A front office answers the same dozen questions over and over, and the dozen changes completely from one kind of office to the next. A tax firm in March hears "are you taking new clients?" all day. A school district hears "is there a delay?" at 6:15 on a snowy morning. An auto shop hears "can you look at it today?"
This guide goes industry by industry: what callers ask, what an AI receptionist should finish on the call, and what it should hand to a person. It starts with tax and accounting firms, school districts, local government and auto repair shops, then covers medical and dental offices, law firms, property management and real estate more briefly. The setup details refer to ModPhone, but the questions are worth asking of any AI phone agent.
Tax and accounting firms
Between January and April, the same five questions come up over and over: are you taking new clients, what do I need to bring, how much does a return cost, where are you, and can I get in this week. None of them needs a preparer, and every one of them pulls a preparer off a return if nobody else picks up.
What the agent can finish on its own:
- Answer "what do I bring?" from your document checklist. Upload the checklist as a PDF, or let the agent read the page on your website.
- Book the appointment on your Google or Outlook calendar. If a new-client intake takes an hour and a drop-off takes fifteen minutes, set them up as two appointment types so the agent books the right length.
- Text the caller your intake form or client portal link while they're still on the line, so nobody spells a URL out loud.
- Take a detailed message for a preparer. You get the summary and transcript by email when the call ends.
What goes to a person is anything about a specific client's return. "Did you file mine yet?" and "why do I owe?" need someone who can open the file, and the agent can't see your tax software. It should transfer the call or take the message. For "where's my refund?", it can text the IRS Where's My Refund link, which is where the answer lives anyway.
Set the boundary on advice in writing. A line in the agent's Core Instructions such as "Do not give tax advice. Offer to book a consultation or take a message for a preparer" keeps it talking about your firm and your process, not someone's deductions.
One seasonal habit helps: put this year's cutoffs (your last day for new clients, the date you stop taking drop-offs before the deadline) in Supplemental Company Information. That box overrides everything else the agent knows. Clear it when the season ends. More on this setup for tax and accounting firms.
School districts
A district office gets the same calls over and over, plus a surge whenever something changes: a weather delay, a new bus route, the first week of enrollment. Parents call early in the morning and after the office closes.
One large K-12 public school district runs its after-hours parent line on ModPhone. Since March 2026 it has taken more than 1,400 calls from about 870 callers, and 95% of them came in after the office closed, in English and Spanish.
What parents ask: is school closed or delayed, when does the bus come and who do I call about the route, what do I need to enroll, which school are we zoned for, what's for lunch, when is the next day off, who do I talk to about my child's class.
Most of that the agent can handle:
- Answer schedule, calendar, enrollment and transportation questions from your handbook, bell schedules and calendar. If those files live in Google Drive or OneDrive, sync the folder and the agent picks up changes on its own (about every six hours, or sooner if you click sync).
- Give today's closure or delay status. Type the notice into Supplemental Company Information the moment the decision is made. It takes priority over everything else, so every caller hears the current answer. Delete it when it stops being true.
- Transfer to the right school. Set each school up as a department with its own number. A parent who says "Lincoln Elementary" gets Lincoln's front office.
- Answer in the caller's language. The agent detects it and switches, including partway through a call.
A lunch menu lookup for districts is available on request.
Leave to staff anything about a specific student (grades, discipline, custody, special education) and any safety concern. For safety, write the instruction plainly: if anyone is in danger, tell the caller to hang up and call 911. Keep student information out of the agent's knowledge entirely, because anything it knows, it may say to a caller. See ModPhone for schools, and our post on how districts and agencies use AI phone lines.
Municipalities and local government
City and county offices get a steady stream of calls whose answer is already published somewhere: trash and recycling day, bulk pickup, permit office hours, how to pay the water bill, when the council meets. Residents call because finding it on the website is harder than dialing.
Here the agent's work is mostly answering and routing:
- Answer from your website and documents. Add the city site and the agent reads up to 30 pages from each address you give it, turning them into facts you can review line by line. If the pickup schedule is only an image on the site, upload it as a PDF instead.
- Text the payment portal or permit application link during the call.
- Route by department (utilities, permits, public works, the clerk) based on what the caller says, rather than a menu number they have to guess.
