Most small offices already talk to customers on four channels: the main phone line, texts to somebody's cell, the info@ inbox and maybe a chat box on the website. Each tends to drift into its own set of answers. The website lists one set of holiday hours, the voicemail greeting another, and whoever answers the inbox has to check with whoever answers the phone.
An omnichannel AI agent is one agent working all four channels from one knowledge base. In ModPhone, that agent belongs to a phone number: the same agent answers that number's calls, texts, email and web chat, and every conversation lands in one inbox.
Here is what that looks like day to day, and what still differs by channel.
One set of facts
Everything the agent knows lives on the Knowledge tab: pages from your website, uploaded documents (PDF, Word or plain text), a synced Google Drive or OneDrive folder, and facts you type in yourself. Facts from your website are listed one per line and document text is split into sections, so you can edit or delete any part of it.
The practical payoff is maintenance. When your hours change for the holidays, you change them once, and the phone agent, the text replies, the email replies and the chat all give the new answer. When a caller catches a wrong answer, fixing that fact fixes it on every channel.
Two things to watch. Conflicting facts are the first: if your website says one thing and an uploaded PDF says another, the agent may use either, so delete the outdated one. The second is edited facts. A website re-scan replaces the facts that came off the page but keeps any fact you added or edited, which protects your corrections and also means an edited fact won't change when the page does.
One inbox
The Conversations page lists every call, text, email and web chat for the number, newest first, with a filter for each channel and a search box. Calls show the start of the AI summary, chats show the chat summary, and emails show the subject line.
Each call summary gives a short account of the call, the caller's sentiment, the topics that came up, any action items and whether it was resolved. If you would rather not open the app, add alert recipients: a Call Completed email after each call with the summary, an email or text when a customer texts, and a daily digest each morning with calls answered, minutes handled and appointments booked.
At the top of the inbox, a Needs attention list collects the calls where a person should act: a callback was requested, a question went unanswered, a caller was upset, someone is waiting on a quote.
The free ModPhone app for iPhone and iPad has the same inbox, with transcripts, summaries and recordings.
One customer record
ModPhone keeps a contact for each customer on each number and links their conversations to it. A call and a text from the same mobile number are the same person. An email address is linked once the customer verifies a phone number. A web chat visitor is linked when they share a phone number or email.
The agent uses that history carefully. On a phone call it can greet a known caller by name, but it won't discuss earlier conversations until the caller reads back a 4-digit code texted to their phone, because caller ID can be faked. By text, no code is needed, since the message comes from the customer's own phone. By email, the customer confirms with a 6-digit code sent to their phone.
So a client who called on Monday about a missing form and texts on Wednesday "any update?" gets a reply from an agent that can see Monday's call, even if the only answer it can give is that someone from the office will get back to them.
Channels hand work to each other
The channels are most useful when they pass work along:
- A caller needs a web address or directions, so the agent texts them the link during the call.
- A caller wants a price list by email. The agent texts asking for their address, emails them, and after the call sends a follow-up summarizing the conversation. That thread shows up in your email inbox marked "From call", and if the customer replies, the agent carries on by email.
- A caller books an appointment and gets a text asking them to reply Y to confirm or C to cancel.
- A chat visitor who wants to talk it through taps the Call button and reaches the same agent by phone.
What differs by channel
The knowledge is shared. The behavior is not identical, and should not be.
| Phone | Text | Web chat | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Typical reply | A sentence or two | Two or three sentences | A written reply in the tone you choose, with your signature | Short conversational replies |
| Getting to a person | Live transfer to a department or a list of people | You reply from the SMS inbox | Keyword rules that forward, copy or flag the email | The Call button, or contact details for follow-up |
| You can step in | Watch a live transcript (not take over) | Yes | Yes | No, review afterwards |
| Creates follow-up items | Yes | No | No | No |
| Channel-only settings | Greeting, voice, speech speed | AI replies on or off | Tone, signature, escalation keywords | Chat greeting and chat instructions |
A few details that matter in practice:
- The phone is the only channel with a live transfer to your staff.
- The email agent ignores automated mail such as out-of-office replies, so it doesn't get into a loop with another system. It sends text only, with no attachments.
- Web chat doesn't ask visitors for contact details unless your chat instructions tell it to.
- The text agent replies in threads customers started. It doesn't open new ones.
Where one agent is the wrong shape
Everything, knowledge included, belongs to one phone number. If you run two businesses, or two locations with different hours and staff, you want two numbers, and each is set up separately. Starter, Growth and Business each include one phone number, and Enterprise includes as many as you need.
There is also no contacts page yet for merging or renaming customer records, and follow-up items only come from phone calls. Someone should still skim texts and chats every few days.
A sensible order to turn things on
- Phone first. It carries the most urgent conversations, and the transcripts show you quickly which facts are missing.
- Texting next. Numbers you get inside ModPhone already text, so this is mostly adding an alert recipient for incoming texts (what an SMS agent handles).
- Web chat once the phone answers are right, since it uses the same knowledge (what visitors ask in chat).
- Email last. Written answers get read closely and forwarded, so it pays to have the knowledge in good shape first.
Common questions
Do I have to train each channel separately?
No. Each ModPhone number has one knowledge base that the phone, text, email and chat agent all use. You add channel-specific settings only where you need them, such as chat instructions or an email signature.
Will the agent know a customer who called and then texted?
Yes, if they used the same mobile number. Calls and texts from one number are linked to one contact, and the agent can see recent calls when it replies to a text. On a later phone call, it asks the caller to read back a texted code before discussing past conversations.
Can I see every channel in one place?
Yes. The Conversations page shows calls, texts, emails and web chats for a number in one list with summaries and transcripts, and the iPhone and iPad app has the same inbox.
Which plans include which channels?
Phone calls and two-way texting are on every plan. The web chat widget starts on Growth, and the email agent is on Business. Details are on the pricing page.
Can a person take over a conversation?
On text and email, yes: reply from the SMS or Email page. Phone calls reach a person by transfer. Web chat can't be taken over live, so review those transcripts and follow up directly.
Where to start
If you are starting from scratch, set up the phone agent this week and read every call summary for a few days before adding the next channel. The free 30-day trial includes a real number, 100 voice minutes and 100 texts, with no charge unless you choose a plan.