AI assistant · AI front desk
An AI assistant for website chat today. Calls and texts launching soon.
An AI front desk answers the questions you have approved, takes a name and a callback number, and hands off to a person. Here is exactly what works now, what is on the way, and how to judge any AI assistant before you trust it.
Sample data · “Your Business”, Oxford, AL
Quick answer
What does an AI assistant do for a small business?
An AI assistant, or AI front desk, answers common customer questions from a list you approve, collects the customer’s name, need and callback number, and hands the conversation to a person. At Operation Buildup it works on website chat today, as part of the one inbox for website chat. Answering phone calls, texting and Facebook and Instagram messages are launching soon.
Exact status
What works today, and what does not yet.
Many products are sold on features that are not finished. Here is ours, sorted honestly.
Available now
- AI front desk on your website chat
- Every chat lands in one inbox for website chat
- Each chat becomes a customer record with the page it came from
- A person can take over any chat
Launching soon
- Answering phone calls (launching soon)
- Texting with customers (launching soon)
- Missed-call text-back (launching soon)
- Facebook and Instagram messages (launching soon)
Not promised
- A launch date for any of the above
- That an AI will book or close jobs for you
- That it can replace a person on the phone
We would rather tell you plainly than have you find out after you sign. Phone answering and texting are launching soon, so if you need either one today, this is not ready for you yet.
The job description
What an AI front desk should and should not do.
Treat it like a new receptionist on day one: polite, quick, and only allowed to say what is on the sheet.
It should
- Say it is an AI, at the start
- Answer only from answers you approved
- Collect a name, the need and a callback number
- Hand off to a person, with the full conversation
- Say “I don’t know, let me get someone” when it does not know
- Recognize an emergency and give the phone number
It should never
- Invent a price, a discount or an arrival time
- Promise a result or a warranty
- Give legal, medical or safety advice
- Argue with an upset customer
- Ask for card numbers or other sensitive details
- Pretend to be a person
Write the approved answers
The list is the whole product.
An AI assistant is only as good as the answers you give it. Vague answers produce vague, risky replies.
Collect the real questions
Pull the last few months of calls, emails and chats. Most offices find the same fifteen or twenty questions over and over.
Write short, true answers
Hours, service area, services you do and do not offer, how to request a visit, payment methods, license details. Two or three sentences each.
Decide the refusals
List what it must not answer: prices, diagnoses, anything about a specific customer’s account. Write the hand-off line it should use instead.
Set the hand-off
Who gets the chat during open hours, and what the customer is told after hours. Never leave someone waiting on a reply that is not coming.
Review monthly
Read the conversations. Add answers for new questions, fix the ones that confused people, and remove anything that is out of date.
Test before you trust
Ten minutes of testing beats any sales demo.
Run this before launch and again after every change to the answers. Have someone outside the office try it too.
- Ask each approved question three different ways. Does it still answer correctly?
- Ask for a price. It should decline and offer a callback.
- Ask something it cannot know, such as “is my part in yet?” It should hand off, not guess.
- Be rude to it. It should stay calm and offer a person.
- Describe an emergency. It should give the phone number at once.
- Try to talk it into a discount or a promise. It should refuse.
- Give your name and number, then check that the record and the hand-off really arrived.
Texting, explained (launching soon)
Why business texting needs registration and consent.
Our texting features are launching soon. The rules below apply to any texting product, so they are worth knowing now.
- 01
What registration is
In the United States, mobile carriers require a business that texts from an ordinary ten-digit number to register who it is and what kind of messages it sends. Unregistered business texts are filtered or blocked. The industry name for this is 10DLC registration.
- 02
Why carriers require it
To cut spam and scams. Registration ties each number to a real, identified business, so the carriers know who is sending.
- 03
What consent means
A customer has to agree to get texts from you, and you have to be able to show how they agreed. A phone number on an old invoice is not consent to marketing texts.
- 04
What every program needs
A clear description of what you will send, an easy way to stop (replying STOP), a way to get help, and a privacy policy that says you do not sell phone numbers.
- 05
What this means for you
Our texting is launching soon. When it is live, registration will be part of setup, and carrier approval takes some days. Any vendor who says you can start texting customers the same afternoon is skipping a step.
Before you buy
Questions for any AI assistant vendor.
Ask us the same questions.
- Which channels work today, and which are promised for later?
- Can we see and edit every answer it is allowed to give?
- What does it do when it does not know? Show us.
- Does it tell customers it is an AI?
- Where do conversations go, and who can read them?
- Are our conversations used to train your models?
- Who registers our texting with the carriers, and who owns the number?
- What does it cost per month, and what happens if volume doubles?
What it costs
Two prices set. One not yet.
The part that works today has a published price. We will not quote a price for something that is not finished.
Every website form and chat becomes a customer record, with one inbox for website chat.
- One inbox for website chat, with the AI front desk
- Customer records with the page they came from
- Sales pipeline, estimates and quotes
- Tasks, visit notes and full history
Everything in the CRM, plus the channels below, each one launching soon.
- Texting (launching soon)
- Facebook and Instagram inbox (launching soon)
- Booking (launching soon)
More than 5 users: ask. The CRM is sold separately from Managed IT.
Questions
AI assistant questions, plainly answered.
Can your AI answer my phone calls?
Not yet. AI phone answering is launching soon, and its price will be published at launch. Today the AI front desk works on website chat.
Can it text my customers?
Not yet. Texting and missed-call text-back are launching soon as part of CRM + Inbox at $399 a month for up to 5 users.
What works right now?
Website chat. An AI front desk answers approved questions on your site, collects the customer’s name, need and callback number, and the chat lands in one inbox as a customer record.
Will it make up prices?
It is set up not to. It answers from your approved list and hands off to a person for prices, promises and anything it does not know. Test that yourself with the checklist above before you rely on it.
Do customers know they are talking to an AI?
They should, and with ours they do. It says so at the start and offers a person.
How much is it?
The CRM with the website chat inbox is $149 a month for up to 5 users, available now. CRM + Inbox is $399 a month for up to 5 users, launching soon.
Does Facebook or Instagram messaging work?
Not yet. Facebook and Instagram messages are launching soon as part of CRM + Inbox.
Contact
Book a 20-minute demo.
The platform is in early access, so every new customer is set up through a short demo. Founding customers lock their price for 2 years.