- Take a service request for a missed pickup, a pothole or a streetlight, with the address and callback number. If you run a 311 or work-order system, a webhook can send each call's summary and transcript to it, directly or through Zapier, Make or n8n.
- Keep answering after 5 p.m. A mid-size Southern US city runs a 24/7 constituent line on ModPhone.
People should handle complaints that need a decision, questions about a specific account or code case, and emergencies. For a water main break or an outage, the agent should give the utility's emergency number, not take a message. If a robocaller keeps hitting the line, block the number or the whole area code; blocked calls are dropped before the agent answers and use no minutes. More at ModPhone for local government.
Auto repair shops
The phone rings while every service writer is at the counter or under a car. The questions are short: can you look at it today, how much is a brake job, are you open Saturday, do you work on diesels, is my car ready.
On those calls the agent can:
- Answer price and service questions from your service menu. Write facts the way you'd say them: "A standard oil change is 49 dollars and takes about 30 minutes." Add the negatives too: "We do not service diesel engines." That one sentence saves a wasted trip.
- Book a drop-off or diagnostic appointment and collect year, make, model, mileage, the symptom and whether the car is drivable. Don't have it ask for a VIN over the phone. It's 17 characters and gets misheard. Get it at drop-off.
- Text the shop address, a map link or your after-hours key drop instructions.
- Hold the line on quotes. A Core Instructions rule like "Do not quote prices for repairs that need a diagnosis. Offer to book a diagnostic appointment" stops it from guessing.
Keep for the service writer: "is my car ready?" and anything about a car already in the bays. ModPhone doesn't connect to shop management software, so the agent can't see repair order status; it should transfer to the counter or take the message. Callers who sound unhappy are flagged on the follow-up list after the call, so someone can call them back. More at ModPhone for auto repair shops.
Other common offices
The same split applies elsewhere: the agent handles the published answers and the booking, and people handle judgment and anything in a private record.
| Office | What callers ask | What the agent can finish | Hand to a person |
|---|---|---|---|
| Medical and dental | Are you taking new patients, which insurance do you take, can I get in this week | Answer from your policies, book the visit, text the new-patient forms link | Clinical questions, results, billing disputes, anything in a patient record. Emergencies: tell them to call 911 |
| Law firms | Do you handle this kind of case, what does a consultation cost | Ask the practice area and a short description, book the consultation | Legal advice, conflict checks, questions about an open matter |
| Property management | I need a repair, is the unit still available, how do I pay rent | Take the unit, the problem and access details, text the resident portal link | Leaks, no heat and other emergencies (give the on-call or utility number), lease and deposit disputes |
| Real estate | Is it still available, what's the price, can I see it Saturday | Answer from the listing sheet, book the showing | Offers, negotiation, contract questions |
Setting it up, whatever the office
The work is the same everywhere, and it takes an afternoon, not a project plan.
- Give the agent the documents you'd hand a new hire on day one: service menu, price list, policies, hours, directions.
- Write the boundaries into Core Instructions, one rule per line: what it must not quote, what it must not advise on, when to offer a transfer.
- Name departments the way callers talk. "Billing" works. "AR Team 2" doesn't.
- Call it yourself with the five questions you get most, then ask something it shouldn't answer and check that it declines.
Common questions
Can one AI receptionist handle several schools or locations?
Yes, in two ways. One number can cover a whole district or multi-office firm, with each school or office set up as a department the agent transfers to. If locations need different greetings, hours or knowledge, give each its own number, since every ModPhone number has its own agent and settings. Starter, Growth and Business include one number; Enterprise includes unlimited numbers.
Will an AI receptionist give tax, legal or medical advice?
Not if you tell it not to. Put the rule in the agent's Core Instructions, for example "Do not give legal advice. Offer to book a consultation." The agent answers from the knowledge you give it, and when the answer isn't there it tells the caller it doesn't have that information rather than guessing.
How do I handle information that changes daily, like a school closing?
Use Supplemental Company Information. It's a short notes box that overrides everything else the agent knows, so a line like "All schools open two hours late today" is what every caller hears until you delete it.
Does it work for callers who don't speak English?
Yes. ModPhone's agent speaks more than 30 languages, detects the caller's language and switches mid-call if the caller does. There's no language setting to manage.
A two-day exercise
This week, ask whoever answers your phone to jot down every question they get for two days. Then paste your website into the live demo and ask it the ones that came up most.