that calls you don't answer ring somewhere else. That might be a family member's mobile, a colleague, a landline in the office or a second phone you carry. The network does it for you with a short code, and your own phone still rings first.

It is the same mechanism an AI receptionist uses. The only difference is who, or what, picks up at the other end.

Why it's a good idea

There is a lot to be said for it, and plenty of successful trade businesses run this way for years.

• It's free, apart from whatever your network charges for forwarded calls.
• A real person answers, and usually one who cares about the business.
• They know you. They can say where you are working this week and when you will be back.
• They can use judgement. They know which customers matter and when to ring you straight away.

If you have someone willing and able to do this, and it is working, there is no reason to change it.

Where it breaks down

The trouble is rarely the idea. It is what happens over time.

• They have their own life. A partner with a job, children or their own business cannot answer your phone at two in the afternoon, never mind two in the morning.
• They don't know what to ask. Without your experience they take a name and a number and miss the detail that tells you what to bring.
• They can only take one call. On a busy morning the second caller gets nothing.
• It wears thin. Being on call for someone else's phone is tiring, and it can cause arguments at home.
• It stops when they stop. Holidays, illness, a new job. Your cover depends on one person's availability.
• Messages arrive late or garbled. A scribbled note passed on at teatime is not the same as a text that reached you in thirty seconds.

Forwarding to a second phone you carry yourself has a simpler flaw: if you couldn't answer the first phone, you probably can't answer the second.

What an AI receptionist does differently

• Always available. Day, night, weekends and holidays, without asking a favour of anyone.
• Asks your trade's questions. For a plumber, whether water is still running. For recovery, whether the vehicle rolls. Set up once, asked every time.
• Several calls at once. A rush after a storm doesn't mean a queue.
• The message reaches you straight away as a text in the same layout every time: name, number, where, what, how soon.
• Nobody at home is on call. For many people this is the real reason they switch.

What she does not have is a person's knowledge of you. She cannot say 'he's in Coventry till Thursday' unless you have told her, and she will not make a decision on your behalf.

Side by side

• Cost: forwarding to a person is free; Kallorix starts at £39 a month.
• Hours covered: a person, when they are free; a receptionist, all of them.
• Calls at once: a person, one; a receptionist, several.
• Knows what to ask: a person, only if you have taught them; a receptionist, set up for your trade.
• Knows your business personally: a person, yes; a receptionist, only what you have told her.
• How the message arrives: a person, however and whenever they pass it on; a receptionist, by text within moments of the call ending.
• Depends on one individual: a person, yes; a receptionist, no.

A sensible way to combine them

You do not have to choose one. A common arrangement is to keep a person for the hours they can genuinely cover and let a receptionist take the rest. With Kallorix you can also use it the other way round: give out your Kallorix number, which rings your mobile first. You press a key to take the call, and if you don't, she answers.

You can also switch on urgent calls, so that when a caller has an emergency she tries your mobile once before taking a message. That gives you most of what a person at home provides, the ability to be reached when it matters, without anyone having to carry a second phone.

How to decide

Three questions settle it for most people.

• Is the person who answers happy doing it? If you are not sure, ask them. The answer is often more honest than you expect.
• How many calls still slip through? Check your missed calls and theirs for a week.
• Do the messages tell you enough? If you regularly ring back just to find out what the job is, the first call is not doing its work.

If forwarding is working, keep it. If it is causing friction or leaving gaps, try a free demo of your own receptionist. It takes two minutes, needs no card, and you can hear exactly what your customers would.