Shops and retail
The phone rings while you are serving someone.
A shop phone interrupts a real customer to ask a question that is usually one of four. Answering it costs you the conversation you were having; not answering it costs you the one on the phone.
The calls you actually get
Not a feature list. These are the conversations that make the phone ring, and what happens to each one.
Are you open
The single most common call a shop gets, and the one that is pure interruption. It has an answer that never changes except on the days it does, and the agent can hold both.
Do you have it in
The agent can answer from a list you keep, or take the question and the caller's number so somebody checks once rather than putting a person on hold to go and look.
Can you hold it for me
A name, a number, an item and a day. That is a hold, and it is written down rather than remembered.
Where are you and can I park
Directions, parking, which door, and the lift. Worth ten seconds of a machine's time and not worth thirty of yours.
The call after closing
Most of these calls arrive when the shop is shut. A machine that answers at eight in the evening and books someone in for the morning is worth more than one that answers faster at eleven.
What it will not do
The list that matters more than the one above it. An agent that guesses is worse than a phone that rings out, because a guess sounds like an answer.
- Say something is in stock unless it is reading a list you keep current. Otherwise it takes the question.
- Take payment or a card number, ever.
- Promise a delivery date it cannot see.
- Pretend to be a person. It says what it is.
What it costs, for this kind of phone
14 calls a day, about 2 minutes each, 26 days a month. That is 728 connected minutes, which is the Busy line plan at $280 a month. That includes 128 minutes over the allowance at $0.50 each.
What has to be connected
The build is the part you are paying for, and this is what it consists of.
- Your opening hours, including the days they change.
- A stock list, if you keep one the agent can read. If you do not, it takes the question instead of guessing.
- Wherever a hold has to be written down so the person on the floor sees it.
- The number or inbox a callback request lands in.
Questions
Can an AI receptionist check stock?
Only against a list it has been connected to and that you keep current. Where there is no such list it takes the question and the caller's number rather than guessing, because a shop that tells somebody to drive across town for something it does not have has done worse than not answering.
Is an answering service worth it for a small shop?
It depends on how many calls interrupt a sale. A shop taking fourteen short calls a day is the volume this page prices, and most of those calls are opening hours and directions. If your phone rings twice a day, it is not worth it and we will say so.
What happens to calls when we are closed?
They get answered. Most of a shop's calls arrive outside trading hours, and an agent that takes a hold at nine in the evening is the whole argument for this.
Do we have to change our phone number?
No. Your existing number can be pointed at the agent and pointed back whenever you want. Keeping the number you have printed on the window is not optional and nobody should ask you to.
Other kinds of phone
The same agent, built around a different set of calls.
The part you can check
There are no shopkeepers on this page saying how pleased they are, because there are none yet. What there is instead: two weeks on your own line, your own callers, every call recorded and transcribed, and no card asked for.