An AI receptionist is good at calls that follow a pattern and whose answer is written down somewhere. It is poor at calls where the answer lives in someone's head, in a system it can't see, or in a judgment call. Most of the value, and most of the disappointment, comes from knowing which calls are which before you turn it on.
What follows is a candid list, based on what ModPhone does today.
What it handles well
The biggest category is repeated questions with written answers: hours, location, parking, what to bring, fees, deadlines, whether you offer a particular service. If the answer is on your website or in a document you've given it, the agent answers from that, and it handles the fortieth "are you open Saturday?" of the week the same way it handled the first.
It covers the hours nobody else does. It answers 24/7, every day of the year, and takes as many calls at once as come in. The calls you used to miss at lunch or after closing get answered.
Booking works well when the rules are clear. With Google Calendar or Outlook connected, the agent checks your real availability, suggests other times if a slot is taken, repeats the date and time back, waits for a clear yes and then books. The caller gets a text to confirm.
A few other things it does reliably:
- Texts callers a link, an address or a phone number during the call, so nothing has to be spelled out.
- Transfers by name. "Can I talk to billing?" goes to your billing number, and if nobody answers it can ring the next person on a list, then offer a callback.
- Answers in the caller's language. It detects the language, covers more than 30, and switches mid-call if the caller does.
- Walks a caller through a long product manual one step at a time, if you upload your manuals to Support Documents.
- Writes up every call. Each one gets a transcript and a summary with action items.
What it should hand to a person
These calls should go to staff, and your instructions to the agent should say so:
- Emergencies, since it is not a 911 service.
- Complaints and upset callers, who want a person even when the agent could take down the details.
- Anything that needs professional judgment: tax advice, a legal question, a guess at what that grinding noise is, a medical question.
- Refunds, billing disputes and negotiating on price.
- Questions about one customer's account in a system the agent can't see, such as "Is my car ready?", "Did you file my extension?" or "What do I owe?"
- Callers who ask for a specific person because they know and trust them.
Where it gets things wrong
The agent is instructed to answer only from your information and to say it doesn't have the answer rather than guess, and on calls it only looks things up on websites you've added. That limits the damage. It doesn't make the agent infallible, and its mistakes tend to come from a few places.
Missing facts
The website scan only reads text it can reach. Anything behind a login, inside an image, or known only to your office manager isn't there. Early on, expect the agent to say "I don't have that information" more often than you would like. Each one is a fact to add.
Wrong or stale facts
A price list from two years ago, last year's holiday hours, a footer that says one thing while the contact page says another. When two facts disagree, the agent may use either one. It will repeat a wrong fact confidently, because as far as it knows the fact is right.
Scanning mistakes
ModPhone turns your website into short, separate facts, and now and then one comes out garbled or loses its context. You can see and edit every fact, and you should read through them all once.
Unusual requests
A caller with three unrelated problems, a request you have never had before, a question that is half complaint. The agent will try to help, but odd requests are where a transfer rule earns its keep.
Details that are hard to hear
Names, email addresses and confirmation codes are easy to mishear on a bad connection. Slowing the speech speed helps, and so do the settings that read phone numbers in groups and spell letters as "S as in Sam". Better still, have the agent text the detail instead of saying it.
Transfers into voicemail
Without call screening, a teammate's cell phone voicemail counts as an answer, and the caller ends up leaving a message in someone's personal inbox. Turning on waterfall routing or the callback offer adds a "press 1 to accept" step that voicemail can't pass.
How to set boundaries
Write rules in the agent's Core Instructions, one per line, in plain sentences. Rules cover behavior. Facts about your business go in the knowledge base. Some examples:
- A tax or accounting firm: "Do not give tax advice. Offer to have a preparer call back." and "Do not confirm whether someone is a client."
- An auto repair shop: "Do not estimate repair costs. Offer to book an inspection."
- A school or city office: "If a caller describes an emergency, tell them to hang up and call 911."
- Any office: "Collect the caller's name and the reason for the call before offering a transfer."
Then back the rules up:
- Put what you don't do in the knowledge. "We do not service diesel engines" ends a pointless back-and-forth.
- Keep the Response Style slider toward Focused if you want answers worded the same way from call to call.
- Add keyword alerts for words that need a human's eyes, such as "lawyer", "cancel" or "refund". They arrive by email after the call, so they are for review, not emergencies.
- Read your rules as a set. If two instructions conflict, the agent has to guess.
- Test the boundaries. Call and ask for tax advice, a price, a client's status. Check that it declines the way you want.
When a person or a service fits better
If your phone rings a few times a week and every caller is a long-standing client, voicemail and a quick callback may be all you need. If most calls are intake that needs judgment from the first sentence, your own staff or a human answering service may suit you better. And if your answers change every day and nobody will keep the knowledge current, the agent will be out of date too.
On cost, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics puts median pay for a receptionist at about $38,000 a year (BLS), for someone who works business hours. ModPhone plans run from $49 to $299 a month (pricing). The comparison only holds for the calls the agent can handle, which is why the lists above matter more than the price. If you decide to go ahead, the first 30 days is a practical guide to the setup.
Common questions
Does an AI receptionist make things up?
ModPhone's agent is instructed to answer only from your knowledge and to say it doesn't have the information rather than guess, and it only looks things up on websites you've added. When it does give a wrong answer, check for an outdated or conflicting fact first, then edit or delete it on the Knowledge tab.
What calls should an AI receptionist always transfer?
Emergencies, complaints, anything that needs professional judgment, money disputes, questions about an account the agent can't see, and callers who ask for a particular person. Put those rules in the agent's instructions and set up transfer numbers before go-live.
Can an AI receptionist replace a human receptionist?
It can cover routine questions, booking and after-hours calls. It doesn't replace the judgment, relationships and account knowledge your staff bring. Plan on it answering the calls your staff can't get to and sending them the rest.
Will callers know they are talking to an AI?
ModPhone's default greeting introduces the agent as your AI assistant, and you can keep that wording. Telling callers up front sets the right expectations.
How do I stop it from answering certain questions?
Add a rule to Core Instructions, such as "Do not quote prices. Offer to have someone call back with a quote." Then call your number, ask that question, and check that it follows the rule.
A test you can run this week
Write down five kinds of call you would never want software to handle and five it could answer from your website today. The first list becomes your instructions and the second becomes your test script. Try it with your own website.