AI Receptionist
What the AI receptionist can do on a call, how it hands off to your team, and how to configure its greeting, booking rules and advisor style.
The AI receptionist answers calls when a routing rule sends them to it — right away, or only after your team did not pick up. It books, reschedules and cancels appointments, explains where a repair stands, walks a customer through an estimate, and transfers to a person when that is what the caller needs. It is configured on the AI receptionist card under Settings → Phone & Messaging (the older Voice tab shows the same settings).
What it does on a call
- Looks the caller up and confirms who it is talking to, including which vehicle, without guessing between similar customers.
- Books, moves and cancels appointments using your real availability, after the customer explicitly agrees.
- Explains repair status from the current repair order.
- Reviews an estimate line by line and records the customer's approval or decline against the exact revision they heard.
- Explains a digital inspection the customer can see, and can text them the link.
- Transfers to a person — to the ring group named on the routing rule, or to the transfer number on this card — and can hand back to a staff member who takes the call over from the Phone page.
- Texts confirmations and directions when texting is allowed.
The AI only uses information in Shop Commander. It cannot make up availability, prices or compatibility, and it cannot change records outside the actions above.
Settings
Greeting & disclosure. The first thing callers hear, and the sentence that tells them they are speaking with an automated assistant. Telling callers is expected in most places; the wording is yours.
Appointment booking. Whether the AI may book at all, whether same-day is allowed, and how far ahead it may schedule.
Transfers & follow-up. The phone number to dial when a caller asks for a person or the AI cannot help. When the routing rule names a ring group for AI transfers, that group rings first. Choose what happens with an abusive or time-wasting caller — transfer them or politely end the call — and whether the AI may text callers.
Estimate calls. How strongly the AI advocates when reviewing an estimate, from order-taker (just the facts) through trusted advisor (recommended: flags safety items and recommends once) to proactive and closer. Every level tells the truth and always takes the customer's final answer. If a customer declines work the technician marked safety-critical, the repair order is flagged and your team is notified.
Privacy & region. Whether AI calls are recorded (off by default — check your local consent rules) and a note that the AI uses the country, locale and time zone from General settings.
These fields are saved with the Save changes button at the bottom of the Settings page.
Where it fits in routing
On the Incoming call routing card, a rule's what happens can be Let the AI receptionist answer or Ring my team, then the AI receptionist, and if nobody answers can be send to the AI receptionist. A common setup is: during business hours ring the front desk for 25 seconds then the AI; after hours the AI answers straight away. The AI options are only offered once the receptionist is turned on here.
Before customers hear it
Test the transfer number, staffing, the disclosure wording, business hours and the voicemail fallback with your own phone first. Unknown data, a provider problem or a customer who simply prefers a person should always have a path to your team.